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Mad Ax

Back to the Track - Part 2

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So it's been a fair few years since I did any kind of racing blog. In fact, it's been a while since I've raced at all. Apart from a few friendly one-day events in the summer, my RC life has been about custom projects and open bashing, but I've spent the last few Mondays hanging around at the local track chatting to some friends in the pits, and I figured, if I'm going to go to the effort of going to the track, I might as well take my Mini along and do some racing.

My local club (WWMCC) has recently opened a new Mini class called Mini Clubman. It's designed to pull the Mini class back and stop it from becoming Touring Cars in 1:12 scale; when I gave up racing about a year ago, the M05 arms race was starting to get crazy and my ageing M03 was getting left behind. And if anyone turned up with an M06, well... it was game over for everybody else!

So the open Mini category still exists (M-chassis size, front or rear wheel drive, Saturn 20 motor, otherwise totally unlimited), but the new Mini Clubman category is much more proscriptive:

Standard M03 or M05 stock chassis

Ball bearings

Saturn 20 motor

Sweep tyres

Tamiya TRF shocks

Open diff

Otherwise, everything must be totally stock - no toe-in uprights or fancy adjustable turnbuckles or rigid alloy components. It's had quite an impact on laptimes, and it's changed everyone's driving style - especially going back to open diffs. It's interesting to see people going into corners on neutral throttle and powering out hard, whereas previously they were going in under throttle and staying on all the way round.

Thinking that this sounds like a good way of passing my Monday evenings, I figured I'd clean up my old M03 and get "back to the track" :D

I dimly remembered that my M03 was handling like a pig last time I raced it. I knew I wasn't far from taking a short-term retirement from racing anyway, and I'd probably come back with a new car when I returned, so I never bothered to look into it. Since then the car's shocks got borrowed for my wedding truck and it's been sat on the shelf looking very sorry for itself.

So it was time for a bit of TLC. The shell isn't looking too bad for a car that completed a winter season and a one-day championship, and I didn't have time to cut and paint another, so I gave it a quick dust-over and thumbed off some rubber marks. I like to have a new shell every season but I've left it a bit late this year.

Next I pulled the shocks off Project Ringpull. I don't have anything to replace them with, so Project Ringpull is now resting its transmission plate on a TLT tyre until I can get around to making some leaf springs. I'd adjusted the shocks out totally for Project Ringpull, but it only took half a minute to set them back to base for an M03 carpet racer (full soft on the rear, full hard on the front).

Then I turned my attention to the M03 itself. It was clear to see that both front arms and one rear arm weren't moving smoothly. This is actually a very old M03, a rare gunmetal chassis traded from a member in Belgium and originally sitting under a Suzuki Wagon RR. I had a problem with seized arms before, after running it outside in the rain and then leaving it on the shelf for a year.

All the arms came off and got washed - carpet racing makes for a real mess! The CVDs up front (not sure if they're legal in the Clubman class but they're all I've got) are looking the worse for wear, as are the outdrives, so once I've confirmed the rules I'll be ordering replacements. The stiffness problem in the arms was, again, down to rusted hinge pins. I got the worst of the rust off with some fine abrasive and then hand-polished then with a finishing compound - not a perfect solution but my machine shop is currently full of furniture (we're having some work done on our house) and I can't get to any of the power tools.

I couldn't find any Tamiya assembly grease but I did find a pot of AW grease, which is sticky enough to coat the pins and gives a nice fluid feel to the suspension. Everything was reassembled and checked for smooth motion without binding before the shocks and wheels went back on.

Here I can vent a matter of annoyance - I'd had a set of alloy locking wheel hexes in my Ebay watchlist for months, and last month I finally took the plunge and ordered 10 packs. There's few things more annoying than a hex getting stuck in a wheel and a drive pin falling out under the bench somewhere... Except these cheap hexes appear to have lock screws made of cheese, which are nowhere near strong enough to clamp the hex down over the pin before the head of the screw gets chewed up. Rant rant rant rant rant, worse than it was before, rant, should have gone with Tamiya, rant, waste of money, rant, waited for those for two weeks, rant, been on my watch list since February, rant...

Anyway...

I'd previously raced with a cheap Acoms servo, the ubiquitous comes-with-a-radio-set servo. Recently a batch of cheap servos arrived from HobbyKing, and I was pleased with the Trackstar servo in my TT02D, so I lobbed one into the M03. Must be better than the Acoms, although I'll probably have to dial in some expo as it's about 6 times as fast :D

Still running with an ancient ESC (it actually came with the car years back), no LiPo cutoff but that's OK because I know my packs will last 3 rounds.

All I have to do now is find my transponder and go racing :D

another ridiculously long-winded post to follow tomorrow morning after my return to the track is done :D

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OK - so this is about 5 days later than planned, but better late than never, eh? :D

Anyway, last Monday's race night went pretty well in that I had an awesome time and the car didn't let me down. I was quiet a way off the pace, but then again I turned up with a freshly-rebuilt car, batteries and transmitter and pretty much nothing else. No tools, no tyre additive, no pit mat, nothing. As an experiment in "how little can I get away with bringing to the track", it was a success.

