MMCC Club

While still visiting my family in Preston, I took the chance last night to visit my second ever rc car club, Morecambe RC.  www.morecamberc.org.

This was quite the opposite situation from RVRCCC down the road.  This club makes uses of some fairly old but highly grippy primafelt carpet.  

I chose to use some slightly larger than my normal T35 tyres at just over 44mm rear and 42mm front.

This highlighted how crazily high this clubs grip is.  (more so than the nationals)  Myself, Aidan and Arran all ran these tyres and had traction roll in the first race of the night.  This is likely to be down to the fact that this club usually runs on only control tyres, something that builds up the grip in the carpet for weeks to come.

I didnt take a photo so instead here's a picture from over 14 years ago of the club when I used to go every week :)

Q1 - I rolled over a few times, the rear inside wheels lifting too much, the rear of the car was rolling too much, and the front end was gripping too much. 

Setup Info
I went from using 22mm of additive on the front tyres down to only 10mm additive (on the inside edge of the tyre)  I reduced the time the additive was on the tyre from 15minutes down to 3minutes.

The idea of this was to reduce the aggression of the front, to reduce lifting/roll from the rear.

Q2 - This gave another problem.  I ended up with not enough front grip causing understeer.  And the reduced additive time didn't work properly either, as i lost steering as the front went on, so i would put it on for longer again for round 2.  Aidan took TQ in this round with a really fast pace, loads of steering but a grip roll issue on his car still.

Setup Info
I decided that the easiest way to fix this problem was to glue the sidewalls of my still quite big tyres at around 44mm rear and 42mm front. I used super glue (CR522) and cotton buds to apply to only the vertical sides of the tyres.  This makes the edges go hard and feel like a lower profile tyre, and most importantly prevents grip roll.  I did this too both the front and rears to try and maintain a good setup balance.
Q3 - Sadly my balance went wrong a little and I ended up with a lack of steering.  I think gluing the fronts has more effect than doing the rears..  I had a really consistent run with this though and could narrowly take TQ ahead of aidans Q2 time.  He was still struggling with grip roll.

Setup Info
I decided the car was working well with this setup, i now only needed alot more steering.  For this and given the amount of grip in the track, i decided to go from the softest black rear roll (side springs) to the hardest I run on the sides, Nickel.
Final - This change gave me a much better balance, far more steering, and thanks to the longer front additive time, the front grip stayed for the whole race.  My car felt really good like this, but can only be done if the track has enough grip that the rear doesnt slide mid corner, or have on power traction issues.

Club Meeting - RVRCCC

On friday evening I went to Ribble Valley Radio Controlled Car Club, for some GT12 racing.  I always enjoy going back here as its the first every club I attended, and spent years here practising before going anywhere else.  You can find this club in Leyland, Lancashire.

Its changed a huge amount from when I started, although many familiar faces still go every week.  The biggest change has been the change towards running 1/10 offroad as the most popular class.  The club do a great job of including many features on a track which can also cater for GT12's with several different gates in the layout.  This club regularly has a maximum entry of about 60 racers and friday was no different! http://www.ribblevalleyrccarclub.co.uk

This week was particularly unusual I'm told, as the grip level was the lowest it had been due to using a new layout, on a recently flipped over carpet.  

Setup Tips

There were several challenges because of this.  The first was a pretty extreme lack of forward traction.  This means that from a stand still, or coming out of a corner, the car struggles to push itself forwards without trying to power-slide or 'drift' from the rear axle moving around.

Many people think this can be down to using a 'cheap' tyre.  I don't really agree with this.  Most importantly the rear tyre just has to be soft enough.  Selecting a cheap 'A' foam or 'Q' foam type tyre is fine for this so long as its soft enough.  In the case of clubs using control tyres, you could achieve this by putting additive on for much longer, maybe 1 hour before going to the track.  (only on the rears)  

The other cause that make this problem with forward traction worse is a car with an aggressive front end.  By this I mean a setup which has loads of steering in the corner.  If your exiting a turn with a front end that's really working and making the car turn hard on power, it can make this lack of forward drive feel even worse, so a setup with more under-steer will instantly help this issue.  

When the grip is low on the carpet, its not just forward traction that is a challenge.  In terms of driving, it is far more difficult to get around a track when the rear is lacking traction than when the front is.  Therefore, again, accepting the grip is lower and taking even more away from the front end or trying to give the rear as much grip as possible is the way I'd go to ensure the car drives in a predictable manor.  

Below is a list of some things that I either did, or recommend to achieve the following for these conditions:

Larger rear tyres - Making a bigger difference between front and rear tyres provides more rear grip.  I ended up running 45mm rear, and 41mm front.  

Weight Rearwards - Moving the weight rearwards helps give more weight on the rear tyres, meaning its easier to put the power down without this saliding. (Improved forward traction)  I ran a fan mounted on the rear of the chassis, and fully rearward lipo with a 1mm brass weight under it.

Less front camber - I ran 0.8 degrees.  Less camber takes some grip away from the front to help in the way mentioned above.

