It was just the front. The rear fits nicely.

Today my upgraded plastic parts arrived (finally). Now I can upgrade the car to the newest Version (that my customers already have).



I hope to find time tomorrow

Back from the track with a biiig smile!

Yesterday I found the time to finally finish the Bittydesign Venom body, I had laying around since it came out several weeks ago:







While I wasn‘t faster with it in the beginning, I like the balance change it brought. It gives slightly more steering which accommodates my driving style. And of course it looks awesome!
I went for a flourescent yellow, that not fullfills the GT-style, but I wanted it bright for our dark track.

My initial plan was to not change the setup, but focus on driving the car, getting used to it and get the maximum out of a 5 minute run.

After some runs I decided to react to the on track situation and limited the suspension downtravel in front by half a millimeter to reduce roll. Then I wanted to try a wider rear track and shimmed each wheel by 1.5mm. This change brought a lot of steering and made the car come alive. After one battery I increased the camber to 2 degrees in the rear to cope with on power exit steering. Since that the car was on rails, easy and consistent to drive. With the last run of the day, I improved my fastest laptime to 10.888s and to 28 laps in 5:09.424. Which is around 7seconds faster than last time. On top of that 1/10 nitro world champion Dominik Greiner praised my setup when he saw me driving What a nice day!

I will be back on the track tomorrow. After the awesome test day two weeks ago my focus is on body comparison.
The plan is to do back to back runs with different bodies. It is Corvette vs. Venom vs. R8, Protofotm vs. Bittydesign vs. Exotek. The Exotek body is new and I bought it out of curiosity. It is as „heavy“ as the Venom. To my surprise it is very low and I am looking forward to see how it fits my setup/driving and the track.

Thanks for asking. Let me just describe my raceday first, before I forget the details

I am back from the race for the RCKleinkram series. I just got second place, but I am very happy! The race winner is nobody else but Alexander Stocker. And this time I could challenge him. The first two qualifiers were won by me. To be honest, with a little luck. Nevertheless Alex was motivated to work on his setup during lunch break. He obviously found something and won the 3rd qualifier easy. Unfortunately (for me) this gave him the pole for the race... On the other hand it took a lot of pressure away from me. The races then got better and better for me.
In the first one I slightly touched the curb in the first corner, spun around 180 degrees and became a jump for all following cars. Again very lucky, I recovered in second place from this carnage. Alexander was gone and finished seven seconds in front of me after 8 minutes.
The second race: Alex and I started well, this time the third place guy made a mistake and „stopped“ the following field. Alex and I pulled away fast and stayed together til the end. In the first quarter he was stronger, than I could reel him in tenth by tenth, and in the last quarter he could pull away again. In the end he won by two seconds.
The third race is my personal highlight: This time I was faster. Not much, just thousands or hundreds of a second. We stayed together very close for most of the race. Sometimes he could overtake the lapped guys faster, sometimes I got a little advantage. It all culminated in the middle of the race with him coming out of a corner a little slower so that I could pull up alongside. We stayed side by side for two corners. Onto the straight he could accelerate better and got me back. We the touched in the fast corner after the straight. I was pushed wide and touched the barrier. He was two meters in front. I got back to him, tried to overtake and touched his rear. He spun into me. I waited, let him through again and we raced on. I found no way past, but stayed in his wake. Maybe too close, because some laps later we caught up traffic. He crashed with someone, I couldn’t prevent a crash also and came out worse laying on my roof. The race was his now, but he was a very fair sportsman. He gave me a chance to defeat him fair and square by waiting and we raced on. In the end he won by two tenth and earned the win. The audience was very pleased with the exciting finals we delivered and gave us a warm and loud applause.
I for myself am very pleased. I had two faultless eight minute finals and could pressure one of Germanys best RC car drivers (ETS finalist and racewinner). This is definitely a highlight in my „RC-career“. Michael Koos, the first customer of my conversion kit and owner of the beautiful blue car I showed earlier in this thread, came home third. A great result for us!

And the awesome day became even better when I saw the pictures my friend Gregor König (vision-royal.de) made. He was there the whole day successfully catching the action in pictures. It is very rare that you get this quality pictures from your racing action. I am very pleased and thankful...

If you hear no news from my side for such a long time I stopped racing the chassis or everything works perfect. This time it is the latter! Of course there was a little break since christmas, but the TT02KR is still on my mind.

The car got two upgrades in the second january week: First the Tamiya option steering rack and second: the blue outdrives for the drive shaft.



