superfly05

I don't know anyone that runs intentionally without them. I have been in quite a few races when someone, including myself, yells "crap!" as their car sits dead in the track after a minor bump because they forgot to put their battery clips back on.

EMU

iTrader: (3)

The 50t pn motor has a little more torque than the 48tZF round can with similar rpm. The round can has some of the smoothest power delivery you can get. I think it's s good mini 96 motor choice.

One of the largest complaints over the years with mini-z by new customers was that the cars are so slow. They wanted to raise the minimum speed to that of the x-speed.

as for battery clips. Never intentionally drive without them. I have some clips that I have filed to be flat with the chassis.

Billy Kelly

iTrader: (9)

EMU

iTrader: (3)

the pieces are alternate top shock mounts for the different wheelbase options.

rotate tires left/right every 2 rounds.

MTseo

Had a fun mini-z day. All of us are improving every time we run. My wife is getting to the point that she was having problems with traction rolling so I swapped out her t plate with a medium plate which helped out a lot. My oldest son (10) drives his car like an unguided rocket ship. He has some talent and great reflexes but he just needs to reign it in a bit, and as you can imagine, telling him to slow down and concentrate on more control is like telling a squirrel to not eat nuts. The other two in our group are over 60 and they are just slow and steady, but their speed is increasing too.
We were practicing for our race tomorrow I was consistently hitting around 73 laps in 8 minutes when 2 other people were running. After everybody else was done I cleaned my car and rotated my tires (thanks EMU) then I also put in the medium green front springs. I ran an 8 minute practice and knocked out 85 laps. Car felt great!

EMU

iTrader: (3)

One product that I have recently decided to pickup specifically because the track that I race in Brooklyn wears tires more uneven than larger tracks, is the MC3 Quick Wheel Change Nut. Using a 3x6x2.5mm bearing in each rear wheel, you can pop of the nuts, and swap the wheels over without needing to deal with the bearings. You dont want to remove the tires and swap them, you want to move the wheels. Tape the tires with R246 tape for consistent traction.

I had a long day of racing, we had a bunch of electronics issues today. Not sure what was the cause, weather/humidity? Never had an issue like we had today, where a bunch of cars were glitching out really bad. There were three EX6 radios that couldnt work with eachothers radios on, and 2 FHSS cars flipped out. I didnt have any issues until the pro stock main when my car went nuts at the beginning of the race for a minute. I then proceeded to not count about 30 laps. I am thinking that there may have been some sort of static issues.

In the stock class race I had a couple instances where my throttle would stick a little when I rolled off, but it was otherwise unaffected. I got off to a decent lead, using the car that I am preparing for a 6 hour endurance race in a couple weeks time. I was a tenth or two off the pace of the fastest two at the track, and ended up finishing third after a strong 2nd place battle in the final minute which I tapped out of.

It was a trophy race, and I should have been using a sprint setup, but my car that I drove last week was driven by a good friend and old teammate Mr AtomicUSA himself, Sai Tam. It has been around 4 years since he had picked up a transmitter, and he really liked the setup on my mostly Atomic car which used a PN 2.5 chassis and Reflex tower bar. The limitation of this car for stock racing is the motormount, it restricts the gearing just enough that it loses its legs on the straight. It is the Atomic LM mount, which has a maximum ratio of 12/51 when the axle is in the lowest position. With the axle high, this ration binds and causes drag. This left him down on top speed slightly on the straight, but he finished in a respectable 4th position behind me. He said that the car was perfect everywhere else besides the speed (it was as if I had set it up for his driving style without knowing that he would be coming to race today). I tend to prefer my point of rotation further rearward in the car than he does, he likes a more forward rotation point in the car, I knew that it would be the best car that I had for him to drive, and the fact that it was mostly Atomic parts made him laugh.

I had a great time today despite the fact that I feel that I underperformed. The electronics gremlins are a concern, as we have not had any previously... the only thing that had changed from yesterdays practice to todays race was the installation of a wooden timing bridge rather than one that hung from the ceiling. That will need to be investigated further.

mleemor60

iTrader: (28)

Please give my best to Sai. It has been years since I've heard his name mentioned. Last I heard he had moved to the Houston Texas area.

magnum_junior

Thanks mleemor60. Although I didn't change the motor wires yet, the fuse is out and have a mile of clearance now.
I've read a damper is the best upgrade for these cars. Any recommendations?
Heres a pic of what I have....
Requirements are the ability to use a MR2161 center shock and need to keep the body posts, even if I need a different mount.
Side shocks need to go!
Thanks!

mleemor60

iTrader: (28)

I see you are running an MR02. That is one chassis that can actually benefit from the PN double A-arm front suspension. Despite it's cost it is worthwhile on the old 02 chassis. It also looks like you might be oval racing. PN used to make a rear pod that mounted the motor on the left rear wheel for better weight distribution. They may still be available but would then require a screw mount motor. Also I would pack the Diff with "Ruby Lube" or Vaseline to rein in the freewheeling tendency on turns. I agree that the side dampers need to be removed. As far as a plate damper, I don't use them. I have gone a different direction with some home made components that have stood me well for 10 plus years. I do use a disc damper on the LM chassis but have hand made the plate out of stainless to completely eliminate side flex. However, it looks like if the side dampers were removed that one of the commercially available plate dampers would attach over or under the body mount plates allowing for it's use.

