InitialD

Hey Paul,

I would not be experienced enough to know exactly which mods were responsible to make the car hook right. I guess it's a culmination of all things. I found that all all the mods done (including using front 4.5 mm smaller tires with 22/47/18 pulleys) on the car was directed to make the car have more steering while at the same time keep the balance right (not too twitchy or sensitive to drive at high speeds). So in a summary, the car had good steering in low speeds and was very stable at high speeds.

In any case, my car would not have hooked right at the race day if I did not have the right tires. In my opinion, tires are the best hop ups you should spend on.

InitialD

This is what I found too in the last weekend testing the front solid axle. Too much breaking that actually slowed down the car in the corners. If it was a tight hairpin, I could not go faster around it as I would have with a one way. Perhaps at your track it's fine but on small tight tracks where there is an S bend or chicane, the car cannot switch directions as fast as a one way equipped car.

Yeah, the one way mod to solid axle held up good. I tested it on a small technical track with a fair amount of tight turns and low speed sweepers. The axles were still in solid mode. I spend a little time to get more off power steering by using less caster (more clips to the rear of the front arm) and loosening the rear diff. Woow, that made a lot of difference in the low speed apexes. The car turns in very nicely. But I found that the on power steering a little lacking when I loosened the rear diff. Actually, not to what I would have liked. I will probably play around with more rear downstop. I guess that would be better as that does not affect the on power steering of the car.

Mark, I think you should concentrate more on the SERPENT than on the Surikarn ! Perhaps a momentary lapse of switching back and forth from the Surikarn and the Serpent caused the accident.

All in all, good to hear you had a good weekend.

Pyramid

The new car will start shipping worldwide in late December (source: Asia Distributor). Retailers will not like that nor the customers.

I think Serpent has learned many leasons from their 705. This 705 (along with veteq 2002) are their biggest nightmare of all time. I'm wondering if they realize that it would cost them more to get new "fans" than maintain what they already have; but I do hope they would do much better next year. By having Asian or Japan factory driver should have made a big different and improvement for them as most European drives on big flowing tracks.

InitialD.. I guess TP06 is the 52607. It is longer pipe (just like the .15) compared to 52605 and has the same manifold.

markp27

It's a mixture at my track:

Exiting the long curve from the left (running anti-clockwise) the left hand kink is taken flat out and then heavy breaking into the right kink in order to make it around the left hand hairping. Exiting flat out onto the straight and heading for the first tight left hand hairpin. I hit the breaks hard just before the hairpin and then carefully through and onto the power just quickly and then a quick dab onto the breaks into the right hand hairping. Exiting carefully here as you have to carry the speed upto the long left hand corner which leads onto the straight. Just before entering the long left hander another dab on the breaks just to get the speed down enough to make it through the curve. Progressively increasing the throttle through the curve and flat out just after halfway through.
The oneway would help, in my opinion through the two really tight hairpins, but as the car has built up a lot of speed on the straight (at the top of the picture) before the first tight hairpin, then I really like to break hard here. The second hairpin is difficult with the solid-diff, but I think the solid pays off on all the other parts of the circuit - especially breaking into the right kink at the right of the picture.

I really like the two tight hairpins as the car is really on the limit of adhesion - the back end is floating - almost breaking away - under acceleration. It's a real buzz to control the traction on those two corners.


I was praying to him I've got everything finished on the Surikarn now - a Ferrari Modena body (not what I would normally choose, but the Euro-Cup dictates a Tamiya body) and my usual colour scheme I was thinking of changing my colour scheme to give a better contrast between the track and the bodywork - should in principle make the placing of the car easier due to being able to see the car's outline better. Undecided, though, as I really like my colours and it has personal meaning to me - not just some random colours which I thought looked good.

Here's a couple of Surikarn pictures, as I've missed the picture-tastic Friday this week.

markp27

and the second one - sorry for posting the Surikarn pics on a 705 board

Cheers, Mark.

paulfitipauldi

You're right,, I have the same feeling,, the right choice of tires make the real difference!! Thanks, Master "D",

Ciao!!

PUNISHER

iTrader: (2)

Wwhhoooo, nice pictures of the Modena (TRF)!!
However, I think the body posts would look better shorter.

Any pictures of the car naked!?!?


D & Paul,
Very true about the right tires choice!

markp27

Certainly! It's the Surikarn TB EVO III.

