XRAY - Model racing cars

I've been trying to figure this out in my mind for quite a while. Usually the advice is given to find a setup that suits your driving style. However, what if your driving style is not actually the fastest way around the track? If my driving style is not, then I want to change it until I become comfortable with whatever is the fastest.

For instance, should you let all the way off the throttle before the turn and coast through it or should you maintain speed up to the turn, brake hard, and then get back on the throttle hard, or should you blip the throttle through the turns like I see so many people at my track do? Or is there some other way best way around the track? In long fast straights how should you set up for the upcoming turn? What about jumps?

For now, let's forget about which driving style is more consistent or which is easiest to duplicate. If powering through turns with some wheelspin is hard to do consistently but it's the fastest way then I want to know. However, if that way looks fast but actually slows you down then I want to know. If driving "smooth" is easier to do but is slightly slower then I want to know.

Let's say for instance I want to break a track record for the fastest lap ever. How should I drive an eight scale nitro buggy? How do the pros do it... especially the ones you always see winning the top national and world level races no matter what vehicle they drive. With the XB8 I should be able to drive correctly and find a setup that helps that driving style rather than the other way around and that's what I want to do.

This should be an interesting discussion and I'm looking forward to reading everyone's opinion who frequents this board whether you are a sponsored driver or not.

I am not sure there is one right answer to this. Different track conditions will influence what type of driving style is fastest. That is why some drivers will say a certain track is well suited to there driving style. A blue groove track will benefit from maintaining traction at all times. Wheel spin and sliding are usually lower then carving corners. The looser the track will get the more slidding you can get away with and a lot of the time it will be faster to "drift" through a corner. This is also dependent on the layout. Each type of corner and what is before and after the corner will determine the fastest line. The best drivers in the world adapt there driving style to the conditions of the track. As a general rule of thumb a car that pushes is consistant but a little slower then a car that is loose but only under the assumption the car is not so loose you cannot control it. The more steering you have that you can control the faster you will be able to go through corners and maintain corner speed is what will produce fast lap times.

This should be an interesting thread. I will offer this;

I have been racing for 4 years. The first 3 years were exclusively in Washington State. Through those first 3 years and up until this year pretty much all of the outdoor tracks up here were loamy, soft surface tracks. The hardest of the bunch was like “The Dirt” in Hemet, CA (home of the Nitro Challenge). So, basically the NW tracks were pretty much as soft as you could get except for maybe a beach race or something crazy like that. The surfaces up here are changing over to more hardpack now, which teaches more control. Learning to race on all soft surfaces has hurt me going to national races. I’m generally…well, no; I’m just too aggressive. But, I know it and I’m working on it.

Point is you can be hella aggressive on soft surfaces. Throttle control is WAY less critical than it is on say a hardpack surface like this years ROAR Nationals in Harlingen, Texas (although there was lots of traction there as well….it was just a different type of traction).

Soft surfaces generally provide lots of traction all the way around (side and forward traction). In my opinion soft surfaces are prefect to learn to go fast on. The problem is you learn to be a hammer. You learn from experience on the softest surfaces that you can blast into a corner with your hair on fire, jam on the brakes like no-tomorrow, pitch the thing sideways, and pin the throttle like you stole it coming out of the corner and, again on the softest surfaces, you can get away with it. With that kind of driving style the spectators will fall in love with you!!! You’ll be a fan favorite in no time!! (By the way, if you ever get the opportunity to see Jammin Jay Halsey drive do it……..at the Nitro Challenge he was the definition of “pinned” / “punched” it was amazing)

On the other end of the spectrum you have the concrete like hardpack surface that maybe has a layer of slit or dust on it. Maybe the wind isn’t blowing and it doesn’t have any rubber laid down. This type of surface generally has more forward traction than side bite, but overall has WAY less traction than the soft surfaces above. If you attempt the driving style I mentioned above, you will NOT have any fun and either pack up early or be a back marker in one of the lowest mains. This type of surface requires LOTS of self-control.

As is probably obvious from the above scenarios the fastest driving style is totally different between the two.

