Wow, that sucks somewhat. I made some testing in my track with and without the Box and have found a considerable power decrease with the INS box.

Regarding the carbon brackets, don't worry. I saw your a mechanical student like myself so I know how harsh school can be. Take care and keep those updates coming!

It looks very good DS

But what I realized that if I sum up all 4 corner weights, it will be 1740gr without body, so why did you add that much weight on your car?

And how do you adjust your ride height? Where do you read the numbers on ride height? Is it also same preload Left vs Right shocks?

Set up aluminum wheels wheight a lot more than foam tires...

I also have aluminum setup wheels, but they weight just 22 grams per piece!

Haha, I was surprised already that rx7ttlm didn't noticed that.
For the pictures I rotated the car, so I think the setupboard wasn't leveled from front to rear.
Here's a picture of all the scales in one view:

As you can see it now only weighs 1593.
I adjust the ride height while the car is in the Hudy setup stands, because I always recheck toe's and camber's after ride height changes.
I measure ride height at the front and rear end of the chassis right in the middle, that's why I always take the bumper off before doing setup. It also makes setting downstops and front ARB tweak a lot easier.

Yes, currently I have exactly the same preload on left and right shocks.
But I will probably have to recheck everything after the first shakedown because all of the suspension parts are new and still binding a bit.

what I learned a while ago, don't build anything expecting it to free up. That's why they make Calipers, shims, files, sand paper, polish etc lol. Make it free to start with. I didn't sweat it cause I know you have a shit ton of ballast lol. But don't cry when your pivot balls break lol. I don't know what my car will weigh ready to run but it should only be about 10-15 grams over min. Other things I noticed, your front track is wide as hell lol, Your Receiver is going to get murdered, Rear track also wide as hell, Old fuel lines, and I think it would be a good race between your light weight extra ballast car, and my magic radio hands lol.

I am also working on my T3 trying to break the sound barrier in 17.5, it was comical how much power I had last night. If I was watching, I would have swore I was running a 13.5 or 10.5 cause it was just silly how fast my novak ballistics are when you get them in the sweet spot.

So sorry if I am not giving posts my full attention today lol

Well, it isn't like the suspension is binding heavily.
The suspension is still able to fall under it own weight.
The only thing which is still binding a bit are the pivotballs/pivotball retainers.
Because both are new I like to turn about 1/16 of a turn tighter as they should be so both parts are able to achieve a good fit. After about 2 days of running they are completely free without any play what so ever.
You have to agree that a racecar first has to settle before you can start making real adjustments, this counts for 1:1 but also for RC.

Track width in the front is 199 and in the rear 200.
It might look like it is wide because I use the -0.75 wheelhexes in the front and rear.
The receiver will be fine, trust me. Have been running my cars like this for about 3-4 years and never had a hit on the receiver.
I know about the fuel lines, still need to order some new ones from HK because I can't get the Muchmore fuellines (which are the best) locally.

And who says I don't have those magic radio hands as well?.

Would really like to race electro touring one day, but I'm just putting too much money into Nitro to leave a bit of budget for electro.
Finally bought my own tire truer today, so the budget is 0 at the moment.

Yeah, I have been doing this a while. So it doesn't take much for me to switch to another class because I have run pretty much everything. The spares is the only thing that sucks. Cause I usually end up with a car for spare parts lol. The T3 is great, I just need to get it to stop flipping lol. I have so much corner speed its silly. I gotta try some roll center changes etc, Cause its brilliantly fast. Last nights comment from one of the guys, "once you pass and take over the prime racing line, you just take off!" I just smiled.. If I can get it to handle like it does with 0 traction roll, its going to be good...can you say bump rubbers...???

Re fitting, if you had a rod end that was peened then wouldn't you change it? Cause the additional friction causes Hysteresis.

Are you measuring track width with tires on? , I said that cause your pivot balls are screwed out 10,000 miles lol.

Regarding your rx, you obviously haven't been properly introduced to Mr Murphy.. lol

Hey DS,

You should look into this engine:


A friend of mine and I weighed the Ninja MRT and pipe vs a Nova 353 + pipe and the difference was around 45grams.

Just the Heatsink alone, had about 25 grams less.

This is a sick motor. I have the regular one thats got two seasons and it still huals. I think the MRT one has a magnesium heat sink or something. For sure one bad little motor

What does 'peened' mean?. Something like out of round?. I don;t know the word, and google can't find it either.

I measure trackwidth with the Hudy setup stands and the Hudy tweakbar/trackwidth measurement thing which comes with the all in one setup.
It is perfect for setting trackwidth just right.

I like to challenge Mr. Murphy so now and then.

A Ninja engine? Nooo way that is going in my car.
Less weight is good, but you need some power to get the car moving.
My car only takes Nova based engines, preferably RB.
Also the magnesium causes some real tuning issues, that's why you don't see it on all the other engines.
I would like to see more magnesium stuff in the RC cars though, I have some Magnesium screws and they are pretty good.

Peened, as in you have a damaged rod end (suspension pickup point) and its causing excess friction. You would replace it on a 1:1 car, so why treat little cars any different?

dont be mad when mr murphy slaps you in the face lol

I watched swaugers mtx4 with one of the prototype engines in 08... wow. that thing was insane..think 21 type power.

well, I got one more secret squirrel item knocked off my NT1 to do list. Can't wait for nitro season. When I get my parts I ordered and finish fabricating some things... I will post pictures. Won't look like my Nationals car, but close lol. I don't have any silly things like DS does with his 205 grams of ballast lol, But It will be good. Waiting for some plastics to cure also..

Well... First round back in January, the TQ was made with a Ninja MRT... Rest of us were using MAX, RB, Nova 353 and JPs.

The Ninja with a nicely modified crank can pull some nice power. But yeah, Ninjas are a bitch tuning wise, which is why I never looked that way.

You could also drill a few holes in your RB's heatsink to lower its weight.

ok, so lets play a game. Its called how much does your heat sink weigh. Mine was 45.1 grams for the XL3 that I had apart.