jupitertwo

Quite, I’m even running the chain drive too Thundershot‘s not too far behind either, comparable best lap time. I need to get some grass runs in, seems unnatural to run the Optima on asphalt. Plaudits as well to you for getting that Cougar to rotate so much. I tried a Super Astute rere, but I just couldn’t get it turning very well. The Optima revels in the lower grip conditions though. I expect if I give this circuit a go on grass, I’ll be grip rolling most of the time.

Great round everyone, that’s a good turn out! Close battles too, these small tracks are a great leveller. @mud4fun I think your 3rd place, a few seconds off the win, on grass! When we get let out of our houses your Cougar is going to be a weapon on that rec ground car park!

Hehe, it still gets filled with snow: one of the advantages of the XV01 is that is mostly enclosed inside, and the wheel arches help. so it only really got slowed down by sheer weight of snow or traction

Managed to grab a few minutes to get a new run in. Earlier in the week I’d been able to make some progress on a Civic shell, so I retrieved my FF03 from storage, added a servo and gave her a spin. Quite literally on the hairpins! Not sure if it’s the cold weather or the characteristics of the fwd? Still, fun, and a comparable count to my other runs. also gave my extended lap monitor shroud a go, seems to help tighten the beam now need to remember to email the results in

Fusion is 10% if you’re a subscriber . If you email them they’ll send you a discount code. I think it was 5% if you weren’t a member, but I’ve never used that and could be completely wrong. never heard of a Time Tunnel discount apart from their advertised eBay offers https://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?/forum/38-tamiyaclub-sponsors-forum/

I’m not sure what the wheels are, just regular sized touring car wheels I think. The tyres are CC01 style soft blocks. Mud Blocks I think (54735), softer than the rock blocks. They’re a little big, taller than the stock XV01T tires, so a little more trimming of the body, and some slight end point reduction to stop them fouling the inside of the chassis. They stick nicely though, and are close to the look I wanted. I’d like to find a new body though, those seem thin on the ground.

Yes, it does perfectly XV01 and an XV01T: XV01 vs TT02. The Subaru body used to be on my XV01 till I got the Audi one. So perfectly interchangeable, so yes the new Escort shell will fit fine. Only issues the XV01 has is with low nose cars, due to the motor position HTH

You’ve done a great job with those, well done. Love the Porsche red, is it a Tamiya colour mix or something else?

Very nice! what colour is the Evo, and what sticker set did you use?

@mud4fun I printed out the sun visor for the LapMonitor from Thingiverse It should help, though I’m tempted to try a much more shrouded version to make the field of vision narrower. I also mad a simple platform for the XV01s, I noticed they have antenna holes in the chassis in a handy place.

Took the XV01s out for an afternoon in the melting snow. They were pretty good at helping clear the snow from the driveway The Audi especially All that gave me the right time to put a Christmas present to use Did very nicely, though I wouldn’t recommend doing it anywhere you can’t easily clean! Also ‘helped’ take the loose paint of the inside of the Audi. I’ll be finding out next week how well patch painting holds. XV01T kept on ticking. Quite impressed with my 5 year olds handing of it. Only a silver can, but I wound it up to full power once he got started. Controlled it nicely, seems to be learning that the throttle control isn’t binary However XV01 was not so lucky, started to cut out on a fresh battery, so after the blow dry it’s time to see if it survived.

