183 replies to this topic

[94eg!]

Terry is pretty much spot on. I would like to add that almost all the high-performance cells still suffer a fast self discharge...

I currently race with the latest IB4600 Nimh and they still require a weekly 20 min charge at 6amps to keep some cells from going below .9v (some say that's the low voltage limit before the starts to loosing power). Over the past winter for storage, I had a weekly maintenance routine that went like this:

- remove from storage and check voltage (most cells are below 1.2v at this point)
- put them on the charger for 1 minute @ 6a
- place on equalizer tray till lights go out (Trinity D-90 cause it actually stops discharging once done)
- place on charger @ 6amps for 20 minutes
- Store for another week...

NOTE: 6amp charge rate is only recommended for high performance matched packs with low internal resistance! Cheaper cells with high resistance will get very hot at 6amps...

Here is my routine when racing:
- put on charger for 1 minute
- place in equalizer tray till done
- charge at 6amps with proper delta-V
- time it so charger finishes just before your race begins (pack should be nice & warm)
- if battery is cold just before the heat begins, I re-peak...

[Leethal Driver]

Fantastic post Sideways, had me in stitches Could see myself doing exactly the same and more! Sure it'll get better from now on, enjoy the racing.

[Sideways-King]

hedge, terry.sc, 94eg!, TA-Mark, thanks for the info on the batteries guys, I'll still stay with the NiMH for a while yet before I go down the Lipo route but it does sound interesting.

As I missed last weeks meeting, tonight I'll get to try out some more gear I've been buying over the last two weeks since the first session. As I've stripped the car down since it's fatal wounding it appears that the drive shaft cups, or more to the point the threaded ends that the wheels go onto are the offending items. As the standard ones are steel moulded into the plastic cups these are much stronger than the so called hop up version, as these are aluminium they are simply as strong as chocolate, so avoid these.

I'm going armed with my tyre additive so it's gonna be a good one! I'll let you now how it goes.

Fantastic post Sideways, had me in stitches Could see myself doing exactly the same and more! Sure it'll get better from now on, enjoy the racing.

Thanks Leethal it's a hoot.

[terry.sc]

I would like to add that almost all the high-performance cells still suffer a fast self discharge...

I currently race with the latest IB4600 Nimh and they still require a weekly 20 min charge at 6amps to keep some cells from going below .9v (some say that's the low voltage limit before the starts to loosing power).

Simple answer, avoid Intellect. I'd never go near them unless they were an absolute last resort. They are also the ones most likely to explode, and the easiest way to blow them up is to repeak them after you have charged them earlier. EnerG and EP cells don't self discharge like IBs, how about EnerGs being left for a month after running, not topped up, and only one cell below 1.2v? Batteries were compared here.

I don't run mod touring, nor take my club racing seriously, so I'm still using GP3800 and EnerG 3800hv cells. My battery charging regime is now
Put battery on charge at 6A so they are charged just before the race
Race
Put them in the pit box until next week.

If I haven't raced for a while, like 2-3 months, I will equalise them and cycle them a couple of times to get them going again.

[Sideways-King]

Race Night 2
Much better this week. After absorbing everyone's advice at the last meeting, this week again was no different. During the break I stumbled across a cheap Schumacher Mission (swearing I know on the Tamiyaclub site! ) with spares, extra batteries etc., for cheap and boy is it a difference. I went armed with the tyre additive and I had a blast.

Heat 1 - Started at the back of a 5 grid delayed start line up and came 2nd! The most shocking thing was I was 1st for 90% of the race until the last lap saw a flying Mardave Maurader skip half the track and T-Bone me bringing me in 2nd. The new Schumacher has a 19T motor, Tazer ESC and apart from what looks like standard Carbon bits and bobs is pretty much stock... I felt really proud of myself. And 'No' they weren't all blind and 3 years old.

