InitialD

I'm actually happy to say that from my last weekend outing, I got to car to transition as good if not better than the competition out there. Moderate speed track as well as moderately tight technical track. The car has lots of on power steering and enough of power steering to get in and about the S bends and chicanes.

Just some side notes... I've tried using the old style Centax clutchbell (13T/16T) successfully with fixed pinions and they will only work on the 705's LC gearbox when you use the older 50T spur together with the one way 1st gear hub meant for the Impulse. I believe the LC shoes and the 2nd speed bell will fit fine with the old clutch pinions. I believe the 1st and 2nd gear pinion dimensions on the old style Centax clutchbell are the same as the stock 2 shoe clutch pinions from the Impulse. I have posted this pic before. Have a look. You probably will find use for your old one way hub bearing and 50T spur from the old car.

You can mesh the older clutch pinions with the 705 LC spurs provided that the engine is tilted and slanted at a slight angle. Good luck.

paulfitipauldi

Well,, I made some mesh measure with an old power cluth from OFNA, the 13 - 17 pinions mesh just perfect to the new spurs from the LC transmision 50t and 46t,

Ciao!

chorner

InitialD I sure hope those aren't pubes I see in that pic

InitialD

Ok, had a good run this weekend. Both on moderate / high speed track (Saturday) as well as on small technical track (Sunday). My setup for both tracks were the same. I actually did not do major changes on the basic setup since the last races just to keep some of the setup variables constant for my testing. For those interested, they are as below;

Suspension geometry Front:
Downstops: +0mm
Set-up ride height: 8.5 mm
Camber Left: -2.5 degree
Camber Right: -2.5 degree
Track-width: 200mm
Toe-in: -2.0 degree (toe-out)
Caster setting (mm in front): 6mm
Steering block type: FC (new)

Suspension geometry Rear:
Downstops: 5 mm
Set-up ride height: 7.5 mm
Camber Left: -4 degree
Camber Right: -4 degree
Track-width: 199mm
Spacer on upright: 2.5mm
Toe-in: 2 degree (toe-in)

Shockabsorbers Front:
Springs: red
Oil: 60W (Trinity Shock Oil)
Holes: 1
Cilinder type: aluminum
Shock bladder: stock (black) with foam inserts
Shock-tower position: on bearingblock

Shockabsorbers Rear:
Springs: red (Veteq)
Oil: 60W (Trinity Shock Oil)
Holes: 4
Cilinder type: aluminum
Shock bladder: red (soft) with foam inserts
Shock-tower position: on bearingblock

Anti-roll bar front:
Thickness: std.
Position: 45 degree (medium)

Anti-roll bar rear:
Thickness: adjustable with front male blades
Position: 0 degree (flat - softest)

Tires Front:
Make: Speedmind
Hardness Left: 37
Hardness Right: 37
Diameter: 60.5 mm

Tires rear:
Make: Speedmind
Hardness Left: 37
Hardness Right: 37
Diameter: 65 mm

Transmission:
Pinion 1st: 15
Pinion 2nd: 18
Gear 1st: 50
Gear 2nd: 46
Pulley rear axle: 47
Pulley layshaft middle: 16
Pulley layshaft side: 18
Pulley middle shaft side: 24

Front axle:
Type: One way

Rear axle:
Type: ball differential
Diff. setting: hard

I have not played on our local track for some time and I decided to go with 37 shore front and rear Speedmind tires. I liked it a lot. I was still using the 4.5 mm split in the front and rear tires. At the end of playing 5 to 6 tanks, I ended with a split of 3.5 mm between the front and rear.

I was actually too lazy to go back and mount the the upper front arms back to stock positions. I left it where it is and decided to test the car again with the same Lola shell that I thought gave me handling problems earlier. This time, I used the guerney strip (170102) in the tail of the Lola shell. I think about 3 or 4 mm exposed and the car now handles very nicely. Enough rear traction but at the same time, the car transitions very fast and corners very sharply. Besides that, I rebuilt my rear shocks and installed the softer red shock bladders (909446). I noticed that this time, the rebound was very fast on the shocks. Anyway, I also narrowed the rear end a little using the 950 upper rear adjustable arms. I did not use the smaller hex wheel adapters because with the 0 offset Speedmind rear wheels, I could use the stock 11mm aluminum hex spacers and still be at 199mm.

I'm please to note that the car has lots of on power and off power steering. I think too much such that the rear wheels spun a little mid corner turning into the apex. Well, I actually solved that by turning down the steering EPA by about 15% and the car rolled in and out of corners nicely.

Initially, I tightened the rear FPS diff a little to balance out the off power oversteer and I found that I got a surge or power out of the corners. I thought I would loose off power steering a lot because I made the rear diff quite stiff. It didn't change the amount of off power steering much but what I noticed is that at moderate speed sweepers, the car's rear end "floats" around controllably. Seemingly, wherever I pointed my steering off power, the rear end will "float" the same direction. On power in the middle of the sweeper, the car cuts in very nicely and out to into the straights. I needed to be careful with the throttle coming out of the sweeper as there was a lot of on pwoer steering. I believe this is what is meant by 1/8th scale style driving.

Brakes? Yes, the Mugen teflon brake pads does slow down the car nicely after the high speed straight before the apex. The rear ends did not lock and braking line was straight. I'm wondering what kind of performance would the new Serpent brake pads would give...

So my guess now is that the front upper arm mod together with the smaller front tires is a keeper contrary to my conclusion the previous week that the two mods will make the car's front roll center too high. It could be the difference that the guerney strip made to the rear end of the car or the new shock bladders that are giving me better rear end grip. Or perhaps my idea of using softer front than rear tires to get same wear rate backfired and did not provide the car handling I wanted. In any case, I have a sneaky suspicion that it could be the rear shocks. Next week, I'll try the Protoform Stratus 2.1 TC shell and report any differences.

My apologies for the long winded report. It's just that there are still lots of things to discover with the car.

InitialD

No, it's my moustache !

InitialD

I believe back in the Impulse / Impact days, someone at mytsn (John Patterson?) used the Ofna syncro clutch (perhaps the same one you're referring) successfully as the clutch bell with the older gearbox and older Centax spurs. This was before the LC gearbox came out...

I would reckon that if the 50T and 46T spurs mesh properly, all 1st speed and 2nd speed spurs will as they are of the same diameter !

markp27

Excellent report!!! Keep 'em coming - for us not-so-well-experienced guys, this stuff is really great!!!

Hopefully my order from rccarinternational will turn up this week and I can rebuild the front end of my car.....if the Impact dogbones work, that is!

Cheers, Mark.

InitialD

Ummm, I opened the products page on mytsn this morning and saw the new TP06 inline pipe being released officially today.

I still have that product page opened on a separate window but when I refreshed it just moments ago, it's now gone.

Anyway, the pipe is not the full inlet pipe set. Just the pipe alone. Part number is 2171.

InitialD

Ummm, there are not many people using stick radios where I come from but this is the first time I'm seeing this type of antennae on the Tx. And look at how long the antennae !




Picture courtesy of Mike Myers.

Vinyard

Er.. you better get permission for that photo sir. I think Mr Mike might not like it unless he says ok.. get it?

InitialD

Ooophs, you're right !

But then I don't think he'll mind seeing it on this thread as Mr. Mike Myers work for Serpent.

Vinyard

Pyramid

The later production of all spur gears (still using same old part number) has all been molded to include those 3 holes.

InitialD

Yup, I noticed this. Thanks. But what about my current diff pulleys with no holes? It would be good if I could do it easy...

markp27

Very nice!