I’m in Milton Keynes at the moment, so it might be on the way? We had nothing at 10am, it all came down quickly. Had to get the kids outside to make the most of it

@mud4fun yeah, I’ve seen a few shade someone put on Thingiverse. I certainly think it reflected off a silver car, so I can imagine frost confusing it. I agree on it balancing out in the end. Much like if you over cook it in to the hairpin. you get a mega quick lap, but the next one suffers as you recover. I thought about trying a race today, but it really, really wasn’t worth it A bit of drifting practice, but any loss of momentum and XV01T just becomes a snow plough

Managed to get three runs in today. 1st up my XV01T, which was a lot more competitive that I thought it was going to be. The damp cold conditions seemed to suit the chunky tyres, so enough grip but able to slide on the hairpins Then this afternoon a couple of spins with the TB05. With it snowing I figured I’d put some rally blocks on, which then made me nervous for the AMG body, so out came a basher body. This was a hoot, the tyres seemed a good match, allowing some wide slides but still working nicely. Not beaten my Optima’s count yet, but with the state of the weather, that might be a done deal. Still hoping for some snow to stick, so I can have a few snow laps on the chart.

My point was that it sounded like the tracks were basically touring car tracks with the odd bump, so might suit more regular touring cars better? I like my XV01s a lot, they’re my go to chassis. However I also never see XV01s talked about in regular touring car situations, so if this racing is in reality just touring cars with scale bodies... I’m trying to learn and understand what it is happening when I’m driving, so it’d be great if you could expand on the XV01 behaviour? I’m not really part of the FF01 club, so it’d be great to learn from your experience? Doing some Postal racing this afternoon, I ran my TB05 with rally blocks in wet conditions - asphalt with light snow coming down but not settling. A hoot, but in 15 minutes of running it picked up a fair amount of dirt So doing it on something with loose dirt, it could be a nightmare. Whereas the standard XV01 will be unaffected, save for the usual pebble issues in the steering?

Astro and asphalt - are those high grip, so making it more like touring cars with jumps/bumps? I could imagine like that the XV01 won’t excel, whereas a TB05 might well excel. Nothing to clog it up, and a more modern touring car design. Not much opportunity to swing the back end around?

Could you petition them to build a designated RC track at Churchdown Park, given there’s a specific area for skaters, bmx’s as well as the play area?

What’s the group name? I don’t do facebook, but I’m interested in that area, so it’d be great to read what people are up to. Are mid motors preferred for neutral handling and stability in jumps? Hopefully the rally jumps are more scale, so the nose heavy aspect of the XV01 shouldn’t be so troublesome? Looking at my TB05, it’s has a nice mid motor option, which is fairly inboard vs the TA07 hanging out. However the frame chassis means it’s full of holes, which might not be ideal. From the Postal racing, in amateur hands the TT02S isn’t far behind the TB05, so I’d imagine it’s fairly capable in a rally setting with its ride height settings. Add that to the bathtub chassis, maybe that’s a good cheaper starting point?

Those are some tasty lap times - sub 6s on a couple! I think all your testing and tweaking is helping your ability to be consistent, though after 2000 laps, have you worn a groove in to your garden?

Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see what @Truck Norris’s experience is with his delayed Tamico order. I avoided courier RCMart stuff in the past, as that was always billed for customs charges. I don’t recall if their processing fee was any better than Royal Mail’s. If folks like Tamico are able to remove the VAT before sending, that’ll be great. That’s the main pain, being pinged twice for 19/20%. I would wonder if the VAT processing fee becomes part of the couriers competitive advantage.

Oh yeah, Banzai! they used to be my go to for Kyosho bits. Last few times I checked they were always out of stock sadly.

That’s good news, though my wallet may disagree With the €14 shipping previously, I’d tended to accumulate bigger orders anyway. I wonder when it all boils out how competitive they’ll be with UK prices, or if they’ll be more for unusual stuff now? I’ve never really found a Tamiya specialist in the UK, Tony on eBay is very handy but can be a bit pricey. Or am I just spoilt by RCMart pricing?

Thanks for the update, that’s great to hear

I found these folks had some in the UK: https://www.pbmracing.co.uk/products/lap-monitor/ The makers aren’t shipping to the UK right now last I checked.

Thought I’d have a crack at this one this evening Still some more to add, but not as painful as I’d expected. The TC01 was a lot less fun. Not perfect, but it was never going to be, and I do want to drive this one, so I’ll feel less guilty.