R/C Tech Forums - TC3 Forum

SMALLS: Your ballcup can pop off easier if the swaybar is adjusted to an extreme, and the link is hitting the arm during suspension travel. The ASC swaybar kit comes with two types of cups, and assumes you use the full faced cup on the arm, the open cup on the swaybar ball mount. I bought an extra set of cups, and just use the open faced cups on both ends, and havent had that issue since. Hope this does ya some good. :)

BADSIGN: There was a race here in VA on a particular Saturday, and then a separate race on Sunday at a different site. Saturday was rubbers (foams NOT allowed), Sunday was foams. Sundays race i tried running rubbers instead of foams, but i had to drive the car rediculously smooth to be as fast as the other guys running foams, not holding as smooth of lines. On average i was almost a tenth slower per lap than the guys with foams. (incidentally, i hit fast lap of the day on rubber, only 3 tenths on the 6th lap of the qualifier, go friggen figure) And to think i didnt bring any foams. :mad: I didnt change the setup from Saturdays race to the next, to see the difference. (club races are the only time i can try things, and race with competition to feel "pushed" on the track...if i practice on my own i end up hanging out and talking more than driving LOL) Track temp was the same from one day to the next, and asphalt from one track was smiliar to the other. The layout at the Sundays track was half the size of Saturdays track. Saturdays race i had the car to beat. Sundays race i qualified 3rd on pace with the top two guys, I was runnin rubbers. (tc3 1st, yok2nd, tc3 3rd) I had a very bad start in the main, got hacked several times, and finished in 5th. I couldnt push the car hard to make up for the hacks, welcome to racing. The following weekend i came back, same guys, same track, similar track conditions (10 degrees higher air temp... 3 on the track), same setup. The only thing i did differently was add 57mm foams. I was TQ from the first qualifier, and decided to not run the other qualifiers to give me wrench time, and to give them a chance to get fast laps. With the same track conditions and same setup, the car buzzed 2mm off of the front tires in one run. First thing i swapped was caster from 2 degrees total to 4 degrees total (and of course bumpsteer to compensate for the change), there was a huge sweeper, and that was where i was pushing the most (almost half off of the throttle to make it around) and took a few hotlaps to feel the car out. I added a half degree of front toe in to calm the car coming into the corner, slightly tightened the front diff to compensate, added 2% of negative expo to the steering (to the existing 4%), slowed servo speed 3% on both forward and return motions, and moved the rear swaybar all the way out. I had to slightly lift throttle on two spots of the track, they were hairpins, the rest was full throttle. In the main i checked out and lapped all but 2nd place. One more lap, maybe two, i would have had him. On average i was 2 seconds faster per lap than the same guys from the week before. Ill note, this is stock class, so that time was gained by making a few chassis changes, not horsepower. I wore .3 mm on both the front and rear foams, Jaco plaids and purples. Now thats a free car to scrub so little on asphalt at full throttle. The shocks/positions were not touched except for tweak and rideheight. If you run on smooth grippy asphalt, you can almost run a carpet setup for both rubbers and foams. The setup just requires a few changes from one to the other. Again, as i have said before, its different for everyone. You have to try it to see. ;) Good luck!

BLACKKAT: They probably tape the battery strap to keep it from letting the cells move forward in a crash. When the battery gets hot, the composite strap gets "soft" and bends during a hit, letting the battery move forward. (i have even seen guys bend aluminum ones of differing manufacturers) Speedos catch fire. Batteries bent out of shape like a slinky. Its a sad sight. If the battery is already in the front position, then i wouldnt know other than to have it added as extra security. I hate that strap, thats why i use tape. (as well as tweak station issues) Have you guys seen the new Factory Team carbon battery spacer from AE? Trick.

JOHNBULL: Yep, you and i talked about that glitch quite a few pages back. That DAMN glitch. It wouldnt leave me alone. Swappin a new speedo and receiver in, and relocating them like yours was the ticket. The only difference between your setup and mine is where i mount the schottky. Mine is inline between the speedo and motor. I ground the clamp for several reasons. One, with the fan, there was no need for that ineffective heatsink, as you said. Two, it lets me tweak the car out on the tweak station easier. It was dead weight in more than one way. With that removed i have to add only 1/4oz to hit the 50oz limit, and the car is weight balanced alot better. Before with the clamp uncut, i had to add almost three times that on the left front of the car to counter balance it, which then put the car well over the weight limit. The shocks are standard AE threaded bodies with the YOK caps, which are a godsend i might add! I never tried the lever trick, i seen it on your past post, very sweet. I almost "hacked" another chassis to add the NTC3 steering kit, but instead i decided on bulletproofing what existed. The geometry change was too extreme from one set to another and i really had no complaints about the stock setup, so i decided to leave well enough alone. Ill add some pics to give ya an idea of what i mean by "bulletproofing". :)

OLEC: Hey man i wish ya the best of luck! Its going to rain here this weekend, so ill be inside doing motors and cycling batteries. Rain sucks, so i hope you get track time man. Let us know your findings, im curious about the one-way.