XRAY - Model racing cars

Hey guys,

Just wondering if anyone had any good XT8 setup tips for a low traction track. It is a medium size and is not too blown out. The setup I was running has served me well throughout the summer, but the track has just had some work done and seems to have lost a fair bit of traction (or maybe it was just the weather).

The problem I was having on sunday was on power - the car was just continuously spinning out. I've never had any problems before. I'm running 5,7,2 in the diffs and in the shocks associated 60 in the front and 50 in the back with 4x 1.4's all round. I guess lowering the centre diff oil would help, but any advice would be much appreciated.

A setup for the EC for the same track would also be very useful!

Here are a few images of the track:







Many thanks,

Oli

I would go with 573 or 553 in the XT8

and 543 or 351 in the buggy

Like you said, go down in the center. I would also try softer springs (one step) all the way around.

Any time track work has just been completed, it seems to alway be a little more loose (from my experience) and I have always gone with a bigger pinned tire. Try some of the Pro-Line StepUps or something with a big pin.

Thanks Rocco,

What effect will running softer springs have on the handling?

Also, what effect will changing the rear diff oil have on the handling? I've heard people say the lighter the oil the more planted it will be? How exactly does this work, and how does running a lighter centre diff oil change the handling?

Well, the thing I have tried to do in my last races is not to over complicate everything and just think about something very simplistically w/o overthinking it!
Generally, heavier diff oil takes away traction, lighter does the opposite (do you put a spool in the rear end of an onroad car to get more rear traction?!)
Softer springs will net less reaction and you will gain traction, so it will be easier to drive.

When you start getting more and more specific you have to get more and more technical, haha. Generally you want to find a happy medium, if you do softer in spring you want an oil/piston combo to match which is usually lighter.

You also want to find that happy medium on bumpy tracks where the suspension works and absorbs the bumps but not too light that the chassis hits the ground in the bumps because this will void any kind of suspension setting anyway!

In short, you want a setup where the springs 'agree' with the dampening of the oil, too stiff a spring and oil that's too light will make the suspension really springy and PoGo-ish, and too thick of oil will make it slow and worthless, you might as well put molasses in there!

Cool,

So in a nutshell, the lighter the spring, the lighter the oil (within reason) and vise versa.

I use mugen gray springs with 50/45 wt oil and 1.4x4 pistons and I love it. With the dark blues it wasnt right but now it feels perfect.

Mugen grays make the car very, very easy to drive! The light blues with thicker sway bars will yeild faster lap times, but are harder to drive, so like everything, its a trade-off.

I will have to remember this but for now I need this thing easy to drive until I get better.

I am using the stock sway bars but I have to say I am not sure in which way the blues would make faster lap times. With the grays I am jumping much better and clearing the doubles that before I wasnt. The car still corners great but right now the rear end breaks loose off power when entering a turn so i need to figure that out.

I am thinking less anti squat and maybe going back to the 3deg toe in the rear. The issue I had with 3 deg toe in the rear was that it broke loose under power if I wasnt careful so I tried 2 deg. The other thing may be my 7k CD oil but I am not sure that has anything to do with off power traction.

Rocco, have you tried using the red mugen springs from the MBX5T on the truggy? Does it offer the same performance as the grey springs do for the buggy?

That's a negative, Ghost Rider, I have not tried those yet.