Originally Posted by
ncpantherfan
Lots of good advice, thanks guys. From what you are describing I would have to agree my car is not balanced, I have too much front traction. I will try many of the things you suggested and I have just a few more questions on your suggestions.
I tend to drive aggressive, I try to not use breaks, but roll through the turn. When I enter a high speed turn the front grips well, and that is when the rear "snaps" out. During the exit I believe I am getting excessive wheel spin, that is where I loose my time.
Is there a difference between the 2 o rings in the shocks and the foam puck included in the kit?
How far do you thread the lower eyelet on before installing the cap? Wouldn't how far the piston travels up make a difference in shock performance?
Grandpa, wouldn't it be better to remove my high speed servo and install a slower one than slowing down the speed with the radio?
What speed servo do you suggest?
I have no experience with transmitter adjustments. What does each peramater change and how does it affect the performance of the car? Of course I know the basics, but not the more advanced settings.
Do you think the soon to be released super hard foams would be a good insert to use? I was considering adding a couple sets to my ver 2 order.
What is the best wheelbase to use, short, medium or long? The short seemed way too twitchy to me.
Please post a pic or two of your glued s grips. I have tried them on more than one occasion and didn't feel right. That may be because poor chassis balance.
Caught a "bug" this week, so it's just been TV and the computer as far as any activity. Even then the "cold" meds make me float a little, but we'll give your questions a try.
First, you've got it. The car has to be balanced and the stuff I suggested in my last post was to lose a little front end grip or slow dow the action. The rear end stuff was to give more grip or speed up the rear setting. Trick is to get the stuff ot work together. Keep in mind that sometimes when you want one end of the car to do something, sometimes the right adjustment is on the other end.
I won't go into driving techniques cause it's outside my area of expertise. But, if you and your car are doing what you describe, you're rolling thru the corner after the car scrubbed off a lot of speed. You're losing all your time in the corner, not on acceleration out of the corner. The faster you get through the corner, the less wheel spin you'll have exiting the corner. If someone is pulling you out of a corner, it's usually cause he went thru the corner faster.
Yes. In a previous post, I explained what happens as the shock shaft moves up into the shock body. With just the bladder, it will deform easily so the shock won't get stiffer very much or very quickly. With the sponge the shock will react quicker and become stiffer. Since the tho O-rings are stiffer than the sponge, you can guess what happens.
You thread the ball ends till they just bottom. If you over tighten, the rod will distort the hole and the shock won't work smoothly. It's best to under tighten than over. Just do them all the same. How far the shock shaft goes up into the shock body depends on how much the suspension is compressed. No simple answer to your question.
Servo speed. I use the best, highest speed servo I can afford. I can slow the servo speed down in my TX, but you can't speed it up. That's in the servo. I've used KO radios now for a long time. Started with a Helios, then a Euros to my new EX-1 version 3. Still learning my way around the Ex-1, but can slow the first half of the steering curve down and leave the second part of it alone. It lets me slow down the rate of return. Some of the stuff I use routinely and some I have no idea what it does. Just try stuff out. One of the best Mini guys I know uses just the basics. Another recent TCS Nats Champ, uses radio adjustments a lot. He's the one that got me to start taking advantage of what the radio can do.
Glueing tires is a individual track thing. You're pretty much on your own here. Even at the Tamiya track, which is my home track, no one does it the same. A lot depends on your set up etc. I'm doing it differently than I was a month or two ago.
I've posted a lot of this before, but some of it's been awhile. Not much new in Mini any more. That probably explains the V2 hysteria.