During the other races I learnt more invaluable stuff, one of which is to keep buying 2nd hand to start. A young chap sat next to me and had boxes and boxes of stuff for sale, there must have been at least 50 complete sets of wheels and tyres, which looked mint to me(I'd get at least another 7 years use out of them) for £3 a set! I overheard him saying he has tyre sponsorship and seeing the gear he had, not only car wise but the clothes he was wearing with sponsorship everywhere, he obviously is on the pro circuit. I duly bought a servo for £1 and a virtually spanking 19T motor for £5 which he had just skimmed, right before my very eyes.

Heat 2 - I started second and ended up not finishing as a battery wire came out of the Tamiya connector, which has never happened before but I put down to my new super light speed driving. I had already got down to 15.1 second laps on only my second outing, which compared to the pro classes 10 second laps is lame but seeing as theres only about 5 of them the other 20 or so gents were doing between 14 and 21 second laps, so again I feel quite proud.

Heat 3 - After learning off other guys that I should get shot of some of the wiring by soldering the motor directly to the ESC and to swap from Tamiya connectors to Corally it also went well. I started 3rd and finished 2nd. I also had noticed another gent there, whom I thought I recognised from the past, and went over to him. We had worked together for several years and I'd last saw him 5/6 years ago. He was a regular member going with his son and after exchanging some light hearted banter about hair loss and extra pounds gained we we're right back into the swing of things - Good times!

Heat 4 - A model shop owner had set up a stall in the corner selling bits and bobs and I'd taken the time to go over now and have a mooch around. I came away with a Mazda 6 body set I can now put my own livery on.... and I do like painting bodyshells, so I'll put my business name over it all I think! I have a 1:1 Mazda 6 anyway so I thought I'd keep it in the family - Rude not to!.
I started 2nd and finished 2nd although I didn't finish within time. I'd lapped a few of the cars going round so by the end of the session I'd still come home 2nd. I hadn't crossed the finish because all of a sudden I could see this shadow of mess dragging behind the car? Puzzled - It still went quick enough so I carried on gunning it. Every Marshall it went passed waived frantically and shouted something but I carried on as by now I was in the 'Zone'! The back end then began to drag, like having the handbrake on, and then I realized all of the inside of the car i.e. ESC, Receiver and wiring, was now on the outside of the car and being dragged behind it LOL! It was like an injured soldier with it's guts hanging out.

All in all another fabulous night with lots of tips and info and I have now talked and mingled with everyone. Like starting anything new you might not have the right gear or the best gear and I've realized It doesn't matter. Everyone is so eager to be tinkering with their own cars there not interested in looking at what you've got in terms of quality or quantity but are interested to come and give you pointers. Two guys showed me on their little lathes how to skim the motors, others showed me there preferences on wiring and batteries it's great fun.

There is however one point that I deliberately omitted last time, as I am writing this to be positive and share my experience and hopefully get others into it, that may otherwise be shy yet inspiring folk . And that is certain individuals over enthusiasm, or attitude if you want to call it, which comes across as aggressive and I'm sure this must happen everywhere. One of the guys who appears to be the club runner uses colourful language, but in an aggressive manner when things aren't going quite right. He is a superb driver, 1st class in-fact, yet it is 'F' this and 'F' that on every other bend he clips wrong and when he crashed on my first nights racing at my feet, it took me 0.05 seconds to react and 0.05 seconds to get it going in the right direction for which I was called a "F+++in Idiot!, can't you be any F+++ing slower!!" ... 'mmm' I thought as I looked up. After the race, I was slightly embarrassed walking towards the pit tables wondering if anyone had or hadn't seen this and thought 'whether I'm enjoying this or not I don't like rudeness like that .......' then made a detour right back towards the offending individual and I said this:

"Whether we're all serious here or not it's my first night and although learning the ropes I think I've supported, listened and helped accordingly. There is only two opportunities you get to speak to me like that, the first one I offer free of charge... the second one will cost you and I don't offer refunds!" I got an apology as I walked away.

