VTA and F1 11/26 Mikes

Another race week. More fun. 6 cars in VTA 5 cars in F1, we are growing! I did OK in VTA, Q4/P4 my car is slow on this track, a second a lap. I lose people down the straight. Will change gearing. F1: Mclaren = fast. Silvercan is fast. My driving isn't quite up to that fast, but getting better. Lousy, qualifiers. No more than 2 laps in any of them. First 2 qualifiers I used the FGX. After breaking an upper arm in practice Friday, I beefed up the arms with titanium and some other metal. 2nd lap of Q1, I break a lower arm. Replace, reinforce with CF, Q2 my new front end comes loose. Park FGX, replace some front end ball ends, but it is parked for day. I blew a front tire on the Mclaren Friday,and I didn't have a replacement of soft F3 Shimizus. Zack had a pair of medium F3's and he mounted them on my rims. I had mediums before, pushed like a mother, so I expected the same. Nope, car was hooked up, and actually I liked them better than the softs. Less nervous. Need to stiffen rear a bit, but not alot of time to make adjustments. So Mclaren is ready for Q3. I thought. 2nd lap, lose right steering on Mclaren. Why did I wake up? Not taking chances, I replaced servo and servo saver, and took it out on the track. Got it working well. So in the main I start last of course, but I ran 3rd 5 minutes of the 6 minute race. I'm not consistent enough to keep up with Robert and Alex, I'm working on it. Car has the speed, just need to work my lines. Bumped one too many corners and stripped the spur. Heavy sigh. 4 F1 DNFs. Felt like Team Marussia Virgin. But, I still have video. Main spends too much time focused on me, but there's a good race between Robert and Alex that is going on too. Q3 video, I was on track long enough for a cameo. That's racing.

FGX and the link front end

We have all seen it. Exotek is doing one, Robk has a good looking version, TRG, SpeedMerchant etc. Well after seeing the one Robk made for his F104 coinciding with the glass front end of the FGX, Racer Robert made this version. He simply walked over to the airplane side of Mikes Hobby shop and grabbed the gear.

Hanger 9 Titanium Pro Links 4-440 x1-1/2
SIG Aileron Connectors
Dubro heavy duty ball links
some 440 threaded rod.

The front end has worked well for Robert, this is a pic of mine that I just built. He has had no issues of breakage, or any other problems that I am aware of. I'm hoping I have the same results. I will of course post up anything tomorrow.

FGX- First time on the track.

I have never built a car that didn't need some tweaking, however minor or major, when first put on the track. This might be a product of not following instructions to a "T", or just the car itself. I don't know. What I do know is that I followed the instructions to the FGX as close to possible the entire time. From shock oil, to diff gunk, to the length of the links on the front end. And I was rewarded today when I put the FGX down. Not only did I not even have to adjust the steering trim at all, after the initial one lap around the track, I dropped the hammer on it and wrang it out. Better than expected. Much better. I had already driven Racer Roberts FGX. I knew the history of the fragile front end, so I babied it around the track a couple of times and gave it back with out so much as carpet fuzz on the tires. Not this time, this was my car. And I knew the front end was going to snap. (it did) I went out there expecting it, almost wanting it to happen. It took a while, although I don't know what I hit that did it. I didn't have anything remotely close to the board meetings I continue to have with the Mclaren. (More on that later :-) ) I snapped the right side trailing upper arm. Big deal. Borrowed a spare from RB and went right back out there. I like this car. Box stock with Pit Shimizu grooved tires it was hooked up and handled better than I anticipated. It is slower with the stock gear set. There is just not enough room for a bigger pinion at the moment. More room to adjust motor and the Fast gear set will remedy that. Without any adjustments the car makes me happy. With the hop ups coming the performance will increase. This is a serious machine. Racer Robert's is already a beast, mine will be with one small order to TQ RC Racing. And of course a new body from F1 Paintlab.

Now onto the Mclaren. I stole the esc and motor out of it and installed it all in the FGX. Did the same to the Mutant and installed it in the Mclaren. So the Mclaren has the Novak GTX/Silvercan combo in it now. Its even faster than before. But, I split a front tire. Tread severed from inner wall. Not good. My plan for the track Saturday was race with the Mclaren, and play with the FGX. Now I will have to race the FGX while the Mclaren is sidelined. This is probably my last race day until January. It definitely will be the last Saturday race day until then. Might squeeze in a Thursday if I am lucky, but an F1 class on a Thursday is doubtful. I will not have the speed to contend tomorrow, but I will have a new car. And that still makes me happy.

FGX

OK, I bought an FGX this weekend. I finished the chassis build this morning. I am not going to bore you with the details of the build, because 1: if your on this blog, you know all about it already, and 2: I just followed instructions so I cant really add anything. I will say that its a cool chassis, especially the workings of the rear end. Front end is fragile of course, that is well documented, and I will beef it up as much as I can with CF rods. Hopefully 3racing has an updated front in the works. In the meantime Ill bust up this front end and then go to a link set up. I have VTA tires and rims on it, all I have at the moment until I can place an order. I also liberated the lid from the Mutant. The Mutant and I have come to an agreement, he keeps losing the left rear wheel, and I quit driving him. Electronics are coming out, and I am going back to the standard wide configuration and a new steel rear axle. With foams and a FOR SALE sign. Dig it. Anywhoo, here some pics.