I had to borrow a transponder as mine seems to have gone missing since I last raced. I was pretty sure I hadn't used it since the Iconic Revival back in the summer, so it should still have been in my Hotshot, but it wasn't there. It wasn't in any of my RC transport boxes either, nor was it in my toolbox, nor in my Wild Mini. It'll turn up somewhere, but my hobby room is currently in a bit of a state as we're having work done on the house.

So race 1 unfolded with the car feeling more planted and controllable than I expected, given it hasn't been used in a year and I haven't raced since a one-off vintage buggy race in the summer. I was running the only M03 in the field - everyone else had M05s in Clubman spec - and there seems to be a clear difference in how the M05s handle compared to the M03. Perhaps the biggest difference is that I'm running an SWB chassis so I can use a HPI Mini shell, while everyone else has forsaken style for function and are using MWBs with Honda or VW shells. Handling-wise it was OK, with no grip-roll and predictable pull out of corners. I found the biggest problem to be with turn-in, as it would push on when turning in on a closed throttle until it had slowed enough to bite, then suddenly whip around tight and threaten to clip the inner barrier.

I have discounted race 1's results from my official timings since the borrowed transponder wasn't attached properly and miscounted a few laps, so I have no idea where I ended in the grand scheme of things, but given my performance for the rest of the night, it's fair to say I came in last :D

I entered Race 2 with only one adjustment - a bit less steering travel to try to counter the sudden turn-in when closing down, and it seemed to work. I managed to catch a barrier at the end of the straight and launched the car over the catch-fence and into the pits but otherwise I kept it fairly clean. I came in last on the timing sheet with 16 laps to the winner's 21 with a fastest laptime of 11.995s (against 10.237s from the winner). My average suffered, being only 15.068s against the winner's 11.537s but that was mostly down to a poor first and 9th laps, coming in at 26.8s and 31.35s respectively.

Race 3 was almost a repeat of Race 2 for me, but with far more consistency, getting in an extra lap for a total of 17 and improving my fastest lap to 12.097 with an average of 13.802. A couple of incidents at the start of the second half of the race cost me a better average time, but in the closing laps I worked on consistency over speed and pulled out four consecutive laps on pretty much the same laptime. I 6th out of 7, owing to the lead racer dropping out at the midpoint, and only just lost out of 5th place on the final lap after I'd passed another car while it was busy having a pile-up and I just wasn't quite fast enough to stay in front until I reached the line.

I noticed mid-way through Race 2 that my back, shoulders and arms were seriously, almost painfully tense. As soon as I noticed, I forced myself to relax, and put in better laptimes. The same thing happened in Race 3, but I noticed earlier - that's when I managed to hook up the final four good laps.

I'd entered into this winter series thinking I was going to have a taster with the M03 and then get myself an M05 if I was ready to enjoy racing again. But actually, I figure I've got problems that can't be fixed by changing cars. Noticing a tense back issue has given me a clear and obvious area to work on; seeing a big disparity between fastest and average time has shown me I need to be more consistent.

So this winter championship won't be about doing everything I can to haul in a trophy - it's about going back to basics and re-learning how to drive. Maybe my car isn't fast enough to win the trophy, but neither am I. No, this championship is about patience, learning and consistency. And also, I guess, about being the underdog.

And the best thing about being the underdog is that even when you lose, you still win; and if you win, you win double.

:D

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So, week 2 of my return to the carpet has come and gone already, and this time I'm a bit more up-to-date with my updates :D

My plan, as you'll know from following the posts above, is not to focus on car setup and hopups and relentless chasing of fast lap times, but to learn some consistency and control that I've never had in indoor racing. (Or, for that matter, any form of racing!)

I did, however, decide to arrive at the track a little bit more prepared than last week. By that I mean, I brought a little toolbox with a handful of tools and some tyre additive, as well as my car, transmitter and batteries. I even decided to buy a new transponder from the club as I have no idea where mine has gone :(

I sauced my rear tyres (it's common practice to leave the fronts dry, as Minis have a tendency to grip-roll on our club's carpet), left them to pickle for 20 minutes while I caught up with some old friends, then went out for race 1.

My fastest lap was 13 seconds, a whole 1.1s off the fastest Mini lap, with only 16 laps against the 20 laps of the regular M05 drivers. A 15.467 average means there's over 2 seconds between average and fastest, which was mostly down to a 31.4s lap at the midpoint, probably causing by a crash that I forgot about.

I noticed again I was tense during the race, but my attempts to relax didn't really work. I figured I needed to take a step back and gather my thoughts before race 2, as I'm never going to improve if I'm tensing every muscle in my body.

The other thing I noticed was a terrible lack of rear-end grip, especially early in the race: at the hairpin the car would often go in backwards. I was aiming to make my cornering life easier by backing off (braking on the fast straights) into the turns, and throttling out the other side. I decided that for race 2 I needed to get on the power earlier, as I was losing heaps of time to the other cars in the corners, and I just had to hope that the rear-end grip would come to me in the next race.