On this second race night there was another new young man, about 15ish, with either his older brother and girlfriend or a young looking mum & dad. He was visually very nervous but I could tell he too was enjoying himself. When he got the verbal wrath of this chap again, I couldn't help but have another word afterwards, though not so hush, hush. Call me old fashioned but I can turn the air blue when I want to, and I probably did at 15 with my mates, indeed the young man probably does too, but it was too much intimidation for me to standby and say nothing. Again I got an apology out of him for the young lad. On sitting down behind my new trusty stede to begin packing him away, everyone passed me by with a wink, a pat on the back and "we've all told him at some point, but you'll fit in here nicely new boy"

Enjoy, mingle and communicate!

I hope these experiences helps others to go and enjoy and learn by my mistakes and for those veterans who are reading this and laugh at me finding new connectors(other than our beloved Tamiya!) I hope I'm not boring you too much. I mean why would you solder you motor to the esc when there's a perfectly good Tamiya connector to them both LOL!

[skip665]

Great write up! Cant believe you have already defected from Tamiya!

[Sideways-King]

Great write up! Cant believe you have already defected from Tamiya!

Ha, Ha..... Never ever my friend. I just can't justify spending money on a TRF at the moment, even second hand. I'd sooner have more fun with modded Grasshoppers and Boomerangs

[Mr. ED]

Glad you're enjoying the club races and your testaments of misshap are fun to read.
I'm sure some of them are purely due to nerves so things will continue to improve without doubt.

I'm turning 36 in few months but have had the luck to start racing in clubs within a year from my first purchase: at the age of 16. Still it was similar revelation and without that I would probably have put the hobby longtime behind me.

Having seen different clubs and classes there's one advise I want to extend. Take it slow; it will keep you going much longer. I've seen too many guys turn disappointed when their car starts going faster then they can handle and no money get them past the better drivers. After the scond season they get sick of the crazy expenses and suddenly sell all the gold dirtcheap or just disappear.

Personally I don't have the opportunity anymore to race regularly, so when I do race I try to enter the lowest spec class 'cause that's where I'll have the most fun with the old badly maintained gear, my li;ited driving skill and most important; lack of practise.

[hedge]

There is however one point that I deliberately omitted last time, as I am writing this to be positive and share my experience and hopefully get others into it, that may otherwise be shy yet inspiring folk . And that is certain individuals over enthusiasm, or attitude if you want to call it, which comes across as aggressive and I'm sure this must happen everywhere. One of the guys who appears to be the club runner uses colourful language, but in an aggressive manner when things aren't going quite right. He is a superb driver, 1st class in-fact, yet it is 'F' this and 'F' that on every other bend he clips wrong and when he crashed on my first nights racing at my feet, it took me 0.05 seconds to react and 0.05 seconds to get it going in the right direction for which I was called a "F+++in Idiot!, can't you be any F+++ing slower!!" ... 'mmm' I thought as I looked up. After the race, I was slightly embarrassed walking towards the pit tables wondering if anyone had or hadn't seen this and thought 'whether I'm enjoying this or not I don't like rudeness like that .......' then made a detour right back towards the offending individual and I said this:

Unfortunately every club has them. Hopefully you have a committee or someone you can go to. The problem is affectionaltly known as RED MIST. People say and do things in the heat of the moment, 5 mins later and everything is OK again. Its often reflected in the way they drive as well very agressive with little or no respect for you. Well done for standing up for yourself but as you point out its not so easy for the 15yr old. Ultimately this behaviour can destry clubs. Its not tollerated at Nationals meets and he would be ejected if he acted like that. By all means race to win but not at all cost.

