Do all hop-ups make a difference?

[Superba 4]

I Have recently been racing an M05 with a friend on an outdoor asphalt track. We have been deliberately upgrading the vehicles at the same time but i recently acquired a chassis that is mostly blue anodised rather than black plastic. In looking at this i wondered what views people had on whether they actually make a difference? Will an anodised steering rod really change things?...

[markbt73 5315]

Nope, the only time you'll notice a difference is if/when you crash into something. Alloy parts that replace plastic transfer the force of a crash on to the next plastic part, so instead of breaking the C-hub, you'll break the gearbox housing/suspension arm mount. Other than that, it's purely cosmetic.

[Saito2 6686]

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[speedy_w_beans 4272]

Personally I think it's the philosophy that goes into setting up a car that is much more important than how much blue aluminum is put on it.  The blue aluminum implies "performance," but that's not necessarily the case if the parts aren't used to their full potential.  At least in a racing environment, you have to ask yourself:

• How is the car performing right now?  What is the problem that is slowing you down or annoying you?
• How do you want it to perform in the future?
• Are there setup changes you can make to the current car to affect its behavior?  (Inexpensive and immediate)
• Can you modify the kit plastic parts to make a change?  (Inexpensive but a greater time investment and some potential for unintended consequences)
• If you're buying the blue aluminum, what exactly is it giving you that you can't achieve with the kit plastic?  (More pricey but potentially saves time and provides more tuning range)

If you're thinking in terms of tire compounds and tread patterns vs. racing surface and temperature, rear toe-in, front toe-out, front caster, front and rear camber, roll centers, ride height, droop, etc. that will naturally lead you to some common hop up parts such as adjustable upper suspension arms, rear toe-in hubs, turnbuckle steering links, threaded aluminum oil dampers, and maybe a few other parts too.  It all starts with what you're trying to improve in terms of the car's performance, what adjustment or change you need to make it happen, and most time/cost-effective route to getting there (within the track's class rules).

[LeftyAl 164]

Some hopups are good for performance. e.g. bearings, whilst others are good for durability. I tend to lose a few dogbones and have found that using CVDs tends to stop that. So a hopup that increases run time is always good.

Have tried a lot of bling upgrades and all they tend to do is either break or move the breaking point to another component. Harder is not always better.  A dirift car with lots of chassis stiffening hop ups would be good to help with the rapid direction changes needed. On my F103 I installed the carbon rear axle and 30 secs into a drive I have slide a rear wheel of the car into a rather hard object. Axle snapped in 2.

Lighter gears or rotating parts in a transmission are good to have. 

So the answer to your quesion is "probably not much of a difference even if there was a way to measure it." Servo speed and reducing friction in the steering assembly would have a a better impact.

Speedy in on the money with his thoughts. Some people think using all the hop up will make their car faster. It is a bit like how fishing lures catch more fishermen than fish.... 

[MadInventor 3884]

The only thing I would add is that generally 'blue bits' are machined rather the plastic parts which are injection moulded, so they have better tolerances and can reduce the amount of slop in components. Whether or not this gives any noticeable performance increase is debatable, but it is a tangible benefit of having machined metal parts vs injection moulded plastic parts.

[_oliK 108]

Short answer: No.

Long answr: Nooooooo.

Serious answer: Not all parts will make your car faster. But as stated above, they might improve durability. Or lower durability by transferring the force somewhere more vulnerable. But Alu bits won't wear out as fast. I'm thinking of the TT-01 control arm mountings for example, that would just super loose over time. Which is also a good point. Precision and such.

Aluminum steering arms might help with that, but if your servo is still all over the place and all bearings and ballheads are screwed, is that really going to make a difference? Are you even a good enough driver to feel this or justify worrying about this?

Weight and maintenance is also an issue. I remeber people using aluminum bulkheads specifically for added weight and traction, or so that the threads don't strip with repeated dis-and reassemblies. But in terms of weight, aluminum arms will add unpsprung weight and reduce dampening capabilities.

And then there's overbuilding. Do you want a complicated thousand euro machine that you have to fix and worry about all the time? Or a medium fast car or even a cheap beater that you can drive like crazy for hours on end?

It really depends on what you want, your mindset, and keeping the bigger picture in mind. An aluminum part might rub against and wear out plastic. Blue screws might look cool, but where else is that money spent more wisely?

But in the end, build whatever you want, get an anodised bumper mount, pink ball ends, and brake disks. If we're gonna spend hundreds of bucks on useless toys, we might as well do it properly.

[Nicadraus 6197]

Not all hop-ups makes difference in performance. Some aluminum parts actually make the car heavier. But we have to admit, they make a good difference in looks.

Bling! Bling! 

[TurnipJF 9192]

On 6/3/2019 at 8:47 PM, Superba said:

I Have recently been racing an M05 with a friend on an outdoor asphalt track. We have been deliberately upgrading the vehicles at the same time but i recently acquired a chassis that is mostly blue anodised rather than black plastic. In looking at this i wondered what views people had on whether they actually make a difference? Will an anodised steering rod really change things?...

Of course! The blue alloy turnbuckle steering rod is probably the most important hop-up on my M-05!

The turnbuckle can be adjusted without removing the ball connectors, so they won't get stretched and will last longer with less slop. 

The alloy is lighter, thus contributing to a lower overall weight and lower centre of gravity as the steering rod is one of the highest points on the chassis.

Also, being lighter it has less inertia, so the steering servo has less load, so steering response is quicker. It also draws less current to move a lighter linkage, so runtimes are increased.

There is also the psychological aspect. A car with a blue alloy steering rod is clearly superior to one with a standard steel one, so my race opponents with stock rods will feel awe and wonder at its blue splendour, and the gnawing shame they feel at running stock rods will distract them while driving, giving me an advantage. 

...Plus it is just easier to adjust a turnbuckle! 

[Superba 4]

All good input so thanks. Last question is how the heck do the M05 battery holders actually work? They just seem like blue shelves. Am I missing something?

[TwistedxSlayer 1290]

 

Plastic I've found recently is nearly always lighter than the alloy part that replaces it. I'm trying to build a lightweight touring car and I've opted for more plastic than alloy parts due to the weight of them. I've used an alloy motor mount purely as its more adjustable than the plastic one.

[TurnipJF 9192]

4 hours ago, Superba said:

All good input so thanks. Last question is how the heck do the M05 battery holders actually work? They just seem like blue shelves. Am I missing something?

They don't actually hold the battery at all. They are merely there as something to wrap sticky tape around. The tape holds the battery.