My newest addiction 🔥

[Cheez ‘n’ Quackers]

Decided to dip the toes into on road TC …..

 

[Bwompuss]

That's a beautiful car.

 

[Mister 4x4]

Ordinarily, I'm not a fan of electric or belt-driven, but that's a killer set-up and gorgeous body - sometimes, the simplest are the most stunning.

Might consider using a different colored rear wing for racing - it sure helps with knowing which direction you're going (mostly coming or going), since road courses tend to be so much flatter. Also put a strip of white (or contrasting) electric tape along the bottom of the air dam to offer a little more strength and protection against small stones you can't always see on the course.

 

[9x19]

Looks great, good luck!

 

[CertifiedMike]

Looks fast!!!
How do you like running it?

 

[Cheez ‘n’ Quackers]

That's a beautiful car.

Thanks

 

[Cheez ‘n’ Quackers]

Ordinarily, I'm not a fan of electric or belt-driven, but that's a killer set-up and gorgeous body - sometimes, the simplest are the most stunning.

Might consider using a different colored rear wing for racing - it sure helps with knowing which direction you're going (mostly coming or going), since road courses tend to be so much flatter. Also put a strip of white (or contrasting) electric tape along the bottom of the air dam to offer a little more strength and protection against small stones you can't always see on the course.

Thanks for the advice…totally a newbie here.

 

[Cheez ‘n’ Quackers]

Looks fast!!!
How do you like running it?

Awesome in the wide open parking lot… going to the track next week or so.

 

[CertifiedMike]

Awesome in the wide open parking lot… going to the track next week or so.

We'll need video proof of course!

 

[Cheez ‘n’ Quackers]

We'll need video proof of course!

 

[CertifiedMike]

I really would like to see it running if you can post anything. I just bought a couple on road cars but I have never really run an on road before... I'm ALSO looking for tips.

 

[Cheez ‘n’ Quackers]

I really would like to see it running if you can post anything. I just bought a couple on road cars but I have never really run an on road before... I'm ALSO looking for tips.

Unlikely I’ll be able to get any kind of video…as I said it’s a first for me. I’m relying heavily on Xray YT videos, mostly Alexander Hagberg.

 

[CertifiedMike]

Unlikely I’ll be able to get any kind of video…as I said it’s a first for me. I’m relying heavily on Xray YT videos, mostly Alexander Hagberg.

Gotcha. That car looks fast just sitting there in the pics! I'll bet you're going to love it on the track!!!

 

[BudUMfan]

Sweet rig. Had no idea they made a road car. It looks amazing

 

[Doom!]

Congrats and good luck next week.

 

[Mister 4x4]

Thanks for the advice…totally a newbie here.

We used garden hose for our track borders and ran a leaf blower before we laid everything down in a big parking lot that nobody used on Saturday mornings. That helped keep the smaller stones and debris cleared from the track.

Two things I wish I would've done on my SuperTen was get the foam bumper to back up the body, and put that strip of electric tape across the bottom 'air dam.' I'd also used masking tape to block off the headlight buckets when I painted, but applied it first, then cut it on the body - which scored the body, so it cracked in those areas after enough front-end impacts (the blue/black McLaren in the pic below - I might've been a bit too aggressive and spun a few buddies out of my way a few times). I later used some black duct tape, so it looked like a nose bra, but the damage was already done. The rest of the body was/is still fairly intact, but I recently scored a new body to replace it for retirement after I pick up a PureTen FW-02.

Make sure the nose of the body doesn't hang down too low, otherwise it'll scrape when the suspension compresses causing damage. That's another way the electric tape comes in - you can use it to close up the space to the ground for better aerodynamics, and all you're sacrificing is some tape (that can be re-applied at will) rather the leading edge of the body itself.

Two more things that will help with traction is to #1: 'belt' your tires. If you don't already have belted tires, you can save money and DIY with some duct tape. Turn the tire inside-out, cut a strip of duct tape wide enough for the inside of the tread area, then wrap all the way around, making sure not to overlap the ends (out of balance will happen at that point). Make sure the duct tape is securely fastened, then turn right-side-out, stuff the foam in (kneading into place consistently around the tire (so no 'out-of-round' conditions happen), and mount as normal with some thin CA to seal the beads. Belting the tires will keep the contact patch flat when the tires spin up, rather than bulge outward toward the center.

#2: if you don't already have one, you can make decent sway bars out of super-thick coat hanger, some threaded pillow balls, and some spare tie-rod ends. That will help transfer some of the suspension compression from the outside wheel to the inside wheel when hard cornering and help eliminate some body roll to keep the chassis as flat as possible through the turns, which will help the inside tires maintain some traction through the corners instead of losing traction due to centrifugal force and even coming off the ground (in extreme cases). The key is to make it as rigid as possible without losing too much flexibility between passenger and drive sides.

