Lessen's M18 Drifter

[Lessen]

So I decided that since I don't do any racing with my M18 I would get more use out of it and have more fun if I tuned it specifically for drifting. When deciding which hopups to purchase I looked at the parts lineup for the MRS4 Drift car which helped quite a bit.

Here's the parts lineup...

Penguin 7500 chassis conversion
Penguin 180 vertical motor mount
Xray 180 heat sink
GPM adj. Ti tie rods
Atomic servo saver
Atomic spur gears 40,42,44
Atomic CF center drive shaft
Atomic sway bar kit
Atomic ball diff
Atomic multi-drive diff
Atomic CF drive shaft
HPI MRS4 wheels
HPI MRS4 drift tires
HPI MRS4 stock tires
HPI Mercedes CLK DTM body

The build will start soon with plenty of pictures... I'll do a vid of my first attempts when everything is all said and done.

 

[Lessen]

Would like some opinions here...

Although I know all you really need to make a touring car drift is a set of hard PVC tires I am also going to make it a point to drift with stock tires as well. I think this may be a lot more realistic. When I had a 6-cell pack in my stock M18 I was able to drift a little bit in my kitchen (laminate) with stock tires. I think if it's set up better It could be drifted even without hard drift "tires". So basically I have a couple ideas about setting up the components on the car. Obviously the batteries are the majority of the component weight so I would like to mount them as far forward as possible. The Penguin 7500 chassis will allow me to utilize a saddle style pack at the forward-most section of the chassis. However, this means I'll have to move the steering servo. I think there may be enough room to mount the servo centrally upside down directly above the main drive shaft. It will only take some modification to the Penguin upper deck. Utilizing the vertical motor mount give me plenty of room behind the cells on either side to mount the (much lighter) ESC and Rx. What do you guys think?

you get the idea here..

 

[Lessen]

I'm ditching my XRS in favor of a Spy which I bought today. I also picked up a sub-micro servo (JR SM22). This will take on the roll of the mechanical brake. I'm not exactly sure how I will utilize it to activate the brakes but I'm confident I can figure it out. I'm open to any ideas if anybody has any.

 

[Lessen]

Starting the build today. Here you can see I've mounted the lower gearboxes and suspension to the 7500 chassis. I also thought this would be a good time to install the adjustable tie rods.

GPM supplies a standoff that has a different thread than the stock screw. I needed to drill out the holes out a bit. I only drilled them 5/64" to the length of the screw. When I noticed I couldn't get a thread going I only redrilled them 3/32" about 2mm just to get it going. Nice and tight after the screw surpasses the 3/32" but definately in no danger of stripping. Notice the rear lower shock mount. This kit seems pretty nice. Things are fitting perfectly so far.

The stock screws are ONLY used at the inward positions. A shorter 8mm screw (supplied in the kit) is utilized for the outer positions.

 

[Plaidfish]

LOL....I just PMed you about this chassis.....dump the stock springs and do the inverted setup w/ the RC12 springs...the instructions for that chassis show you how to do it.....

 

[Lessen]

LOL....I just PMed you about this chassis.....dump the stock springs and do the inverted setup w/ the RC12 springs...the instructions for that chassis show you how to do it.....

Thanks for the tip! So what exactly is the advantage of the RC12 springs over stockers?

 

[Plaidfish]

Thanks for the tip! So what exactly is the advantage of the RC12 springs over stockers?

It's said they prevent body roll alot more.....I think there is a company that makes sway bars too.....all I've done is roll the chassis on a wood floor to chech the allignment but it definately felt like it would ride like an egg crate on wheels and corner like it's on rails......

 

[Lessen]

I'm currently waiting on two parts.. a roll bar and the multi-drive diff. Project is kind of on hold til they show up. I've read that people put the roll bar on the back to stiffen it up.

 

[Plaidfish]

use a solid axle in front and the roll bar in teh rear, it will let you "point and shoot" it out of corners

 

[Lessen]

yep, that's exactly what I'm planning to do :thumbup:

 

[Lessen]

WOO HOO! Parts arrived today!

Here's a few items being used during this installment

Drivetrain installed. The front diff is set up as a one-way solid axle. Rear diff is ball style and adjustable.

Due to the use of the sway bar at the rear I will be unable to utilize the Penguin shock mounts (you need the little stand-offs that are molded into the lower arms). I also noticed that the sway bar gets in the way of the body post. Since I will be unable to use the new Penguin shock mounts, I put a couple small nuts under the mount to raise it so there will be enough clearence for the sway bar.

Just a couple more shots of how it sits right now.

High CG in the rear in combination with low CG in the front should help in getting loose when stock tires are being used. The pictured tires are the drift type.

 

[Plaidfish]

now you have to do the shocks like I said....they will use those top A-Arm ball joints and sit inerted, the top of your shock will sit in that hole on the bottom plate screwed on your chassis....they sit almost vertical like, add the springs and you can feel the difference in shock bound/rebound just pushing down on it......

have you found any tips on allighnment for these things?

