Now that would be icing on the cake

and the answer was???

running an old 12L3.... was wondering if anyone has tips on how to fit bigger pinion gears? currently running a 94t 64p spur and the biggest pinion i can fit is a 34. due to limited availability of smaller spurs, i'm looking if there's another way to get the gearing/roll-out i'm looking for.

What do you think about S120? I must decide between R5 and S120. S120 is of course more expensive than R5, but what if the price would be the same?

Will link car(R5) be good on carpet or should i buy R5 and t-bar conversion?

I would try to find smaller spur gears. You could find some tires that haven't been cut down but that would affect the handling of the car.

Anyone know any online shops that carry SMC Ener-g's for 4 cell I looked on line all over cant find any?

The link car(R5) is great on carpet!

To Ophidian's point, the only alternative is larger tire diameter...but I don't think he QUITE realizes just how large those tires will need to be. They would affect the construction of the car, not just the handling.

tire circumference X pinion teeth = roll-out X spur teeth

tire circumference = (roll-out X spur teeth) / pinion teeth

So, if you're running 17.5 brushless and want to shoot for, say, a 80mm-90mm roll-out with our given pinion and spur:

tire circumference = (85mm X 94 teeth) / 34 teeth

tire circumference = 7990 mm teeth / 34 teeth

tire circumference = 235mm (this kinda surprised me...no decimal amount. We ended up with a mm teeth number evenly divisible by the pinion teeth--believe it or not the odds against this were staggering. I'm headed off to buy a PowerBall ticket as soon as I finish this)

tire diameter = tire circumference / pi (an approximation, of course...our "perfect example heads, theoretically, off the rails at this point)

tire diameter = 235mm / pi

tire diameter = 74.8mm

That's a BIG tire...getting close to half again larger than a Touring Car tire. Jaco Prism's are start out at 48mm and most folks cut them down a few mm from there to reduce sidewall.

I'd go ahead and buy some smaller spurs.

I had the same issue with my newly aquired L4. I ended up putting on a 48dp (because I had the pinions from touring car) rw 67t spur and now I can get a roll out of 60+ mmpr with 48mm diameter tyres. Works a treat!

thanks for the feedback guys. we're running 23T/13.5 back here (or at least we're hoping to start to run a 1/12 class with the motor spec i mentioned). The kit i got 2nd hand came with 52.5mm tires... so far i think i have the rollout i need (around 60mm as mentioned on one of the earlier posts). but when the tires start getting smaller, i'd need to put in a bigger pinion i think. searched through the AE site and they mentioned a Kimbrough Off-set height adjuster? I was thinking i could shim the motor mount up a bit so the motor can clear the t-bar. if i could do this, i could slide the motor further towards the front to accomadate a bigger pinion.

i wouldn't mind getting a smaller spur. the only problem is finding one of the right size back here...

Unless you're running a REALLY tight small track with virtually no straight I'm pretty sure you'll find that 60mm is very low for a 13.5 (I've run more than that with 10.5). You have correctly calculated that your 52mm tire gets you RIGHT at 60mm with zero room for tire wear but the handling will always be a problem with tires that large PLUS you will be buying new tires left and right because you'll be chunking the crap out of them. Between buying new tires every week and all the farting around with this and that to TRY and get larger pinions wedged in there you'll spend WAY more than you would for a half dozen appropriate spur gears (even 88T would probably get you into the zone) shipped in from someplace.

Heck, if you bought one of my 3.2R's (bit more room for gearing, lowered pods for more use out of tires, thicker chassis, etc) and included money for however many spur gears you wanted I'd order them in and drop 'em in the box to ship with no extra postage. I'm sure others would perform similar service if there is some other car you'd prefer. The sad fact is the the L4 was getting a bit long in the tooth even BEFORE the brushless revolution. I'm ALL for keeping costs in check, etc, and getting more use out of "veteran" equipment but at some point you have to stop and really think if you're really getting any benefit from all the effort and money expended or if you're just beating your head on a wall. Or decide you're just happy participating and running your car around the track but don't want to be at the pointy end of the field and that's cool too. What you'll find is that someone WILL gear their 13.5 appropriately high and you'll be left in the dust.

I tried this too, it allowed the bigger pinion to be fitted but gave almost zero ride height!

Seriously, order some smaller spurs on line and get them delivered! far cheaper than a new chassis!

I get my 76 tooth spurs from Schumacher. You can call them or got to the website. www.racing-cars.com Last time I called they had a bunch.

If link cars are great on carpet why i didn't see anybody at Euros in this year?

At our big races we see more linked cars.... next time you are at a race, ask why link/spring kits are not preferred. I know I prefer link on carpet and a t-plate MAY work best for asphalt but I will run link from now on.