First race with M08

[Starky_UK]

Just had my first race night using my M08. Previously it had been set up as a rally car in SWB with a Porsche 959 and then a VW Polo body.

Having driven it a couple of times on carpet I knew the 'rally' set up that work well in the garden and driveway, would not be competitive against the M05s & M07s I normally race against.

After a quick google search I found a few example set-up sheets to get an idea of a possible baseline setup to start from as I would not get any track time to play around before the event. I wouldn't even be able to get to the race meet in time for the practice session or have much time between heats to make changes (as I was also racing my TT01e truck). 

Q1 & 2 was fun and the initial set up seemed to be a good starting point but I had a lot of off power understeer. Traction out of the slow corners was good. 

For Q3 I went for harder springs all round. Blue in the front and yellow in the back. This seemed to get the front working harder but took until the second half of the round for the tyres to heat up and the understeer to be more manageable.

Whilst the car was fun to drive, and fast on the main straight, I was loosing out in the twisty section so I only managed to qualify 5th. 

The race was great fun and I placed 3rd albeit 2 laps adrift. I had decided that I had nothing to lose so went for harder springs all round, white out front and blue in the back. This worked great to further reduce the understeer after a few laps but rear was now breaking loose out of the slow corners. 

The set up definitely needs work. I have new shocks to build up as I didn't want to change the current ones so I can quickly revert it back to 'rally' spec, so I'll try to get a few hours of track time to dial it in better. 

Definitely a fun car to drive but I'm not fully convinced I can make up the 2 lap deficit to the leaders. 

Another issue to overcome... twice I drove off in the wrong direction! Once when a marshal placed the car back on track facing the wrong way and the other time after collecting a car that had rolled out of view behind a pillar within our track space, spinning me round. I normally paint a bright window strip with this paint scheme to help quickly identify the orientation but forgot to add it! An easy fix with some vinyl.
 

[sosidge]

You'll always be fighting understeer with the M-08. Remove the spacers to reduce rear toe, run M-07 front suspension mount and c-hubs, remove the front bar and run the same spring rate all round will all help to generate steering. Running the car SWB also helps.

An M-08 is definitely competitive with an M-07, depending on track layout can often be faster. Of course depends on driving as well. We don't have as many Tamiyas running at my club as we used to (because we allow any mini chassis, and because Tamiya supply chain is unreliable, lots of people have switched to other manufacturers like Xpress). But with a bit of effort I can keep my M-08 in sight of the others.

[Starky_UK]

1 hour ago, sosidge said:

You'll always be fighting understeer with the M-08. Remove the spacers to reduce rear toe, run M-07 front suspension mount and c-hubs, remove the front bar and run the same spring rate all round will all help to generate steering. Running the car SWB also helps.

An M-08 is definitely competitive with an M-07, depending on track layout can often be faster. Of course depends on driving as well. We don't have as many Tamiyas running at my club as we used to (because we allow any mini chassis, and because Tamiya supply chain is unreliable, lots of people have switched to other manufacturers like Xpress). But with a bit of effort I can keep my M-08 in sight of the others.

Had read about using the M07 parts, will definitely give that a go. Also did wonder about matching the spring rate front and back... just got accustomed to running one spring rate harder on the front with my TT01, M05 & M07 as that seems to work well for me. 

Thanks for the suggestions, will give them a try. 

[Eric Bloodsmith]

I've been running my BT-01 FR all day for RbP and playing with springs. Having the same spring rate front to rear is very important. I'll also definitely be reducing my rear toe-in before tomorrow's run.

[Starky_UK]

Second race with my M08 coming up this week. New shocks built and a few setup changes made. 

Going with the same spring rates all round kicking off with medium (red). Also reduced the rear toe to 2.6°. 

I've left the front sway bar for now as that can be easily removed trackside once I've tested the above changes. Im also planning to leave using the M-07 front suspension mount and c-hubs until I have some track testing time in a few weeks. 