Paul

[Sideways-King]

Unfortunately every club has them. Hopefully you have a committee or someone you can go to. The problem is affectionaltly known as RED MIST. People say and do things in the heat of the moment, 5 mins later and everything is OK again. Its often reflected in the way they drive as well very agressive with little or no respect for you. Well done for standing up for yourself but as you point out its not so easy for the 15yr old. Ultimately this behaviour can destry clubs. Its not tollerated at Nationals meets and he would be ejected if he acted like that. By all means race to win but not at all cost.

Paul

Well put Paul and as you said it is forgotten about 5 mins later and it is the RED MIST. My problem is I go out of my way to be friendly and expect the same courtesey, but when you give an inch and someone takes a mile, I prefer to nip things in the bud to start with.

But hey ho thats forgotten now and I'm enjoying it bucket loads.

Mr. ED great advice and one which I hope to take note of.

[terry.sc]

During the other races I learnt more invaluable stuff, one of which is to keep buying 2nd hand to start. A young chap sat next to me and had boxes and boxes of stuff for sale, there must have been at least 50 complete sets of wheels and tyres, which looked mint to me(I'd get at least another 7 years use out of them) for £3 a set! I overheard him saying he has tyre sponsorship

A useful find, looks like you'll never have to buy new tyres ever again. At the top level for a national or regional level meeting they will be running at least 2 brand new sets of tyres for a days racing, to make sure it shaves those last fractions of a second off his qualifying time, especially if he gets the tyres at a discount. At that level racers tend to buy the latest thing, even though their current car/motor/electronics are perfectly fine. The most amazing example I have is seeing someone buying a new £70 servo because it was 0.01 second faster than the one it replaced. Still, it got me a good £70 servo for £20

All in all another fabulous night with lots of tips and info and I have now talked and mingled with everyone. Like starting anything new you might not have the right gear or the best gear and I've realized It doesn't matter. Everyone is so eager to be tinkering with their own cars there not interested in looking at what you've got in terms of quality or quantity but are interested to come and give you pointers. Two guys showed me on their little lathes how to skim the motors, others showed me there preferences on wiring and batteries it's great fun.

You can bash for ten years, but you'll learn as much in just a month of racing. as you've already found out there's a whole new world of r/c cars that non racers never see. It sounds like a great club, clubs are either a friendly bunch where the purpose of the evening is to enjoy yourself no matter what you have, or some clubs take themselves too seriously and racers spend a fortune taking their racing too seriously for a weekly club meet. Guess which type of club is really popular with new racers and which club is struggling at attract new members and they don't understand why.

when he crashed on my first nights racing at my feet, it took me 0.05 seconds to react and 0.05 seconds to get it going in the right direction for which I was called a "F+++in Idiot!, can't you be any F+++ing slower!!"

I tend to leave the car where it is, look at the driver and say pardon? They either realise they are being a prat or it winds them up even more.
I suppose I have the advantage that it's my club so he's got no one to complain to.

[Sideways-King]

I tend to leave the car where it is, look at the driver and say pardon? They either realise they are being a prat or it winds them up even more.
I suppose I have the advantage that it's my club so he's got no one to complain to.

Nice one I like it! You were right that you learn more in such a short space of time by going along and the mix of people is what makes it fun. Theres the bunch of guys that are happy to stick the tyre additive on sit back and have a pint, then theres others in a cloud of smoke soldering motor wires and the funny bit there isn't that much difference between them

[94eg!]

LOL! Another great read. Thanks again!!!

As for connectors, I don't know what your talking about. I direct solder my batteries every race...

With my car, there really is no clean way to wire a connector. There is only enough room for each wire to sneak past on either side of a cell.

[terry.sc]

Hard wiring cells into the car seems to be an American thing, it's certainly pretty rare in Europe. A Corally tube on each end of the battery pack instead of the battery bars you attach the wires to and you just plug in the wires. No hassle, no less efficient and no different layout to a hard wired setup. If you can solder a wire to the battery you have plenty of space for a Corally connector. Plenty of examples here as Corally connectors are fitted to every car shown in the pictures.

