Hey Gang,
It's been a while. And for good reason. I have been struggling to find the right tire/set up for nearly a week and I haven't had anything good to say. But being patient and dilligent... just might pay off this time. The good news is that "I got the car back". Weylin's car had been really good while mine has been in the toilet. Common sence says to copy Weylin's car, right? Well I built Weylin's car and thought that I duplicated mine. Not so. So the bad news might be, that the sweet spot might be pretty narrow. But when you get it right... it's pretty sweet! A product of my misery, is a new set up sheet in Excel. It is very thorough. It also comes with a roll out chart on the back with a track width scale. It's so cool, that I am including them in the latest batch of kits. I will have it in a pdf style format before long so that all drivers can just fill in the blank and email it off to your buddy or myself for scruitiny. This should greatly speed up the set up "woes" if you should have them or share the latest and greatest tips for all to enjoy.

Like I said, I went testing! I tested all kinds of tires and set ups this past week. It gave me a chance to retest things that I thought were "givens", only to discover that with the new CRC carpet vs the old stuff we had, that I need to rewrite my set up book. This will be a good thing as the CRC carpet is now the industry standard for carpet. So until I get the set up file on line, here's the latest mod set up that I have for the MS2.3:

LRP/Reedy brushless; 22/96, 1.75 rr tire, 1.26 roll out
Parma; pink rr 1.75, purple fronts; 1.64
TQ Plus; 12 minutes +/-, full rr, 3/8" fr
PF Speed 12, mounted centered
Front: 1.64 Parma Purple front tire, 20 springs, 3 cast, 2/1.5 cam, 1/4" toe (1 degree out/side), servo in mounts (this was an experiment... the jury is still out), servo saver ball studs in the center holes, upper hinge pin in the center holes, no shims under steering block ball studs (.070 for glued servo), 3.5mm ride height, 6.55in track width.

Middle: Sylva shock, 30wt, green spring, 2mm pod droop (shock length), .020 shim under front pivot ball, 20/22 side springs, 50wt Xray shock oil for dampening fluid, .075 t-bar with all 3 spacers, no shims under the front shock ball stud, bat's at 0% forward (all the way back).

Rear: 1.75 rr Parma Pink tire, 3.25mm ride height, full traction, 6.625 rr track width... this is something that I got to fool around with tonight. I had to grind away the bottom plate on the right side to get the tire to clear. I was able to remove some of the 1/4" shims to adjust the track width. Taking the car to 6.625 from 6.675 quickened up the entry steering and kept the corner speed pretty good. But it is a narrow oportunity for success. If the track had any more grip, it would traction roll. In fact, I had the bat's 50% forward in a heat with the narrow rear end and it did flip in the first few laps. Moving the bat's to the rear, took just enough of that sensation away. But you will have to tune to your needs. I worked with a lot of different settings to increase the corner speed tonight, including stiffening up the side springs. They only made the car more edgy "throttle on", but it did increase the turn in a little. Those springs were a 22/22. I went back to the 20/22 and it was fine. The big thing tonight was that I was able to get a car back to an 8 minute consistant handling car. The opening few laps were a little harry with all the extra ripp from the fresh bat's, but the car at least stayed the same through out the run.

We are loading up the Rain City squad to head east over the mountains this weekend to go visit Darren Shank and crew over in Tri Cities for the 2nd leg of the PNW Indoor Series. Mike Dumas, Chris Tosolini, Trav Schreven, Peter Robinson, Darrin himself, Me!, Weylin Rose and many others should make up for one of the best 12th scale mod races of the season. We'll have to turn the monkey loose!

Brian; www.slapmastertools.com