I'm the guy at the end of the vid
Also came 2nd with my SP12X

DavidAlford- Thanks for the kind words, and it was a pleasure meeting you. Glad I was able to help.

Todd- Travel, hotel and an expense account at Legends should do it! Pleasure meeting you, Todd, and the facility was awsome. I envy you guys that get to race there regularly.

Jeff's Setup:

These are the changes from Jeff's Snowbirds setup on page 14 of this thread:

Center shock: Silver spring and 30 wt. Assoc. silicone shock oil. (there were no bumps on this track. If this setup is too aggressive or doesn't handle bumps for you, go back to the olive (green) spring, 25 wt. oil, or both)

Dampner Lube: Corally blue. Same comment as center shock, go back to red if necessary.

Tires: No change, except 1.64 fronts and 1.74 rears. We tried 2pink front and rear, 2pink fronts with yellow rear, and lilac fronts/yellow rear. Lilac front/yellow rear was the best (all Jaco tires).

The bite was about medium, so I know these changes will be good with high bite. We'll try even more aggressive settings next time we race on high bite.

Note: Edited to correct tire sizes.

Larry- are those front and rear tire sizes reversed?

lol, yes. Thanks, James.

Just making sure before I try and true up some 41.5mm rears to test..

One other change we made at the nats was to change from ceramic to carbide diff balls. The theory is that the carbide diff balls have a higher coefficient of sliding friction against the diff rings, meaning less pressure (tightness of diff nut) is required to keep the diff from slipping. This did seem to be the case on Jeff's car, and we were very satisfied with the performance of the carbide balls. Worth a try if you are experiencing slippage issues.

James- Are you testing on asphalt? If so, what setup differences are you finding help? And what kind of gear works with brushless 17.5 on the 12x?

Hey Larry,

I'm actually not running the 12X. I was just asking for information to help Juan out at the carpet nats. I'm running the OD car, but I can tell you what i've found is different from carpet to asphalt setups.

Bigger tires and a bigger split between front/rear diameters. I'll usually start at 1.90" rears ant 1.75" fronts, and start with purple fronts and magenta rears, then go to magentas if I need more steering.

Thinner dampener tube oil. My car uses the CRC tubes with the ridges, so I use 1-3K on carpet, and drop to 100wt shock oil for asphalt. This seems to lock the back end of the car in and make it less twichy.

Slightly stiffer center shock spring. Either a silver or a blue.

I haven't done anything with the 17.5 brushless yet, sorry. I just know you need to gear them rediculously tall.

Thanks, James.

Hi Larry, I used to have a 12X and although I liked the car from the handling side of things, I did n't get on with the reliability of the chassis, especially around the lower area of the motor pod. It did n't seem to take alot to break a t-bar, but it also broke the carbon lower pod plate and the extra fibreglass bit that goes in between them. The Corally also seems to be the most expensive to replace these parts and I got fed up with it in the end. Unfortunately for me, I do hit the odd barrior every so often so do you know if Corally are going to do something about 'beefing up' this area of the 12x? Quite a few of the guys at our club run them so would be interested if you knew anything about this! All the best mate, Chris.

Wingman,

There is a simple solution to your problem. First off, remove the fiberglass spacer. Not to get into physics, but the bulky spacer is a culprit in your parts breakage. Shim the T-bar with regular metal washers until it is flush with the chassis. Second, don't insert the middle screw. It again causes breakage during a crash.

Try these simple two things and you'll find much less breakage, if any.

Thought I'd save Larry the typing, Jeff had him working overtime at the Nats. If only you would have marshalled for him too Larry....

Hi Chris- I don't know of any plans to do so, although Specialized RC in the U.S. a sister company of Corally USA, has made some prototype pieces that may be stronger than stock. Don't know what their plans might be for production. However, we have not had a problem even with some major incidents. Jeff's radio was acting up during practice at the carpet nationals and he hit the wall head on, full speed (stock). The battery tape broke on one side and the batteries pushed the speed control forward and broke the servo ears off, the chassis broke on the side the tape did not break, the front bumper was toast, and the shock was bent at a 20 degree angle. He also had a somewhat less severe crash during qualifying on a particularly unforgiving corner. The T-bar did not break in either case, nor any part of the rear pod, and the lower piece was the kit CF.

We are using only the 2 outside screws to mount the 2mm bar, and we cut the fiberglass spacer to only use the end pieces at the mounting screws. We use a little stiffer spring than the green (olive) in order to gain back some of the front/rear stiffness. And we replaced the stock 6mm long T-bar mounting screws with 8mm long. Perhaps these changes are helping with pod reliablity?

Cheers, Larry

LOL, Steve. Thanks for trying, but I was typing a little behind you. Chris, Steve is an excellent driver and mechanic, and I trust his opinion. And I'm too old to marshal!

Just get your hip fixed.

HAHA! Just teasin....... sorta.