For race 2 I sauced the rears again gave the car a check over. The tyres - which were well-used before I gave up racing before and have been on the shelf for about a year - look to be in terrible shape. All bubbled and worn like an F1 slick post-qualifying. The poor old M03 has had a hard life, and almost every joint on it has more play than a sunny day at Wimbledon. No wonder if feels a bit loose and sloppy in the bends. Anyway, I'm not here to complain about having a bad car, I'm here to learn how to drive again, and if that means learning to drive around faults in the car, that's all for the better, surely :D

I went out in race 2 with a plan to get on the power earlier coming out of the bends, and it seemed to go well. I felt like I was going faster. Unfortunately I also crashed three times, and crashed big, and (although I hate it when people complain about marshals), each time I crashed, I ended up upside down and had to wait to be turned over and, yes, pointed the wrong way :unsure: I rolled just before the final corner of the final lap, which probably cost me a time improvement.

My fastest lap was down to 12.730, only marginally better than my 13.071 in race 1, but my average was worse at 15.710 and proves that being faster doesn't win races if it means you crash more. I still completed 16 laps, but it took me 4 seconds longer to do so.

After race 3, my pit buddy noticed how much additive I was putting on my rears and told me to use less, as it would make them greasy. As I gave them a good wipe, I noticed that what I had thought was bubbling on the rubber was actually a coating of grime and grease all over the surface of the tyre. I managed to get some of it off, but I'll have to attack the tyres with a proper cleaner this week.

I even gave the inside edge of my front tyres a quick dab of sauce and added replaced the superglue on the outer edge - a trick that everyone at my track employs to prevent grip-roll. I think I needn't have bothered because I wasn't struggling with excess front grip.

Race 3 went better all-round. I noticed at the start that I was a good half-lap behind the next place at the end of the first lap, but as I relaxed and settled into the race the pace came to me. Soon I noticed that I hadn't been passed in ages. I lost a bit of time getting out of the way of the leaders when they finally did get to me, but it was happening less and taking longer. In places I was able to keep pace as they came past me- my car doesn't struggle for pace in a straight line and can handle the faster corners at the same speed as the others (even if I can't seem to get quite the same lines or smoothness yet).

I had one crash mid-way into the race, after losing concentration when pulling over for the leaders. Half a lap later I crashed again, inexplicably. I got recovered and powered away, and as I turned into the next corner the car oversteered without any warning and hit the barrier a third time. At that point I was sure there was something wrong - could I have broken it on the first crash? But no, at the following corner it was all back in shape. Tyres gone cold while waiting for recovery? Frustration after the first crash? Lost concentration while waiting?

The result was a fastest time of 12.545, a small but welcome improvement, and only just over a second off the heat fastest of 11.233. Better still, my average was 13.813 - 1.3 seconds slower than my fastest. A glance at my laptimes reveals why: apart from a 21.66 when I crashed, all my times were between 12 and 14 seconds. And I completed 18 laps over 16 in the previous two races, putting me only 2 laps down on 3rd place and 3 on 1st and 2nd (all of whom scored their fastest times on the final race).

So, where am I now?

I know my car is loose and floppy and there's nothing that can be done bar replacing loads of bits. That might as well wait until I've got my consistency sorted.

My tyres are awful - because they're filthy. This week I'll find time to clean them properly.

My final race was good, because I relaxed and drove my own race. Even then, I saw how quickly I could lose my cool because of one mistake.

Next race is next week - stay tuned for more updates :D

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Week 3 update :)

This week's work began on Sunday afternoon when I finally finished all my chores and housework (or, at least, did enough to justify putting off the rest until next weekend), and I sat down with a box of tools and a couple of episodes of Dirt Everday on the laptop.

My main plan was to properly clean the tyres. I had some Desolvit de-greaser that we used to use as a "non-additive additive" back when additives were banned. It does a real good job of softening up the tyres where genuine additives are banned, but it also works well at cleaning off the grime. I hadn't realised just how bad my tyres had got. I guess a year or so of sitting on the shelf doesn't help.

Once cleaned, they look pretty good. There are wear grooves on the fronts, but as long as I'm working on consistency, I won't worry about replacing them. I reassembled the car and got the batteries charged.

I was late arriving on race night but I managed to get there with just enough time to apply a light saucing to the rear tyres and let them soften up. It wasn't long before I was wiping off the residue ready for my first race. It was a busy night, with more drivers than usual, and I was to start 6th out of 6.

I stood on the stage with one thought: don't be fast, be consistent.

I set off last and soon caught up with 5th, got drawn into "race mode" and promptly crashed. No bother, it wasn't a big one, but it was big enough to lose 5th place for a time. After that, I was pretty much on my own for the whole race. I kept out of trouble and kept out of the barrier, and generally had a really awesome race. I noticed the leaders hadn't caught me for a while, and when they did, they followed for a while before they were close enough for me to pull over and let them past. It seemed that the consistency I was after was finally coming to me.

I finished in last place losing out on 5th by less than a second, with a count of 19 laps - only 1 lap down on the race winner and on the same lap as everybody else. For someone struggling with consistency, that can only be viewed as a superb result. My average of 13.290s was only half a second down on my fastest of 12.443 - although I was the only driver not to have into the 11s. Still, I was within a second of everybody else bar the fastest lap of 11.386 from the 3rd place driver.

Figuring I was in with a chance of getting out of the bottom spot if only I hadn't had that minor crash on lap 1, I began to worry that I had hit a pinnacle of consistency that I would not again achieve. Having done so well, my night could only go backwards. I lined up for race 2, telling myself not to race, just to drive smooth. If everybody else crashed and I didn't, I'd be in with a chance of some points, despite my slower laptimes.

