Originally Posted by
Foxxrocket
What are you doing to your F103s to make them turn better, and go faster? I plan on totaly rebuilding mine, and put a lot more care in how I'll build it.
*Tires
You need to have the proper tires, and the correct preparation. This is totally surface dependent (asphalt, carpet, etc.) Also note the rears in the picture below, this is what supposed to work for asphalt, very rounded edges/sidewalls.
*T bar
Most of the time, the t bar lasts about 4 weekends. Then it will be tweaked, aka shot to hell. If your car feels like crap, and you cannot figure out why, this is the problem 95% of the time. You can also use different hardnesses of o rings to change the roll characteristics.
*front springs
See above. You should check the front springs, since they go bad regularly much like a 1/12 car. If you take them off, and one is taller than the other, you have collapsed a spring. You now also have a new convenient "racer excuse" for failing.
*Run the big ass wings and a low nose body
Everybody says it helps. The old "Ferrari" wings are pretty good, as well as the front wing from the Tamiya "C" body.
*true the tires
Part of this is gearing and part ride height. The rears help you get into the gear range. I have been around 44-45mm on 540 motors for most carpet tracks, depending on size, and even the motor. The fronts will set your front ride height. With the solid front end (sliding kingpin only) 52.2mm gets right about 4mm ride height. I would start with a little taller tire if you want some life, like 53-53.5. Maybe i'm doing things wrong, but the cars tend to eat fronts a little bit.
If you are not running to TCS rules, you can lower the front knuckles to run the tires smaller. Remove material from the bottom of the steering knuckle, and then add a spacer on top of the knuckle the same size as the amount of material you removed. You can run pretty small tires this way.
Also keeping the tires close in size will keep your car from feeling like poo poo
*shock
I find the shock angle can make a difference to how your car steers. The more level the shock, the more on power steering.
The cars are pretty long in comparison to the width, so you have to try to keep the front end loaded up. Most of the time the Tamiya red spring works pretty good though. 35 or 40wt oil too.
*fluids
This more of a feel thing. On carpet, 20K diff oil on the damper plate, and 60K on the kingpins is a decent start. You may go higher or lower. Outside, you might want to be lighter, especially on the damper plate.
*ackerman.
I like to run the ballstuds on the front of the servo saver, and under the knuckles. It helps bumpsteer, and the steering is more linear as well.
I have also seen guys in Japan run the servo like this, which might be worth a try:
Note the wings, this is like what your looking for