Here's an update from this past race weekend.
Starting with the bad news...I blew up the just broken in Max Power SL3 early last week while practicing for this past weekends ROAR regional race.
The good news is that I found the problem that has blown up two motors and caused erratic behaviour in two others in the last month for me. Replacing the fuel tank solved my hot motor issues.
Now the great news!
I made the following changes to the setup and the car was easier to drive, cornered even better, and tire wear was amazing (given that I wasn't running 45 shore rears):
* Used the - Added more overall steering and the lower CG attained was noticeable to me with an increase in mid corner speed
* Switched from 42s to 40s front tires - Added more steering and evened out front/rear tire wear perfectly
* Softened front dampening by changing front shock oil from XRAY 35wt (similar to 600cst) to , with three holes open in the pistons - Gained back the mid corner traction lost from the stiffer chassis. The car also tracked over surface bumps/berms much much better and I was able to cut corners tighter riding two wheels over the berms.
* Softened rear dampening by opening all holes in rear shocks (using XRAY 35wt oil) - Same effect as above
* Raised rear roll center by changing rear inner camber link position from #3 to #1 - Increased steering response and eliminated traction rolling
* Reduced rear toe-in from 1.0d to 0.25d - It was amazing how much rear end rotation the NT1 gained, without any abrupt oversteer
Although the motor ran well enough in the early two qualifying rounds (cooler temps), I never had power more than slightly above average. However, the car was handling well enough that I could make up a lot of time in the in-field. After the first round, I was in third place about 8 seconds down on the TQ pace. But as the temps rose, so did my motor issues and over the next 3 qualifiers, my Q time was relegated to 6th. Finally, I had to retire in 9th place after 35 laps in the main running the motor around 310F.
![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
Approximately 12 laps were completed with LOW power and/or no shifting into 2nd gear.
Here is the tire wear info I gained:
Started tires (40f/42r) at:
...Front - 61.5mm (left) and 61.0mm (right)
...Rear - 63.5mm (left) and 63.0mm (right)
Wear rate (after 15 minutes):
...Front - 1.6mm (left) and 1.0mm (right)
...Rear - 1.5mm (left) and 1.0mm (right)
Calculated size at end of 45 minutes (estimating 10 minutes for the above wear rates, given the low power of the motor for 12 laps):
...Front - 54.3mm (left) and 56.5 (right)
...Rear - 56.7mm (left) and 58.5 (right)
Given the wear rate above, next time I plan on starting with a 1.3mm split between left and right tires with the following sizes:
...Front - 61.0mm (left) and 59.7mm (right)
...Rear - 63.0mm (left) and 61.7mm (right)
All four tires wore almost flat with a very slight coning to the inside and zero chunks.
IMO, for high traction tracks the 4mm chassis is definitely faster.
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)