Racing by post - Round 45 takes us to Anderstorp!

[Carmine A 2046]

4 hours ago, El Gecko said:

I know, sad isn't it? Although now I'm having more RC fun than ever before

What are the reputable ESC brands these days? I see a lot of "Quicrun 1060" types on Amazon with different brand names--any I should stay away from, or are they equally questionable?

IF you're running a Stock or near Stock Motor (23, 25, 27 Turn), then the 1060 will be just fine. Stay away from the Knockoffs - there are a FEW good ones, but it's very hit or miss. 

If you can go up to $40.... The Hobbywing WP1080 ESC is possibly the best Brushed ESC you can get. For ANY amount!! 

It comes with a Programming Card that's easy to use, and you can adjust nearly everything - including Drag Brake - from not at all to rip the Tires off!! 😲 

When I Raced, I used Novak ESCs exclusively. They're out of business now, but I might STILL choose the WP1080 over them, given the chance. And I loved my Novaks!

[mud4fun 1696]

20 minutes ago, Carmine A said:

IF you're running a Stock or near Stock Motor (23, 25, 27 Turn), then the 1060 will be just fine. 

To be fair to the little 1060, I've now run three of them with 13T Dyna run super touring motors (25-30amp I think) and 2S LiPo in the postal racing and not experienced any real issues with them doing 5 minute races. They do seem to get a little hotter than the Novak's but so far they have performed fine with no cutting out. (They only have half the cooling fin area of my Novak roosters so not really surprising they run a little hotter)

I probably wouldn't want to run that combination for more than 5 minutes at a time though. Thankfully mudlets and I take turns doing our races so my car gets 10-15 mins cooling down time before next race which so far seems to keep everything working well.

I have to admit to having a growing fondness for them, for the £18-22 I paid for mine I think they are excellent value AND I love the jumpers to set the battery and brake modes - makes life so much easier when swapping between cars etc. 

[Carmine A 2046]

..... He's a bit new to the cool world of ESCs! A 1060 CAN handle down to a 12 Turn Motor. But as you well know, low Turn Motors and non adjustable Drag Brake makes for surprising stops and turns!! 😲 😊

[EvilSpike 294]

I managed to get a run at the course today.

A Lunchbox isn't quite the svelte, aggressive racing machine though.

Who'd have thought it...

[ryback 61]

My night photo on the previous page was a TT-02 Type S, tonight I gave the F104 Pro II a run out. Christ alive. Couldn’t be a more different driving experience! Took me quite a while to get subtle enough on the throttle to keep it pointing forwards a string of laps, let alone for 5 minutes. Ended up a being a few laps slower than the TT-02. Might try again another day, felt like there was still some learning curve to go.

Great fun though - thanks @TurnipJF for setting this up!

[El Gecko 1344]

Glad to hear everyone's having fun so far, I'm getting excited to run some laps this weekend, anybody else? I'm not sure if they will actually make me faster around the course, but the NiMH batteries have been a huge boost over my old NiCds, which now seem well and truly exhausted in comparison. I was actually able to run the Grasshopper IN THE GRASS in my yard today without getting stuck! And the battery lasted longer than my cold tolerance

[mud4fun 1696]

16 minutes ago, El Gecko said:

Glad to hear everyone's having fun so far, I'm getting excited to run some laps this weekend, anybody else?  

Yes, I'm hoping to get a few attempts in this weekend with my thundershot. I was thinking about using the Avante2001 but not much point as the Thundershot is quicker and better handling. The Avante2001 would just end up smashed into the concrete curb which will be just 1m away from the top pair of hairpin cones due to the limited space we have to run in, a very small gap for a fast car and being stood 6m away! At least if I crash the Thundershot it'll only cost me pennies to fix.  The Avante2001 prefers the long narrow tracks with nice long straights and plenty of room to drift around corners....

[mud4fun 1696]

@TurnipJF may I ask what pinion you were using in your thundershot with your GT tuned?

I've been using a 14 tooth with the Dyna Run Super Touring motors, seems happy with that for most of the postal track sizes, gives long run times, well only 20-25 mins from a 5000mah 2S LiPo but the Dyna Run is a 13T motor and pulls quite high amps so I'm pretty happy with that but just wondered about your pinion and run times in comparison? Maybe I could go to a 15 tooth?

[El Gecko 1344]

Anyone else manage to get a run in today? I tried, but my actual race attempts were all thwarted, once again by my own lack of preparation.

The Blackfoot should have been brilliant in its new configuration, but failed after 3 minutes with a dead battery. Apparently I have to recondition the old Traxxas NiMH pack quite a bit more before it's race-ready, so I'm back to 1 car and multiple batteries per outing.

I took the Grasshopper this time too, so I could try it with the new Gens Ace NiMH pack, which is an awesome combo! The car is faster than ever, but I forgot to change the Rx batteries, so the radio kept glitching at key moments (I need to remember to either load new ones before I leave, or pack spares). After a single weak baseline run and a few more aborted attempts, I just packed up the cones and went to play in the dirt instead (more mud than I realized--it was getting pretty dark by then!)