I set off in last place, and began to catch 5th on merit. 5th crashed, and I took the spot. A few laps later he took me back, but then crashed again. Laps came and went, but I stayed clean and stayed on track. It was shaping up to be better than race 1, and for the first time since my return, I'd be out of the bottom spot.

So imagine my disappointment when I ran to the heat sheet after marshaling the LMP race to find I was a lap down on 5th place and 4 laps off the lead, with only 17 laps against my name. How could this be? I didn't crash once! A look at my heat sheet revealed two lots of 25s laps - somehow my transponder hadn't registered, twice. Grraaah!!

Having added two laps to my count would have put me in 5th place, just 2 seconds off 4th. My fastest timed lap was 12.191 - a small improvement - and most of my other laps were under 12s too. I can feel personally justified that I improved, but not getting the time counted, especially on a championship night, hurt hard enough to tell me that I still have a competitive spirit, even if I'm not challenging for the top trophy.

I chatted with some of the other guys and we can only assume the problem is either my cheap orange receiver from HobbyKing, or a brownout caused by not running a power cap. I had started the night with a fully-charged 4200 LiPo, but it is more than a few years old and was once over-discharged and recovered using the "charge as NiMH method" - so it may well not have the capacity it once had. After two races, perhaps it wasn't able to keep up with demand. At the very least, a power cap will be in order - maybe some new batteries too.

I figured that, with two solid and consistent races under my belt, I could go out in race 3 (with a fresh battery) and hope to set another good time. Frustration must have been against me at that point, because I didn't have a good race. There were no real big crashes, but I scuffed the barrier more than once and got my lines wrong more than I could explain.

The lead car flipped at one point and was stranded in front of me. My line would have taken me directly past him, but at the last minute the car jerked to the side. Did I panic at the controls? Did I hit something on the track? Was the car unsettled? I can't be sure. I hit his car and bounced off. Apologising profusely, I tried to get on with my race.

A while later he caught me and came to pass. I pulled over to let him through, and my car went straight on into the barrier, as it if didn't want to steer.

Back on the track, it was making a bad noise. Something in the gear train was dying. I knew I should have pulled over, but at that point I was only out for a laugh - if it was broken, it was broken. I carried on for a couple more laps before I lost almost all power.

Back in the pits, it appeared the diff had died. It's a stock Tamiya gear diff (as far as I know, I got the chassis 2nd hand) and it's had a lot of use and abuse over the years. It's done well to last this long.

So this week I'll be stripping the car down when I get a moment and figuring out exactly what has broken. At first I figured I might as well get an M05 and be done with it, but money is tight and my house is being renovated, so I don't really have space for builds or paint jobs. Might be time to replace those outdrives and dodgy universals too, and I should be back with a solid car for next week's event.

And, maybe, some more of that hard-won consistency :D

stay tuned...

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I could probably rename this blog to "the frustrations of an underprepared racer" or "RC Racing - How Not Do To It"

In fact, it's a prime example of the five Ps: Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.

Last week I ordered some spares to fix the broken Mini gearbox and to replace some other bits which are beyond their best. The cost was half-way to a new M05 - I almost considered abandoning the M03 and going straight to a '5 for tonights race. But then I reminded myself that is I buy a new car I'll need new bearings, new wheels & tyres, a few allowed hop-ups and also the time to put it all together. That really wasn't going to happen this week.

In an effort to try to keep the costs down, I hunted around for the best deal on prices, and got the following:

Tamiya 54277 reinforced gear set

Tamiya 9400394 parts bag A (from Fiat 500) - for diff components and outdrives

3-Racing swing shaft ver 3 set for M03/M04/M05/M06

I'm absolutely certain that I also sourced and bought a set of hardened outdrives, but I can't find anything in my search history about that, so perhaps I didn't...

Last night I sat down to install the whole lot. The M03 came apart easy enough despite having been used as an outdoor basher for some time before I started racing. The diff came out, but amazingly, I couldn't find anything wrong with it. I expected chewed up lumps of plastic between twisted metal, but it was fine.

The problem? I kicked myself. I was still running an original pinion :blink:

So a bald pinion and a bald spur gear were the result. No problem, hardened gear set it is.

I planned to build the diff with new internals from the Fiat 500 parts bag, but the outdrives are different - slotted rather than splined. Since I was totally sure I'd bought hardened outdrives which hadn't arrived yet, I decided to rebuild with the old internals, since the hardened ones would almost certainly be splined.

It was when I came to reassemble when I noticed the spur gear doesn't turn freely in my M03 chassis. I gleaned out the remains of the old spur gear, but still things don't seem to be super smooth and I can't quite work out why. My M03 chassis is metalic grey, originally under a Suzuki Wagon RR - I wonder if those chassis were slightly different? Fully reassembled and greased, it sounds a little noisier than it has a right to.

At this point I went to my pinion stock to get a proper steel 20T pinion. And discovered that I didn't have one. I bought a full stock of Robinson Racing pinions recently but the 20T probably went into something else. So tonight I'll be running with an 18T.

