JayBee

iTrader: (31)

Just finished sanding the chassis pieces, CA'ed the main chassis & mounted the bulkheads The car already feels like a brick $#!+house....I mean that in a good way

wyd

iTrader: (51)

+1 for the DNA Asphalt. I really like the steering it has and excellent rear traction. I really like this body and it pretty much all I run anymore.

Static_racing

Brian,

You like the DNA? What about the PARMA "M"? I've been running the speed6.
What are you planning on running at Jackson? I'm going to try the "M" and speed6

Marcos.J

iTrader: (239)

the type M is pretty good , i ran it yesterday very similar to the Mazda Speed 6

Cesar

iTrader: (1)

Just wondering if there is some theory to using tape over a battery strap with post???

Thanks in advance

StephenSobottka

iTrader: (8)

I noticed that when i put a battery cell in the chassis slots, the cells were almost flush. This is awesome as I just had to run a file over the edges to break the sharp edge so it will not cut the cells, awesome job Schuie!

StephenSobottka

iTrader: (8)

Tape is lighter, more of a chance for the tape to break however. Weigh the car for yourself and you will see. Tape also costs more money over time as it is a dispensible product whereas the battery strap is a one time buy and use it forever kind of thing.

Charles Godwin

iTrader: (2)

Less chance of tweak in a crash.

Charles

Jon Kerr

iTrader: (17)

Less chance of tweaking period. I have yet to see a battery strap that doesn't put stress on the chassis to hold the battery in place. You can see it bow the chassis. I wouldn't recommend a battery strap to anyone.

wyd

iTrader: (51)

I'm only running the DNA. I would think the Mazda will be better for you since traction at Jackson won't have VHT on the track so traction might be a little low.

Did run my MI3 and I will need to work on it because at this time my EC runs rings around it. First I need to fix my radio issues. Otherwise I will be at Frederick this Sat practicing alot to get my MI3 up to speed with my EC. I have alot of work to do. Told you my EC is that good.

It will get better. I had a huge on power push like crazy. It gets into the corner fairly good but if your on the throttle at all it pushes like a dump truck. I don't expect the MI3 to be perfect after a few runs so no big deal. I didn't make alot of changes til the radio issue is fixed and I hope to have that done by this weekend.

Darkseid

iTrader: (9)

Okay, I have emerged from my kit building isolation.

My thoughts on the build...

Overall, not the worst build I've had, but far from the easiest

First the bad...
Dealing with the rear suspension arms is just plain ridiculous IMO. I believe I spent as much time reaming, filing, and fitting the rear arms, than I did on all the rest of the kit. The idea of making it tight and letting people get it 'perfect', just doesn't fly for me. After all that time working on those arms, they have no more/less play than my last car. And with that car, all I had to do was mount up the arms, and add shims till it was perfect. And 2 years of running hasn't left the suspension sloppy just because it didn't start off insanely tight. I guess I just like parts to fit right, right out of the box. Guess thats just the 'club racer' in me.

One hole on my spool was filled with aluminum shavings. These shavings left the hole nearly un passable by the screw. It took me working the screw in and out a couple times, spraying the hole out, and poking out the shavings with an allen wrench before the screw would finally pass.

On a similar note, both my Right Rear bulkhead and my Front Left bulkhead(when viewing the car from behind) had a hole for the shock tower that were very badly tapped. In both cases, the screw got about halfway through, then seized up. I had to VERY gently work them to get the in. I don't plan on taking those screws out.

Thats about it for the bad...so now for the good.

I have to admit, the shocks were quite impressive. I did have one renagade that built up with rebound for some reason. But other than have to redo that one shock, everything went smoothly. I've never seen anything like those shocks. Not to have to hold the shock shaft at just the right point while screwing the cap on was sweet!

The center pulley fence wasn't nearly as bad as my memory told me it used to be. Maybe I just had a better idea this time. Instead of breaking my little hobby vice try to put the fences on, I decided to put on part of a fence, clamp it in place with miny vice grip pliers, then I just snapped the rest of the fence on with another set of pliers. Rinse, wash, repeat for other fence. Simple.

Taking the diffs out is so easy its just ridiculous. I realized late that I had offset the spool out drives, and I was like "damn I gonna have to take this spool back out to change that". In the end, it took me about 2-3 minutes to make the change! Wow!

I guess the weight issues are just for the 5 cell users, because fully loaded with Lipo(weight added), my car still scaled in at 48.5 ounces with body. Not bad when your used to shaving weight off a TA05 just to get down to 52ounces.

Using battery tape isn't going to be as bad as I thought. I'll still pick up a battery strap just to see what I like best. I've never had a bad experience with battery straps. Never seemed to cause chassis problems as long as they were well designed.

I was shocked to see how flexable the main chassis was. While sanding it, I blew it off with my compressor, and it flexed! But once all the bulkheads and upper deck were on, it was amazing to see how stiff it was! Incredible design work by Schumacher.

I seriously hope Futaba comes out with a micro reciever similar to the Spektrum unit. Space is tight with a none micro reciever. The limited space did force me to do my best wiring job ever though.

Seeing all the posible adjustments on the car has me really excited. My last car responded exactly as it was supposed to, to every change I made on it, even minor ones. It taught me A LOT about setting up a car. And I'm REALLY looking forward to applying that to the Mi3!

Anyway...I've rattled on enough. I've attached a pic of my finished Mi3. Hopefully the weather will give me a chance to race it this weekend. But in the midwest, you just never know.

AdrianM

iTrader: (4)

Darkseid - Looking good!

Wyd - What setup were you running exactly? Nobody seems to like the kit setup. Everyone seems to like PW's setup as a starting point. I had to turn my dual rate down becuase I had too much steering in 19T. I also added .5mm rear toe to get more rear stability on power exiting corners. This was with PW's setup.

dawgmeat

iTrader: (9)

I glad you got your car Darkseid and it's wired real clean, rear suspension just flat out sucks as far as hand-fitting, I hope Schumacher address this issue because if you break a rear arm at a club race you won't have to deal with hand-fitting and taking care of other stuff between round

Darkseid

iTrader: (9)

I was telling my buddy about the build and he told me that I should get some extra arms preped and ready before hand just in case. That way, I'll just be able to slap it on and go.

Makes sense, so thats what I plan on doing.

Darkseid

iTrader: (9)

Just as a note to anyone who might be starting with NIP(new in package) grey belts like I did, I ended up going one notch looser on both the front and rear belts. With the manual settings, the belts were so tight I could barely spin the drivetrain. One notch looser, and everything was perfect.