FWIW, I would always rotate the direction of my X-Patterns and never noticed a difference in laptimes. Now if we raced in standing water, that might've made a difference. ;)

It was 3.71 just as I ran at the southern nats , which I was running pattern there ...
I widened the rear 1mm and that was the ONLY change I made to that car for the ride tires

What's that second shell - blue with the red wing?

Think its a protoform LFA

Thats not an LFA the headlights and roofline are way off. It looks more like a Scion.

That's what I was thinking. And it looks great!! :nod:

I was thinking that the whole photograph looks great. I don't hate touring but I think it is a great thing to see TC classes with a theme gaining in popularity.

I really do like the real type body variation vs the other then paint everything looks the same touring car class. I also like that it is also 21.5 since 17.5 is just seems to be getting faster and faster. That makes it much harder for people who are just starting out racing and even people like myself who have raced on an off for many years, but are not able to practice much if any… 17.5 to me just seems to fast on the small indoor carpet tracks and one mistake can easily cause a broken part. I just wish this class was offered at more large events. At least some have added the class on per request of some of us.

Yes, its an Hpi Scion body. It was very competitive and was running equal lap times to me.

At our track Gt's with 21.5 is the fastest growing class. It is the closest racing last race there was 1 second between tq and 5th place. 21.5's are so much easier to run close together then 17.5 cars can run without having catastrophic consequences. As a racer that is getting older i need the cars be a little slower or the tracks a little bigger!

As long as the cars are evenly matched, racing is more fun I think. I race R/C sailboats too in the summer with the Indy Admirals. You would think, "boring!" but sailboats are not. We run a one-design class for the Victor V-32. Same weight, hull, sail area, etc. Its a good time. :nod: Again, as long as they are evenly matched a lot of the same strategy comes into play as in car racing.

Thats me in many ways. If I get a few chances to race during a season then I will become average and maybe a little better. If not then I just get obliterated every time I race. I have been around it for years, but if you don't tinker every day and drive a couple times every week then you will not be on pace with the class.

I hear them say that USVTA is not a beginner class, and I must say that I agree with that in that you can not show up as a beginner and just win. Its not that easy and guys with loads of experience and talent are going to smoke you. BUT if you are just getting in to racing and you need something cool to do with a touring car then I think VTA is the best option because when you make a mistake and you will make them, your car splatters in to far fewer parts than it does if you are a newbie trying that crap in touring. Or God forbid mod. USGT is still better than touring for noobs even though with a little more power than VTA its not quite as steady. More punch and go.

looking for tires ?? in stock here: http://racevta.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=11

I’m wanting to get in to USGT. I have a tamiya TRF417 car. What gear ratio do most racers uses? Is there one brand of tire you have to use?

You will want to be anywhere between 3.5-4fdr depending on track.

2014 Spec Ride tires >> http://racevta.com/product_info.php?...products_id=33 <<

If you go a few pages back you can find some discussion on the tires. The tire is a new rule and some tracks will be going by older rules until the tires that their racers have dry up a little more. So you are not commited to them YET.. But since you are new going in and you don't have a stockpile of tires, I think you should just buy the tires that are shown in the link posted by MoparSRT. They are great performers and are super inexpensive compared to some of the other options.

The Spec tires are really good! I have been running them for 3 weeks now and the center rib is just now starting to wear off! This past week i was only about .5 sec off of 17.5TC times. I ran the Mcallister Riley body which to be honest has a lot of push, ultimately it went fast but i had to add a bunch of drag brake and change the roll centers to get it to turn. I noticed the same thing on asphalt with a mod setup. It really does look good on the track though! I painted up a S2k that i have had sitting on my shelf for about a year, came out pretty good!
http://i770.photobucket.com/albums/x...psba21e0d6.jpg

.......

Man, that looks good Marcus! I have to say you got style brother!

You know how I roll! gotta try and keep it scale!! its nice racing a class that requires zero maintenance compared to Nitro GT8!

Scott from indyhobbies.com painted this up for me, hpi Honda prelude. He did a fantastic job. I almost didn't want to cover it with any stickers. Much thanks!