Oddly enough, most people comment on how fast my Mini is off the line, despite me running the biggest pinion. Going to an 18T, there's every chance it'll be even quicker, but top out half-way down the main straight. I guess I can only hope for a tight, twisty track tonight. Or maybe I won't even notice any difference :D

So, in summary: I should have given the car a better inspection before hitting the track. I should have checked the pinion wasn't still the original cheese one. I should have remembered that I hadn't bought any hardened outdrives - I could have fitted the new ones from the Fiat parts bag, but I've used the wrong diff internals so I'm stuck with my old ones.

My universals haven't arrived yet so at least I'm not using new outdrives on old worn unis - I'll change the diff internals when the new universals arrive.

And maybe this will all be for nothing if that hardened gear set binds up in my chassis and melts itself...

Watch this space for tonight's race results :)

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OK, so another night's racing has been and gone.

The night started badly when I stuck a battery on my freshly-rebuilt car and discovered it to be making a horrible noise. The stiffness in the gearbox seemed to disappear with a single blast on the throttle (something must have been stuck in there that I hadn't noticed when I was cleaning it out), but the horrible noise continued.

Popping off the pinion cover showed the new 18T Robinson Racing pinion that I'd fitted to be way to loose. It was loose enough that it would even fit in the 16T pinion position, albeit a bit too snug for use. Of course, all this required more an 15 minutes of removing and reinstalling motors to discover that whatever pinion I owned, it wasn't even remotely the right pitch for an M03 :unsure:

Luckily a fellow racer stepped in with an NIP Tamiya 16T pinion (which I totally forgot to pay him for :() - 4 teeth smaller than I'm used to but at least it got me going. For the first time since I've owned it, my M03 didn't sound like a tin full of nails :D

With all this hassle of swapping pinions and having to get other people involved, I was late starting my first race and only got in a handful of laps. The car went well enough, but I never really got up to speed. I finished well over a second off the lead and with my average laptime one second down on my fastest.

Due to a clerical error I didn't get any of last nights laptimes - but basically, the rest of the night was much like race 1, except I didn't start late. Although the pinion held up well, the car didn't seem happy - massively twitchy on the straights and unresponsive in corners. It was probably mostly caused by my own tension at the controls, which in turn was caused by me being stressed about arriving with a broken car and having to rush to hit the track.

I've also learnt that, as well as saucing my tyres prior to each race, I really should give them a good clean every weekend. At the end of the night, despite regular saucing and cleaning, they're always greasy and grubby and covered in grime. Giving them a proper clean with sticky stuff remover should restore their proper matt surface, as it did two weeks ago, which was followed by a controlled and successful evening.

In other news, my universals have arrived so I can replace by badly worn ones, fit up those new outdrives, and while I'm at it, try to find some spacers or bushes that will reduce some of the slop in the wheels. The right wheel in particular seems to want to slide in and out of the hub by some significant distance - that can't be good for handling at all. Maybe the new universals will help there.

Oh, and any budget I might have pretended to have to put towards an M05 just got blown four times over on a full option tractor truck kit, so I have to make do with the M03 for a good while longer :D

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I thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts. I hope you keep up with them soon. From a readers perspective, the fact that you're racing such an old and beat ride is seriously engaging. Almost like a special episode of Top Gear when they buy some £1500 heap and drive it across a continent.

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Lol - tbh I've been planning to resurrect this thread for ages but never seem to get around to it. The longer it goes on, the harder it is to pick it up again. It sort of fell a bit flat after a really bad night, when I got stuck at work late so was late arriving at the track, then got called as soon as I'd pulled into the car park so had to sit in the van working half the night again. Racing that night was naturally not really on my mind.

Anyway - I suppose now is as good a time as any to carry on :)

I've had ups and downs, good weeks and bad weeks. Consistency has vastly improved but some problems have come to light also.

Failures that spring to mind:

Going out for the final race, my car span off then stopped flat. The motor wire had been bashed and the solder broke, so my race ended before it started.

Issues with inconsistent steering turned out to be the Tamiya servo saver jamming. I'm using a metal gear servo, so the screw needs to be done up tight to stop it coming loose. But do it too tight and the servo saver doesn't return to centre after being pushed one way or the other. I tried to "fix" the problem with a Kimbro servo saver, but they don't fit in the M03 chassis, but I improved it with some threadlock and a stronger plastic clip around the servo saver. I guess I really need a proper Tamiya hi-torque servo saver.

A big crash a few weeks back broke one of the steering hubs, I had plenty of spares so I stuck on a new one.

I've also noticed that the tyre additive I was using seems to make things worse. I think the sponge on the bottle is contaminated with something because it just makes the wheels greasy. Instead, I'm using de-solv-it from a spray can, which seems to make everything super-sticky. No problems with grip-roll tho, which used to be a real problem for all mini chassis.

Otherwise, the car has been very consistent, along with my driving - we've had some very technical tracks recently which have really pushed my concentration, but although my car seems to be significantly slower than the M05s around most corners, my improving consistency means I'm usually beating all but the fastest drivers.

I have been told - many times - that my big problem is that I'm running a short wheelbase; everybody else has medium wheelbase. I didn't want to change since I liked my Mini shell, but I've had it for a good few years and it's finally started to split apart at the front, so last weekend I painted up a HPI Civic shell (photos this weekend, if I remember) and bought the MWB chassis extension parts.

