Shrek- Thanks for the kind words but I'm just a normal guy who doesn't really lay any smack down. Now James Arnold, Brian Jucha, Timmy H. and Bob Schoenoe...they lay the smack down.

Jason- What's up bud? How are things going? Most of the racing during the summer in the area is outdoor parking lot. Last year Jucha and I ran our 12ths a couple of weeks before he went to the Outdoor Nats at Speedworld but I haven't done anything since. Pretty much the 12th's run from Sept.-April on Carpet. The nice thing is that the carpet track is open during the week so I can run practice if I want and I did some testing about a month or so ago which was fun.

DS- hope you get to race soon.

Kevin, Kevin, Kevin.....Ohhhh boy here comes trouble. Now you weren't suppose to tell anyone about the Tiger coaching position and all of the money I make doing it. LOL! You almost had me bust a gut there. If you play you should hook up with James and I within the next 2-3 weeks. I am actually going to get a few rounds in now that some business meetings and issues have been taken care of. Bob may play with us soon which will be fun because he's a low handicapper unlike myself the hacker.

Shrek- Noticed the question about Roll Centers with regards to traction rolling on the other thread. Here is what I have found through the last racing season.

Raising R.C. will make the car initiate faster but actually provides less grip at that end of the car. Lowering the RC will slow initiation some but actually improve the grip at that end of the car. Now this is assuming that the CG is low and that you aren't saucing the tires for too long (at big carpet races where
you can see a black groove more than 10min is too long).


This is the reason why most fast racers seem to raise the RC for big races even if they run lower RC's at their home track where the traction usually isn't very high by comparison. IE. Big Race Traction =8-10 and most carpet club races=6, while poor grip=4.


By raising the RC it keeps them from traction rolling while keeping the cars easy to drive. Now some cars have more front grip than others so for the ones that have less they may actually lower the front RC some to help the car's corner speed by keeping the front from understeering.

In modified racing the second worse thing you can have after a loose car is a car that pushes. Even though it's eaiser to drive you lose too much time in the corners often because of the extra time used to slow down enough to take a good line.

So to keep from traction rolling raise the front RC and if the rear end is loose you can soften it or lower the rear RC. Getting a good balance is the key at big races along with camber gain and reactive caster setups.
Hope this helps.

Hummmmm.....Dave "Da Tiger" Arnold......thats got a ring to it. No I dont play golf Im not that old yet that I need to do something as pointless and chasing a little ball around a nicely cut lawn.

And yes Da Tiger has been knowen to Lay it down so to speak.....:rolleyes:

Anywho.....see ya when it gets colder out

Man-o-man.....i dont check in here 1 day, and ya'll let it fall off the page........TTT.

I heard that a lot of 12L3 racers are running the really old fixed front suspension on their cars. A lot of guys had their cars like this at Cleveland last year. Is it better for carpet?

Yea i found that some like the old AE front ends or the one Buds makes.

Thanks Kev, Hey are you sure you're not 35 and only look 25??? I think you would do nicely chasing balls around well cut lawns. LOL

AM- The old style front end due to it's lighter weight lowers the Roll Center (RC) so that more steering occurs and it can also be more consistent vs. the Assoc. Strut front end. Especially for cars like the Rev.3 and Carpet Knife due to their unique weight distribution and rear suspension setup they seem to benefit more from the old style front end. Things to watch for though are the eventual "warpage" of the blocks due to use which will change caster/camber in relation to each side and what you set it at. In fact you have to initially measure and adjust with shim material to get both sides close or the same due to mold tolerances.

Also, the old front end while less expensive is more vunerable to breakage than the Assoc. Strut and you don't have as much incremental adjustment with the old style front end. Finally, you also have to use bigger front tires on the old style front end (especially on some of the T-bar cars) and this can mean greater expense AND a little more nervous car when the grip comes up at big races. Hope this helps.

DS- heah I know what you mean. UP^^^

I am new to 1/12th. What are the ideal sizes for carpet racing with an RC12L3? What axle cams should I use? I have purple fronts and grey rears.

AM- I don't know about ideal sizes and different cars seem to work better with different sizes. ie: I have heard that at least some Rev.3 owners like to use bigger tires than say Trinity or 12L3 cars. Now this is probably more driver to driver than anything else but it shows the point. ALSO, running for fun at practice or at your local club vs. running at a big race are three different things. At big races where the traction tends to be high in comparison to just about any other situation tire size and the amount of time you leave your traction compound on can be 40% of getting your car to handle. Whereas in practice on the average practice night with only decent grip by comparison larger tires may be preferred due to the increased grip they would give vs. smaller tires. Club races probably depend more on how serious you are that day and how serious the competion is that day.

With that said my advise would be to start out with Gray Compound Rears and Purple Compound Fronts for Carpet and Pink Compound Rears and Purple Compound fronts for asphalt. These work respectively for just about every track in their category but that doesn't mean this is all that is used. Often guys will use Magenta or 35's for the front which give the car some extra steering but also seem to smooth it out some and add a little corner speed. These are my favorites, although for practice and club racing I tend to use purples since they last longer and I have more of them.

Concerning rear ride height axle cams for out of the package new rear tires (2.2") I would use number three or number two down. For rear tires in the 1.96"-1.90" range I would use axle cam number one down. For rear tires less than 1.88"-1.80' I would use axle cam number four down. Notice that the lower the tire the more I lower the axle which raises the rear end to accomodate. That's why the axle cams face down (hole at the bottom and most of the cam plastic point upwards).

For the front you can use the tires out of the package if you want. Generally, we run front tires from 1.75"-1.66" although You Don't Have To so don't let anyone tell you that you Must True them down. For the Assoc. Strut front end this is a good general spec and you should have no washers underneath the front suspension lower arms. For the Old Style Assoc. Front end you should have no shims other than your caster/camber shims and the thin paper shim you may need to add for equalizing both sides adjustments. For that front end your sizes will be more like 1.78"-1.71". On the Trinity front end I am finding that a couple of washers totaling a little less in height than the standard ones from the kit works really well with the similar range as the Assoc. Strut.

In general for bumpy tracks larger tires are used to absorb the bumps and give better clearance and on smoother or higher grip tracks smaller tires are used to aid corner speed and smooth steering out respectively. Hope this helps.

Oopps- Made some grammatical/"typo" mistakes.
Should be - "competition". Also, should be "...this doesn't mean that they are the only ones (compounds) used". And give should be "...gives the car some extra..."

Oh boy I think I going to go read one of my golf magazines now...LOL

Corally SP12M
 

Anyone out there really know their way around the Corally SP12M cars? I'm new to 1/12 scale overall...but especially new to the Corally. I've just recently picked one up and have run it a couple of times now in the parking lot. I really like the car...very cool stuff. We'll likely start carrying the car in stock if I can raise enough local interest in 1/12 scale. Anyway, the Florida State Series runs 6-cell w/stock motor and that's what I intend to run. My car was originally a 4-cell car but I installed the 6-cell Carbon conversion kit knowing that was what I better get used to. So if anyone can help point me in the right direction with this thing I would certainly appreciate it. My main class in racing is Stock Touring (Schumacher Mission), but I figure if I can drive this 1/12 scale at least average then it will improve my Touring racing as well.

Thanks everyone.:confused:

You might want to find a RC12LC chass to run on the rug. It dose not flex as much as the 12L3.

If you want to spend the money i would go is the rear axle kit from IRS.

I a little bit more weight but it alot smother and alot easyer to work on.

How did everyones racing go this weekend????

Hi-d-ho buckaroos.......sup ya'll.......TTT

I TQ'd in 6 cell Stock and finished 2nd.