Very happy with the car after our provincial final RC Pro series race. These are a few notes that hopefully some can find helpful:
1) This car has awesome off power steering. I wanted to plant the rear end a little more. Moving the rear shocks to the outermost hole on the arm did the trick.
2) The stock shock oils I found were too light for a large outdoor track and hot temps (86 degrees). I went up to 42.5f/32.5r (Associated) and was happy with the dampening after that.
3) The car is very light. Mine weighed in at 3350g with a Serpent body and wing, and 4100 Protek pack. I only put 2200mah back in the pack after a 10 minute run so I look forward to trying Protek's 3100mah 2s "sized" 4s pack.
4) I found a 17T pinion to be geared just about right with a 1900kv motor. I would be more happy with a 16.5T pinion.....lol. Maybe Tekno will come out with a 46T spur haha!
5) My lap times were just over a second faster than they were with my Kyosho (nitro) at 38.3 versus 39.4. This is about where I wanted it to be.
6) Removing the o-ring under the shock cap eliminated the leaking issue. Additionally I found building the shocks like I do my MP9 shocks provided consistent rebound and no air. I dislike the technique of placing the bladder on the shock body and then shock cap. It reminds me of building TC shocks which I hate!
These are the steps I followed:
- Place bladder in shock cap (they will stay put after initial use as they will have expanded slightly).
- Fill shock body nearly to the top and pump up and down.
- Place in shock pump to remove remaining air bubbles (allowing shocks to sit alone will never rid the shock oil of all air bubbles).
- Top off shock oil until flush with top of body.
- Screw on shock cap while shock shaft extended. Do this slowly and stop when oil starts to come out of the bleeder hole.
- Slowly push the shock shaft all the way into the shock body while wiping away oil that leaks out of the bleeder hole with a shop towel.
- While holding the shock shaft all the way in the shock body, slowly screw the shock cap on until it bottoms out (no tools necessary to do this if you remove the o-ring)
- If the above is done correctly you should have close to zero rebound. If you want less rebound only push the shock shaft in the desired amount and hold in place while screwing on the shock cap.
The above steps work well for me and the key is to perform all steps slowly in order to achieve zero rebound. Also making sure the shock is upright while performing the steps is key.
7) Finally, I broke my car horribly while catching the leader of the second triple A main. Two lapped cars were tangled on the face of the large triple on the track. I didn't see them until the last second and hit them HARD! A large crack was heard and the damage is visible in the picture below. Not a reflection of the cars durability as any buggy would be broken after a 35mph hit like that. This ended my chance of winning the weekend in E-buggy but a 4th place finish in the 45 minute nitro buggy A main was the highlight for me!
-Kane