Hope you all had a great RC day too!

[SupraChrgd82 1425]

I made every attempt to run today, but my Amazon order of double layered fleece socks arrived.  Being a brisk 74 degrees in SoCal, I refused to take off the socks and leave the house....

[TurnipJF 9192]

21 hours ago, mud4fun said:

@TurnipJF may I ask what pinion you were using in your thundershot with your GT tuned?

I've been using a 14 tooth with the Dyna Run Super Touring motors, seems happy with that for most of the postal track sizes, gives long run times, well only 20-25 mins from a 5000mah 2S LiPo but the Dyna Run is a 13T motor and pulls quite high amps so I'm pretty happy with that but just wondered about your pinion and run times in comparison? Maybe I could go to a 15 tooth?

I use a 15t pinion with my GT Tuned, but it is a 25t motor so is easily capable of handling it. I even go up to 17t for longer tracks where top speed takes priority over acceleration. I haven't tried a Dyna Run Super Touring motor yet, so can't say anything based on personal experience, but I reckon 15t would be worth a try at least.

[mud4fun 1696]

4 hours ago, TurnipJF said:

I use a 15t pinion with my GT Tuned, but it is a 25t motor so is easily capable of handling it. I even go up to 17t for longer tracks where top speed takes priority over acceleration. I haven't tried a Dyna Run Super Touring motor yet, so can't say anything based on personal experience, but I reckon 15t would be worth a try at least.

Thanks, yes, I may give the 15t pinion a go on the next long track we do. 

I see from the specs that your GT Tuned has mighty torque (500g) compared with just 390g on the dyna run. However the GT tuned is a 19K rpm motor compared to the 33K rpm dyna run super touring. Very different motors BUT our fastest lap times from the last two rounds are almost identical which is fascinating. Will be curious to see if that pattern continues over a longer track.

My Avante2001 (Egress spec) with a dyna run beat my thundershot on the round2 track BUT the thundershot was running the 19T reedy spec motor then. I reckon the Thundershot is now the quicker car but that is yet to be proven on a longer track. If we get some decent sunny weather at some point I may setup round 2 track and run them both again. 

PS. Both mudlets and myself have Round 2 as our favourite track design so far even though none of our cars did particularly well on it LOL (other than the Avante2001)

[mud4fun 1696]

4 hours ago, El Gecko said:

Anyone else manage to get a run in today?

It rained pretty much all day here yesterday and was really windy too so no chance to get any running done.

Is it me but we seem to get nice dry sunny weather during the week when I'm at work and then it rains at the weekend....... sigh

[mud4fun 1696]

I've decided that LiPo's have a really huge flaw!!!

With my NiCd's I always fully discharged them after use and then full charged them before storing*, so if the sun came out I could immediately grab a NiCd, put it in the car and go drive.

Sadly with the LiPo's I have to storage charge them after use, store in storage charge state and then charge them before use. This takes an hour on a 5000mah LiPo...

So today with very changeable weather, at midday, after hours of heavy rain, the sun came out and I thought I'd go do some postal racing..... however it is now 1:30pm and I'm still waiting for the 2nd LiPo pack to charge up....the rain clouds are now setting in again....so the damned LiPo's have cost me an entire 2 hour window of good weather ARRGGHHHH

Fingers crossed that I'll get a chance to run my cars, I'm intending to run my thundershot 'Stig Eater' in a head to head battle with my carbon decked Avante2001 with both cars running same motors, batteries, ESC's, receivers, servos, tyres,  same gear ratios, same F+R camber, same F+R toe in etc - a true test to see which is quicker on round 5 track!  

*my Sanyo NiCd's have all lasted 18-20 years doing this and have only lost 10-20% of their capacity over that time despite being used thousands of times. Only now coming to end of their usable life.

[TurnipJF 9192]

I feel your pain regarding the LiPo batteries and the weather. Exactly the same thing happened here. 

[Re-Bugged 10147]

8 hours ago, El Gecko said:

Hope you all had a great RC day too!

That’s the second GH I’ve seen in black, they certainly look a lot more menacing in black, liking it a lot. If it wasn’t for Tamiya announcing the Super Champ/ Fighting Buggy (also nice in black) coming out early next year I’d be looking at GH for a giggle 👍🏻
 

I can’t get any racing in til next Sunday at best at the mo. I suppose I’ll have to pack a picnic as well for Mrs RB if she comes along this time 😁

[mud4fun 1696]

Well I finally got to set some laps, managed a few races with each car on each set of tyres.

The tarmac was very greasy and I struggled for traction on both the pin spikes AND the carpet tyres. The carpet tyres however did manage 2-3 laps more per 5 min race than the pin spikes.

