Wednesday, May 11, 2011
2010 Rd-10 Hong Kong DVD - F1 RC GP
Great video from F1 RC GP racing in Hong Kong...beautiful track!!
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Tamiya Tire Test 2011!
Leisure Hours Hobbies opened the outdoor asphalt track for the first time this year, today. I took advantage as this is one of the best permanent facilities in the US.
Video of Leisure's track
Anyway, it was in the 60's all day, and the track had been prepared for the first time all year, so it was a bit green. Actually, I felt it was a great time to test tires just because the ability to make grip would be highlighted.
I only used the option soft rear and kit front tire, as they had been the best all around choice for most tracks last year. The hard fronts may also be worth a try as well, since it might allow a more aggressive front end setup, but that will have to wait for now.
What I wanted to highlight was tire preparation. This is to me is overlooked at times, but it is really critical with rubber tires. You can look at race reports from big sedan races highlighting what small changes in tire prep can do for a car's performance. Last year I approached the tires from a sedan-centric viewpoint. I more or less copied what i was doing with sedan tires. I would clean the tires with SXT 1.0, apply Paragon FXII for a bit and then bake in SXT 2.0 or possibly Tire Tweak with warmers. This seemed to be fine for tracks that had a lot of traction, but I'm not sure if it was the best thing overall. At the TCS Nats, only myself and one other guy were using warmers. He did a lot better than I did, and I'm not sure of his routine, but my car was not all that great. Most people seemed to be cleaning the tires or not using anything at all. So in that vein, I went with a less aggressive regimen.
I tried a few different things, including Trinity Red Dot, PB Blaster, Simple Green, and Sticky Kicks Blanco. I either cleaned with SXT 1.0 or the product itself. Red Dot was ok, but I was not 100% satisfied with it. The problem may have been that it made the tires too sticky, and it would up picking up junk off the track. Either that or the tires were somehow greasing off. PB Blaster made the tires softer, and even a bit sticky, but the greasy effect came into play here as well. I think that these two, along with the other oil type additives (Tire Tweak, SXT 2.0, Paragon) may make the tires greasy or prone to overheat somehow. That was part of my problem last year.
I moved on to Sticky Kicks Blanco, which is more of an off road tire product, like Buggy Grip, but less aggressive. I used a rag to wipe it on, since it is a spray. This actually turned out to be the best overall for me. It left the tire feeling soft and sticky, but not greasy. The run I made with SK was really good, and the grip held up for the whole run. Sticky Kicks makes three different sauces, and Blanco is the middle in terms of aggressiveness, so I will be testing the other varieties to see how they will work in different situations.
Straight Simple Green was next. Simple Green is a cleaner more often than not, but I let it set on the tire a few minutes. Much like Sticky Kicks Blanco, it got the tire clean and sticky again, but I don't think it penetrated the rubber as much. I went out to the track thinking this would be as good or better than the SK.
My car was definitely hooked up at the beginning of the run, but it tended to break away in some corners as the run went on. I think Simple Green works well, but may not work as well into the run as the SK. This might not be as noticeable if the track temp is high, as the tires might heat up enough to develop more grip.
So maybe Sticky Kicks or something similar like Buggy Grip or Ragu may be the way to go. I think that Simple Green may even be better than the Sticky Kicks as we move into the warmer months to prevent the tires from overheating due to too much softening. I also like the way the tires don't "grease" over with the buggy style additives.
Video of Leisure's track
Anyway, it was in the 60's all day, and the track had been prepared for the first time all year, so it was a bit green. Actually, I felt it was a great time to test tires just because the ability to make grip would be highlighted.
I only used the option soft rear and kit front tire, as they had been the best all around choice for most tracks last year. The hard fronts may also be worth a try as well, since it might allow a more aggressive front end setup, but that will have to wait for now.