Today I practiced at my hometrack. The aim was to get used to the car again after 6 weeks of break and driving other TT02 chassis (stock and Type S). And that proved to be quite a challenge at first. The corner speed and the speed of the direction changes is just surprising compared to my full option TT02S. I needed two runs until I was up to speed with a decent rhythm. But then I was again on top with 10.8s - 11.1s laps throughout the whole run. Setupwise I tried harder springs (2.5-2.8 in front and 2.7 in the rear) and it resulted in the same pace. Then I tried to run with a thinner front anti-roll-bar, but didn‘t have a 1.2 wire. So I went for no wire in front. The behavior of the car changed and I had to adapt to it. In the end I found the gained steering in fast corners and chicanes very nice and stayed with this change. I managed a near perfect run (for my limited talent) and could better my 5 minute run record by 8 tenth. That seems not to be very much, but if I remember it correct, then my previous record was driven with fresh tires. My tires today are around 18 runs old and therefore have lost some pace (around 50 thousands/lap). Still I could do a 10.771s lap at the end of the day




It was an awesome day and I am looking forward to the race next week in Heilbronn (near Stuttgart). This track has a light grey carpet with a black high high high grip driving line. I just hope that I will not have grip roll.

A new topdeck is also coming soon. The black chassis is very soft and could need less flex especially in indoor high grip conditions. I wonder if it will work like I want it to do

And now the race report from the RCK series race in Heilbronn.

Saturday:
The strange opening times (15:00-22:00) made it a strangely long day. After an 1.5 hour drive I arrived at the track, that is located in the basement of a small factory. On the pictures the track looks quite normal for an indoor track. The first run was very exciting. After the long straight you get attacked by a variation of different curves in a very short time. This makes for very busy infield and a much needed break on the straight.



Unusual for me, I got in a good rhythm faster than normal. The times also were good, I just needed to reduce my mistakes on a 5minute run. I usually rolled the car over the curbs three or more times. As we all know, this is a no go in a stock class as small mistakes cost several places. I could improve my driving in the late evening, but not by much and called it a day.

Sunday: I had to get up around six o clock in the morning and really thick fog welcomed me on the Autobahn. After a while it disappeared and I used the freedom of no speed limit to my advantage. I arrived in time for breakfast and a warm up run. I made the same mistakes as before and then prepared for the qualifying.
I had to start last in the first qualifier and qickly moved through the others to second on track. Michael Koos (you remember the nice blue chassis from top of the page?!) hold on to the fastest time. We were close (timewise) until he threw the car away. I lead thetimesheet for ten laps and then rolled the car. He was up front again. I tried to undo my timeloss and threw it away, again. The first qualifier was his.
The second qualifier started with me in pursuit of Michael. Following is always a little easier and I could match his times or better his times by hundreth without making up substantial ground. We were within several tenth on our runtime when he lost about two seconds in lap 24. I could finish my first mistake free run in 31 laps 5:06.186 with Michael having the faster laptime by 71 thousands. In the RCK series the fastest qualifier of three decides the pole position. Now Michael needed to have a troublefree run to beat my time. This time he could follow me. I tried my best, but he stayed with me all the time and even had the upper hand by three thenths until lap 22 when I rolled the car in the chicane before the straight. I was instantly disappointed with me as the car layed on its back. In my mind I saw Michael flying past me, but it didn’t happen. Instead I heard lexan touching wood. He later told me, that he had deeply focused on my car also and left his line as I did. And so we both ruined our run. I won it timewise, but in the end it was slower than the second run. The tq was mine







Well, I had tq‘ed other races and then came home second or worse. And with Micheal beeing as fast or faster, it would be very tough not to do stupid driving. The first final then became a real thriller. I started slow. Michael could pull up to my side through the chicane after the straight, I tried to take as much speed through the 180 needle, we touched and he rolled. I wasn‘t happy about the situation, but would have said it was racing. Michael lost two spots and around two seconds. After one lap he was second again and started to reel me in heavily. In lap 14 he lost again two seconds, but was unmoved and continued his pursuit. Then in lap 27 I rolled the car and lost the lead as five seconds were gone. Michael was in front by 2 seconds (again?!). I was disappointed, but didn’t want to give up just yet. Now I had nothing to lose and did everything to get him, with just little success. I could gain a meter maybe, when just seven laps from the end Michael threw the win away. He touched a curb and rolled, lost 3.5 seconds and was again unmoved. I knew time was over soon and eagerly stayed away from those curbs. I was nervous while Michael drove very good laps. In the end I saved it by six tenth. What a script. I was shaking. Somehow the luck was on my side today.
The second final saw me starting better. I defended my first place through the first corners with Michael following close. Now the long waiting game began. Michael pushed, I blocked, sometimes I got away one or two tenth, than he was at my tail again. He tried several attacks, but couldn‘t pull it through. On lap 25 he slightly touched my back and my car rolled over. He was a gentleman and waited and the game started from zero. His attacks became heavier and that lead to one mistake six laps before the end that ensured my second final and the overall win.
The last final was more evenly matched. This time I had the upper hand by some hundreds. Michael then had an accident with a guy we lapped and lost nearly a lap timewise. I thought this was unfair as I promised him a „second chance“ to beat me, and waited until he closed up to two tenth. Somehow I found a better rhythm and confidence and could pull away slowly. So it became a clean sweep in the end. Again lady luck was on my side.
In conclusion I am very happy to win on a new unknown track and proud that I did it with no mistakes in the last two finals. That is something new for me as I am the guy who is always good for a stupid move in the last minute

And an article with more nice pictures of the event:
https://mikanews.de/2019/02/04/die-r...bronn-zu-gast/