Optima for Vonats 2015

[notarex]

Nice call Mr. Rich. My google-fu was weak. I think it will look decent in "Team Chain Gang" livery.

[notarex]

Here's the lineup sans bodies and most electronics. I have some swapping around to do on that front. The mid will be getting a thunder power 13.5t and hobbywing 10bl60 as well as a futaba bls351 servo. Still lots to do-

[Saxon11]

Looking good. I'm taking notes

[notarex]

In between building two team c tc02s and a losi lxt for my F.I.L., I've been trying to squeeze in time for these guys. Finally got the mid sorted and the 5 dolla special body painted. It's a rocket and I can't wait to get it on the track.





I ordered a cheap 4 pack of pinions for the gold optima from a iron track tanto. They are non-metallic but should work for testing, so I can figure out a decent ratio for the speed tuned motor. I'll probably be concentrating on finishing this one next.

[DennisM]

Looking sharp

[notarex]

Wrapped up the gold one finally. Here's the stats: tamiya sport tuned (will be replaced with lemans spa 240ws after vonats) hobbywing quicrun 1060 esc, hitec 645mg, orangerx dsm2 receiver w/ glitchbuster. Full bearings from fast Eddie, celebration gold chassis motor guard and nerfs, thorp final pinion, carbon fibre top plate of my own design. I guess it's not totally done as I need to find some way to retain a shorty lipo in the battery tunnel. Body is a proline baja-

[notarex]

Headed to Wolcott (home of vonats) tomorrow for some practice- let's see if we can get these sorted.

[notarex]

Two more weeks! I don't have time to finish the carbon fiber frame rails for this one, maybe next year. I did add Andy's knuckles with the flanged bearings and pinned cvds from an old Team C buggy. It ended up widening the track by 6mm total up front. Tires are jconcepts 1.7s on vaterra wheels. Body is a jconcepts detonator.

[notarex]

After action report:

I got hammered in 4wd. Not only were they better drivers, my cars were way outclassed. The belt drive rear motor was laughable, the mid slightly less so. The xx4 was the chassis to beat for sure.

In Classics I fared better, consistently qualifying well once I got the gearing sorted. Despite that first qualifier where I overheated and DNFd, I made it to the A main. I knew I didn't have a chance vs the TQ (a Sonic Fighter that was incredible to watch) but I was hopeful for a good finish. I ended up losing a pinion in the main after working my way up to mid-pack.

All in all it was kind of a disappointing weekend. I had fun chatting with some interesting people, meeting Team Sweden checking out some neat rides. There was some great racing, next time I'll have to work harder on my driving and setup.

I decided to hang on to the rear motor belt drive Optima and continue to develop it. The gold and mid went to the 'bay to make room for new projects.

[stickboy007]

I feel your pain. I ran a re-re Avante at my first VONATS in the 4wd class and got spanked. Some of these older 4wd buggies look awesome, but simply do not stack up against the less-old buggies out there.

It would be great to have an alternate 4wd class for the less competitive chassis, maybe in something like a 4wd Classic class with something like a Sport Tuned motor or 21.5 brushless. Then you can run a Top Force, Optima, Avante, 870C, etc. and have a grand old time without getting in the way of the XX4s, YZ10s, and CAT2000s in the 4wd "mod" class. I'd totally be up for that (I still have my Avante) and did talk to Erich about it a while ago. The challenge is fitting it into a program that already takes a full weekend (something has to give), while also assuming we'd get sufficient attendance for that class.

[Lowgear]

I see the XX4 is from 1996. I thought the model cutoff year would be a little earlier than that. How do the Vonats work exactly? Do they only allow R/Cs to run from a certain year range or are more models eligible with the passing of time? If it's the latter of the two, that is definitely unfair as eventually you'll have cars 20 years apart racing each other. I know this issue has been discussed on here before but I can't remember what the answer was if there was one.


I was going to buy your Academy bodied Optima but I waited too long.

[Wahrsuul]

In my experience, the Avante wasn't great even when it was new. Tamiya was never really competitive in the higher end classes BITD. They were good for box-stock stuff, I did ok with my Thundershot/Terra Scorcher. But my Avante only ran a couple times and didn't do well even then.

[stickboy007]

VONATs is pre-1994 with some exceptions. As of last year, the XX, XXT, and XX4 were allowed, as were the B2 and T2. You are right that eventually the time span becomes too large to cover in one class while keeping the whole field competitive. If enough people bring cars from each era, then it could be split into '80's 4wd and '90's 4wd. That would be ideal, but again, it requires people to bring their stuff. Not many people have, or are willing, to race their '80's 4wd buggies (or even re-re versions of them). And among them, not all of them are willing or able to attend VONATs.

Really, that event is meant to be more about racing cool cars than actual hardcore racing. But once you put a car on a track, somebody is going to try to win, no matter how much you try to remove the racing component from it. So there's a balance somewhere. The Avante was by no means competitive as a chassis (although you can wheel them around if you really try), but the same could be said of the rear motor 4wd Optima in comparison to the YZ10 870c which could easily spank them both. Those three, and others like them, are from a similar era, and I think you'd agree it would be cool as hell to see them racing each other on a track again, without having to worry about more modern vintage cars (which are also cool as hell) running circles around them. Even if among them there were a clear winner, that entire field as a whole would still be light years behind the XX4. If we only raced what were "good," then everybody would drive a XX4 (except me. I'm a YZ10 guy) and it would get boring.

All I saw this year in the 4wd field were XX4s, with the exception of my YZ10 and one or two Kyoshos. Almost everyone jumped on that bandwagon, because that was clearly the "best" car (despite it being too fragile for most of them). It's a double edged sword, though, because really, allowing the XX4 was the only way to grow that class. Before last year, the 4wd field was lucky to have a full A-main, since most pre-1994 4wd buggies are quite hard to find, command a high price, and spares are sparse.

[Returning_Jim]

After action report:

I got hammered in 4wd. Not only were they better drivers, my cars were way outclassed. The belt drive rear motor was laughable...

What do you believe is the biggest detriment to the car? The overall weight, the weight distribution, or the suspension geometry?

[notarex]

I got the weight of the rear motor equal to the mid, but the weight in back hurts. I think the arm length and suspension geometry is the biggest detriment. I talked with someone else there who thought a Laser zx would probably be competitive as it solves these problems. For me, the XX4 is too new/advanced to be interesting.