Serpent S411 Eryx 3.0
12-01-2014, 02:06 PM
#316
Had a blast at the Indoor Champs!
Qualified 3rd in stock, finished 2nd. Qualified 6th in mod, finished 6th.
The Sweep tires were awesome..... sticky and smooth like last year's.
I started with my Halloween Classic setup, but after some packs I began to realize that the Sweeps were not as compatible with the setup. On Jacos I felt like I could put all the rotation I wanted into the car, and it was still stable on entry and exit. The Sweeps made the car rotate really hard, so it had a tendency to over-rotate coming out of the turns. The car felt somewhat lazy and had no chance of traction rolling. I saw that a lot of other cars were already experiencing traction roll issues as early as Q1. The track was also quite bumpy in the high speed areas.
After 2 rounds, my car wasn't getting faster, was starting to feel even more "dumpy" midcorner, my qualifying position was dropping.... so I decided that I would try to put the traction roll into the car. The cars that were edgy on the Sweeps were getting faster, so it made sense to me that I should try it. I went up 100cst on my shock oil, went up to an XRAY 2.5, and stood all the shocks up. My Q3 run was sort of a hail mary, and it paid off. The car was grabby, tippy, aggressive..... and FAST. I had awesome drivers in my sort who were incredibly courteous. I was on pace to reset Mike Gee's TQ up until about the 5-minute mark, when my motor started to fade (I was driving it too hard). I finished the run clean, and jumped from 15th or so up to P2. Bill Sydor improved his time that round also, though, so he took P2 back away from me.
For Q4 I decided to try a bit more rear uptravel along with some other really minor changes. The car still was a blast to drive, but laptimes suffered slightly, and the car had become a tad unstable.
Going into the main, I went back down a tad on the rear uptravel, added some more front camber, and went back up to a 1.4 front swaybar.... the changes paid off, and the car was wonderful in the main.
I jumped up to P2 after the start with Dave Johnson behind me. Mike Gee had a great start and was pulling away. I had a really funky rear body tuck after about a minute! The rear right fender was basically jacked up onto the shock tower. I only had a couple tenths on Dave though, so I just took off and prayed. I didn't hear any noises, nor did I lose ground on the backstretch, so I assumed that none of the wheels were rubbing. I drove like this for almost two minutes! Dave got into some trouble and gave me breathing room. After a bit, I caught a flapper and rolled my car over..... it magically landed on all 4 wheels with the body tuck fixed. I took off again in pursuit of Mike Gee, but he had a great run. Finished the race 4 seconds behind him, with Dave Johnson holding onto his P3 position.
Apparently there were some "shenanigans" in the lower positions at the end of the main?.... I was by myself on the track, and the room was so quiet that I didn't know when the clock had ran out. Must've been some beatin and bangin going on that the crowd wasn't pleased about!
There are a couple of changes I still want to try on this setup. I plan to test out a 1.4 rear swaybar and hopefully the chassis stiffener at some point. The car still rotated really hard out of the turns, so I think the stiffer rear swaybar may alleviate that. Otherwise, the car was AWESOME.
As for mod..... still learning! I tried a lot of different setup things again this weekend. My best round was number 2. The car felt like a missile, was a blast to drive, and I matched 9.3's with Keven Herbert and Andrew Hardman. The later rounds and the main I was trying other things, and while the car still felt good, laptimes were a bit off. However, I think the setup is a good starting point.
I think both setups should drive well on Jaco blues! They also both have plenty of 'wiggle room' regarding changes to adapt to different track conditions without ruining the overall driveability.
The setups will be posted very soon hopefully! I submitted the pdf's to arn0 and Chicky to post on the sites. RC Tech isn't allowing me to attach my own files at the moment for some reason!
Qualified 3rd in stock, finished 2nd. Qualified 6th in mod, finished 6th.
The Sweep tires were awesome..... sticky and smooth like last year's.
I started with my Halloween Classic setup, but after some packs I began to realize that the Sweeps were not as compatible with the setup. On Jacos I felt like I could put all the rotation I wanted into the car, and it was still stable on entry and exit. The Sweeps made the car rotate really hard, so it had a tendency to over-rotate coming out of the turns. The car felt somewhat lazy and had no chance of traction rolling. I saw that a lot of other cars were already experiencing traction roll issues as early as Q1. The track was also quite bumpy in the high speed areas.