What I wanted to highlight was tire preparation. This is to me is overlooked at times, but it is really critical with rubber tires. You can look at race reports from big sedan races highlighting what small changes in tire prep can do for a car's performance. Last year I approached the tires from a sedan-centric viewpoint. I more or less copied what i was doing with sedan tires. I would clean the tires with SXT 1.0, apply Paragon FXII for a bit and then bake in SXT 2.0 or possibly Tire Tweak with warmers. This seemed to be fine for tracks that had a lot of traction, but I'm not sure if it was the best thing overall. At the TCS Nats, only myself and one other guy were using warmers. He did a lot better than I did, and I'm not sure of his routine, but my car was not all that great. Most people seemed to be cleaning the tires or not using anything at all. So in that vein, I went with a less aggressive regimen.
I tried a few different things, including Trinity Red Dot, PB Blaster, Simple Green, and Sticky Kicks Blanco. I either cleaned with SXT 1.0 or the product itself. Red Dot was ok, but I was not 100% satisfied with it. The problem may have been that it made the tires too sticky, and it would up picking up junk off the track. Either that or the tires were somehow greasing off. PB Blaster made the tires softer, and even a bit sticky, but the greasy effect came into play here as well. I think that these two, along with the other oil type additives (Tire Tweak, SXT 2.0, Paragon) may make the tires greasy or prone to overheat somehow. That was part of my problem last year.
I moved on to Sticky Kicks Blanco, which is more of an off road tire product, like Buggy Grip, but less aggressive. I used a rag to wipe it on, since it is a spray. This actually turned out to be the best overall for me. It left the tire feeling soft and sticky, but not greasy. The run I made with SK was really good, and the grip held up for the whole run. Sticky Kicks makes three different sauces, and Blanco is the middle in terms of aggressiveness, so I will be testing the other varieties to see how they will work in different situations.
Straight Simple Green was next. Simple Green is a cleaner more often than not, but I let it set on the tire a few minutes. Much like Sticky Kicks Blanco, it got the tire clean and sticky again, but I don't think it penetrated the rubber as much. I went out to the track thinking this would be as good or better than the SK.
My car was definitely hooked up at the beginning of the run, but it tended to break away in some corners as the run went on. I think Simple Green works well, but may not work as well into the run as the SK. This might not be as noticeable if the track temp is high, as the tires might heat up enough to develop more grip.
So maybe Sticky Kicks or something similar like Buggy Grip or Ragu may be the way to go. I think that Simple Green may even be better than the Sticky Kicks as we move into the warmer months to prevent the tires from overheating due to too much softening. I also like the way the tires don't "grease" over with the buggy style additives.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
The motor game
I watch some of the threads on rctech and other forums, and F1 is in a weird place. There are a certain amount of people who still want to run silver cans, and there are a lot of people who want to run brushless. It seems like 21.5 and no timing esc is a good equivalent.
Silver can is fun if everybody just runs the motors the way they come out of the package. Otherwise, it just frustrates people if there are "tuned" motors. Even so, the motors are pretty crappy, and it's easy to smoke one trying to keep up.
It would be great if everyone got on the BL bandwagon. Really, I think it's cheaper in the end and less frustrating. I think that sometimes the desire to "use what we already have" gets in the way of what is the best way forward. This goes for almost every class of racing. Sometimes I wonder if people have 10 cars and one set of electronics mounted on velcro..LOL. At the same time, I realize the transition is a fragile time for any class, since that's when there is the most chance for racers to walk away. If silver can and 21.5 can run together, that really is the best of all worlds. The guys in California have had success with this, and I have run in practice together with a 21.5 car and not known it was brushless. At the same time, I have also read reports of it not being so equal.
Right now F1 is on the cusp of really taking off. The cars have the realism and performance, and they are pretty cheap overall to run. Somehow, there needs to be a unifying force to put it over the top. Tamiya/TCS is great, but there are a lot of cars out there besides Tamiya or Tamiya parts only. Only time will tell.
Silver can is fun if everybody just runs the motors the way they come out of the package. Otherwise, it just frustrates people if there are "tuned" motors. Even so, the motors are pretty crappy, and it's easy to smoke one trying to keep up.