Larger Rear Wing - As mentioned above, find ways to give the rear end as much grip as possible.

Softest Side springs -  Use the kit, black, softest springs to give the rear as much roll as possible.  This gives more rear grip.

Additive Preparation - As mentioned above.  Increase rear additive time to as much as 2 hours to soften the rear tyres more.  In the same way of thinking, a short front additive time (1 minute only) or only covering the inside 3mm - 5mm can make the front end less aggressive, and help too.  In the final on friday, I didnt even put on front additive in the final.  This is for extreme cases only.

Tight Differential - This will prevent the rear becoming loose and snapping mid corner as badly.

Unscrewing Side springs -  Making more float and less compression (ie none with a gap) on the side springs can make the car feel easier to drive, similar to going to softer springs.

My dad raced for his second ever night racing on friday.  It was great fun using some of the above advice to help my dad with his Atom Pro.  The other thing we did was set his power to around 50%.  I was proud of how he did and that he was able to not finish last and beat several people :)

I used the top setup listed to the left of this page, 'Atom CC BRCA 18/19 Prima' with some of the changes I suggest above added to it:

C.A.R.S Club Night

On Saturday night I made the trip up to the cars club in chesterfield for some further LMP12 running.

They have recently purchased some new Primafelt GT carpet, and even more recently flipped it over to give a more future proof grip apparently.

Thanks to Archie Underwood for the great photography! :)

The product of this carpet change meant a relatively low grip level (probably for a few weeks) but there was a great turnout and racing was still super close and fun.  

The new, clear carpet tape sticks great, and made the track far more enjoyable to drive, without issues.

Once again my tyre choice was one set of T35, at 43.4mm and 41.4mm  The car again felt great to drive in the different grip level.  I didn't actually make any setup changes, just concentrated on driving, learning the conditions and racing mistake free runs.

I actually increased my ratio by 5 pinion teeth for this full size national track though, given there was some great competition from a couple of national level A finalists, we had some close racing all night! :)

BedsMCC Club Night

Last night I returned for more practice at this club. https://bedsmcc.co.uk/.
I really enjoy going here especially as it reminds me a lot of the club I owe a lot to, https://www.morecamberc.org!

This week was good fun, I tried using one set of tyres all night on my eclipse 2, Starting at  43.4mm rear, 41.4mm front. This made things a lot easier time wise and with no height adjustments, (I started at 4mm rear, 3.8mm front. They were perfect in the final.

It was good to spend the night practicing and working with teammates Dan and Ian Robins.  As you can see from the times below, Dan's getting pretty consistent now with his E2!! Thanks for fixing my KC Ian :)

Here is some slow motion LMP12 13.5t of last weeks club at BedsMCC.  Thanks to Mark F for sending the video.


Advice
I applied some ca glue to the sidewall on the rears where the wheel contacts the foam to help prevent it peeling. (Something more pronounced the large diameter you run) I did this half way through the night when finding it slightly appear to detach in places. This prevented any tyre chunking or strange handling feeling.

I will continue to use one set of tyres to race at a club night. In lower grip levels (club events) it’s slightly faster to use larger tyres, rather than the tiny ones I was using from after national use.  So instead I will now keep last nights set and skim the tiny bit off on a truer to go race at the National at probably 42mm rear 41mm front, or smaller.

Tonight I'm going back to one of my favourite clubs, CARS at Chesterfield, after a long time away!  More Eclipse 2 practice, on their new PrimaGT carpet.

Blog Return

Just a quick post to say I've not given up racing, am still alive and the blog will be back regularly soon!

Over the past couple of months I've been concentrating on GT12 and LMP12 with my Atom/E2.

GT12 (AtomCC) has been going great,  I managed to secure the BRCA National Championship for the second time in 4 straight round wins! :)

LMP12 with my E2 has also been performing amazing.  I have managed to finish on the podium in 3 out of the last 4 rounds (stock+mod) at the BRCA nationals.

I have also taken my first ever 1/12 Scale national pole position, and my second pole position!  I haven't yet managed to convert that into a race win though, so that's been kind of painful, but I'm determined to change that soon!

It feels like I have improved my performance, both driving and car, but my race craft has let me down, so I have decided to take up club racing again to try and improve it!!
Last weekend I went club racing at these 2 local clubs, and I'll be back soon!  :)

Quick Update

Hello, for anyone who has checking up on here I apologies for my lack of posts lately.  I've been really busy with a few exciting new projects at work, trying to get more involved in classes of racing I've been out of for a while, Formula and TC.  Ive had a few races now such as the KO GP, WLRC national and ETS in Holland.

I finished in the A final at the KO GP, narrowly missed the A final at the WLRC national in modified class, and in ETS our top 2 drivers, Michal and Elliott had strong B final positions.  Michal returning after a year out of TC and winning one of the B mains.  I was in the Mod D final which is still my best finish in this category.  In Formula I struggled massively with my hybrid car and plan a change of tack for the upcoming events.