I notice the parts tree also comes with updated steering hubs, not really sure what difference they'll make but I'm tempted to throw them in. The club was closed last week as the hall was being used for something else, but I'll be back on Monday with my new shell and freshly-cleaned chassis ready to see how much difference an MWB configuration will make. I bet: none at all!

:D

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I believe I promised some pics :D

From this:

IMG_20151207_195837037_zpsihlksjgq.jpg

To this:

IMG_20160215_193715574_zpsrzdw3e7l.jpg

IMG_20160215_193705786_zpsuhy4ejqn.jpg

IMG_20160215_191841891_zpsnvgd4hvh.jpg

IMG_20160215_191806994_zpscgnsozf8.jpg

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So I managed to get out of work on time, and arrived as the track was being constructed. I used to work just 5 minutes from the venue, and finished work at 5:30, which was great - I'd be first to arrive, and could have all the tables and chairs set up before anyone else turned up. Such helpfulness got me out of staying on late to help pack up. Alas, these days I work 20 mins from the venue and don't finish until 6pm, so even if I get out on time, the track is usually almost built by the time I arrive, so I stay well out of everyone's way and try to find a spare table not too far away from my pit buddies.

I'd not yet cut my new shell - in typical Mad Ax style, I'd forgotten to mark up the body post positions prior to painting, and ran out of confidence when it came to reaming the holes. After asking half a dozen people, I finally enlisted the help of the club's race director, and together we set about marking and cutting the holes. Well, I say we, I held the torch and provided things to chock the front of the shell while we tried to find out where the body posts were touching the bottom of the paint.

I also discovered I'd run out of de-solv-it stain remover, so I couldn't clean my tyres prior to racing. As you can see, I'm back to my old Roadkill / Top Gear Challenge ways of arriving unprepared and expecting to finish a race when there's every chance I might not even enter. Despite this, and in true Roadkill / Top Gear style, my car attracted plenty of attention and everyone had a comment to make. I may have inspired some other racers to do vintage Tamiya schemes on their cars, especially in the Mini class where none of us take things too seriously.

Another interesting point of note is the sudden explosion of Mini entries. Last night we had 11 cars total - that's against a mode of 4. The top six closest cars made the top heat, and I was in the bottom heat with one new member (never raced before but by all accounts is a seriously skilled RC copter pilot) and three non-regular visitors. Again, mine was the only M03. I quite like this - I'm in a class of my own; I can't lose, but every M05 I beat is a victory :D

Between the five of us, we had an absolute riot.

I took it steady in race 1 - partly nervous of damaging my new shell (stupid really, it was made to race, not to look at) and partly having grip issues with uncleaned tyres that have spent the last two weeks in a plastic tool case. Twice I rolled the car on a dome and ended up going over the track barrier and losing half a lap, so I didn't expect a good time. Despite that, I wasn't last - the new member was still getting to grips with his M05. I don't count beating noobs as any kind of victory, and watching how he improved as the night went on, I don't doubt he'll be challenging the regulars if he sticks at it.

I used some of my old tyre additive for race 2 and had a better time. Improving on my race 1 time, I finished 3rd after a reasonable (but not perfect) race. I still managed a few crashes, but it was becoming apparent that the MWB configuration is more stable and can be pushed harder in corners. I still can't get it to grip and go like the guys in the top heat do, but that might be more about confidence than control. It's been a very long time since I experienced any grip-roll, so maybe I can get away with softening the front end a little for more corner bite.

Race 3 should have been great - I "only" had 3 incidents and none of them should have been bad. Unfortunately, it was one of those races where every incident ended up with my car upside-down and waiting for recovery. If I hadn't crashed at all then I would have finished a fair bit higher up the timings - but I would have finished better if my crashes hadn't been so unlucky. Well, there's an easy fix to that - don't crash! :D

Racing in with some other closer-matched drivers was great for my race-craft too. On a quiet night I race with the top drivers, but as I'm the slowest (by some margin) I spend most of my lap getting out of everyone else's way. It's difficult to learn how to pass cleanly when I can't keep pace with the other cars on the track, and in the spots where I am as quick (or quicker, on some tracks), I'm reluctant to push too hard and wipe out a driver who is two laps ahead of me and fighting in a different race. Tousling with a car on the same lap is all part of the game, especially when none of us are in line for a trophy. Getting in a pass on a closely-matched car without bouncing off the barrier or taking us both off the track is about the hardest part of RC racing, in my opinion.

The end result of the overall standings was that I finished two off the bottom - not as good as I'd hoped given how fast I was going on my better laps, but not bad considering my tyres weren't giving their best and it was my first night running an MWB chassis, and I'd had a few slow incidents. There's definite scope for improvement.

I think next week will be a non-championship event, so it should be quieter. Right now I'm wishing the week away, I want to get back out there and race :D

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As the 2/3 season results are published, and by measure of being one of only three drivers to have entered in all 5 championship rounds so far, I am currently sitting in 3rd place overall :)

All other drivers in the championship have to date entered in only 3 out of 5 rounds, therefore in order to qualify they must enter in the remaining two rounds.

To be fair, I probably don't stand a chance of beating most of the other drivers if they choose to enter in the last two rounds - but as happened last time I entered a winter championship (in 2011), it was not having the FTD every week that got me my trophy, it was turning up at the venue and recording a time at every single championship round :)

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I love reading about your racing exploits Ax. Once my season starts I think I'm going to follow your lead posting my own exploits. That's assuming of course they get the 1:10 scale track built and enough people show up with 1:10 scale buggies to race. ;) (Crossing fingers!)