What are you running for a T-plate? Choosing the correct plate can eliminate the top shock all together or at least allow you to run it with the softest spring available which should be the red one. You can control chassis "sag" with the little triangular support piece that came with the car for use in a rear motor set up. It is beneficial with mid motor as well.

If you are in fact running ovals I would ditch the Atomic wheels and what looks like Atomic silicone tires(good for carpet only) and switch to the NASCAR specific rims and then use Kyosho LM specific front tires all around. 30 front and 20 rear or if it were me, I would go to "0" offset wheels on the left and +3 wheels on the right to offset the chassis while still using LM specific tires. If you are running on carpet then my tire suggestions won't perform well since the track will have become impregnated with the silicone so nothing else will work well or at all.

It goes on and on. Ask and I will give you all the information I have. Pay close attention to input from EMU as well.

superfly05

Wouldn't this hang the wheels outside the body on the right side quite a bit? Seems like asking for broken knuckles if you're running counter-clockwise oval and touch the wall.

EMU

iTrader: (3)

not if you stagger the body mounts 3mm as well.

the nascar mount is an old design, and 102mm specific. It is still an excellent option for oval use as it is the only commercially available mount which attaches the motor on the right, with differential on the left. This will greatly help keep mass on the inside of the car, as well as smooth out the turns due to the outside wheel being weighted by the rear axle, thus allowing power to get put down more consistently.

if driving oval, I wouldn't necessarily recommend a disc damper, a monoshock side damper would be a more effective solution, but would need some fabrication to realize. The vertical shocks already used will not be nearly as effective as a horizontal shock with grease. The main reason is that you can tune different elements of the car with different spring and grease separately. Giving better control of lateral vs longitudinal stiffness and damping rates. On a road car, this is slightly less important, but on an oval car, this will allow to to tweak the car to rotate through the corner and come off in a way that simply could not be done with a conventional disc damper system. A simplified commercially available approach could be to use the PN tri damper system with the v3 flat mount. It also allows use of a disc damper, which would give ability to adjust vertical preload as well using a softer t plate. If using the tri damper, I would drop the spring on the left side, and only use the right side spring. Having two shock bodies allows you the ability to fine tune damping rates by running two different viscosity greases in the shocks, as the effect will be cumulative Vs running a single small shock. I do this in my 1/10 f1 damper tubes.

magnum_junior

It is in fact a carpet oval and they do run silicon tires. New front ends and new pods are outside the rules (and budget), tri-shock system too i'd imagine. They try to keep them as stock as possible but a couple people have lost the side side shocks so I was considering doing the same. Ive ordered the diff grease and will get the center shock mount for now and drive the wheels off it.
I remember in my younger days winning the local 1/10 season carpet oval points race and my rear setup consisted of the right t-plate tweak and a single heavy shock oil damper connected to the right side with no spring. Had to rebuild it religiously but it couldn't be touched.
Thanks again for the solid advice guys!

mleemor60

iTrader: (28)

Load the rear end so that the RR comes off the ground first. That way on cornering the tendency to diff out will be reduced. Kind of like reverse stagger. if you can get away with it do the 0 offset left side and +3 right side. weigh your batteries and make sure the lighter ones are on the right side. Trim the excess material off the right side battery clip. Pick up a tungsten welding rod and cut it to about half the length of the groove on the bottom of the chassis between the battery slots then super glue or shoo goo it into the rear most position in the slot. Make a few different lengths until you find the right position front to rear. run a -2* steering knuckle on the right front.

Most of all have fun.

EMU

iTrader: (3)

To add, oil shocks at this scale aren't worth the time or investment. The maintenance required is exponentially higher as you get smaller in scale. I used them religiously for a while, but the maintenance and inconsistency became a major issue. Grease shocks or dampers are much more consistent and require much less maintenance.

magnum_junior

Any tips on freeing u the stock front end? It has a terrible grabby/jumpy feel to the spring compression that cant be consistent. I was about to put a dab of 15k diff grease in the front blocks figured i'd ask first.