[Mr. ED]

Hard wiring cells into the car seems to be an American thing, it's certainly pretty rare in Europe. A Corally tube on each end of the battery pack instead of the battery bars you attach the wires to and you just plug in the wires. No hassle, no less efficient and no different layout to a hard wired setup.

More improtant no hot iron on the bench ready to cause accidents and most improtant:
eacht ime you hard wire the same 2 cells and heat them up you're affecting their performance and risking damaging them.

Personally I prefer stick packs over side by side: with the tubes insulated at the end of the wires there's less risk of short circuiting in storage.

[94eg!]

The outside cells still see less heat overall due their increased cooling area. When both charging and running, the 4 inner cells get quite a bit hotter than the outer two. A little soldering on the outer two does no damage (especially since it's on bars). They still maintain better performance over their life than the inner cells. And as for worrying bout a "hot" iron in the pits, that's just silly. Do you have any idea how often a soldering iron is used during a race session for things other than soldering ESCs to batteries? Just at last nights races I rewired a friends pack, soldered new brushes, and wired two motors. My soldering station sees plenty of action in once race night. It's a necessity when racing, so what's the difference...

IMO: Corally tubes on the ends of the packs makes the fit in storage boxes and equalizer trays terrible. I'll pass until I go lipo...

[terry.sc]

If you don't have a battery tray capable of fitting batteries with Corally connectors (it's harder to find one that won't fit them over here) then you stick them on top, like here:


I bet you won't be soldering the lipos in though, most have Corally connectors built in.

I'm not a fan of Corallys myself, my own preference are Powerpoles which are also easy to fit in your leads. I use them as they are colour coded - but I've still managed to plug them in the wrong way round a couple of times. If I used Corallys I'd get through loads of dead ESCs.

Do you have any idea how often a soldering iron is used during a race session for things other than soldering ESCs to batteries?

Yes, about once every few weeks if you are using brushless systems, certainly no more for weekly club racing. The only time a soldering iron goes near my racers is when I'm rebuilding my brushed motors, so when I'm racing weekly once a month at most, quite often less, and not at the club. I stopped taking a soldering iron to the club as no one wanted one. At big meetings I do rebuild motors after every other race, but for weekly club meets unless I've broken something I never touch the car between heats.

The point of normal club racing should be to enjoy yourself first and foremost, which is what attracts newcomers like Sideways-King to the sport. Having a culture of taking club meets seriously (weekly motor rebuilds/constant setup tweaking/tyre warmers) is what frightens away newcomers compared with spending time between heats chatting with your mates. I must be doing something right as I have more racers turning up than I can possibly fit in while the more serious local club has a third of the members.

[Singapore_959]

...The point of normal club racing should be to enjoy yourself first and foremost, which is what attracts newcomers like Sideways-King to the sport. Having a culture of taking club meets seriously (weekly motor rebuilds/constant setup tweaking/tyre warmers) is what frightens away newcomers compared with spending time between heats chatting with your mates. I must be doing something right as I have more racers turning up than I can possibly fit in while the more serious local club has a third of the members.

Coool. That's the way it should be.


We have a couple of guys of the o-too-serious mentality at our meets. The wails of pure pain when their car is not rescued can sound like someone in mortal pain or labour. I have taken to shouting back "Boy or girl?" lol



As our races are Fri night and all day Sat we do have solders along and the get used quite a bit. But I'd be very happy to have less tools and parts to kart along for just an evening race somewhere.

Sounds like a great club, Terry. Where abouts is it, on one of my trips to the UK I'd like to see if I could come by.

[94eg!]

Agree to disagree...

[terry.sc]

Doesn't everybody

[Sideways-King]

I'm really greatful to the seasoned veterans terry.sc, 94eg!, Mr.Ed with their contributions to this thread. I think it's great that your knowledge is being added to this in the same essence of going along to a club night for the first time and getting help. I won't do a running report every week as I don't want to kill off the excitement of being a newbie for others and I still hope that by doing this it will encourage people to go along and have a dabble. I will do another two then it's more like a month in the life of a newcomer.

