Originally Posted by bizarrefish

So, it was with trepidation I hit the local SDRC track with my freshly built RC10B5M with the usual smattering of hop ups. Having not raced for 20 years I expected a learning curve on both the clay and 2wd compared to indoor/outdoor 4wd in the old Nimh brushed days.

Safe to say I was all over the place, car didn’t handle great from out of the box configuration at least. I left after a few practice sessions a little despondent and scratching my head. Maybe I should have stayed in the 4wd category where the balance is more predictable and controllable.

Anyway, I’m the sort of person to never give up and prefer to debrief myself and break down all the issues I had to take another stab at it again in a couple of weeks time. Here is what I broke down and what I have attempted to do to solve this and make the car more drivable and predictable.

What I experienced;

• Car was very tail happy in the corners making for difficult line ups for jumps.
• Car was skittish under acceleration meaning I was trying to control a snaking car down the straights.
• Off track the car had lots of clay in the tread and it was barely visible.

What I interpret;

• The tire tread full of clay is likely a result of too much power through the tires making it wheel spin under acceleration and filling tread with clay.
• The tail happy in corners was likely a result of the now slick tires based on loss of grip and when accelerating around a corner this spinning the car around. Same for skittish in a straight line with each wheel getting different levels of grip.

Setup changes I made;

• Loosened the Nova Slipper clutch to release the tires from wheel spinning as much.
• Double checking Differential settings after initial runs.
• Altered the Orion ESC to;
• Reduce the turbo acceleration from 7 to 4, again lessening the rapid acceleration to ensure grip was more likely in early range.
• Implement drag force braking at 10%. Means in neutral the car would naturally slow itself rather than using the more forceful brake action of transmitter.
• Altered the transmitter to;
• Increase acceleration range to full movement of trigger instead of full range in 75%. Allows for smoother acceleration.
• Add a throttle profile to deliver smoother acceleration over 80% of the range and deliver the final 40% in the last 20% of movement. Means that the tires get that little more help to grip before putting the power down.
• Introduced a throttle curve profile rather than linear.

Things to still do;

• Get some tire sauce, heavy to medium grade to improve direct grip.

After making the changes and testing outside on concrete I noticed a huge improvement to drivability. I’m not normally a fan of a large number of changes in one go but I needed drastic action.

Any thoughts? Totally wrong approach? I should hang up my transmitter and go kite flying instead?

Happy for any more helpful tips you guys might have.

On a positive note, my gearing was good and all temperatures were low after runs.

Thanks.