dave,
so you dope the whole magenta front when you run mod on carpet? Did you look in the new car action they have the Pro DRivers thing on Josh Cyrul and it has his setup in there. I see what you mean now about putting the servo on the chassis. If I dont get it centered(you just use servo tape right?)will that effect the steering at all?
IKE

Foams- Preferred Traction Compound and it IS STILL VERY MUCH LEGAL is Paragon. I have never heard that it pulls up the glue that holds down our carpet. TQ products are the second best alternative that I have tried although I am hearing good comments about the Corrally Jack the Gripper stuff and the new CS stuff as well. At big races I am down to 8 min on with 15min off for Paragon but for club races I'm now at 15min on and 5min off. TQ stuff is double for these values and you don't get as much traction. You also don't get as much consistency with the car's response as you do with Paragon. Paragon just makes the car HANDLE better and more consistently than anything else thus far. TQ 8+ and TQ Mod are the second best and do an admirable job. If you run at a track that allows Paragon, and many still do, then run Paragon but if you have to use something other than Paragon then use the TQ 8+ or Mod stuff and double my figures for paragon.

Foams- Didn't realize you were online. If you don't get the steering servo centered you will have the equivelant of a tweaked car because the throw will be longer one way than the other. I actually used an Assoc. lightweight body post and cut the side down and mounted that to the chassis using the original servo hole. With the JR Z3550 servo if you shave the side of the post so that the servo goes as far to the right as possible than yo get a centered servo. Then I use a layer of servo tape on the bottome of the servo to help the one post mount out. So it's a combination of 1servo post made from an Assoc. body post and servo tape. I used this setup (the TC3 servo post work to, you just cut them down to proper height) and servo tape. You will also have to space the ball studs on the steering blocks up to lessen the amount of bumpsteer.

Dave,
Thanx for all the great tips!!!!! :) once again the servo one flew over my head :weird: What are the drawbacks going to be if I use the provided servo mount? Is there any hand fitting of the Asc. T-bar(thick) onto the trinity chassis plate?
IKE
P.S.I still havent found an online place to get the car, but I looked at horizons stock the other day and they have them in Illinois so I will just order from my LHS and be done with it.

Darnold.....what do you mean when you say 15 min. on 5 min. off?????I've never heard those terms before....sorry....1/12 newbie.:D

Dragon, he means let the dope sit on your tires for 15min., then wipe it off 5min. before you run. If you watch me, this is what I do most of the time at Shreve. See ya Sun.!

Foams- I have tried to draw some of this out with MS Draw and attach it to this post, it should give you an idea of what I am talking about with these directions. You know the plastic servo mount for the TC3? It has a hole in the bottom of it so that a screw from the underneath of the chassis goes into it and then you put the servo arm against it and screw in a screw to hold the servo. If you have followed thus far I did the same thing using the stock hole on the right side of the car (when viewed from the top side of the car). Now you may notice that the servo won't be centered and needs to be moved over a little to the right for it to be centered. Shave down with a dremel some of the plastic of the servo mount (on its left side when looking down from the top of the chassis) and this will allow the servo to be moved over some more to the right to center it. Once you have this done then put a strip of servo tape underneath the servo and slide it on the servo post and stick it down to the chassis. Then just tighten the screw to the servo post so that the servo is secure.

dave,
so you are only using a single TC3 servo mount?
IKE

Foams- Yep. Just screw it in on the right side and put your servo next to it as if you were going to screw it to the mount and see if it is centered. If not then you will need to grind off some of the plastic next to the servo so that the servo moves over towards the right some more. Hope this is making sense, I tried to draw some pic's using MS Paint but my touch pad is a little poor for that and I don't have a seriel mouse with me to plug in and use through the keyboard. How's your racing been?

hmmmmmmmm, I think I understand now. What was the drawback to using the regular servo mount? The racing up here is mostly dead for off-road so that is why I re-kindled my desire for on-road. The 1/12 class is non-existant but hopefully when I start bringing my 1/12(if I can figure out how to build it :) )to all of our TC races the guys that used to race 1/12 will start bringing theirs again. After 9/11 the racing really died up here, it is just now starting to pick up again.

On another note, I also found out today that the morons that laid the OZITE at our track(stoopid carpet guys) GLUED the carpet down upside down and on top of that the building is being leased so we cant bolt the Ozite down. How will this affect the setups that you gave me? Am I going to need to run different tires? I talked to one of the guys that used to run 1/12 and he said that it is basically the same surface but it is more abrasive.

IKE

I think this is what you are trying to say with the servo mount thingie. Forgive the lamo drawing it is all I had the patience for. I know the servo isnt centered but this is just to get the jist of what you are saying. Did I get the mount on the correct side or did you want it on the other side of the servo?
IKE

Foams- Everything is perfect except you're right, it's on the other side. I think the drawing looks good and wish I could do as well btw. Concerning the revitalization of 12th scale up there I wouldn't sweat it. What we have noticed almost everywhere we go is that all it takes is one person who is willing to run their car consistently a couple of times in practice or between a few rounds of qualifiying during the breaks and people start Ohhh-Ahhh- "What is that and how much does it cost, that thing is rocketship fast...". Once they find out how inexpensive they are to buy and maintain then people start getting them. But, the biggest key is that one faithful person who will do it week in and week out regardless of all of the complaining and putdowns. Hopefully this encourages you to be that one person there.-Dave

Foams- The Ozite being upside down shouldn't matter much to your setup I would think. It may give a little less traction or as said a little more tire wear which should translate into a little more traction. Any thing else I can help or give advise on please don't hesitate to ask (and this goes for anyone else too).-Dave Arnold (what am I doing up at this hour???)LOL

We got our Ozite about 2 months ago...the first time it was laid down, they put the glued side up...absolutely "0" traction...we have to roll our track up every week:(

People seem to make fun of the 1/12.....why? i dont know.....and then i look at the lap times and 1/12 is faster than sedan.....so i make fun of them:p

That new Trinity car looks sweet:) Anybody know what tires it comes with?

Darnold....go to bed.

DragonS- WoW! If Foams really doesn't have any traction then he will have to ues Pink Dots in the rear. I've run on some of the new ozite with the rubberize back coating, this new stuff gives maaddd traction. Stuff black grooves really quick but this doesn't sound like that stuff. I think it's going to depend upon what variant Foams is really racing on. Concerning people making fun of 12th scale but you hit a topic! To be honest most people tell me that they want to race whatever is most popular. And unfortunately they think everyone else should be the same it seems. They don't realize that they have the "herd" mentality. Often the result seems to be a lack of critical analysis skills and good ole' guts to do what they think is right and stick to it regardless it seems. When public opinion says right is point "A" then they go there and when it switches to point "B" then they switch with it. more....