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So I was "back to the track" on Monday night for another round of racing. Non-championship, no pressure, but in true Roadkill style I hadn't bothered to buy any new stain remover to clean the tyres, or to shim the rear arms where there is now more play than a sunny day at Wimbledon.

It was another busy night in the Mini class, again with enough drivers to hold two heats. The fastest drivers took the top heat, with yours truly battling a long-standing friendly rival for the top spot in the bottom heat. With one new adult member with an M05 MWB built and track-prepped by an experienced racer, one new youngster with a SWB Mini on standard kit tyres - swapped to borrowed track tyres after it refused to turn without spinning uncontrollably - and another novice / non-regular racer, it was set to be a busy and eventful night.

The track was fast and suited the MWB well. Race one was very close, with me starting in 2nd place behind my M05-driving rival. Avoiding our newest member was a tricky affair as he struggled to get to grips with racing, but after a rough start we all found our rhythm. I'd lost a fair bit of ground to my rival but clawed it back and passed him before the race ended, only to lose the place in the closing laps. All in all a good race, but let down by my inability to hold the lead without crashing out.

Race two was almost a complete replay of race one, except our new young member was getting the hang of racing already. We see big things in his future! I had a good race, battling with my rival before an unfortunate incident put my car on its side and stranded while I waited for rescue. With no chance to catch up, I settled into a rhythm for the last few laps and focussed on staying clean.

Race three started much the same, with me getting a good start and taking an early lead, but an unexpected head-on with the barriers (trying to take a tighter line through the chicane) sent my car so high it jumped a whole width of the track. It didn't cost me too much time besides loss of rhythm, but an action replay two laps later caused the car to stop working entirely.

A weird electrical fault, the radio was working, steering working, ESC was blinking on throttle and brake, but no response from the motor. It would spin freely by hand, so couldn't have been a sticking brush - or so I thought. Eventually I thumbed the comm shaft at the end bell and suddenly it sparked into life. Maybe the bearings are damaged, the shaft shouldn't be able to move so far the brushes aren't contacting or are shorting out.

Anyway, it'll get stripped down on Sunday for a quick look. I may grab another motor from the LHS this week - sadly, Saturn 20s are about all they stock that's useful to me now, the rest being RTR cars, park flyers and generic craft stuff - but I've probably got a spare Saturn 20 at home somewhere.

Championship night next week, so I should be fixing up the car and getting fully focused. But I'm picking up a King Blackfoot from another TC member on Sunday, so chances are I'll be messing about with that all night instead :D

Catch you on the flip-side

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So glad you are continuing with the race posts - really enjoyed the last series and this on makes entertaining reading :D

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Really enjoy reading this. Thanks for keeping it going. From the sounds the M-class races are getting more popular. With all the troubles you seem to have with tires do you think it's time to retire the set you have and get some new jobbers?

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I will admit my tyres are ancient, but they still have plenty of rubber left and come up perfectly sticky and smooth after I bother to clean them.

The issue is that the club's carpet is covered with additive after several years use. If I wear blue jeans while I'm helping to pack up the track, my knees will be black when I finish. So after each race, everyone's tyres are covered with sticky goo and packed carpet hair. The club has a rule that all tyres must be wiped before each race and then span up on a piece of sacrificial carpet, but people don't always do it.

The solution is to use a solvent-based cleaner to remove the mess before putting on fresh additive. In fact my tyres don't seem to need additive at all, they go super-sticky with just a bit of de-solv-it stain remover. Except I've ran out and keep forgetting to buy more :)

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I know next to nothing about on-road racing, or racing on carpet for that matter. I didn't even know that was a thing! The only racing I've ever done has been outdoors, on a dirt track. What sort of carpet is used for the track surface? Is it a special jobber specifically made for R/C racing or is it whatever low pile, industrial style carpet was on close out?

I know some dirt racers like to use WD 40 on their tires to help keep the clay from sticking when it's wet out. Others have stuff they spray or drip on and then wipe off with a terry cloth prior to racing to keep the tires soft. I guess your tire sauce is to make the tires more grippy on the smooth carpet?

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So a little bit of history about what I know of carpet racing:

The carpets are specially made for RC racing. I think there's a few different manufacturers and types out there but generally they're a thin, tough felt-like material. Ours is grey, I think the previous one was red. There are actually six big long rolls of it that make up the entire track - they have to be rolled out and taped together before the track boundaries go down.

When I first started racing, about 10 years ago I think, the track was carpet and the club ran foam tyres. Everybody ran touring cars, from TT01s to Xrays. Nobody had brushless power, the club limit was 27 turn - most of us used the Trinity Revenge of the Monster motor. Additives were banned, but nobody needed them as the foams gripped well on the felt carpet and the 27 turn race motors didn't have the torque to spin the wheels much.

I left the club for a while but came back in 2010 when I found myself working 5 minutes away from the race venue. By that time, the club had replaced their carpet and were using rubber tyres. Sorex 24s were the standard.

(Here's a funny story about my very first race with my TA05 IFS, on my 2010 return to racing. My new Sorex tyres hadn't arrived yet so I fitted the tyres from the Tamiya kit. I didn't want to glue the Tamiya tyres only to have to unglue them a week later, so I just squeezed them onto the rims and went to race.