It would be great if everyone got on the BL bandwagon. Really, I think it's cheaper in the end and less frustrating. I think that sometimes the desire to "use what we already have" gets in the way of what is the best way forward. This goes for almost every class of racing. Sometimes I wonder if people have 10 cars and one set of electronics mounted on velcro..LOL. At the same time, I realize the transition is a fragile time for any class, since that's when there is the most chance for racers to walk away. If silver can and 21.5 can run together, that really is the best of all worlds. The guys in California have had success with this, and I have run in practice together with a 21.5 car and not known it was brushless. At the same time, I have also read reports of it not being so equal.
Right now F1 is on the cusp of really taking off. The cars have the realism and performance, and they are pretty cheap overall to run. Somehow, there needs to be a unifying force to put it over the top. Tamiya/TCS is great, but there are a lot of cars out there besides Tamiya or Tamiya parts only. Only time will tell.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
First outdoor runs 2011
The local parking lot was open for a practice day for the first time this year, so I wanted to try a few things.
First off, I wanted to try the F104W with the kit rubber tires. In the video, I outlined some ideas for the car, but basically it's a washout for competitive racing unless there is some way to make the tires work better. The rears are ok, but the fronts really produce no grip. The other problem is that I really have no way to soften them-I'm not aware of a traction additive that would work right on the tire. Almost everything makes them feel greasy. I went through a bunch of things, but unless I figure something out later concentrating on the normal F104 is the best idea.
I ran the F104 black car with the split upper deck, no damper plate, and weighted pivot post with a set of tires I knew to be good from last year. With the initial setting I had, the car pushed a bit mid corner and out. It was stable, which was promising since the track was dirty despite being blown off. It was also windy with temps around 60* F and the pop sprayed on the track was very light- 2 liters per 3 gallons of water.
Normally, they spray the track with grape soda pop straight from the bottle, but last year the track was re sealed and that prep caused the tires to glaze over. The winter seems to have worn off some of the sealant, so the lighter amount of preparation was not very effective. This was good for me, however, as it would give me a chance to see if the car would perform in less than ideal traction.
I went back to the pits, and added 1mm under the upper arm at the steering knuckle and 1mm under the rear ball stud of the upper arm. I wanted to get the car to bite in the middle of the corner and to be a little more aggressive overall. This actually worked perfectly. The car was just right, and got around very well. I made a few more runs set up this way, and the car was great. The wind picked up towards the end and dropped the temperature a bit, which loosened the car up slightly. This didn't worry me too much as the other cars out there were sliding around a bit as well when the wind kicked up. If anything I would have taken .5mm out from under the ball stud, but that's a minimal change.
Next Saturday is the opener for Leisure Hours, a permanent facility with curbing and the whole nine yards. I'm going to concentrate more on tires there and working with the new split upper deck post positions.
First off, I wanted to try the F104W with the kit rubber tires. In the video, I outlined some ideas for the car, but basically it's a washout for competitive racing unless there is some way to make the tires work better. The rears are ok, but the fronts really produce no grip. The other problem is that I really have no way to soften them-I'm not aware of a traction additive that would work right on the tire. Almost everything makes them feel greasy. I went through a bunch of things, but unless I figure something out later concentrating on the normal F104 is the best idea.
I ran the F104 black car with the split upper deck, no damper plate, and weighted pivot post with a set of tires I knew to be good from last year. With the initial setting I had, the car pushed a bit mid corner and out. It was stable, which was promising since the track was dirty despite being blown off. It was also windy with temps around 60* F and the pop sprayed on the track was very light- 2 liters per 3 gallons of water.
Normally, they spray the track with grape soda pop straight from the bottle, but last year the track was re sealed and that prep caused the tires to glaze over. The winter seems to have worn off some of the sealant, so the lighter amount of preparation was not very effective. This was good for me, however, as it would give me a chance to see if the car would perform in less than ideal traction.
I went back to the pits, and added 1mm under the upper arm at the steering knuckle and 1mm under the rear ball stud of the upper arm. I wanted to get the car to bite in the middle of the corner and to be a little more aggressive overall. This actually worked perfectly. The car was just right, and got around very well. I made a few more runs set up this way, and the car was great. The wind picked up towards the end and dropped the temperature a bit, which loosened the car up slightly. This didn't worry me too much as the other cars out there were sliding around a bit as well when the wind kicked up. If anything I would have taken .5mm out from under the ball stud, but that's a minimal change.
