Roche Rapide P12V
 

All new design Rapide P12V is coming soon. There's quite a bit of discussion elsewhere already.... thought it deserved its own thread already.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...bb3eb805c3.jpg

Thanks for making a thread. We all await new official info!!

Our first shipment - one of three boxes - has arrived in the USA and will start shipping out of RocheRC USA / Sidepieceracing.com on Wednesday

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...c6cf12ce38.jpg

Alright, finally, some more details!

Just placed my order. Seems like a nice blend of the A12 front end and conventional center shock. Love the A12, but this design appeals to me more for some reason. Seems less...finicky? Not quite the word I'm looking for, but will have to do. I don't feel quite as comfortable building/setting up (and knowing if it's done properly) for the A12 rear damper. Not trying to bad-mouth the Awesomatix. It's a beautiful car w/wonderful engineering and excellent manufacturing. Just feel more at home w/this Roche design.

I've been racing the Roche EVO1 EU edition in GT12-RT for the past year, and it's suited me well. In fact, I just built a Club Race Hero (3D printed) version of the Roche car that's also been working well in the class. Looking forward to trying the next evolutionary step in the Roche line.

I’m interested to see what AMX USA/Roche USA drivers choose this car over the A12.

Couldn't resist ordered one. Don't even have a track near me. The design is intriguing. Might set up for GT12.

That should be interesting. My guess would be none, but we'll see. I still think the A12 has a performance advantage inherent to its design.

Just do what Scott Jakes does and fly to MN to race at MMR! We have some great GT12 racing every week.

Thanks but too far. Have 2 tracks, but they are 3 hours away. Maybe travel there once or twice a month.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...adc25b70e4.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...93237efaa5.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...1de2eecee8.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...1c618b9cd5.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...f61b244c78.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...bb45566e8a.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...4824a4b59c.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...745ff16031.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...011983b2b1.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...0d9dc1961a.jpg

Roche Rapide P12V - Red RC

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...32f217305.jpeg
This is how you’d adjust pivot ball roll centers correct?

That's what I gather, yes.

I shot Vesa a message and he confirmed as well.

I am curious about this rear side spring method and how it will be different. Since the springs move to be above the chassis, when the chassis rolls to one side, the spring on that side no longer compresses, it expands. Therefore, the spring on the other side of the car now becomes responsible for the loaded side of the car. Any engineer types here (I'm a marketing guy) who have thought through how this will be different? Will this create a sort of sway bar effect where the loaded side of the car is allowed to compress and the unloaded side will also have some force pushing to compression? If engineered this way and not just happenstance that the springs fit better higher up, that could be the most innovative design feature of the whole car. The rest is awfully close to an Awsomatix A12 with a link pod. Thoughts?

I wouldn’t think you’re getting a sway bar effect since you’re just moving the spring location. It still affects the same thing (roll) but you’re just moving the spring from the bottom to the top of the pod and compressing the opposite side from convention. Though the motion load on the spring could (should) be different but I’m not sure by how much.

I would think the springs would slightly effect pod droop speed now.

Just ordered mine!

I started the build last night and got rear assembled and front started. So far really nice quality kit with regards to fit and finish.

The instruction manual is well done and great illustrations.

Only hiccup to date is front screw for bumper really should be 1mm shorter as they just about touch carbon lower arm.

Front end will go together over next day and will report back.

So far I'm pretty impressed with the design. I had feared that the car could be heavy. Right now it is 50g under weight. So I'm needing to find places to stick some weight

That's wonderful news! I know the Evo2 chassis made the car pretty heavy, so it's great to hear the new car isn't quite as heavy.

Car is complete and overall very nice build. Few small detail could be improved other than the afore mentioned shorter bumper screws.

Getting oring on rear bearing is a pia and need 3 hands. Little 3d print tool would be nice addition to kit to easily stretch oring over bearing.

Front kingpin could use a slightly better surface finish but can easily be polished. I used my old standby for kingpin lube of Losi Smart Grease and feels pretty smooth but dampening on heavy side. When using something thinner like 5k the surface finish will need to be improved on kingpin to get smooth "feeling" on bench.

Shock bushing for shaft does have a little friction but still operates nicely just not that butter smooth feel.

Few mini tubes of lube and oil would be nice to compete build but most racers have this stuff...just pet peeve when kits don't include any type of required lube.

Does all this matter....probably not.

