Just wanted to give y'all a report on how my OL did at the races last night. That'd be the Mini-Z Racer races, BTW
It all came about when my Racer broke a servo gear right before on of our heat races. It was easier and faster to swap batteries into the OL than to pull the servo apart on the racer so I asked the track director and racers if it was OK to use my OL as a stand-in.
Everyone thought it was OK so the OL was IN!!
Apart from being very tippy (a bump with a racer would often roll the OL) and prone to massive amounts of understeer the OL fared pretty well.. ..it certainly didn't get in anyone's way. Careful driving was required to make up the time lost on rollovers and tight corners but I could generally keep a mid-pack pace against the racers.
In the 10-minute feature, I wound up placing 4th out of a field of 6 cars Not bad for a truck in the racer class.
I think I might enter it again against the cars next week!
-Trevor
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nice! cool to hear some real-world comparison. is it stock, or do you think they'd let you run it with some lowered shocks and wide tires? it would be cool to see how it matched up with more of a street set up.
Basically I plopped the truck down and ran it bone stock (with an X-speed) against the racers.
The racers were in "stock" class, IOW, anything goes chassis wise but you need to run the Kyo stock motor and ESC (no turbos, etc). After talking it over afterward with the race coordinator he didn't seem to have a problem with me doing it again.. ..I don't think he minded the motor and doubt he'd mind any mods to the truck.
Top speed on the truck/Xspeed was just a hair slower than the stock-motor racers on the long straights. To be honest I'm not sure what pinion gear I was using... ..it's whatever ships with the truck. It was a monster on the low end of course So much so that it plowed heavily on most turn exits.
For the feature I took a stab at lowering its C of G a bit by screwng the shock shafts all the way down into the lower mounts and then replacing the big OL spings with some from a racer (they sandwich nicely between the lower mount and the bottom of the shock body).
This setup dropped the truck by ~3-5mm and really improved the steering responsiveness. There was still some understeer but overall it was much more driveable than in the totally stock configuration. It was also more prone to traction roll so I had to be wary of that when the wheels started hopping on some tight turns.
I think I'll try regearing and playing with the ride height/spring rate a bit more for next time.
BTW the OL is a Paris-Dakar Pajero Montero (Short Wheelbase truck).
-Trevor
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hmmmm...thansk for the info. give me some things to think about.
pajero huh, explains the traction rollovers the mid length bodies are alittle more stable. i think the stock pinion is 10? and i think they go up to 12 so it might help you pick up some speed on the straights. for racing, i would avoid using alot of alloy. my brothers lc which has lots less alloy is faster than my all alloy ol's with faster motors. i haven't changed the pinion yet either though...
i look forward to hearing more of your experiences
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