F1 11/19 at Mikes and more......

F1 was the only on road class today at Mikes, I'm assuming because 1: there was a big nitro off road race going on outside, and 2: we had that big Fall Classic last weekend. Regardless, Racer Robert, Scott and I braved the carpet alone. Good races, my car worked well, and got better as the day went on. Roberts FGX responded well as usual all day. Scott's F104W started out bad, but by the time the last qualifier came up, he was good. Main...... I crashed out early with a stripped servo saver, and Robert won. Good news about that is I was able to record the final 3 minutes of the race AND, cleaned off the finger print smudges that my kid had left from last time. I haven't watched the video, it took a few hours to upload to you-tube, but I was there. The race was good. Even with Robert sandbagging. Oh yeah, I got an FGX. More on that later..... its Showtime!

Tamiya F104WGP

Very little info. ETA is Feb 2012. Rumor has it, that its a F103 x F104x1 hybrid. That is the rumor. Any info, let me know.

F1 A Main #3 Fall Classic

About half of the 3rd A Main before camera ran out of memory. Kids finger prints on the lens. I'll fix that next video. Sorry.

2011 Fall Classic: Aftermath

Fun weekend at Mikes, Fall Classic was a blast. Had some good races, had some bad races. But it wet my appetite for more big events. VTA I finished out of the top 10. Car was good most of the time, traction was incredible. I had some traction rolls in the first couple of qualifiers until I went to a newer set of front tires. Had my best race with them, 4th out of 13 in the first of the A mains. But those tires were also my downfall, weak glue on the sidewall, and I lost tires off of the rim in the next 2 mains. One 4th, two DNFs, equal no trophy. Sad face. F1 was fun, we had 6 cars. My car started out with over steer problems that got better every qualifier. Sundays 4th and final qualifier was my best race of either class for the entire weekend, 2nd, and was fast. Car was an absolute dream. Best the car has ever been on rubber tires. But during the first two mains, the screw for the motor pod pivot loosened and I was spinning a lot. Pulled off track both races just to be out of the way. Robert, Alex and Jordan really put on a show. F103, F104W and the new FGX very equal all weekend. Last main I was so paranoid about the loose pivot during the first mains, that I was really timid on the track. Plus my transponder came unplugged, so even though i had a fairly decent race, I only got credit for a handful of laps. El Suck. Alex pulled off the win, with all the A main wins, and TQ, He had an outstanding weekend. It was good to see. Of course I failed on the video again. Pretty much the theme for my weekend but man it was fun. F1 was a hit, and I expect it to grow.

Left to right: Me, Randy Novak, P2 Jordan, P1 Alex, P3 Robert, and DW.

2011 Fall Classic Friday Practice

Went to Mike's today for some practice. Place is already hopping with out of towners. I saw Lemiuex and Ellis with their Mod Sedans..... OMG they are fast. My VTA is in good shape, if I could drive I would be in better shape. Doug Bryson is fast right now. Hes about .5 second faster than my best lap,a full second faster than normal speed. I hit too many boards to be fast. F1 is really good, a little loose on power. It is fast,no transponder in it,but I was running the same pace as guys that were running mid 11s. We will see tomorrow. Lots of traction already. Now off to work a 12 hour shift... dammit.

The Mutant

I am starting to think that after The Classic this weekend I am going to switch over to the F109K4 as my main F1. At least until I get the FGX after Christmas. The more I mess with this car the more I want to drive it. And that is one thing I really haven't gotten to do much of. Since putting the soft Pit Shimizu's on, this car has come alive. No I don't think its as good as the Mclaren is, but I have put a lot more time in the Mclaren. I think the Mutant will be even better in a short time. As long as I'm using rubber tires. On foams, I don't think the Mutant can touch it.That is something else I am thinking about; going back to foams on the Mclaren. And maybe going to one cell and a 10.5 or a 13.5. Man that would be the shit! Right up until impact.

2011 Fall Classic

2011 Fall Classic coming up next weekend at Mikes Hobby Shop. My first big race event since the 1992 Texas State Oval Championships, which as it turned out, wasnt that big after all. I am running VTA and it looks like we just may have enough for an F1 class. And we are excited. 3 pro drivers will be there: Mike Dumas, Paul Lemieux, and Drew Ellis. Should be exciting to see the really fast guys. There are fast guys at Mikes every week with some of the locals, but this should be a treat.
I hope that we do get to have an F1 class, and I hope that we put on a good enough show not to get laughed at. I think Robert Bremer will be running his new FGX, and Alex G will have his F104W. Both should be fast, and I will be running my Mclaren F109 and maybe loaning out The Mutant if someone wants to drive it. Two others, which have HPI ormula 10s, have committed to running as well. Thats the 5 we needed to have a class. Needed 10 for trophies, but just having a class is big for us. Robert will win anyway!!