After 2 rounds, my car wasn't getting faster, was starting to feel even more "dumpy" midcorner, my qualifying position was dropping.... so I decided that I would try to put the traction roll into the car. The cars that were edgy on the Sweeps were getting faster, so it made sense to me that I should try it. I went up 100cst on my shock oil, went up to an XRAY 2.5, and stood all the shocks up. My Q3 run was sort of a hail mary, and it paid off. The car was grabby, tippy, aggressive..... and FAST. I had awesome drivers in my sort who were incredibly courteous. I was on pace to reset Mike Gee's TQ up until about the 5-minute mark, when my motor started to fade (I was driving it too hard). I finished the run clean, and jumped from 15th or so up to P2. Bill Sydor improved his time that round also, though, so he took P2 back away from me.
For Q4 I decided to try a bit more rear uptravel along with some other really minor changes. The car still was a blast to drive, but laptimes suffered slightly, and the car had become a tad unstable.
Going into the main, I went back down a tad on the rear uptravel, added some more front camber, and went back up to a 1.4 front swaybar.... the changes paid off, and the car was wonderful in the main.
I jumped up to P2 after the start with Dave Johnson behind me. Mike Gee had a great start and was pulling away. I had a really funky rear body tuck after about a minute! The rear right fender was basically jacked up onto the shock tower. I only had a couple tenths on Dave though, so I just took off and prayed. I didn't hear any noises, nor did I lose ground on the backstretch, so I assumed that none of the wheels were rubbing. I drove like this for almost two minutes! Dave got into some trouble and gave me breathing room. After a bit, I caught a flapper and rolled my car over..... it magically landed on all 4 wheels with the body tuck fixed. I took off again in pursuit of Mike Gee, but he had a great run. Finished the race 4 seconds behind him, with Dave Johnson holding onto his P3 position.
Apparently there were some "shenanigans" in the lower positions at the end of the main?.... I was by myself on the track, and the room was so quiet that I didn't know when the clock had ran out. Must've been some beatin and bangin going on that the crowd wasn't pleased about!
There are a couple of changes I still want to try on this setup. I plan to test out a 1.4 rear swaybar and hopefully the chassis stiffener at some point. The car still rotated really hard out of the turns, so I think the stiffer rear swaybar may alleviate that. Otherwise, the car was AWESOME.
As for mod..... still learning! I tried a lot of different setup things again this weekend. My best round was number 2. The car felt like a missile, was a blast to drive, and I matched 9.3's with Keven Herbert and Andrew Hardman. The later rounds and the main I was trying other things, and while the car still felt good, laptimes were a bit off. However, I think the setup is a good starting point.
I think both setups should drive well on Jaco blues! They also both have plenty of 'wiggle room' regarding changes to adapt to different track conditions without ruining the overall driveability.
The setups will be posted very soon hopefully! I submitted the pdf's to arn0 and Chicky to post on the sites. RC Tech isn't allowing me to attach my own files at the moment for some reason!
12-01-2014, 02:46 PM
#317
Looking forward to seeing your setup. I often feel like my car needs to be edgier and less lazy on low-grip tracks.
I noticed a couple of Fischer's setups list silver springs. Anyone know what brand that would be? Maybe he meant grey?
I noticed a couple of Fischer's setups list silver springs. Anyone know what brand that would be? Maybe he meant grey?
12-01-2014, 03:08 PM
#319
Thanks orcadigital.
12-02-2014, 12:55 PM
#320
Great results for the Serpent guys that where at the Cleveland race. Cody with his second place in TC stock. 3 cars in the TC Mod A, finishing 5,6 7. Alston in the mix as well. Not bad for such a small team in a sea of shaft drives.
Looking forward to seeing some of the setups.
Looking forward to seeing some of the setups.
12-02-2014, 06:53 PM
#321
Options
if your bored and need some options to try on your car, here is a list of whats available.
