XRAY - Model racing cars

Hi Dave:

We have a meeting on a track in Holland this Weekend and over there the asphalt is also very bumpy.
All corners are on and off camber.

We race the car there at 6.5 mm rear and 6mm at the front. Little more droop as usuall. 1.5 ~ 2 degree off toe in at the rear. Rest std as per kit.

Frans

Hi dave

how did you get on at barham

i also raced there last weekend at the BRCA
i ran more droop and slighlty higher ride height and i found that the bumps didnt effect me to much

what was your setup

cheers
good luck at ashby

James Hull
(chipmunk)

I have been using a very strange setup for my cars over the past few months for use on our local track which is hot, bumpy and sandy at certain places. I would like to share some of my settings with you all and hopefully someone can tell me why it works for me?

Soft Springs at the Front,
Integy 50W Shock Oil all round
Hard Springs at the Rear,
0 deg. Camber all round.
Loose Rear Diff
Very Upright Shocks all round.
The rest did not matter.

And the way I was told to drive was to let the rear slide via throttle control. The local champion taught me this setting. He has been whupping everyone every time.

The reason, I am asking this question, is because I drove at a high traction track last week and was spining out at almost every corner? But it works at our own bumpy low grip asphalt track?

This setting seems to be completely the opposite of what we learnt from our Xray setup manual. Anyone can explain? Tonyv?

So, if two drivers, driver A who has mastered the use of the drift method and driver B who has mastered the use of the conventional grip method were to enter an international level competition, who would have the upper hand? Assuming the track suface of the international meet is of the high grip type. Would it be recommended to learn racing the drift method or the conventional method? I just want a general answer to this. I know one can learn both but I want to excel in one and I think the drift method isn't the right one. TeamGP? Thanks.

The "conventional" method should always be default in any racing. But if the grip is very low, or you run into a grip problem during a race, try to use the sliding to attack the corners, instead of fighting it.

For me its more natural to drift correctly and use the throttle to steer. But I'd hazard a guess that this comes from my inexperience, heavy handedness (or fingerdness???), and previous use of this method when racing real cars and motorcycles. I've been slightly modifying my setup lately to be more planted and my driving style to be more consistently fluid on steering input and my lap times have dropped.

You can use drifting to pass others after late breaking them into a corner, but if you get it wrong you'll either push wide on the exit or have your rear/side smashed in from the one you passed. In real racing only the experts use this method and only when passing others that they trusted would checkup and not run into them. I could only get the hang of it while racing cars, but never had the guts to try it on a motorcycle. In RC its pretty fun for me but I only do it while racing on low grip asphalt or in practice on carpet just to have a little fun.

Just as I suspected so. That means drifting should only be use when there's not enough grip going round corners. Guess we should always try to set our cars to achieve the highest grip possible first before using drift as a last resort. That's why I spun soooooo badly last weekend during the race on a high grip track. My setup was for our low grip asphalt track. I suspected the chassis was too stiff at the rear to induce any form of chassis roll. Looks like I have to look for a nicer track somewhere for my practice. Next race coming in 2 months time.