revzalot

iTrader: (4)

Finally fired up the NTC3 this year with my trusty Novarossi NS3 and kicked some butt at my local track. It was a practice session and the NTC3 dominated. It was a small track and I was running crappy rubber tires. Yes the NTC3 runs great using rubber tires. Make sure you take off your sway bars. I'm saving my foams for the real race. Now the issue I want to address is gearing for huge tracks. I think this car can be competitive on large tracks if we can modify the gearing. I'm not talking about just the number of teeths on the pinion but a full modification on the pinions and transmission. I saw a Shumacher Fusion with a three speed tranny with the 3 pinions. I think the NTC3 will be ballistic if we can find a way to fit in a 3 speed tranny. I think this is the missing link to make this shaft driven car competitive in large tracks. My engine wasn't the fastest out there but I made it up by gunning it out the corners. With a 3 speed tranny, we'll have better tuning options for large and small tracks. Most of all, the NTC3 can be a large track killer.

revzalot

iTrader: (4)

fathead

1/ Has the fuel tank vibration issue been fixed as yet?
I have never had a problem with foaming fuel in mine just make sure the screws aren't done up real tight so that the o-rings are squashed

2/ weak pivot balls been addressed
there are a couple companies that make stronger pivot balls Kfactory being one, again I have never had a problem with the standard ones

3/ weak plastic etc?
The only weak plastic that I can think of is the mounting of the front shock tower, you can either use "the fix" or a Kfactory aluminium front arm/shock tower mount to fix this.

Hope this helps you

i300i

Hey revzalot, I will be racing for the first time this summer. Rubber tires on a small prepared parking lot track. Can you recommend tires/inserts and setup? I already know from practice to remove the sway bars.

TIA,

Dan

AndyT ©

To answer your questions
1. I had no issues with fuel tank vibration on my FT NTC3 ....I`m sure the o-rings absorbed a lot of this, but they can tend perish and tear off which may make vibration an issue.
2. Never had any probs with my pivot balls.
3. The diff case was an issue in terms of the shock tower screws stripping out of the plastic....also a few screws on the underside of the chassis were starting to "float" in the plastic to which they were threaded......other than this i found the plastic to be quite okay.
An interesting bit of trivia about the Thunder Tiger/AE takeover, is that there is a bit of overlap between parts of the 2 manufacturers........take a look at the fuel tanks of a Thunder Tiger Tourer and the NTC3....exactly the same
Cheers

revzalot

iTrader: (4)

This is a good starting setup using rubber tires.

Front:
Shock hole: #3
Oil: #40
camber: -2
toe: 0
spring: copper
ride height: 5mm
droop: 4
roll bar: none

Rear w/ ver 2:
shock hole: #2
oil: #35
camber: -2
toe: -2 (in)
spring: gold
ride height: 5.5mm
droop: 3
roll bar: none

I've set the cluth to engage earlier by drilling 1/8 holes in the 3 shoes. This varies with different engines.

pinions 22 & 26
spurs gears 50 and 54

I was using some HPI x pattern radials.

Good luck.

CHUCKMANDO

iTrader: (4)

BB,
Thanks for the report on the pipe. I have been waiting for it. I found only 1 place that has it, but never ordered from them. I forgot its name at work. I bot a mtx3 a couple of weeks ago too. I had some problems with it at first, and some locals were giving me crap till I figured it out. Before I did, I wanted to see if was me. Well lets just say they shut up pretty fast. TC3 still runs strong.

My lhs was really disappointed when he got the final news about AE. He is heavy into AE and is not happy. I really couldn't talk it out with him, but hopefully I can get more info this week from him.

fathead

Don't you mean later

i300i

Thanks revzalot, I was testing last weekend with just about exactly that setup (straight from the manual, right?). I was running sorex 32 front and 36 rear and the car was crazy loose in the rear on-power. I tried adding some front droop and spring tension, but didn't really help. Looking back, I should have swapped front and rear tires to see if the tire compounds were the problem.

As far as shifting, I did some observing at this track last summer and all the fast guys were not getting into second gear. I think I'll go with a tall first gear to begin with. I'm thinking this will make the car a little easier for a beginner to drive. I'm running the 12TR R-Spec and there's probably too much low end power for this small track.

On ride height, I set the front at 5mm using the shock collars and something doesn't seem right in the suspension department. By the time I loosen the collars enough to lower the front, there's quite a bit of slop in the springs when the front arms are extended to full droop. Is this normal for a FT NTC3?

revzalot

iTrader: (4)

You take some material out of the shoes to make lighter thus engaging them earlier. For later engagement, stiffer springs.

revzalot

iTrader: (4)

Correct I used the setup from the manual but did some changes because I also kept loosing traction on power. I softenend and increase ride height on the rears and they bit out of the corners. BTW, I'm not using a FT NTC3, it's modded out:

3 racing chassis
aluminum front diff case
k factory tank
k factory left brace
assorted titanium, ss, and aluminum screws strategically placed
Mazda 6 body
old ntc3 pipe

fathead

Taking weight off the shoes has the same effect as a stiffer spring, the lighter the shoe is the less centrifugal force there is so you need more revs to make the shoe deflect the same distance from the axis.

revzalot

iTrader: (4)

Doh! Yes that sounds right. I'm going to test that next week.

fathead

It's similair to when you cut the shoes shorter

CHUCKMANDO

iTrader: (4)

It is true