Foams....
This is an interesting question.
I have a M18 with a Mamba 6800, seen below:
This also has Xray ball-diffs front and rear, CF center shaft, full carbon chassis, Xray dogbones and runs UnitedRC Xtreme matched 7.2V NiMh packs.
I put this on an asphalt track where 8th, 10th and 12th scales race, I was using TRC foams - shown in the pic.
The outside temprature was about 31° Celcius, so the track was warm
The car had absoloutely no grip on that asphalt, I tried various compounds front and rear - it didn't help. The car would break loose down the straight, doing donuts galore, in the corners I had to avoid or feather the throttle.
I also tried softer shocks and different shock positions. The rear toe-in was factory setting and I had about 1° toe-in on the front wheels
My son's Micro RS4 with a UnitedRC K3 (370) tuned motor was eating me for lunch with the same type of TRC foams on - hard up front (pink), medium rear (magenta)
Out of sheer desperation I fitted HPI wheels with rubber tires to the M18. Medium fronts and rears. The car was on rails.. so different.
It behaved much better with the HPI (Not XRay - as I have a lot of HPI wheel/tires) rubbers on.
When I got the car home I decided to try it on the asphalt outside my house (BTW: I never bash the road cars on publics roads) as the asphalt is totally different to the track we were on
First I fitted the foams and the outside temprature was about 23° Celcius. The result was similar, but the foams were behaving better than they did on the track. It still handled a lot better with the Micro RS4 rubbers on though..
I don't know if the TRC foams prefer cooler conditions or if it was just the type of asphalt on the track combined with the Mamba's power delivery.
As I said, my son's URC K3 Micro RS4 was on rails with the TRC foams.
The M18 with TRC foams works very well on an indoor carpet track - as you'd expect!
I say take foams and rubbers with when you go bashing and see how it behaves, if possible get some HPI MicroRS4 wheels/tires too, they are cheap and they may just be your saviour if you're battling for traction.
Mamba's have awesome power, the 6800 has the most torque on the entire Mamba motor range, whereas the 8000 has the least, either way they deliver so many revs at the squeeze of the throttle that you need to experiment with tire and controller setups.
I assume you have a MambaLink cable and the latest software on your laptop/PC and firmware in your controller? If not, I suggest you do it, the new "CastleLInk" software interface makes for a much better controller setup.
Please let us know how it works out