Both Hondas are looking awesome guys! I just resurrected my NSX the other night.

did my first USGT race. had the following setup in it:

- Xray T3 2012
- Speed Passion GT2.0 Pro in Blinky mode
- Savox low profile servo (forget the model)
- Speed Passion 21.5 Motor 30 degree board
- IP 7200 mah lipos
- Mcallister Corvette Body
- X Pattern tires (still legal here)

had to add a bit of weight to make minimum but was quite fun.

One thing I am questioning though is that coming from my VTA car, I have it such that I can rotate quickly through the turns, even got some comments on that. My USGT though feels like its drifting the rear end versus planting and turning if that makes sense.

Part of my wonders if its the body, other part, setting.

When you guys see a condition like this, where the rear end is "drifting" around the track, what do you guys do to get more traction on that end? I was going to soften the suspension up a tad back there, maybe some roll center changes.

carpet or outdoor ?
camber & toe in ??
softer rear, lower rear inner camber, narrow rear width will all increase traction.
What tire sauce u using and how much ??

I think a bit part of that may be the increased power. I know my USGT car was way more powerful than my VTA. But that should only be a factor when on power. In order for any of us to be able to offer some tuning assistance, I'd say you should try to narrow down when the back end is coming around. Is it on corner entry, mid corner, corner exit, etc.? That would be a big help! :)

carpet indoors. temp about 60 degrees on the track.

SXT Traction compound

Part of me is thinking tires. my VTA tires at least feel more "sticky" than the x-patterns I got on there right now.

This would be corner entry I am thinking. But, in general I can literally drift it completely around the corner. Front end bite feels spot on however.

full front & rear ?? if so try only inside 1/2 on front.

initial sauce full front and rear to condition, then full rear and inner edge (say 1/3) of fronts.

Really think its either the tires or possible setup. Thinking of just buying the Ride ones and go from there.

are u using the same car for vta / usgt and just swaping wheels, body and motor ??

nope different cars.

setups I started with were basically the same as I figured at least give me a starting point. I also stiffened up the rear on my VTA as I wanted less bite in the rear.

No just narrow rear with hagburg mod to RF mounts. And use only a 1mm shim on RR . this gave my car stupid rear corner bite . if this don't make ur car push u Will traction roll! So usuallythis change also iinvolves raising role center in rear to loose some traction .
I had 2 cars identical in usgt except for this mod and it was insane the difference in rear bite

DP. Sorry

Thanks! Glad you liked it. I love those Prelude bodies too. Here's a picture of it on my front porch before I shipped it. Fresh Faskolor paint.

http://www.rctech.net/forum/attachme...cktraut02r.jpg

got a link explaining this mod?

Thanks to you and everyone else for your help!


Speaking of molded wings, which ones are the most popular to use and any stocked at amain?

The hagburg mod is I believe removing .75mm of material from the outside of both RF aluminum mounts . this effectively reduces track width in rear giving me tuning options .
Another option with the 2012 is using the 2.2mm flex chassis xray offers . it defiantly gives more traction in low traction conditions with its softer setup .
This might sound really weird but in med-high traction conditions I've swapped front and rear shocks& springs (tho it was accident at first) it kept car from being on edge wile still allowing it turn in hard .

The hagburg mod is I believe removing .75mm of material from the outside of both RF aluminum mounts . this effectively reduces track width in rear giving me tuning options .
Another option with the 2012 is using the 2.2mm flex chassis xray offers . it defiantly gives more traction in low traction conditions with its softer setup .
This might sound really weird but in med-high traction conditions I've swapped front and rear shocks& springs (tho it was accident at first) it kept car from being on edge wile still allowing it turn in hard .

thanks for the info!

now I think about it, the vehicle has the standard chassis I beleive and my VTAs have the thinner one. totally forgot about that so will need to play with that there too.

Before you get to wild and crazy Cain was this the first time you ran those tires? Watching while marshaling your setup is close but new tires would cause it to behave like yours was. I'd just try moving your camber links so they are as short as possible and no shims under them on the inside, 2mm shim under ball stud on the hub.

thanks, I'll give that a look. the tires aren't new, but they are "new' to me lol.

Do you have enough steering??
When I raced VTA on carpet for the first time two weeks ago (normally run on concrete) I had a very loose rear end, just about undriveable. Several things were suggested to me to gain traction. For me I tightened my rear diff and that took care of most of it for me but other things that you can try are:
move the tops of the rear shocks in a location or two
move the tops of the front shocks out a position or two
softer rear springs
stiffer front springs.