This track design didn't suit either car, the hairpins being far too tight in the space available, having a concrete curb just 1m away from the hairpins meant I had to slow right down and tread on eggshells to go around them, too risky on such a slippy surface to put any speed into them otherwise I'd break the Avante2001 again. As it was they were basically drifting around the entire track, unable to lay down power and the track is just too short to even get up to the speeds that these buggies prefer.

However, the Thundershot proved the quicker car whether running on the large pin spikes or the carpet tyres, on average 0.5 seconds a lap faster than the carbon decked Avante2001. Now to be fair, this could well be down to my driving style more suiting the Thundershot OR because most of my racing over the years was done with Thundershots so I have an unfair advantage with that buggy? or the SWB car being more suited to the tighter course than the LWB Avante2001.

Both cars were running the same 13T Dyna Run Super Touring motors, Absima 5000mah 2S LiPo and HW1060 ESC's.

[mud4fun 1696]

NOTE: I also had to run the race in reverse direction and had to start up near one of the hairpins. The only safe place to position the LapMonitor was up near a hairpin and due to the transponders in my cars pointing to the right, I needed to start 1m back from the top left hairpin on the outside as shown in first pic above. The LapMonitor had to face out from the track otherwise it would detect the car as it went around other parts of the track.

[TurnipJF 9192]

Mrs Turnip had a go at the track today with "Gonzo", her Rising Fighter basher.

Despite only running a 27t brushed motor on 7.2V NiMH, she came within a lap of my race-prepped M-05 running a 13.5t brushless on 2S LiPo. Since plentiful power and refined handling don't seem to be the keys to success on this course, I think I'll have to up my game and let loose my mighty 380-powered Grasshopper!

[Ministrone 1455]

I’ve been needing an excuse to use my cars so today I attempted my first racing by post run and chose the re re  Frog to make its racing debut. On the semi damp tarmac, my biggest problem was massive under steer, so the “wide line” was taken at many of the corners. I guess I’m in contention for the lowest number of laps wooden spoon but it was good fun trying. 

[mud4fun 1696]

1 hour ago, Ministrone said:

I’ve been needing an excuse to use my cars so today I attempted my first racing by post run and chose the re re  Frog to make its racing debut. On the semi damp tarmac, my biggest problem was massive under steer, so the “wide line” was taken at many of the corners. I guess I’m in contention for the lowest number of laps wooden spoon but it was good fun trying. 

You may be surprised, I too had damp greasy tarmac, no traction and ran wide or spun off the track so many times in my high power buggies that my lap count was nowhere near what it would be in dry conditions.

I literally wheelspun every time I shoved the throttle past 25% of its movement which meant either drifting around or gingerly crawling around and not much in between, neither being very quick but at least the drifting was great fun to watch 

I suspect my youngest daughter may beat me this time in her silver can powered thundershot.... 

[Carmine A 2046]

16 hours ago, SupraChrgd82 said:

I made every attempt to run today, but my Amazon order of double layered fleece socks arrived.  Being a brisk 74 degrees in SoCal, I refused to take off the socks and leave the house....

I'm not sure if you've had any of our weather... But in So. AZ.... Last week was in the THIRTIES!! 😳❄😅😂

Guys..... Not looking good for me. My Tires are WIPED out on everything but the Mustang. Due to continuous LACK of funds, this will be a one Horse Race for the unforeseeable future.....

[Carmine A 2046]

4 hours ago, TurnipJF said:

Mrs Turnip had a go at the track today with "Gonzo", her Rising Fighter basher.

Despite only running a 27t brushed motor on 7.2V NiMH, she came within a lap of my race-prepped M-05 running a 13.5t brushless on 2S LiPo. Since plentiful power and refined handling don't seem to be the keys to success on this course, I think I'll have to up my game and let loose my mighty 380-powered Grasshopper!

GOOD thinking Mate!! If I had a 380 Powered ANYTHING, this would be a good Track for it. 

If I had a 380/390 Motor, I've still got the 380 Motor Plate for my TT-02... 

[Re-Bugged 10147]

2 hours ago, mud4fun said:

I suspect my youngest daughter may beat me this time in her silver can powered thundershot.... 

I think it’s time the Mudlets had their own ‘Age Category’ to save the rest of us the embarrassing humiliation, and it doesn’t help explain to Mrs RB why I need Hop-ups when Silvercan kit spec cars would appear to do the job just fine 😉

[Re-Bugged 10147]

2 hours ago, Carmine A said:

Guys..... Not looking good for me. My Tires are WIPED out on everything but the Mustang. Due to continuous LACK of funds, this will be a one Horse Race for the unforeseeable future.....

Don’t know if it works with RC tyres (or Tires, depending where you live)

But as a kid when my Scalextric car tyres when shiny and slippery I would rough them up a bit with course sandpaper and it would seem to help them grip again to get around the track again at least.

If your tyres are stuffed, nothing to loose by trying?