Race one, lining up on the start, wait for the count down, full throttle given, all four tyres fly up into the air and race off across the track while my car sits stationary with the wheels spinning.)

Tyres additive is basically a chemical that makes the rubber go soft and sticky for the start of the race. As far as I know, almost all road-based race rubber is designed to be used with additive. I think not using an additive is like going out in an F1 car without tyre warmers - the tyres will eventually come up to temp, but they'll have no grip to start with and you have to put in a really committed drive to get the temperatures in when you have no grip.

Anyway, additives were banned at our track. The reason given by the club was that they wanted to keep racing competitive, we have a lot of young members and didn't want to price them out of racing. Which kind of makes sense, except additive only costs about £10 a pot and it lasts a year if you only race once a week. Plus, the cars never really handle like they're supposed to if you don't use additive, so racing is actually much harder. Only the top racers could get heat into the tyres early on enough to have a clean race.

Various people campaigned and eventually they let us use additives. Now everybody uses it.

The downside is that, if you don't scrub your tyres before the race, the additive gets all over the carpet and makes it all gooey, which is what has happened. So now, after the race, we have to clean our tyres with solvent before adding more additive.

Maybe we should have stuck with foams ;)

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Mad Ax reporting, live from trackside. In a departure from previous race reports, I'm typing this message from my pit table as the track is assembled in front of me. Partly this is because I'm on call tonight, so I need to be less than 15 mins from a fast internet connection at all times, but mostly because I managed to blag the wifi password for the venue and I happen to have my work laptop with me.

The car is prepped and ready to go, although I had a reeeeeal busy weekend and ran out of time to clean the tyres and replace the front chassis half. One of the lower suspension mounts has cracked, leading to excess play in the front end - it's still driveable but it will probably break off completely if I don't fix it soon. I have a spare chassis with me but it's not in running condition and I don't know if I can strip and replace an M03 front chassis half between heats.

A quick update on previous races - it's been an up-and-down experience, some of the faster regulars have missed nights recently but other fast racers from other clubs have taken their place, so I haven't been able to claim "dead mans boots" on the missing members. On the other hand, in last week's event the M03 felt super-stable throughout, and due to an administrative error I got put in the top heat even though there were a few faster cars in the heat below me. This basically meant that I got to enjoy a good clean run without getting caught up in "B heat ambition" - plus I had a couple of real close battles with my closest race buddy, finally beating him in the final heat. It felt really good to win on a combination of speed and clean racing, and almost as good to come in close behind him.

OK, so the track is now almost assembled and the heat sheets will be going up on the wall any minute. Time to apply some additive and save the laptop battery. Tonight's racing beckons!!

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So, round one over and done!

12 cars have entered the Mini class tonight, so I was given number 3 in the B heat. With a few novices in the B heat it looked like a night to try to stay out of trouble, but it was a real good clean race in which I came in a slightly surprising first place, beating my two closest rivals for the first time in ages.

Still a long way to go with everything to play for, and with 6 very fast drivers in the A heat there's very little chance of me capitalising on a good result in the championship standings, but at least I can look forward to some good close racing at the pointy end of heat B.

The A heat is currently proving to be an interesting thing to watch, as one racer accidentally held his handbag 3 inches higher than regulation height prompting a stewards inquiry and a slight halt to proceedings while some racers remove the knots from their knickers. Normal service shall resume shortly.

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Round two is now over and, more through luck than skill, I managed another first place - although I didn't improve on my previous time. This round was a race of attrition, with my two closest rivals leaving early with technical problems. It still wasn't easy to keep pace, as I managed a few tangles with the novices.

Handbags have been withdrawn from heat A on the basis that one of the parties involved doesn't seem to be racing any more.

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Oh, and the crack in my front bottom arm mount seems to have widened somewhat since last time I looked. One more big smash on that side and it'll probably come off.

One more race to go. Round 3 is about to begin.

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And it's done! The GTs are having their final round now before we pack down for the night.

What a race!

I got away with a clean start and held the lead, although it was clear my closest rival was lapping fast and closing the gap. A minor tangle with a backmarker put me behind, and my attempts to catch up were thwarted as I hit further traffic, but finally a big group in the tightest part of the track caused an incident just far enough in front to allow me to catch up without slowing me down. I managed to break through into the lead and held it until the end.

It felt like a really quick race, I was sure I'd have significantly improved on my time from round 1, but in the end I was just under a second slower. I can't fault the car tonight - three first places and the broken suspension mount stayed together long enough for me to finish.

None of this will help in my challenge for the championship, as I wasn't quite fast enough to beat the slowest car in the A heat, so at best, I've got 7th place tonight. There have been other nights where I'd driven far worse and taken home more points because there weren't so many fast drivers in the A heat.

The championship is now officially over - the points will be tallied during the week and we'll see where we end once the top four best results of each qualifier are counted.

Now we can all breathe a sigh of relief :D

No racing next Monday, but there's a drift night on the 31st. Awesome :D :D

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Hey Ax, I love the track side commentary! Looks like you might have some time to get that old bucket of bolts fixed up before you have to race again. :P Keep the updates coming. I love reading them!

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