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Old 08-19-2012, 07:48 AM
  #103  
wingracer
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Chassis flex only seems to be desirable when grip is at a premium. Looking at real world race cars, F1 cars with tons of grip run super stiff chassis while a dirt oval car is intentionally much more flexible. When TC ran on foam, they had fairly stiff chassis but with rubber, softer seems to be better.

Of course, a lot of the reason for this has nothing to do with ultimate performance. In theory, a stiff chassis should always be better but in our RC world, it is virtually impossible to get everything exactly right. We just don't have the fine adjustability, hyper accurate set-up tools and proper shocks to get a setup spot on. Plus, very few RC racers have the knowledge and experience of a professional race engineer. We also don't have a butt in the seat to give precise feedback on what the car is really doing or telemetry to give us data. This is where flex comes in big. Flex disguises other set-up problems. A flexible car has a HUGE sweet spot it will work in set-up wise. It will also be less effected by changes in condition such as weather, grip level, tire type and condition, etc. So a flexible car will still work reasonably well with a sub-optimal set-up. It will NEVER work as well as a stiff car with a PERFECT set-up but with all the limitations I described, a perfect set-up is virtually impossible for us to ever attain.
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