liljohn1064

iTrader: (17)

Thanks, that would definitely show the drag marks.

John Stranahan

iTrader: (27)

John Stranahan

iTrader: (27)

Test and tune sessions are in full swing. We have had some bad luck with weather on our last two WGT races. This Sunday we had a full crew ready to race and it rained.
Friday the famous Nick Maslowski dropped by and ran the World GT car. I call him famous because his car was prominently feature in a Popular Science article on high speed run electric model cars last month. I helped him with that car as well as prepared my own pan one year. Anyway I let him drive the
WGT car. He has been doing mostly off-road. After a full pack he was turning pretty good laps. Very few incidents. He declared the car dialed as do I. Note that we are running Novak 10.5s with 2sLiPo Orion 3800. The car is quick but still easy to drive as Nick noted. I have made a couple of small changes since My last stated setup. I still have the J Concepts Illusion wing that I like outdoors. It sits on the tall Nice looking pylons from HPI that come with their plastic wings or as a wing mounting kit. It is higher in other words. This is the same wing setup I like on the Oval only because the car made faster lap times. Note that we are using ROAR Pan car GT rules for the wing on this long outdoor course.

Hipp-the Nerf wings should not interfere with the forward mounted speed control plate. I believe that plate only uses the front battery tray support mounting plates locations. The nerf wings use only the rearward mounts.

hippie

iTrader: (20)

Hipp-the Nerf wings should not interfere with the forward mounted speed control plate. I believe that plate only uses the front battery tray support mounting plates locations. The nerf wings use only the rearward mounts.[/QUOTE]



john looking at your pics on the last page. It looks like you removed the CF battery tray mount, & the silver hex nut that was under the red standoff when you mounted your nerf wings. Is that correct ?.

John Stranahan

iTrader: (27)

Yes you remove the CF battery tray mount. The silver press in thread insert is reused on a new hole in the Nerf wing. The red standoff is secured to a forward hole in the Nerf Wing and the Rear battery tray mount bolt goes through a hole in the Nerf wing. In other words the Nerf wing replaces that oblong CF battery tray mount on both sides. Click on the pic a second time. It will be larger and the install will look more clear.

I place an aluminum scrap on top of these thread inserts and then on a solid bench use a small hammer to tap them into the Nerfwing. It cuts good grooves this way instead of just expanding the CF. The fit is slightly tighter than factory which I prefer. One of my inserts was loose.

hippie

iTrader: (20)

Thank you

John Stranahan

iTrader: (27)

Hippie-You are welcome.

New Product (sneak peek)
Heavy Duty Pod Bottom Plate

Here is a drawing of the new HD bottom plate that we will have available soon. Note the front of the car is toward the bottom. We are looking at the bottom side of the pod where the countersinks go.

Notice the two lower holes are now surrounded by 2 or 3 times more graphite. That should prevent those two holes from snapping off. I have lost two lower plates personally and we have half a dozen broken at the track. Also notice the removal of the adjustment notches at the center pivot. I saw one pod plate snap right at these notches. Note we are running 2s LiPo and Novak 10.5 so our speeds are higher than most WGT cars and our boards are heavy 1/8 scale double stacked 2x4's off the race line.

The motor side width is more than doubled. This is to make the pod more stiff for those running more powerful motors and may prevent damage to the gears from flex. Tightening the crap out of that upper motor screw and using an oversize washer there also helps a lot. No gear trouble at my last session with the 3.5 powered wide pan.

Also there are two extra sneaky holes for that 3-link back end if you care to try it in the future or to build your own. Having more material on the motor side allowed me to put the two lower shock mounts in a symmetrical position on the width of the car.

Shawn68z

iTrader: (6)

John, just an idea for your rear pod plate. Add a lobe at the rear on the motor side to help protect the spur gear from hitting the board, when "backing your car in".

I know I have backed my car into the boards twice this year with the same result, a flattened spur gear.


Shawn.

hippie

iTrader: (20)

John

Any idea on price & when they will be avalible ?. it would save a few bucks to get all 3 parts at the same time .

John Stranahan

iTrader: (27)

Shawn-the pod bottom plate has insufficient strength on the two side rails to accept a one sided bumper like you suggest. You would just break the bottom plate like the front bumper will break once in a while. A costly break. I do have a design that protects the spur on my other wide pan. It would use a few more square inches of graphite which would raise the cost of the bottom plate. It relies on the strength of a curved bow and tripple support to keep the material strong. Maybe on a full car if it ever comes to pass. Spur maintenance is more of a pain with the enclosed design. In the meantime use a small spur and let the tires protect it.
Hippie. The CAD's are away today. The time Depends on how much is on Doug's plate. It won't be but a few days after the first CNC prototype is cut, mailed and checked for fit, that Doug should be able to sell the new parts. I should be up and running with some suspension kit sales in a couple of weeks. Don't let any of this prevent you from racing and winning with the very fine stock Gen X 10 in World GT.

2wdrive

I bought the crc 1/10th front end kit but i have a few questions about it. In the manual it says that for caster i have to put teflon washers in but i received fibreglass washers with it. When installing them there seem to be some play in the upper arm as there is a little less then 1 spacer of play in the arms. I can force the upper arm forwards and backwards a little. Anyone has similar experience?