[Starky_UK]

Still not got the set up working for me. It's been a balancing act between too much understeer and too little on power rear grip. Last nights track layout had a lot of tight hairpins in the first half of the lap and I seemed to be losing most time there and also braking for the first corner (a tight hairpin) where the backend was stepping out.

Removing the front sway bar helped a little and adding 0.7mm of shims to increase the rear toe helped keep the backend in check for the first corner. 

Things that didn't work included trying medium tyres front and back. I actually ended up parking it mid way through that heat as it was just all over the place and knew I would not be improving my qualifying position.

The race started OK and I held on for a lap or two and then the rest (all FWD) started to pull away once their front tyres had warmed up. After a few minutes of racing (and a few mistakes), things started to settle down and I found some balance in the car. I couldn't push too hard but was able to start closing in on the guy ahead of me and managed to pass him a few laps before the end.

Finished 4th but there was only 5 running in the final. Still 2 laps adrift.  

Next up will be to test out using the M07 parts, some new tyres and different spring rates. 

[Starky_UK]

Back out racing tonight after a few weeks off with a nasty sinus infection (had to pull out mid way through my last race because of it). 

Fitted M07 front suspension mount and c-hubs. Also have a few more sets of springs to play around with. 

My Stedi sanding sticks that I got for building Gundam kits worked brilliantly for fine tuning the fitment of the c-hubs. 

Way out of contention for the current championship now, so can just have some fun working on the set up and learning the best way to drive this car.

[Starky_UK]

The M08 was much better handling last night after the switch to the M07 parts at the front end.

However, we were also allowed to run additive for the first time in this class as the new carpet at the track had been pulled up after a water leak. As a result we were running on old carpet that initially had no grip what so ever.

As I can only get to the track after the practice and first rounds have already started, I literally only just got the car unpacked and out on track in time for my first heat. No time for any trackside prep, so no additive and had to adjust to the handling changes on the fly. It felt better but had a lot of inconsistent understeer initially. Finished the first round last on 17 laps, 4 laps adrift. 

For the second round I had the time do tyre prep and make a few small adjustments on the TX. Managed 21 laps and only one adrift from the pace setter. The third round felt even better but I didn't get to see results so was pleasantly surprised find out i had qualified 3rd. 

The race started well and I was hanging on to the leading pair and building a gap behind. Unfortunately after they had a slight tangle the leader was able to pull a gap and check out up front whilst we raced for second. I made a few small mistakes and that was all second place needed to pull a gap. The rest of the race I just settled for keeping a gap behind to 4th place which was going well until the final few laps. I got held up letting the leader pass who then made a mistake in front of me. This put 4th place right on my tail. On the final lap with only a few corners to go I made a small mistake and lost 3rd place. 

It was a vast improvement over the last outing, and finishing on the same lap as 2nd & 3rd place means I now mainly need to now work on my consistency and reduce those few little driver errors. 

Hopefully the improvements were not just down to the use of additives... if they are, I need to hope they continue to let us use it!

 A great nights racing, not just because of the continued improvements of the car, but also because of the close and fair racing with a great group of people. Also helps that I won the Truck race

[Starky_UK]

Game on! The M08 was running great again at this weeks race and I'm getting a better and more consistent feel for the car. 

We were back to no additives for this round so I was pleased to find that it was not it's use last time out that improved the handling. 

Had a technical issue in Q1 which meant my transponder only logged about half my laps but Q2 & 3 the car felt quicker and I just missed out on qualifying second.

The race was really good. I managed to take 2nd in the opening laps and was maintaining a good gap to first place and even started gaining after a few laps. Unfortunately I lost ground once we started to catch the back markers. I had a good 2-3 lap battle to get past one of them (technically as they were being lapped they should have yielded) and another was a little erratic and spun me round (he had also tangled with the leader). I kept pushing hard was was able to close the gap back down finishing 2nd, about half a lap back.

My M05 & M07 are much easier to drive and more forgiving of my errors but the M08 is just so much fun to drive.

Set up wise, I'm happy were it's at and only made a few adjustments on the TX this time out.