Anyway back on track (pardon the pun!) I sat down and changed all my connectors to Corally on Friday night in preparation for tomorrow nights meeting. Our little boy was in bed, me and my wife we're in the study, me of course with the RC stuff laid out everywhere and a haze of solder smoke and my better half learning the marvels of EBay. This was 9pm, after a peck on the cheek an hour or so later and a "don't stay up too late, we've got Mother's Day shoppping tomorrow" I then collected all may batteries up and sat on the bedroom floor with the heat shrink cut to length with Laura's hairdryer humming away to finish off the job.
" What the devil are you doing?"
looking very pleased with myself and my new found modification techniques I began to say " I'm just heating up this......."
"I know what your ******** doing but is 2am!"
Oh no, it's begining to take over my life...... I mean is that bad that i had to get away from my mothers, then hurry up the roast dinner I made for Laura on Mother's Day just so I could charge up my batteries!

I've got the bug!

[Mr. ED]

Oh no, it's begining to take over my life...... I mean is that bad that i had to get away from my mothers, then hurry up the roast dinner I made for Laura on Mother's Day just so I could charge up my batteries!

I've got the bug!

You can allways try this: put a dab of CA on your left hands thumb then put your pinky on it and keep them together for about 10 sec.
Now you're guaranteed to do little else than zap the channels on the TV with your right hand for a couple hours at least

[Sideways-King]

Race Night 3 – The Crystal Capers….

My third of four installments into my first month of RC racing. Having arrived nice and early to help the guys set up and get myself organized and composed for the nights fun it soon fell into another full on heart pounding sweat fest. New additions tonight included new wheels and tyres(glued this time!) and plenty of carpet gripper. After signing on I was called back to the registration desk to see if I could swap crystals as there was a lot of drivers running 27mhz tonight, not a problem as I bought a complete set off Ebay as in the first post. This was a big mistake!. I swiftly changed band and nothing…… not even any interference? Mmmm, I went through another set… nothing, then another, and another. They we’re all dud! Well one set may have worked if I hadn’t lost it through the slot in the transmitter where you place the crystal and was for the rest of the night rattling around in the handset like a lost screw. I put in some of my old crystals they worked fine, then another set, they too worked fine? Problem was other drivers we’re on them in the races.

Time was now ticking towards the first race when the computer system piped up in his finest Steven Hawkins voice “4 minutes until the first race”
‘Oh ****’ I thought as I now begun to sweat like a monkey and dance around in a flapping panic. To no avail I could find any, or anyone, to help so I walked over to the race control and said I’d have to quit before I begun and am going home. Then a head peered up from behind a pit box, as the club runners and top drivers also pit around the race control, “here you go mate try these” as a neatly packed box pirouetted through the air towards me. Shocked, it was my ‘friend’ whom the last two weeks had used the abusive language! I said I would bring them back at the end of the night, but he didn’t want them? I offered him money, but again he didn’t want them? He explained he’d been on 40mhz for years and couldn’t remember the last time he used them and was again swapping channels next week so the 40’s wouldn’t become redundant too. I swiftly, well if you call a 15 stone screaming banshee running towards his table with a ‘woo, woo, who’s got the crystals….come on!’ looks swift, and began installing them. “YES… get in there” it worked…….