Next Saturday is the opener for Leisure Hours, a permanent facility with curbing and the whole nine yards. I'm going to concentrate more on tires there and working with the new split upper deck post positions.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Front end setup how-to
Ok, I'm not sure I have ever laid this out 100%, so I will just do a little how-to on the front end. I will add the pictures once my camera charges :> Part numbers are referenced from the F104 pro instructions.
The first thing to do is remove the upper arms (part F8) from the front suspension, and remove the camber plate and the spacers underneath it (F1 and F5). This is not necessary, but if you are running your servo in the manual suggested position, you may want to change it to the output shaft forward---pic:
You will need to add 2mm spacers to the underside of the servo saver to properly space the ballstuds down.
Now, the camber plate (F1) mounts directly on top of the lower arms (F10). The camber plate spacers (F5) can also be put on top of the camber plate, and secured by non flanged nyloc nuts (BA7) upside down. You don't have to use the spacers, but they can be retained if you need to keep all the original parts on the car (as you might for TCS races). Otherwise, just use the nuts as provided by the instructions.
I like the aluminum camber plate over the plastic one simply because it locks down the upper arm ball studs harder and it won't wallow out. It's not necessary, but it is worth buying.
Anyway, you can set up the camber plate per instructions with a button head screw from the bottom, but I prefer to use a long grub screw. The long grub screw will allow you to remove the upper arm for changes without popping the upper arm off, thus prolonging it's life. 12mm is a good size to start with, but the length sort of depends how many spacers you use for the ball stud. After a lot of fooling around, I find that 4mm under the ballstud is a good place to start. I also like to set the camber plate to the 1.0 position. That will yield around .5* camber with the front end set as I recommend. Adding and subtracting spacers will change the camber, so the plate will not be accurate. You may need to change plate settings to get the camber where you want it to be if you are changing settings.
At the kingpin on the front knuckle, you can remove F2, F3 and F4, the steering knuckle spacers. These spacers can be used, or you may use .5 or 1mm spacers instead. The spacers are 2.5mm, 1.5mm and 1mm, for a total of 5mm. I use 2x 1mm and 6 x.5mm so I can adjust in .5mm increments. This is important if you race foams, since the car will respond to that small of a change. For both foam and rubber I recommend starting with no spacers under the knuckle (BB14), and 2.5mm on top. Then the remaining spacers on top of the arm (F8). If you use the plastic spacers, just put the big one (F2) on top of the knuckle, and the rest op top of the arm. For carpet, this will lower the to about 3mm with the correct size front tire (around 54mm) and for rubber it will raise the front end to start with a bias to rear traction.
The rear ball stud on the upper arm should be set up with no spacers to start.
The steering should be either set to 0* or 1* toe out. You may need to run toe out on lower traction surfaces to get the car to turn in at all if you have it biased to a lot of rear traction. That will be a car to car and track to track thing. I hope that my front end setup will allow you to dial more steering in without being too twitchy/hard to drive/abrupt. I have found this setup makes the car very smooth steering and linear, like a 1/12 car. The stock setup seems very sensitive off the center and darty.
Note, this setup also tends to provide more caster:
TUNING:
My basic directions are like this:
The more level the arm, the more linear the steering feel
Raising the overall height of the arm, without altering angle, makes the front end dig in more, like it wants to screw itself into the ground.
Lower the overall height of the arm lowers tendency to dig in and makes the car more linear through the turn.
Raising the angle of the upper arm increases steering, but also increases twitchiness/sensitivity off center.
Increasing the height of the arm at the kingpin (outer end) is a bigger change than lowering on the camber plate (inside)
Raising the rear ball stud on the upper arm without changing anything else, increases bite in the center of the turn. This is important for rubber tire or low traction tracks.
Use camber to get more or less "gross" amounts of steering- this is more of a macro adjustment.
The whole reason for these modifications is to reduce the sensitivity of the front end overall. Stock the car is like a volume knob that is ON FULL BLAST or OFF. My way is more of a 1 through 10 selector knob, which you can use several variables to tune in...tire dope, camber, arm height/angle, etc. Better that you can dope the whole front tire and have the ability to reduce it than be forced to run a 1/16 tire sliver or none at all.
