Got the TQ today but not the win :-( TQ’d with my trusty MC5 in a field of R1 and TP motors…….and I like the TP…..hahahahaha

I hear the in my head all the time. That's why I put it up there. LOL....

As I always say, it's not the motor that wins races. It's the driver.

most racers don’t know how to run their motor in its sweet spot. They just crank the can timing and throw a gear at it. Thinking of putting my Tekin speedo back in so I can review the race datalogs. That was the main instrument that helped me get my gearing down no matter how I tuned the motor.

What do you look for in the data logs to know if you're going in the right direction?

To tune a motor, the industry standard was to look for an amp spike. After messing around with the motors, I have learned this is way off. It's best to put a load on the motor when tuning it and compare the loaded and unloaded KV results. Look for the lowest KV drop. That would usually happen around 5.5 amps. I have seen a lot of guys adjust their timing to whatever their buddy is at. Then they would adjust the gearing according to the motor temp. The biggest problem with adjusting your timing to another racer is the timing marks. They are not all alike, even if it's the same brand and model motor. One motor can be 2 degrees off and the other motor can be 5 degrees off.

going of a 5min sedan run I evaluate my run before looking at the data. Did I carry good corner speed with the car setup and if I didn’t was there enough punch to get me out of the corners since I didn’t carry good speed. Also how was it down the straight? Did I top out too early or was it still accelerating when it was time to let off? This is signs of under/over gearing. I then go to the date logger and look at the graph and track the trends and determine if I can improve with a gearing change of adjusting can timing. Sometimes can adjustment a few degrees equals a huge jump going up or down. Too much timing makes the motor fast but bring in heat and gearing down doesn’t always help find that happy medium. If the motor has a strong rotor I have found that lower can timing and proper gearing to get that top end speed back will be just as fast as the higher timed motor but not run as hot or experience motor fade that we’ve seen locally from the Team Powers V5s and V6. The V6 came out late and only team guys had them for the Roar Nats but had that motor come out earlier in the year when it was hotter I bet the message boards would have been lit up with unhappy customers because guys crank the timing to the moon and ridiculous gearing. Team guys still had issues at the nats cranking timing from what I heard.

This is what has been working for me and I’m no factory type driver but I have been doing okay locally club racing. Also getting the data after a run is also similar to your testing under load as that vehicle is the load for me. Testing on my bench is my starting point and the main thing I get out of it is that I can always get the same can timing on a motor after disassembly and it shows me how a motor is doing over time ….ie rotor fade, sensor status. I’m not Jim Dieter by any means……just sharing what’s kept me competitive out here in Nor-Cal.

TICK, TICK, BOOM …………hahahahaha

Do you have a tuner? I would like to see how the tuning masters, like Dieter, tune motors.

For shats and giggles, I re-tuned the Surpass V6 Light Weight and ran the RPM test on it. It produced some seriously good numbers.

You described what you look for in track behaviour, but you didn't answer what in the data logs you're looking for.

I was thinking of doing a video of the top 5 motors for 2025, but it's just too hard to make that decision. They are all great motors! It all depends on the track you're on, your driving style, and who your daddy is. I was asked about this type of video a few times, but that is why I haven't done one in the past couple of years.

Would top 5 be different for off road vs on road?

yes because I’ve seen and ran some killer motors in off road that were crap in on road.

i will explain this when I have a bit more time and sitting at my computer.

I don’t have a particular person I go to for motor tuning if thats what you’re asking.