 

[Lessen]

I think you mean the ball joints on the lower arms instead of the uppers. The problem is that I can't use that setup in the back because I need the rear A-arm ball joints for the sway bar. Plus, in order to keep the body mount away from the sway bar I need to raise the body mount part... which in turn would dramatically change the suspension. The only other shock options I know of would be the Atomic option spring sets. There's are two sets.. standard and low ride height. Both have 3 different rates of springs. I don't think I'll find much info on setup since most people just throw on PVC or tape and have at it. MRS4 M-compount tires showed up today... Those are going to go on the set of 5 spoke wheels.... very Mercedes like IMO..

 

[godale03]

Looking good Lessen, I am anxious to see how this turns out.

Tom

 

[Lessen]

Thanks Tom. I think I'll solder up my saddle pack today. :thumbup:

I think I'm going to order some other option parts as well.. probably a set of hard compound tires as well as springs and different suspension arms. I'm kind of entering unknown territory so I feel I'm going to need to be able to make a lot of adjustments untill I find what type of setup I need for a given surface.

I have a feeling I may need to go to some sort of modified motor for high grip surfaces like concrete. Any input as to what would be a good choice? My first instinct tells me to try something that offers higher rpms rather than more torque. I know that doesn't seem to make sense at first but I believe that the break-loose point will have more to do with setup rather than power, especially at higher entry speeds where chassis roll will be greater.

 

[godale03]

Thanks Tom. I think I'll solder up my saddle pack today. :thumbup:

I think I'm going to order some other option parts as well.. probably a set of hard compound tires as well as springs and different suspension arms. I'm kind of entering unknown territory so I feel I'm going to need to be able to make a lot of adjustments untill I find what type of setup I need for a given surface.

I have a feeling I may need to go to some sort of modified motor for high grip surfaces like concrete. Any input as to what would be a good choice? My first instinct tells me to try something that offers higher rpms rather than more torque. I know that doesn't seem to make sense at first but I believe that the break-loose point will have more to do with setup rather than power, especially at higher entry speeds where chassis roll will be greater.

Hey Lessen,

Have you thought about going brushless? Gobs of power. I can break my 18T loose with Proline roadrage tires on asphalt pretty regular. My drifting skills are not there, but I have thought about doing a similar conversion. I think you are right at thinking more RPM's will do more to help break you loose than torque.

Tom

 

[Lessen]

Hey Lessen,

Have you thought about going brushless? Gobs of power. I can break my 18T loose with Proline roadrage tires on asphalt pretty regular. My drifting skills are not there, but I have thought about doing a similar conversion. I think you are right at thinking more RPM's will do more to help break you loose than torque.

Tom

Naa, I'm gonna stick with brushed motors. First of all I don't want to drop that much cash, plus I just purchased a Spy. Secondly, I don't think that much power is really necessary, probably a bit harder to control as well. I might pick up an Orion core mod or possibly a lower turn mod motor. I hope brushless isn't necessary, I don't think it will be though.

Here come the issues... hehe. As if I didn't see it comin..

The GPM drag link it creating a severly shorted suspension motion do to it making contact with the chassis. I believe the use of a ball end moves the entire linkage downward compared to stock. I'm going to attempt to mod the hub arm so that the drag link mounts higher. I'm also going to take off the yellow ball links and use Mini-T stock link which I'll shorten as well as Mini-T stock ball mounts. We'll see what happens.

 

[godale03]

Hey Lessen,

I understand about not wanting to go BL. It is on the verge of being out of control at full throttle.

I am having the same type of issue with my 18T..... well with respect to the drag link. I have the drag link installed and I too am experiencing reduced turning radius. the drag link makes contact with the top chassis support that runs down the length of the main chassis. It looks as if I will have to take the dremel and remove some material. I just hope that by removing the extra material I don't create a weak spot. I can't wait to see the finished product.

Tom

 

[Lessen]

Just ordered a crapload more parts. Spring kits, an array of suspension arms, harder compound tires, a couple mod motors, motor mount, and another heat sink. If I ever decide to go micro racing at least I'll be decked out Anyways, I was able to mod the steering parts to gain more rebound action but I soon realized that it was at the expense of bound action. I have some scrap CF laying around so I'm going to make a couple small conversion pieces that will allow me to have full suspension travel in the front with the new drag link and better rod ends (the mini-t rod ends work great.. much stronger and don't pop off when making adjustments)

 

[Lessen]

Well this project within a project was more about me being anal and less about necessity. I think I mentioned before how I noticed that the connecting rod between the front hubs makes contact with the bearing area of the front bulkhead and thus limits suspension travel. I made a couple custom pieces out of some scrap CF I had layin around and was able to move the whole connecting rod rearward enough that it no longer makes contact with the bulkhead. If you compare the cross section of the last picture here with one of the pictures from one of my previous post you can see what I'm talking about.