The Kawada FXIII is a pretty sweet looking kit. The owner of the hobby shop I frequent to here in Japan just bought one. The front damper tubes are really neat.
You can buy the whole front end assembly. So if you're looking to convert your front end to this style of dampening you can. Kamui rc in Japan has them in stock.
On Saturday, I went out to my local asphalt track and did a few laps with my new R12C3. I decided to run both my Kyosho and R12C3 to compare lap times ect. Before I even put any laps down, my preconceived notion was the Kyosho will be the faster of the two. Considering I've never put any laps down with the R12C3. The Kyosho Ra should be the faster of the two.
Running setup, same tires for both rides. The R12C3 was running a D3.5 21.5 stock 12.4 rotor and the Kyosho a ORCA 21.5 stock 12.5 HT rotor.
On Track
The Kyosho was obviously the faster of the two with a solid 0.300 sec lap faster than the R12C3 for obvious reasons.
A-I've been racing this chassis for 1.5 years
B-The Kyosho has the ORCA motor which is hell ass fast.
C-R12C3 was running bone stock setup and it's the first run for this chassis.
After laying some laps down I noticed how easy it was to carve into the corners and all the while maintaining corner speed with the R12C3. I felt the car was really connected with the track in every way - entering, mid and exit of the corner. With my Kyosho there was always this "grey area" or "disconnect" with the track. It just never seemed like it connected or responded with the track. Therefore, I was a little unsure about the R12C3 and doubted if this "connectedness" was a good or bad thing.
By looking at the lap times and the on-track performance I decided to make a few changes for the next run.
After reading up on Mark Stiles R12C3 suggestions on R12C3 setup changes. I decided to change the steering ankerman position by changing the steering block from 0 to + 1.0. I decided to increase the damper roll oil from 100 wt to 130 wt. I also noticed the motor performance was different between the two cars. So I decided to switch out the motors. So now, the R12C3 has the ORCA installed.
The R12C3 managed to drop it's lap times considerably. The extra bit of power and the setup changes made I was able to be 0.200 seconds faster than the Kyosho. I managed to gain 0.500 seconds! Pretty impressive for it's first day out. I can't wait to test and tweak this bad boy in order for it to go faster.
I love the front suspension design, many people at my track complain about how complicated the front end is. I personally like having the ability to adjust roll center, damper tube rates, droop.
All in all. I am very impressed with the R12C3's performance and handling.
