dman18t

Wings are just bumpers anyway, heavy is a good thing. Can make the car calmer as well. But yes, can't scrape the ground, upsets the chassis.

asake

Thank you for the information, guys.

BigRon

iTrader: (22)

Hello all. I'm currently weighing options on a few different chassis.
Serpent SF4, Capricorn Lab F1-01(or 02), Roche Rapide Evo.
I would appreciate some feedback if anyone has any experience with these cars.

Thanks

Zerodefect

Roche with the Xray steel axle gear diff. Pretty much the cutting edge setup. Same as Xray. The other cars might be nice, but I haven't seen anyone runs those with success, and they look a bit odd in some areas.

dman18t

I run the Roche Evo USA spec, pretty much box stock on CRC black carpet on CRC tires. Tight ball diff, soft side and front springs, 10k on side tubes. Car rocks, can't be beat for price. I can compete or beat any other chassis as long as I don't make any mistakes. The car is more capable than I am.

I've gone head to head with the other chassis' on your list & did just fine.

Pros for Roche are comparability with some x-ray stuff, parts are cheap and car is tough. Center pivot will not tweak (slotted), nice rear pod and lots of tuning options.

Con: Roche parts are hit & miss from Roche USA, seems like they only get shipments periodically. If they improved their parts supply, then they would have no cons whatsoever.

Dan

iTrader: (74)

I'd go Roche. This is coming from an SF4 owner.

BigRon

iTrader: (22)

Just the guy I want to hear from. Is the whole chassis mounted rear wing a gimmick or is there actual real time benefits from it?

dman18t

I don't know if it's a gimmick but there is an option for it for the Roche, see grip works RC for conversion.

I wouldn't bother, my Roche rocks right out of the box! As for gimmick, who knows but the serpent rear pivot without side links should be good for eliminating chassis feedback from imposed/braking forces. Hence being able to brake into corners harder and accelerating out sooner. Any SF4 owners want to confirm that?

JayL

I pulled the floating rear wing from my Roche. The wing bounced more than the stock setup and made the rear grip inconsistent. It may just be my track, since most rave about it.

MatsNorway

Everyone is raving about wing mounts etc. Where is the rear pod that facilitates a meaty diffuser?

robk

iTrader: (22)

Buy some thin lexan and bend one up. Put it between the pod plates and the lower plate.

MatsNorway

Problem is the lower rear stiffener taking up space where the diffuser should be. It has minimal gains if any and will add weight/complexity as you need that stiffness so you need to really know what you are doing to even verify that it could/does work. But even pro teams have tried it in 1/12. So i could be a thing in the future.

robk

iTrader: (22)

Not sure what a lower rear stiffener is. I have tried a home made diffuser on an F103 on foam tires. It was pretty big, 4 vanes, went out past the rear wing a little. Net result the car actually turned MORE, and was stuck. Not believing it may have actually worked, I removed the diffuser and the car lost the steering instantly. Was it actual aero effects? I'm not sure. It could have just been the added weight on the pod. It would be fun to try again. It definitely has to be big, since the air does not scale down.

G-rem

iTrader: (2)

Hi Robk,

any pictures of your diffusor ? I am curious to see how it looks

Thanks,
G-rem

Ted Su(TW)

This is a diffuser from Serpent.

From my experience, it actually works. With no setup changes, it creates more rear traction, making the car more stable (maybe too stable).

Good option when you run outdoors where track condition changes a lot. We run 17.5 blinky on outdoor asphalt.