For the rest it really looks and feels sturdy and with no play in it. The adjustments to tighten the pivot ball cup is really a nice design. In some way i always had slop in those pivot ball cups from associated.

liljohn1064

iTrader: (17)

John,

Do you have a source for the press in fittings for the nerf wings? CRC has it listed as a captive nut/spring holder. Part 26 in the manual with a stock number of 12871. I haven't asked CRC directly as this looks like something I should be able to pick up If I just knew where! I wouldn't mind a few spares on hand either.

Thanks,

John

John Stranahan

iTrader: (27)

That press fitting thread insert is the same one as on the little battery support plate you took off the car. Just pop the part out of the old part and put it in the new part. The part number you have is the correct part it should be # 1287 though, it comes with the setscrew that you don't need. I bought a couple spares of these. I have the best installation luck by putting a little aluminum plate behind the threaded insert and tapping with a small hammer. It goes in unmarred this way and cuts nice grooves to prevent spinning lose in the future.

2 w drive- a tiny bit of play in that upper arm is OK. I usually have to sand and make the play myself. I think there was a washer change because the previous stack would cause some binding. It was too tight. If you want to remove the play put in a .010 inch king pin washer shim. Its not quite the right diameter but will work fine.

John Stranahan

iTrader: (27)

Inaugural World GT Petite Le mans (Novak 10.5, Orion 3800 2s LiPo).

We finally had our first race on the big 1/8th scale track at Mikes-Hobbyshop.com. What an exciting race series it was. I started out with a 1.5 lap lead in the first heat. In this heat I finished first with the Gen X 10 and the other geezer in the race finished second with a converted Associated RC10L2. Later in the heats John P started creeping up and TQ'd. The main was truly the most exciting I have been in. We had three guys vying for the lead, very evenly matched, at the limit of traction. We must have had 6 lead changes in the first 8 laps. I led twice. John Payson in a converted Associated L4 took the win with me not far behind. (We are not so particular about what pan car chassis we run, as long as it works.) We had many Gen X 10's in the race. Enough to repeat some advice.

My car ran absolutely flawless. Four finishes at speed. No breakages or problems requiring mechanic work. Some others were not so lucky, but could have prevented the problems.

• You break the large graphite bumper which holds your front body posts. Your body then drags the ground ruining the heat. Use the Manutech plastic lower bumper or our shortie graphite (nicer looking) bumper from Doug Powell at PRC instead. [email protected]
• The Aluminum side link screws come out. When this happens the car is undriveable. Replace the aluminum balls with Losi Steel ball nuts from the JRXS or JRXS type R. Replace those short flat head screws with steel. Put some blue loctite on the screw. This happens to every single Gen-X-10 on our track. Prevent it by just a little expense and trouble ahead of time. I like black oxide coated alloy steel screws for strength (Losi, Associated) They are over twice as strong as the tiny stainless screws we can buy.
• LOSA6009 JRX-S Type R 4-40 Female Ball Studs 3.50/6
• The pod screws all back out. They won't just do this once, they keep doing it until they fall out on our track. When that bottom plate gets a little loose the car doesn't handle quite right. Change those screws to steel screws. After installation back them out, put some blue loctite under the head of the screw and reinstall. Now they stay put.
• A cheesy rear shock broke the casting that supports one of the ends. The car was unsettled. Use RC18T rear shocks if you are going to use shocks. They have very strong ends. Much stronger than pan car type shocks with the little aluminum stubs that bend or break or than this particular brand that I am not familiar with.
• The 10.5 motor shaft separates from the magnet. You are geared slightly over the motors limit in spite of maybe normal 180F temp readings. We lost 3 arms so far. One car lost two today.

Other notes. I like the short stock side links for the most rugged pod lower plate. They flex more preventing ripping out those side holes.

The only adjustments I made was to increased to 6 degrees caster in heat 3. I did not like it. It may have been slightly faster but harder to drive. 2/3 the way in the corner the back end would tend to drift out. This can be cured with the 5 degree reactive caster blocks that kill a little caster mid corner on. I will try a set. I use to run them on the wide pan.

I trimmed the big wing 1/8 inch to add some steering.

I may try the spec front tires again as the winner was running pinks although with a lot of spins in most heats. I was using purple fronts without all the spins.

The front end is holding up great on the long road course. No mods needed other than making it smooth and using the bronze pivot balls. Use red loctite on those brass set screws or you will be leaving them on the track.

The rear end is fine with white springs, blue associated TC3 center spring. I may move weight slightly forward to increase steering or maybe not. The car is really easy to drive, even though, we had quite a bit of dust.

We did not true tires yet. We did talk about it. Its cheaper not too outdoors and the big tires hookup pretty well. The small tires are a little faster though.

I am running one side shock. I re drilled the mount to get a 90 degree outward angle for symmetry in roll left and right when the car suspension is moving up and down. It seems to work fine this way. You don't need much damping in the rear.

Body: Saleen Mustang GT.

Click that pic a second time for a larger more detailed view.

I am using that very nice 4 mm thick pod top plate from CRC. I had broken two original thickness plates previously.

V12

iTrader: (1)

John
is there an easy to use, inexpensive CAD program what could be used for designing car parts.
I have some ideas on making some different parts for my cars but donīt want making them myself. Just designing and then giving the files to a machining shop.