Heat 1
(all that and I hadn’t even started yet!)
It was well over half way into the race but I jumped in just to get some track time and see if this pistol style grip would suit me better. I’d used the ‘sticks’ for over 20 years and have become a staple part of my RC lifestyle, I’d tried the pistol types when I’d got them bundled in with a nitro car and a 1/18th truggy I had but didn’t like them and dismissed them after about 5 minutes use, never to see them again. As I’ve found out that racing is nothing like bashing I thought I’d try this style again as it came with the 2nd hand car I’ve just bought. W H A T A D I F F E R E N C E ! I’m still in awe at how I’ve chucked these to one side for so long and within seconds I was on it, and by far this has been the single biggest improvement for me in the three weeks of racing.
I started 8th and finished 6th, but as there was 2 none finishers I was still effectively last, but put in some personal best lap times.
During the heats I went to thank my ‘Crystal’ comrade. And it all clicks into place now, it all makes sense finally. Behind the ‘sticks’ with eyes on the cars people become transfixed, demented, dare I say it ‘**** mental’ even! When there little piece of grand prix action is over everyone calms down and all is cool. He’s actually a polite chap whom after a good chat we found common ground and understood my logic from my reactions the last couple of weeks. Either that or nobody has stood up to him before. All is great.

Heat 2
As the crystal panic was over and I began to relax again I was enjoying it. I mean I was enjoying it anyway but the heart pounding panic I went through you’d think I’d just lost my son in the Supermarket! God knows what I’d be like if I had, there’d be no one on their feet with me wading though :lol:LOL !
The pistol grip was now becoming more precise for my driving, albeit with a lost rattling crystal somewhere inside!?!?! I’d started 6th and finished 2nd, lapping, even double lapping some of the other drivers, consistency I have now found is the key to winning. There’s no point in gunning it and over shooting and crashing into every corner I come across, I’m happy to let others have a dog fight for now and take each other on as I’m beating them in the long run anyway undertaking there over shoots.
That said the biggest cheer of the night came from my flying Schuey again! On the last lap it gripped that much into one corner it bit down and began to barrel roll violently, then end over end, still at racing speeds, where upon it hit the wall that hard with all 4 wheels flatly hitting the wall perfectly and the chassis making a loud whip cracking ‘THWACK’ as that too followed through. I was still full bore on the throttle and I swear it accelerated 12 inches or so UP the wall. Thank heavens there wasn’t a marshall there! As it limped back round I thought ‘that’s it, no more spares tonight you best get packing up.’ Another marshall ushered the car towards him where upon he picked it up, fiddled for a bit and put it down. To my amazement it was fine and all that had happened was the steering arm had come off the ball joint…. locate – snap – sorted!

Heat 3 (final 1)
I started 2nd and after the first lap was done I was in the lead bringing it home in first. The only drama I felt was my new bunch of racing friends shouting ‘he’s leading’ and ‘keep it up’, ‘slow in to that corner’, bringing me out in a cold sweat. I bet Lewis Hamilton feels proper chuffed if I’m getting a buzz out of this. I got the fastest lap and my personal best of 14.05 seconds but more importantly to me was my average time of 15.56 seconds so I felt pretty consistent.

Heat 4 (final 2)
As previous I began 2nd and soon got into 1st place to bring home another win which I am suitable proud of. Once more the times were similar and my new found friend in the pistol grip will now become my new regular. I would like to swap to different frequencies 40mhz, 2.4ghz etc., when I can get my head around it as there appears to be more gear out there available. It all felt a little twitchy at times and I put down to interference, so if anyone has any guidance or recommendations it would be greatly received.

My target for my final installment is to start and finish every race, regardless of where I come position wise. All in All another great night.

Oh and does anyone recommend a decent pit hauler box, there appears to be lots of styles and designs but I can’t find a range of them anywhere on the internet. I have for years used a Stanley roller tool box job from B&Q, which is OK and other people have them but it gets all my kit in and not the spares which I have to carry in a separate bag

[Mr. ED]

Race Night 3 – The Crystal Capers….

Got no advise at all this time, just want to congratualate you on getting it in the fingers so fast.
Only 1 more report? Pitty; I really like them.

[skip665]

Only 1 more report? Pitty; I really like them.

Agreed - I like your enthusiastic style - keep them coming!

I wish I could race but there is nothing close to me