Now I'm really looking forward to the next event which is ETS at Hudy Arena.  For this race I'm concentrating on only the Formula class, so no TC racing for me this time.  I will also be helping our team which is again complemented by Orlowski.  I cant wait to see how high we can fly this time in Modified TC with those guys!!

Michal keeping busy and enjoying some Touring car racing.

Clubmans National - Aldershot TC and F1

Over the weekend myself and teammate Aaron Rose made the trip down to Aldershot for my first round of the clubmans nationals this year.  Aarons been going great in the TC class and went in leading the championship.  My good mate's dean and adzy joined us too.  Good to catch up with mates I dont see often since I made the trip south to work at the Schumacher factory.


This weekend, I decided to run both classes TC and F1.  I knew it was gonna be a stretch going by people's reactions when I mentioned that I'm doing both..


Saturday saw a practise day, with open track split into sessions for each class repeating each hour.  I made every run with both classes, even though the rush was strenuous.
TC - I was in the fastest class, 13.5 Boosted.  I ran on a set of old tyres.  By the time I removed them for practise session 5 of 7.  They had done 20 runs.  I was really happy with the cars feeling and was always within the top10 times.  Sadly, when tried new tyres, the car had so much more front end, I had only 2 runs to try and find a setup that worked.  I added rear wing, softened the rear of the car
and added flex to the car.  This helped, but i ended the day with still too much front end in my setup.


F1 -  This was my first time ever on tarmac with an F1 car.  It felt pretty nice to drive at times, but I was learning so much each run.  Thicker side damping, soft springs and plenty of droop seemed to help and gave me a car that seemed competitive against the rest of the field.  Really happy to be on pace as I had know idea what to expect.

I felt my Mi6evo TC required some attension, so overnight Aaron and I spent some time making some changes.  I reduced the 20grams I had been carrying with some weight saving, rebuilt the shocks with thicker rear damping for slow speed improved slow speed rotation, and added some rear wing.  A feature unique to the new Aerox Razor body I was running.

Sunday (Race Day) Today, similar to the saturday was a scorching hot day.  Not what I needed for the rush that was racing 2 classes!  However, armed with a set of shorts bought from sainsburys the night before, I felt better prepared.

Practise -  We had one round of practise.  F1- My car seemed quite good on the old tyres.  Drivable but lacking some steering.  I didnt worry about that as new tyres would liven the car up for Q1.  TC-  On a 3rd run set of tyres and having made the changes over night, the car felt great and I was 3rd fastest even on old ish tyres.

Q1 F1- On new tyres my car was crazy aggressive at the beginning but as the tyres wore in, I felt one of the fastest on track, and finished 2nd in round.  Happy with that start to F1 nationals outdoors :)
TC - My car hardly got going, just enough to make it to the pit lane on lap one.  A really strange situation.  It was almost like I planned it as being on new tyres in q2 would be handy.

Q2 F1- I tq'd with a better additive prep the car was good at the start. :)  Tc - my car was aggressive on new tyres.  Not as bad as saturday but it was still not quite right. Was definately holding me back in the first half of the run.  Really sad about my mistake in not trying new tyres earlier on saturday.  I missed out on TQ in the round by 0.5 seconds.

Q3 F1- I crashed near the start so pulled off to protect my tyres as I had 2 good scores with 2 needed to decide the final grid, so no pressure for q4. TC - The opposite situation here than in F1.  Having missed Q1, I needed a good score to ensure even an A final position.  Sadly, some insect started stinging the back of my legs and wouldn't stop.  I was trying my best to get over it but finally gave in.  (probably my most unusual DNF ever!)  I really wanted that score because now Q4 was needed so high pressure.


Q4 F1 - I crashed while leading and on to set a time good enough to take pole.  I lost concentration which im really annoyed about.  I was listening to the computer which caused my mistake, something to work on for sure! :(  TC - Disaster happened.  Again, oversteer at the start, and I made a terrible mistake and ended up on the grass on lap 1!  Worried about being out of the A final while counting a score with a time almost the fastest in the day, I had to try and keep calm, I didnt do that very well as I was driving with panic, costing myself time with silly errors.  Luckily, I just about came back to finish 7th which put me 7th on the A final grid.  My time was enough to TQ the round and be 3rd if I didnt have the first lap crash.

In the finals I drove badly, as did others which was annoying.  I wont go into that but it made me not want to talk too much about the finals.  I finished down the order in both classes.  Starting 7th was also going to be hard in TC, so my aim for next time is qualify up the order where hopefully its easier to avoid incidents!  Not my best weekend but 2 A finals so I'll take it, but also, use it to try and learn many lessons and improve for next time!

I'll rebuild my touring car after some rough racing this week.  Then, KO Grand Prix at WLRC this coming weekend.  Looking forward to try and put my bad driving day behind me and enjoy a great event at nice track :)

Sergi Franch vs Myself - Schumacher GP Leg 2

Sergi=(blue+yellow) - Myself=(orange) Having close race in leg 2 :)