The first thing to do is remove the upper arms (part F8) from the front suspension, and remove the camber plate and the spacers underneath it (F1 and F5). This is not necessary, but if you are running your servo in the manual suggested position, you may want to change it to the output shaft forward---pic:
You will need to add 2mm spacers to the underside of the servo saver to properly space the ballstuds down.
Now, the camber plate (F1) mounts directly on top of the lower arms (F10). The camber plate spacers (F5) can also be put on top of the camber plate, and secured by non flanged nyloc nuts (BA7) upside down. You don't have to use the spacers, but they can be retained if you need to keep all the original parts on the car (as you might for TCS races). Otherwise, just use the nuts as provided by the instructions.
I like the aluminum camber plate over the plastic one simply because it locks down the upper arm ball studs harder and it won't wallow out. It's not necessary, but it is worth buying.
Anyway, you can set up the camber plate per instructions with a button head screw from the bottom, but I prefer to use a long grub screw. The long grub screw will allow you to remove the upper arm for changes without popping the upper arm off, thus prolonging it's life. 12mm is a good size to start with, but the length sort of depends how many spacers you use for the ball stud. After a lot of fooling around, I find that 4mm under the ballstud is a good place to start. I also like to set the camber plate to the 1.0 position. That will yield around .5* camber with the front end set as I recommend. Adding and subtracting spacers will change the camber, so the plate will not be accurate. You may need to change plate settings to get the camber where you want it to be if you are changing settings.
At the kingpin on the front knuckle, you can remove F2, F3 and F4, the steering knuckle spacers. These spacers can be used, or you may use .5 or 1mm spacers instead. The spacers are 2.5mm, 1.5mm and 1mm, for a total of 5mm. I use 2x 1mm and 6 x.5mm so I can adjust in .5mm increments. This is important if you race foams, since the car will respond to that small of a change. For both foam and rubber I recommend starting with no spacers under the knuckle (BB14), and 2.5mm on top. Then the remaining spacers on top of the arm (F8). If you use the plastic spacers, just put the big one (F2) on top of the knuckle, and the rest op top of the arm. For carpet, this will lower the to about 3mm with the correct size front tire (around 54mm) and for rubber it will raise the front end to start with a bias to rear traction.
The rear ball stud on the upper arm should be set up with no spacers to start.
The steering should be either set to 0* or 1* toe out. You may need to run toe out on lower traction surfaces to get the car to turn in at all if you have it biased to a lot of rear traction. That will be a car to car and track to track thing. I hope that my front end setup will allow you to dial more steering in without being too twitchy/hard to drive/abrupt. I have found this setup makes the car very smooth steering and linear, like a 1/12 car. The stock setup seems very sensitive off the center and darty.
Note, this setup also tends to provide more caster:
TUNING:
My basic directions are like this:
The more level the arm, the more linear the steering feel
Raising the overall height of the arm, without altering angle, makes the front end dig in more, like it wants to screw itself into the ground.
Lower the overall height of the arm lowers tendency to dig in and makes the car more linear through the turn.
Raising the angle of the upper arm increases steering, but also increases twitchiness/sensitivity off center.
Increasing the height of the arm at the kingpin (outer end) is a bigger change than lowering on the camber plate (inside)
Raising the rear ball stud on the upper arm without changing anything else, increases bite in the center of the turn. This is important for rubber tire or low traction tracks.
Use camber to get more or less "gross" amounts of steering- this is more of a macro adjustment.
The whole reason for these modifications is to reduce the sensitivity of the front end overall. Stock the car is like a volume knob that is ON FULL BLAST or OFF. My way is more of a 1 through 10 selector knob, which you can use several variables to tune in...tire dope, camber, arm height/angle, etc. Better that you can dope the whole front tire and have the ability to reduce it than be forced to run a 1/16 tire sliver or none at all.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Update
I have 3 new videos uploading right now, so they should be ready later tonight. I also have some of the Pit tires for the F104, so after this weekend I should be able to have a post about that as well.
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