XRAY - Model racing cars

I realize that the answer to this is "a car that you can drive fast" but that's not what I'm looking for. Are there certain characteristics that are common to "fast" cars? Setup similarities is what I'm looking for. To help you, I race on an asphalt track with medium grip. Tires that work for me are CS 27's. I have an 05 and gear it 21/87. I am currently running yellow rear springs rear and white front. The rest may or may not be necessary to list. Don't get me wrong, the car is good but I feel that I'm not getting any closer to its potential, which I've seen in the hands of other drivers. I know this is somewhat vague but I'm grasping at straws here and I know that the Xray community is one of the MOST helpful in the world. Thanks in advance for the help.

The biggest thing you can do to go faster is to practice more... it's cliche but it's true! More practice = more speed.

Jeff you are absolutely right. We could all use more practice. I think the biggest thing, after much thought, is corner speed. The car seems to scrub speed in the corners although the tires don't chirp.(???) What ways can I get through the corners faster and keep as much speed as possible? I realize lines through the corners is very important, but what OTHER things can you think of? (setups, driving techniques etc)
Thanks again.

run the minimum amount of steering lock as you can get away with, that can make a big difference,

HTH
luke

Stay of the throttle or better enter corners with a minimum of speed. But off course not TO slow

I'm with Luke here, excess steering causes the car to scrub off speed. Run only enough to navigate the tightest corner of the track.

Kyle often feels that his car is "slow" when it's stable and responds to his input, and "fast" when he's got it on a knife edge. The stopwatch tells a different story.

Good points all.

In terms of driving style there are two main styles:

1. There is the fast in, throw the car around the corner and accelerate out. This is a very aggressive style that requires batteries with a lot of runtime and also high voltage. The reason is that the car will scrub a lot of speed in the corner resulting in a slow out scenario. So the key to good laptimes is to stay tight on every corner and make sure you are set for maximum acceleration out of corners. Drivers like Massami Hirosaka and XRay's Joel Myrberg are good (and fast) examples of this basic driving style.

2. If 1 is fast in - slow out then 2 is slow in -fast out. This is what many of todays top drivers do. People like David Spashett, Marc Rheinard and XRay's Jilles Groskamp are geniuses at this style of driving. The trick here is not to try and enter a corner too fast but focus on keeping the momentum through the corner. You do this by goin on power again while you are entering the corner and keep increasing power while going through the corner hitting maximum power on corner exit or immediately after. This style of driving tends to be less dependent on runtime and power although both can off course still be of good use!

In terms of setup the answers are much more difficult to give. It depends highly on the track layout, the track surface, the tyre choice, temperature and a host of other variables. Rather than giving an answer that just gives you an average I instead suggest you get the Hudy setup booklet (see FAQ section) and start testing the different setup options with that as your guide. There is no substitute for setup knowledge just like there is no substitute for practice...

One thing that I found made me a little faster in corners was to make sure there there was always a bot of throttle on, even with the trigger @ neutral. I would have to hit the brakes to get the car to stop totally. Sometime I found it worked, of course you can always just keep your finger on the trigger but my way I didn't have to think of how much. Once I got it figured out through I stopped doing it that way.

Thanks ALL for your replies. I will try some of them for sure. In Tony's reply you suggested that I apply some throttle as I was going thru the corner. Would that require a certain amount of high speed steering because as soon as throttle is applied wouldn't the car start to push??? What is the best way to get more high speed steering in case I need to dial some in?? I am using the multi-diff (a great invention by the way) set up as a locked one way.(not a spool) I am going to try using Frank B.'s setup from your setup page. He ran it here (Victoria, BC - the IROCC track) and it seemed to work well.
I know the car is fast but I need to find the right setup so I can get it around quickly. I think this setup will be close. Thanks again for the help and keep the suggestions coming.
Jim

Hey Jammin.....I'm not sure what the track looks like or even how long your main straight is but it seems to me like your gearing may be a little off. Check with your local racers what overall ratio they're using. You're on a 7 overall, which may give you too much torque and not enough speed, which could lead to things like oversteer on corners, less grip as tyres will break traction with the surface etc.
The correct gearing should achieve maximum speed 3/4 down the main straight.

Hope this helps at all.

Cheers,
S

Thanks Eyeball, yes I thought about that and adjusted the gearing for the track and the motor. Depending on the motor, I gear it at 20/87 to 23/87 for our tracks. My top speed is as good as the best. I was thinking about sway bars......would they work? Also caster angles for the front end, shorter wheelbase etc. What are the thoughts about those adjustments?
Thanks,
Jim

I'm fairly new to all this, but from my experience 3 deg caster should be enough for the front end if you're running on asphalt.
If you need more camber you can use static camber by adjusting the front camber links. Just don't forget that this will add to the total camber the caster blocks provide. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.

I've tried using swaybars but not had any luck with them, but then again my car setup was wrong. I believe not many drivers use these on asphalt....not sure about carpet. Sway bars can be used to cure understeer or oversteer depending which end you put them on (front sway bars for oversteer...rear for understeer).

As for the wheelbase...I would try to fix whatever problem is on the car with other settings (droop, ride-height, tyres, roll-center, shock oil) first before adjusting the wheelbase. As you probably know shortening the wheelbase will give you more weight over the rear axle. Depending on the weight distribution of your car this could help because the FK'05 is a little front heavy.

If you are racing on aphalt you can check out my latest setup sheet
http://www.teamxray.com/xforum/xform/in ... tup=t1fk05

Don't worry about my placing....just had a bad day...but the car handled quite well. See comments at the end.

Cheers,
S