If using sanwa servo I would recommend getting one of the sagami/srf servo saver adapter and sagami/srf sanwa carbon spacer. It will get bump steer more normal range without crazy spacers on steering knuckle ball stud.


https://srf-online-store.com/product...a90f09a4&_ss=r

https://srf-online-store.com/product...5e88ddef&_ss=r

I would think sagami fab/srf should also be coming out with 3d printed bumper in near future. The foam bumper is so....2020 hahah.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...0fef8c9dd.jpeg
I asked Vesa about the side springs being in a different location than that of a traditional car and this is what he told me. He’s been great about answering questions.

That's interesting. So he describes that it should work the same as with the spring on the bottom of the cross brace, so it clearly wasn't designed with a performance enhancement in mind. What he says about inline battery is correct that there will be a little less chassis side roll so side springs will not be as sensitive. But I still cannot get my head wrapped around using a spring from the other side of the car to control compression. Put any link car on the table and compress one side of the car about 1mm to simulate chassis movement in a corner. The outside spring compresses and the inside spring doesn't move. In actuality, the car on track may even try to lift a little on the inside of the car. I am curious to see one of these in person.

Maybe the side springs will pretty much only control tweak in a straight line? Corraly didn't use side springs at all for the longest time. All of the side weight was controlled by the front springs/crossbar.

Can anyone confirm yet whether a standard 1/12 servo will fit? I know the manual states to use a Sanwa or PowerHD servo, but wondering if a standard servo without mounting wings will fit.

my greatest bit of feedback is "don't be cheap" with the polishing compound on the king pins. I polished the kingpins and upon final setup work I saw one of the two kingpins sticking still slightly. so i then used an excessive amount of mothers polish to resolve the one kingpin.

other build points-

• be careful on how tight you make the "left hub" locking screw. the alloy screw wants to pop its head off. ask me how i know :). thankfully a steel 2.5mm screw can easily replace this very fancy looking aluminum screw.
• for the rear axle bearing -- stretching the bearing with two hex drivers will make applying it over the 1/4" bearing easier
• my car received 15g under its tekin esc
• another 16g weight added directly next to the esc (opposite side of receiver/servo) to enable a proper balance on balance pins.

manual pdf pg 10
SIZE NOT OVER 29X29X13.5mm.

Another option is to get a reamer to clean up the holes in the knuckle. Not sure what the diameter is on the P12V but on the old Xrays they were 3mm and the 2021-2023 they are 4mm. You can buy an expensive reamer like the Hudy ones (which are very nice), but I just ordered two long jobber drill bits in 3.0mm and 4.0mm and use them on all plastic parts that have a precise hole (steering knuckles, rear hubs if plastic, etc). You just run the bit (by hand) in and out a few passes and it'll clean up any imperfections in the mold.

That's definitely a great tip when the steering knuckles are plastic, but the P12V comes with aluminum steering knuckles, so it's not quite as easy as running a hand reamer through them, unfortunately.

Oh wow! I didn't realize they were aluminum. Thanks for the clarification. I have to say I'm very interested in this car. My buddy just ordered one and I'm looking forward to seeing it in person and seeing how it is on the track. I currently have 2020, 2022 and 2023 Xray X12 cars.

hanulec Can't wait to hear how yours runs tonight.

we already have some good news from Shawn Rayfield running the car in 17.5 on tuesday night at Prolevel. we should have a few setup sheets available by Monday.

Any clue if different battery trays are going to be released? I have not dug into building the kit yet but did see there is a 2.0 printed on the bottom of the tray.

Something I found that helped getting the O-Ring on the bearing was to put the bearing, then the O-Ring on the axle, and use a small pick (or 1.5mm Driver) to help work the O-Ring over the bearing.

Mine arrived today, if nothing else it has neat decals and cool boxart.

we are starting to post setup sheets here- Roche RC USA: Set-up Sheets

i'm not going to say any of these are great setups so far. it is all a work in progress. my P12V in 13.5 is coming along. it found 0.3s of pace improvement in the 1/2 day of running so far. it still has a lot of improvement to do / to find in the setup.

i can share that the car is pretty durable. i've sent it A LOT. unless something goes sideways and the performance of the car decreases or it begins to drive erratically by the end of the weekend ill know how strong the car is.

I’m stoked my car should arrive on Monday. This thing looks sick.

This thing is light!

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...b5959eb89f.jpg
​​​​​​

Probably would be 700 flat with something other than a Bitty body on there. It looks like if I decide to run one of these, I can bring my old heavy SMC 170 1s out of hibernation.

What electronics you got under there?

My kit arrived yesterday, but I won't have time for it for a couple weeks. Curious where the weight is gonna shake out.

Fairly standard electronics with a placeholder servo for now. It's about 4 grams lighter than the fancy Airtronics one (I have one on order).

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...a219a2bc8b.jpg