Carpet Buggy Video

[Jerold]

This is not my buggy nor me driving, just watching. Just some observation, I'm still figuring this out.

I dropped into the LHS and thought to look at some of the people running. I took some slow motion video to see how the buggy reacts to the surface, the suspension travel, lean, etc.

Looking at this, it looks a bit too heavily sprung and seems a bit bouncy? Also everyone has them about 1/2" off the track to get the center low, but then you are constantly touching the carpet which slows you down and possibly upsets the car.

Any thoughts?

 

[HPIguy]

Looks pretty dialed over the big jump to me. Seems to me that for this type of racing you have to choose a middle ground suspension wise. You have to have enough compression damping to soak up the big jumps, but attempt to be supple enough for the small bumps, etc. Basically, just like outdoor off-road, there's always a compromise somewhere.

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

Looked pretty hooked up.
The bobble in the video was coming up short, not a setup issue.

I've been watching some carpet videos lately and it has me all nostalgic for racing.

 

[Horatio]

2WD buggies are running 10-13mm ride height.

You can't risk running higher than that without risking dreaded grip rolling.

It's all about traction, getting power down early, maintaining corner speed and setting up your shocks so that they don't allow the chassis to slap when landing off the jumps. 13mm Shocks help in that regard.

It's also about getting a useful amount of weight on those front wheels to get the right balance of steering response.

I've actually put more ££$$ into this B7 than my 22X-4 Elite - and it's ridiculously close in performance to 4WD buggies.

They're insanely rapid these days.

The one you see here was hitting over 46 mph indoors on a 22 metre straight.

They're awesome and surprisingly easy to drive. I'm a returning senior racer - hitting 97% consistency. My last 2WD Buggy was a Losi XXX. Unless you count my Baja 5B...

Modern 2WD carpet edition buggies are ridiculously low centre of gravity. They have to be on high traction tracks. Even then, you have to carefully select tyres.

 

[Jerold]

2WD buggies are running 10-13mm ride height.

You can't risk running higher than that without risking dreaded grip rolling.

It's all about traction, getting power down early, maintaining corner speed and setting up your shocks so that they don't allow the chassis to slap when landing off the jumps. 13mm Shocks help in that regard.

View attachment 265584

View attachment 265585
It's also about getting a useful amount of weight on those front wheels to get the right balance of steering response.

View attachment 265586

I've actually put more ££$$ into this B7 than my 22X-4 Elite - and it's ridiculously close in performance to 4WD buggies.

They're insanely rapid these days.

The one you see here was hitting over 46 mph indoors on a 22 metre straight.

They're awesome and surprisingly easy to drive. I'm a returning senior racer - hitting 97% consistency. My last 2WD Buggy was a Losi XXX. Unless you count my Baja 5B...

View attachment 265587
View attachment 265591
Modern 2WD carpet edition buggies are ridiculously low centre of gravity. They have to be on high traction tracks. Even then, you have to carefully select tyres.

Wow that's pretty so much CF.

Originally I was thinking going AWD, but the price difference is a lot. This came along and it was an opportunity to get in.

I've got a lot of tuning and practice to get even close to up to speed.

 

[Horatio]

Wow that's pretty so much CF.

Originally I was thinking going AWD, but the price difference is a lot. This came along and it was an opportunity to get in.

I've got a lot of tuning and practice to get even close to up to speed.

Cheers! The Vision Racing chassis is a 'luxury' upgrade for carpet (standard length) and sharpens up the buggy. To be fair, I personally haven't had any issues with the alloy chassis, but others have noted that it's prone to bending the front kick-up.

The carbon chassis saves a significant amount of weight.

The 2WD class used to be the more difficult out of the 2 to drive, but was widely considered the best way in to racing because it taught you throttle control.

Now I have to say, there's very little in it - and you can do more with less with 2WD.

The B7 had some issues - the B7.1 mitigates all of this except for the iffy motor mount. But then the B7 series has a huge amount of aftermarket support. Easy parts availablity. It's a great buggy!

I love my 22X-4 Elite 4WD, but certain parts are hard to come by. I actually bought a second 22X-4 for spares. The 4WD buggies were reasonably priced and come loaded with good stuff.

The B7 has been quite an expensive build when you factor in all the upgrades, but it's personal choice. I raced the B7 Team on carpet before I upgraded anything and I could have just left it bone stock and saved some ££$$.

Likewise, I probably didn't have to choose Mod motors and ESC's - but it's so much fun!

90% of the setup is tyres, so once you have that nailed, you're off to a good start. Track time is king. The more laps you put down, the better the results you attain - without fail.

If where you race has Live Timing, check out your lap times and consistency numbers. This is key to whether adjustments are improving your car. If your ESC has the option to log data - like the HW XR10 Pro G3 - get the OTA so you can log data, check temps, current, RPMs etc. Don't leave gearing down to guess work. Analysis is your secret weapon.

Is my motor in a sweet spot? What lap did I avoid an over turned car on the straight? How many amps is my 4.5t drawing in 4WD? Fan or no fan?

My 2WD rig has no fan and only runs 7°C warmer than my 22X-4 Elite which has a centre fan. But then the B7 only draws 80A, whereas the 22X-4 is drawing 120A at times.

I like going through the laps, taking peak RPM from the straight and then by using gearing and roll out values, stating the definitive speeds.

Next round, I'll have several sets of new tyres to experiment with as the grip levels come up through the course of the day. I'll be checking data and comparing logs with previous rounds, seeing which tyres - or rather - which combination of tyres - works best on EOS carpet.