Greasemonkey-I see your point. That Tamiya car is not really built for top performance. They have other models for that. They are definitely concerned with the scale appearance of their cars and have a huge number of models that are more appearance cars than performance cars.
Inspgadgt-I know that some 1/12 scale guys are running servos flat. I went through the 1/12 photo thread. Hence the idea. What I found was reduced steering with bad (horrible) bumpsteer. I corrected bumpsteer with tall spacers on the steering arms. This improved the steering traction but reduced steering precision on the turns. Too much flex from the spacers. (More recently I made ackerman changes as well by using wide and narrow tipped servo savers).
I found the reduction in steering traction with a flat servo was minimal with a light car, 1 LIPO about 38 ounces. More significant with a heavy car with 2 LiPos, 45 ounces, where the front end just scrubbed too much on the sweeper. Problem solved with high servo. Most of the pan racing is 6-cell (heavy car) overseas. Change in steering from changing Ackerman was very small in comparison to the bumpsteer problem.
Bumpsteer characteristics are the same with my suspension as the with the Associated front suspension. The high servo eliminates it on both. In any case I make changes to eliminate bumpsteer or leave it just very slightly bump toe-out.
Carpet guys like to do things to kill front traction. Asphalt guys need the opposite.
I noticed Mathijs had his servo flat as well as myself. We have both gone back to tilted servos. The exact reason for the improved performance may not be known. I do know that it wrecks the bumpsteer to run it flat. Tire scrub from bumpsteer not allowing the proper ackerman to be achieved is the likely problem for me and a flat servo.
Last edited by John Stranahan; 05-18-2007 at 10:18 PM.