Here you go:

lawndoggie

guys my stock rear tires are wearing faster than the stock front tires... is that normal?
If not, what can I do to make them wear evenly?
Thanks!
Also I THINK i finished breaking in my engine... but it still take over 30% throttle to get the car started...
I've losen the centax clutch spring to a point where the spring cup and the shim has less than 0.4mm gap... Yet its still not engaging early enough!
my LHS told me that maybe my engine is not completely broken in/too rich, hence it lacks some torque, but it will get better as I lean it more later...
Is that right???
Thanks

BTW, this is a NovaRossi RS 12T5

nad138

Hello guys. I've recently just raced my Serpent (705) for the first time and had some questions. Is there a universal / cvd available for the 705 ? During the race, I was doing fine when suddenly I can't steer to one side. When i picked the car up, I saw that the dogbone popped-out from the steering hub. I know that I set the width of the car correctly and that the EPA on my radio doesn't touch any part of the hub on the dogbone when I steer. Aside from this problem I had, I can say that this car is really durable and fun to drive. Appreciate the help. And also, what other good upgrades can a put in ? Thanks for your time.

InitialD

Wear evenly? Pretty difficult. I think the kit rear tires are too soft. 35 shore if I'm not mistaken. Change to harder compound like 37 or 40 shore. That will be better for wear. In most cases, front tires should be the same or higher shore than rear tires.

What I am using now is to run a split between front and rear tires to partly solve the unequal front and rear tire wear. Running a split means running a different tires diameter front and rear. I run about 4.5 mm tires difference between front and rear tires with front being smaller.

By doing so, I find that after a day's run or a long main, the tire wear looks about equal front and rear. If I start about 4.5 mm tire difference, at the end of the run I find that the split difference is 3.5 mm which is not bad. Only 1 mm overdrive.

If you run a split without changing the internal pulleys, your car will experience underdrive. This means the rear 2 tires will be pushing the car on power instead of all 4 wheels.

To makes equal drive in the front and rear and at the same time run a split, you need to change one of the internal pulleys. I use the 47T rear diff pulley, 22T brake pulley and instead of 17T side pulley in combination with these pulleys, I use an 18T rear side pulley as per stock.

You can use 23T front side pulley (instead of stock 24T) in combination with the 47T/22T and 17T (or 46T/23T and 18T) but you need about 3 mm split (front smaller than rear).

Try it out and you'll find that your car will have more steering too.

Perhaps the engine still running rich may be your problem. Does a lot of fuel come out from your pipe stinger? Does the engine sound blubbery when you press the throttle?

InitialD

nad138, there are no universal / cvd options for the 705. There is a GPM 3rd party option but that is apparently worse than the dogbone as it breaks easily. Others like Ralph Burch have used XRay CVDs in the front of the 705 but this involves some modding and some XRay parts. I believe I posted some info on that a few postings ago.

You're on the right track to set the EPA and the trackwidth of the car smaller to prevent the dogbones from popping out. I suggest to put some fuel tubing (about 1 to 2 mm is sufficient) as spacers in the drive cup of the front diff (or the one way unit). Don't put any spacers in the drive cup where the knuckles are at. Leave them empty. When correctly mounted, your dogbones should have very minimal play from side to side.

Good upgrades? Try the new brake pads (9607), FC steering blocks and perhaps if you have a small tight track, change the stock internal pulleys from 46T rear diff to 47T, 23T brake pulley to 22T and the 18T rear side pulley to 17T if you have not done so. Also, the stock 16T/19T pinions may be too much. Get 15T/18T pinions. That will improve acceleration A LOT ! If you want more, change the stock 49T 1st gear spur to 50T.

If you need any other help, let us know.

MorShah

Never try to test without the bracket. Any advantage ? Interms of cornering ? or chasis rolling ...

nad138

Thanks I.D. That's how I ended up doing, putting fuel tubing in the drive cups to push the dogbone in some.

Yep, did some of those already. Might try some mix and match on the track.

I'll surely be active posting here now.

InitialD

Just remember to push the dogbone towards the steering knuckles which would mean putting the fuel tube as spacers only on the opposite side. Don't put any fuel tubing spacers in the wheel axles at the steering knuckle side.

Another method of spacing out the dogbones is to use the copper shims from the non-turbo glowplugs on the one way drive shaft adapter (that is if you use a one way) to space it out more. That is what the Serpent team drivers use. However, Schrijver99 mentioned here that this will cut the one way drive shaft.

Hope to see you here more often.