Generally, people who run exclusively on soft dirt are going to be slower, at being fast, on hardpack (they are too aggressive).

And vice-versa, those who exclusively run and hardpack are going to be slower, at being fast, on soft dirt (not aggressive enough).

What is the fastest style on what surface? Basically it boils down to this:

The best/fastest style is the style that can adapt the quickest to the traction available, can maintain a consistent pace (no crashing) and doesn’t wear out tires before the end of the race.

Long winded…. I know but I hope this helps……….

Mike

I just relocated to Florida last year from NY and haven't driven off road in years. I used to just drive electric off road back in the day and the tracks were mostly loose dirt back then. In those days they never wet the tracks down at all in my experience. To go fast you had to banzai every corner and powerslide your way around the track to go fast. Now here in Florida most of the tracks are hard packed red clay and they wet the surface down all the time (the surface is slick and traction at a premium). My old driving style was useless and I was slow in practice to say the least. I decided that my best bet was to go back to my roots as a carpet racer. I know this will sound weird to most people but I actually drive a road racers line on the dirt track with proper braking points and everything. I try to maintain a good pace and be smooth keeping the car on all 4 wheels moving forward. It hasn't worked well with my 1/8 buggy yet but I have had clutch and fuel delivery problems for the first few months. I've had more problems finishing than being fast. Hope this helps your cause.
This style has worked to perfection in the small block monster truck class with my revo. In 6 club races I have not qualified lower than 3rd and have won 3 events with a low finish of 3rd and one DNF.
The one race I finished with my XB8 I made the bump from the C main and was able to lap with the eventual B main winner after falling down a lap early in the heat. I feel that in the long run on this type of surface (slick) with this car (great handling and lots of steering) I am on the right track.

im like him, its basicly a on road course for me, at least thats how i treat it, just with a few jumps. there was o corner at my local track, that it was faster to slide and get turned, then punch it, but that style seems very unredictable.

good write up guys!.

I would venture to say that it takes on the average 20 or more seconds to have your car handled by a marshall. Most of the tracks I have run on have lap times in the mid to high 30 second range for good drivers. So the main thing I think is not to drive over your head and end up having to be handled by the marshalls. I see a lot of people blipping the throttle through the turns. I try and tell them that this is not the right way to go. Think about it you are constantly upsetting the car when you blip the throttle. The weight transfer backwards and forwards can't be good for traction. I like to have my clutch a little on the tight side so I can clear the engine with a blip on a slow turn without actually engaging the clutch. Downside of this is that when the clutch does engage it hits harder and you are more prone to losing traction. I can't think of any good drivers that blip the throttle through the turns. Being smooth on and off the throttle and brakes upsets the car less and will result in less problems. I'm no pro driver but I am pretty smooth and don't have to be marshalled much. In fact my goal every race is not to get marshalled by my own mistakes or driving over my capabilities. The more you practice the faster you will get and if you strive for smoothness initially you won't have to unlearn bad habits.

Griz

You will find that if you are running the car with a slight push, you can benefit very much for blipping the throttle . And I know many expierienced drivers that use this technick. It will get you through the turn faster (like I said if you have a slight push) rather than slowing down to almost a complete stop for the car to trun all the way and then throttling again. Anyone wanna back me up on this one ?

I WILL!

bliping for me help rotate the car through those short sweeps ( i roll 2/3 of a 180 tight turn ). it keeps corner speed up, i dont blip like light a light switch tho. i kinda waver the trigger a little, right on the edge where clutch comes in... i have tried steady gas around a small sweeper and it pushes out to far. wavering the trigger dont upset the car AS much.

Hey griz if you get a chance watch richard saxton drive as he uses throttle blips all the time around cornors in fact watch some of the pro you will most definatley see it just my two cents

Slower is faster......... and more consistant

i think this habbit of blippin came from running RB engines that have no bottom end and you have to blip every few seconds or the engine will load up. which is why they need such a tight clutch.

it also works for old farts( like me) who's reaction times are so bad that without blipping the gas you will hold the throttle on for too long and get into trouble.( like pushing after the apex of the turn)