Bonus tip: if you trim down your body posts, that will help your car continue through a roll-over and increase chances of landing on its wheels, rather than getting hung-up on the super-long posts. That's huge for nitro cars because too much time upside and the carb will starve for fuel and the engine dies. Not so much of a problem with electrics, but nobody likes to have to flip their car if they don't have to.

If you can get some track time by yourself, you should be able to hone your skills at picking the best lines through the curves, but you can also set up some paper plates and make some quickie slalom courses that will help you get in close to those inside curves without whacking hard track barriers and taking damage, plus you can see your progress/mistakes by the tire tracks on the plates.

Get a spare 'bashing' body and keep this one nice (it really does look awesome). You never know what the local tracks are made of. Most legit road courses use fire house (flattened) and possibly some plow discs for tight inside corners. Some LHS road tracks will use 2x4s as boundaries - which is fine for buggies/truggies/stadium trucks with road tires, but hard on full-bodied road cars.

Hope this helps! Have fun! Road racing is a blast... when there are other road racers involved. Running against the off-roaders with road tires is still fun, but it'll hurt by the end of the day.

 

[Cheez ‘n’ Quackers]

We used garden hose for our track borders and ran a leaf blower before we laid everything down in a big parking lot that nobody used on Saturday mornings. That helped keep the smaller stones and debris cleared from the track.

Two things I wish I would've done on my SuperTen was get the foam bumper to back up the body, and put that strip of electric tape across the bottom 'air dam.' I'd also used masking tape to block off the headlight buckets when I painted, but applied it first, then cut it on the body - which scored the body, so it cracked in those areas after enough front-end impacts (the blue/black McLaren in the pic below - I might've been a bit too aggressive and spun a few buddies out of my way a few times). I later used some black duct tape, so it looked like a nose bra, but the damage was already done. The rest of the body was/is still fairly intact, but I recently scored a new body to replace it for retirement after I pick up a PureTen FW-02.

Make sure the nose of the body doesn't hang down too low, otherwise it'll scrape when the suspension compresses causing damage. That's another way the electric tape comes in - you can use it to close up the space to the ground for better aerodynamics, and all you're sacrificing is some tape (that can be re-applied at will) rather the leading edge of the body itself.

View attachment 222348

Two more things that will help with traction is to #1: 'belt' your tires. If you don't already have belted tires, you can save money and DIY with some duct tape. Turn the tire inside-out, cut a strip of duct tape wide enough for the inside of the tread area, then wrap all the way around, making sure not to overlap the ends (out of balance will happen at that point). Make sure the duct tape is securely fastened, then turn right-side-out, stuff the foam in (kneading into place consistently around the tire (so no 'out-of-round' conditions happen), and mount as normal with some thin CA to seal the beads. Belting the tires will keep the contact patch flat when the tires spin up, rather than bulge outward toward the center.

#2: if you don't already have one, you can make decent sway bars out of super-thick coat hanger, some threaded pillow balls, and some spare tie-rod ends. That will help transfer some of the suspension compression from the outside wheel to the inside wheel when hard cornering and help eliminate some body roll to keep the chassis as flat as possible through the turns, which will help the inside tires maintain some traction through the corners instead of losing traction due to centrifugal force and even coming off the ground (in extreme cases). The key is to make it as rigid as possible without losing too much flexibility between passenger and drive sides.

Bonus tip: if you trim down your body posts, that will help your car continue through a roll-over and increase chances of landing on its wheels, rather than getting hung-up on the super-long posts. That's huge for nitro cars because too much time upside and the carb will starve for fuel and the engine dies. Not so much of a problem with electrics, but nobody likes to have to flip their car if they don't have to.

If you can get some track time by yourself, you should be able to hone your skills at picking the best lines through the curves, but you can also set up some paper plates and make some quickie slalom courses that will help you get in close to those inside curves without whacking hard track barriers and taking damage, plus you can see your progress/mistakes by the tire tracks on the plates.

Get a spare 'bashing' body and keep this one nice (it really does look awesome). You never know what the local tracks are made of. Most legit road courses use fire house (flattened) and possibly some plow discs for tight inside corners. Some LHS road tracks will use 2x4s as boundaries - which is fine for buggies/truggies/stadium trucks with road tires, but hard on full-bodied road cars.

Hope this helps! Have fun! Road racing is a blast... when there are other road racers involved. Running against the off-roaders with road tires is still fun, but it'll hurt by the end of the day.

Thanks for the tips.