1:8 Rallycross, Mendip RC Raceway

[Mad Ax 6681]

After all this, I qualified last out of 13 drivers for 7th spot in the B final - a far cry from my first outing with the club car last year!

Final 1 was promising to go well until I had some bad laps, and would have finished last if one of the other racers hadn't retired after 2 laps.  By Final 2, the clouds had come out and although the air felt a little warmer as the wind had dropped, the track temperature dropped off sharply and with it, the front end grip.  I had been able to take the big sweeping left-hander flat out, but in the final race I would run wide and end up in the grass over and over.  Again, only a retirement saved me from getting last place.

Still, it was epic fun, and at least I have some things to change which should make a huge difference to the handling.

I was also told that I should buy a rear shock tower to go on the front - this allows the shocks to stand up more and gives more options for tuning, and also that my wheels are the new "hard" type - which retain their shape better in warm weather, when the standard wheels go soft and cause the tyres to overheat, but in cold weather they prevent the tyres from getting up to temp.  I'm not sure I can justify replacing the tyres, as I'm looking at buying all new electrics for my Revival cars this year.

Anyway, the next round is in less than a fortnight, so I've got some adjustments to make this weekend, and hopefully it'll feel like a different car when I get back on track.

[Mad Ax 6681]

So there has been another development in the modification plans, as I started looking into this rear-shock-tower-on-the-front business, mostly because I needed to place an order with Wheelspin today and wanted to get the shock tower ordered if I needed it.

Fortunately I checked with the owner of the pit shop, as apparently it's the front shock tower of a Hyper SS that I need, not the rear off a Hyper GT.  Also I'm glad I checked before I started rebuilding the shocks, as it turns out the longer shock shafts make the shocks too long to fit with the standard shock tower - it would have been annoying to get the shocks assembled only to find they don't fit.

The pit shop owner is going to have the correct shock tower in stock next week, and will bring it to the track for me in just under a fortnight.  Shock rebuild and diff loading planned for this weekend!

[Mad Ax 6681]

So the weekend came and went, and I got some time in the workshop to get through various jobs on the Hyper GT.

First was the shock rebuild.  These shafts are quite a bit longer - the stock shaft is fairly short, and there's a fair gap between the top of the piston and the top of the cylinder, so there's plenty of room for a longer shaft.

The shock bodies are too big to fit in my shock bleeding vacuum thing, but the 50wt oil that I was recommended bleeds itself well enough if the shocks are left to sit for a while.  I also used some Associated green slime on the shafts to keep them moving smoothly.

Believe it or not, the shocks actually go back on the car with the standard front tower.  Way more droop is now achievable, which means I can run a higher ride and still have some suspension.  I'll be picking up a new shock tower at the track next time out, so I'll see then what the fuss is about.

 

[Mad Ax 6681]

Next job on the list was to rebuild the diff with 1,000,000 wt oil.  I say oil, it's more like wax.  Candle wax, perhaps.  Oil with the power of a million candles.  Have you ever gone into a corner with 500,000 wt oil in your diff and said "This is hopeless, I got no traction here, better throw in another five hundred thousand!"

The diff, like the rest of the car, is a seriously chunky bit of chunk.

The standard oil looks a bit grey, like there's already some wear on the diff.  There shouldn't be, after only two race days, but maybe that's just how the gears bed in, or maybe the diff wasn't exactly clean to start with.

I dismantled the whole thing and gave everything a bit of a clean.  I wasn't worried about making it spotless, just gave it all a bit of a wipe.

OK, let's add some million weight oil.

er...  We're gonna need a spoon!

[Mad Ax 6681]

Yeah, squidge a load of that stuff in there!

er...  that might have been a bit too much..?

Got the beast reassembled and ready for the next round.  I'll need to set the ride height when I get to the track, but I'll probably have time to replace that front shock tower while I'm there so I'll probably be setting the ride height several times.

Next round is this Sunday, so stay tuned to see if the car gets more controllable and can get me off the bottom spot on the timesheets

[Tamiyastef 1040]

Nice thread. I really like the concept of rallycross and used it when me and my son were racing eachother during a holiday. I had only my Mid with me and we took turns to drive on a temporary track we build. The one needing the shortest time to complete 5 laps (one bonus lap with some extra turns) won. By the end of day two he beat me allthough I was driving for years and he was only in the hobby for a few months...