12-04-2014, 01:03 PM
#324
I don't remember seeing anyone using RRS! I don't know that I would've needed it but I will order one to do some testing with. I did feel like the chassis stiffener would've helped a little on both cars due to the tires!
My setups are posted on Serpent's site.....
http://www.serpent.com/file.php?FileID=6093
http://www.serpent.com/file.php?FileID=6092
The "notes" on the mod setup sheet didn't save properly but it basically reads the same as stock. I ran a decent amount of drag brake, and drove a bit more "point n shoot" with the car. It had great midcorner rotation, but I was trying out a lot of little things to affect entry and exit steering. As stated in my previous post the mod setup I sent in was my favorite that I had ran. It still has room for improvement, but it was very fun to drive.
Already testing a couple of things on my stock setup with a friend... a spool works really well on the setup for low bite. A 1.4 rear swaybar also is worth trying, as it affects the rotational balance of the car. I'm going to try the LTCR body the next chance I get on a low bite track. I tried it on both cars at Cleveland, but it was just too much exit rotation for my liking. I had figured out how to get plenty of entry steering with the Mazda so the LTCR was made obsolete. Perhaps on Jaco blues the LTCR would've felt a lot better, as those tires don't rotate as hard as Sweeps.
Also, I think changing the ackerman on these setups would have a greater effect than I previously thought. I had 2mm on the steering rack all weekend, but I'm going to try 0 on both cars.... should give a bit more entry steering but make mid-corner to exit more tame, which is about the only thing I was looking for.
My setups are posted on Serpent's site.....
http://www.serpent.com/file.php?FileID=6093
http://www.serpent.com/file.php?FileID=6092
The "notes" on the mod setup sheet didn't save properly but it basically reads the same as stock. I ran a decent amount of drag brake, and drove a bit more "point n shoot" with the car. It had great midcorner rotation, but I was trying out a lot of little things to affect entry and exit steering. As stated in my previous post the mod setup I sent in was my favorite that I had ran. It still has room for improvement, but it was very fun to drive.
Already testing a couple of things on my stock setup with a friend... a spool works really well on the setup for low bite. A 1.4 rear swaybar also is worth trying, as it affects the rotational balance of the car. I'm going to try the LTCR body the next chance I get on a low bite track. I tried it on both cars at Cleveland, but it was just too much exit rotation for my liking. I had figured out how to get plenty of entry steering with the Mazda so the LTCR was made obsolete. Perhaps on Jaco blues the LTCR would've felt a lot better, as those tires don't rotate as hard as Sweeps.
Also, I think changing the ackerman on these setups would have a greater effect than I previously thought. I had 2mm on the steering rack all weekend, but I'm going to try 0 on both cars.... should give a bit more entry steering but make mid-corner to exit more tame, which is about the only thing I was looking for.
12-08-2014, 11:28 PM
#326
WCICS Round 4
This weekend was Round 4 of the WCICS series in Airdrie. I struggled all day in qualifying on Saturday trying to get my tire prep right. I somehow ended up with 1 tire way stickier than the other 3! Still not sure what happened there. Then I ripped a tire and had to try to deal with more mis-matched rubber, but I got it all sorted out on Sat night. Finally got a good run in on the last qualifier and moved up from 14th to 2nd.
The main was a real nail-biter with the top 4 cars swapping positions the whole race. I got a clean start but made an error a few laps in and dropped to 4th. Stayed relatively clean from that point and worked my way back up to 2nd. I reeled in the leader with a few laps to go and applied all the pressure I could, but wasn't able to force an error and finished 2nd.
This race is run on unusually low-grip carpet, so I used quite a different setup than normal. I took a cue from one of Marc Fisher's asphalt setups which uses stiffer springs (I used Serpent black front & rear). It steers very aggressively but I had to be really careful on the throttle or it would lose the back end. Required a lot of concentration to drive, but it was very fast if you kept it pointed the right direction. I think I'll continue to practice with edgier setups like this; I think it could be quite valuable to develop the skills to handle it well.
