I recently built up this car and OD (odpurple here on rctech) asked me to start a thread for it, so here we go! I also know Smyka is running one of these, so hopefully we can get some insight from him as well about setup, etc.
First off, I would recommend that you purchase the following, in addition to the kit:
- TOP Racing (AW-KS050RD) Pan Car King Pin Spacer - 0.5mm (8pcs)
- TOP Racing (AW-KS100RD) Pan Car King Pin Spacer - 1mm (8pcs)
- TOP Racing (AW-KS200RD) Pan Car King Pin Spacer - 2mm (8pcs)
- TOP Racing (AW-KS300RD) Pan Car King Pin Spacer - 3mm (8pcs)
- M2.5x14mm or so screws for the rear axle with Pardus tires
Assembly
The car goes together fairly well, but there are a couple items that are a little different from the instruction manual:
Forget about the bit I wrote about the rear wing brace. Somehow I completely missed that this wasn't countersunk, so I can just flip the wing brace over and get it to mount correctly.
Also on
Page 8, you can use AE side links if you also use AE pivot balls. TOP side links are notoriously fragile, but the F1 car does have some side impact protection, in the shape of two hunks of carbon.
On
Page 9 of the manual, COMPLETELY IGNORE the step that asks you to trim down the 16mm ball cup for the center shock to only 13mm. If you do this, it is very difficult to make the center shock long enough for this car. Leave the ball cup as is: 16mm. I trimmed mine down (didn't know any better) and I can hardly get the shock long enough for the pod to be level with the chassis plate.
I will make some later posts on the F104 front end, as per instructions provided by OD. There are a couple option parts you can make use of, but the install is relatively straightforward if you are familiar with the F104 front end. Honestly, the servo mounting is the only interesting/different part, as you can see in this image:
http://i.imgur.com/afcbdtQ.jpg
Ride Height Adjustment:
OD tells me that you only need 3mm of spacers for the rear axle if you are using Pit Shimizus and you will be at ~4.5mm ride height. Not sure on the front, hopefully he will chime in.
If using Pardus tires (for instance, at IIC) ride height spacing for the rear is a bit more difficult. This is where you will need the longer M2.5 screws, and a good amount of spacers, as per the image below:
http://i.imgur.com/G13RAZE.jpg
For front ride height, you will have to mess around with kingpin spacers depending on the front spring you use. I found that with the Tamiya soft front spring I used the following spacing to be at ~4.5mm with Pardus tires: 4mm underneath the steering block, 1mm above it. See image below:
http://i.imgur.com/3xpj8oq.jpg
Setup
I don't think my current setup is fast, since I have only driven the car a handful of times, but with the F104 front end this is what I have evolved to thus far:
- Pardus tires (prep for IIC)
- Tamiya soft front springs, no kingpin lube
- 1 degree of camber
- AE Olive center spring, TOP stock Gold side springs
- 50k tube lube (this is too stiff, maybe try 35k?)
- no pod droop
- 4.5mm front ride height, 5mm rear
Hopefully Smyka can chime in with his thoughts re: setup.