ok, thanks for the info. If the IIC tires are just a color change then I can prepare with the current white version. (I have been running the BSR tire for past few years so need to adjust)
this concludes my thread hijacking.

Quick question about a beginners car.

Choice is between the VBC Lightning and the Xray X12 '15. The VBC is cheaper, but I have no real information about durability. I'm assuming the Xray will be built like a tank as usual, but I'll be up for probably another $80-$100 kit cost.

I thought about 2nd hand but there isn't much of a 1/12th scene in Australia and hence very few cars going on the market.

Thanks for any input.

On The Lightning just replace the turnbuckles, on the upper arms ( I used Associated ) and you are good to go. most of the parts are compatible with RC125.2. Easy to get spares if needed. The build quality is as good as Xray x12'14, I have the one of those too.

What type of carpet, Ozite ?

I assume its Ozite; standard grey carpet rack.

Is it a permanent track, or is the rug rolled out only for club racing

Its rolled out.

Which tires are you using, what size, how long are you saucing

I was using magentas front and rear; and I try to give it as much time to dry; it might be 50 minutes between heats I'm not sure. On any event its still wet a little when it hits the track. Either I give it too much or I'm not giving enough time maybe. These tires were trued down to 43mm? rear, can't remember the front; maybe 41. I wrote it down but I have a 3mm ride height.

We race in an older building so the temp is a little cooler; not so much the fall though.

Sounds like you are on track with tire prep

I've run on rug covering concrete before, don't recall any odd grip issues ?

When you say the sauce doesn't help
Are you loosing all grip, or just balance front to rear ?

From my experience, Sticky kicks didn't have as much grip, or last nearly as long as SXT

I guess overall grip; at least in the first few laps until the tires burn off the sauce.

I guess I have my answer here and you should use tire sauce in 1/12 foam tires. To my knowledge sauce is meant to break down and expose new rubber which would in turn produce better grip.

If the foam tire soaks the sauce for all its worth I didn't really see how sauce could even help at all.

I wasn't sure if the concept applied to foam tires only touring car rubber tires.

I might try Yellows at back and blacks up front and apply sauce very sparingly.

Sorry for the rookie question and thanks for the help.

In general tire sauce softens the foam of a foam tire and helps to prevent it from drying out.

Have you considered the issue may not be the sauce you are using but the process you use to cut the tires down? Fresh cut tires are more aggressive than tires with a few laps on them. Especially if you do not use a sanding stick on the surface after cutting them. Using a sanding stick does help in make the tires more consistent but doesn't eliminate it entirely. Fresh cut tires are rougher and have more edges to grip so until they have a few laps on them they will be more aggressive. This is something I've had to learn about carpet racing...still haven't quite got it down yet but working on it

Just in the process of setting up my cars for the coming season and started looking closer at steering geometry and had a question that I thought I'd post on here.

What is the importance of the servo horn lining up directly in the middle of the chassis?

I have a few different servo's and some of them line up better with the mounting points to align the servo down the center of the chassis than others.

Thoughts?

Cheers!

traction additives are just that, they increase the grip of the foam, for a given shore rating. decreased shore will also improve grip but with higher wear rates and with a more bouncy or floaty(?) feeling.

first question to ask is what tire sauce is allowed at your local track. is there an 'odorless' rule or any specific restriction? if there is no restriction and others are using Paragon, then start using Paragon.

if there is an odorless rule then try corally 'Jack the Gripper' or 'SXT3.0'.

before applying the sauce make certain the tires are clean. this won't seem necessary until you have seen the difference between dirty and clean foam. motor spray works great, some like to use lighter fluid, SXT makes a cleaner but it needs to soak in. (you can put motor spray on a towel and just wipe, with sxt cleaner you need to rub it in and let it soak. motor spray sounds better but I have found that you need to sauce longer after cleaning with motor spray, it seems to dry out the rubber more than the sxt cleaner.

black/yellow will stay cleaner than magenta/pink, but either should be good for the first 2 minutes.

so:
1) clean the tires, and let dry a few minutes (5-10?)
2) add full sauce (on both front and rear to start) and let soak for 20 minutes (maybe less on the front, maybe more on the rear, adjust after you try any starting pt.
3) wipe the tires dry, put on the body and race

if you leave the tires soaking wet, you will need a couple laps for the tires to 'come in' but this is just letting the carpet wipe the excess off the tires.

try this and share your experience. (I am no expert but have also been very frustrated by very similar experiences)

best of luck

Having the servo in the exact middle of the chassis is extremely important to making the car handle well. I am a sticker for it, I can feel a 5 thousandths error in the centering of my servo.

Hello
I would like to know does the FX3 need to use the wheel from Kawada only?
can it attached with other 1/12 wheel & tires like Shepherd or Jaco?
Thanks a lot!

Billy

As standard the kit does use the proprietary Kawada wheels. However, It can be easily modified to accept "standard" 12th scale wheels like Jaco or BSR.

For the rear you'll have to use different hubs and shim accordingly. The Kawada also uses proprietary diff rings, so you should consider swapping the whole rear axle. Something like this would have everything you need.

In my case, I'm using Pro-One tires which have their own unique offset. So my setup has Pro-One hubs and axle. Because of the offset and pod width I also found I had to use 3/32" diff balls to get the rear width under 172mm.

For the front I converted to 1/8" axles so it would accept a standard flanged bearing used with most wheels. The stock axles are 3mm. I used Lunsford titanium axles. The stock knuckle has a small shim molded in (circled) that I sanded flat to accommodate the Lunsford axle and keep the same width.



Hope that helps!

I hear ya! I understand that it affects it, but I was hoping for a discussion as to why/how from a technical standpoint. I like understanding why things happen, not just that they do.

un-equal steering link lengths
un-equal ackerman
=
un-optimised handling

Yep, I get that. I guess I'm more curious about the actual physics involved.