Steve_Soon_WCICS_Airdrie_2014.pdf
The main was a real nail-biter with the top 4 cars swapping positions the whole race. I got a clean start but made an error a few laps in and dropped to 4th. Stayed relatively clean from that point and worked my way back up to 2nd. I reeled in the leader with a few laps to go and applied all the pressure I could, but wasn't able to force an error and finished 2nd.
This race is run on unusually low-grip carpet, so I used quite a different setup than normal. I took a cue from one of Marc Fisher's asphalt setups which uses stiffer springs (I used Serpent black front & rear). It steers very aggressively but I had to be really careful on the throttle or it would lose the back end. Required a lot of concentration to drive, but it was very fast if you kept it pointed the right direction. I think I'll continue to practice with edgier setups like this; I think it could be quite valuable to develop the skills to handle it well.
Steve_Soon_WCICS_Airdrie_2014.pdf
12-09-2014, 07:48 AM
#327
This weekend was Round 4 of the WCICS series in Airdrie. I struggled all day in qualifying on Saturday trying to get my tire prep right. I somehow ended up with 1 tire way stickier than the other 3! Still not sure what happened there. Then I ripped a tire and had to try to deal with more mis-matched rubber, but I got it all sorted out on Sat night. Finally got a good run in on the last qualifier and moved up from 14th to 2nd.
The main was a real nail-biter with the top 4 cars swapping positions the whole race. I got a clean start but made an error a few laps in and dropped to 4th. Stayed relatively clean from that point and worked my way back up to 2nd. I reeled in the leader with a few laps to go and applied all the pressure I could, but wasn't able to force an error and finished 2nd.
This race is run on unusually low-grip carpet, so I used quite a different setup than normal. I took a cue from one of Marc Fisher's asphalt setups which uses stiffer springs (I used Serpent black front & rear). It steers very aggressively but I had to be really careful on the throttle or it would lose the back end. Required a lot of concentration to drive, but it was very fast if you kept it pointed the right direction. I think I'll continue to practice with edgier setups like this; I think it could be quite valuable to develop the skills to handle it well.
Attachment 1253981
The main was a real nail-biter with the top 4 cars swapping positions the whole race. I got a clean start but made an error a few laps in and dropped to 4th. Stayed relatively clean from that point and worked my way back up to 2nd. I reeled in the leader with a few laps to go and applied all the pressure I could, but wasn't able to force an error and finished 2nd.
This race is run on unusually low-grip carpet, so I used quite a different setup than normal. I took a cue from one of Marc Fisher's asphalt setups which uses stiffer springs (I used Serpent black front & rear). It steers very aggressively but I had to be really careful on the throttle or it would lose the back end. Required a lot of concentration to drive, but it was very fast if you kept it pointed the right direction. I think I'll continue to practice with edgier setups like this; I think it could be quite valuable to develop the skills to handle it well.
Attachment 1253981
12-10-2014, 02:35 PM
#328
I thought it was just me that struggled on the weekend. Not getting any practice on Friday really messed me up and I ended up with a setup I never thought I would ever use. Made big gains in the last chance qualifiers but not enough to make the A in either race, but had at least one car that would have been competitive in stock. In Mod, you guys had one spectacular race, too bad there wasn't any video though, as it was great to watch. I was pleased to see all the other Serpent drivers at that race too, Al M had one heck of a run in the B main, nice one.
Cheers,
12-19-2014, 08:59 PM
#329
Pretty quite in here.
All you Serpent guys have a great Xmas and safe and Happy New Year.
All you Serpent guys have a great Xmas and safe and Happy New Year.
12-20-2014, 12:04 AM
#330
Tech Apprentice
There is more potential in the car than I can use
I always wounder it it is me or the car that is the problem... and again it is proven that is me 
I have put 1500 laps at my closest track this season. I asked one of the Swedish topdrives, he is usally in the B-main at ETS. He drove my car 10 laps in total and he was faster 8 of the 10 laps than my fastet lap. I have a long way to go on my 10 000 hours........
I have put 1500 laps at my closest track this season. I asked one of the Swedish topdrives, he is usally in the B-main at ETS. He drove my car 10 laps in total and he was faster 8 of the 10 laps than my fastet lap. I have a long way to go on my 10 000 hours........