'Free' Kinwald XX that i'm racing!

[jamin]

Nice rebuild Dan! Great job. I hope that motor plate wasn't new - thats the mk1 milled version, something I've been after for a very long time

Even now that car looks awesome all painted up, much nicer than these cab forward designs that make me sick.

[DerbyDan]

Nice rebuild Dan! Great job. I hope that motor plate wasn't new - thats the mk1 milled version, something I've been after for a very long time

Even now that car looks awesome all painted up, much nicer than these cab forward designs that make me sick.

Thanks Ben.... yeah its part of the inspiration/desire to run the older car - the new mid-motored cars are so 'fugly' - also the off-road scene seems to revolve so much around having the latest mid-motor chassis/conversion or gadget... the XX is a pretty (relatively speaking), well proportioned looking car.... one of the nicest IMO, it even feels 'right' just holding it

You are ok, the milled motor plate is used - its in decent shape but does have scuffs/scratches underneath... it was on my original XX, just visible in this picture;



On the original car I replaced it for an anodised blue one - which was also a milled plate (not sure if this was a special Losi part or anodised by someone else?)

On this XX I fitted the milled motor plate to save the blue Kinwald item that is in great condition

[DerbyDan]

ESC soldered up, slipper adjusted & all ready to go

[jamin]

Go get em Dan!

[DerbyDan]

Go get em Dan!

Ha-ha.... well I didn't quite get all of them!!

I raced the XX last night at the Silverstone Buggy Club's indoor track, which is laid on top of some fresh new (& very grippy) astro turf;



At my last visit to this club (& the last time I raced off road) with my XXXCR2 I actually managed to win the A final, but I put this down to alot of luck & the fact that many of the 'big-guns' that often attend weren't there, last night they had a record turn out of drivers, which included 5-6 national F1 drivers, suffice to say I was not expecting a repeat performance with my 'old' car.

However I am happy to report that I finished second in the B Final about 2 seconds behind the leader (I did hold the lead for a few laps but made an error letting the eventual winning car through) - with the car performing faultlessly with 100% reliability. Straight away it became apparent that the rear motored car was at a dissadvantage on this super high grip surface - where as with my CR2 I could hold mid throttle around the sweeper onto the straight, it would just stick & hairpins are just a flick of the steering where-as the XX would generally understeer, requiring dabs of brake (or backing off the throttle) to hook it into the corners (of course each time you do this you loose out to the mid-motored car). It took a few runs to first get back into the groove of off road buggy racing (I more regularly race TCs) & to get used to the way the rear motored XX handles.

Throughout the evening I added some weight inside the front bulkhead (about 30g) which did help with turn-in & keeping the nose down when I pinned the throttle down the straight, & i did see an improvement with my lap times.

But the thing that really struck me about racing the XX was just how nice it was to drive, it seemed more 'fluid' & natural & I'm sure as soon as you throw some slippery stuff into the mix, where it looses out on the grippy stuff it can be made up with superior control & drive out of corners so it might be a more even match with the newer cars

[Lonestar]

Awesome, congrats for having the guts to try this!

Yes, on astro, with a rear motor, you clearly were at a disadvantage... how many rear motor cars were there in the A, if any?

Bravo nonetheless!

Paul

[DerbyDan]

Thank you Paul for the kind comments, I think there were only three rear motored cars - a B4.1 (belonging to a fellow club member who was trying out off road for the 1st time in many years) an Associated B3 (my mate's who is also more of a TC driver) & my XX - mine was the top placed of these three. Looking at the drivers in the A final & where i'd expect to qualify against them - I would say I sacraficed about 5 or 6 places by running the XX instead of the AC CR2.

[jamin]

So then Dan, when are you going to convert the XX to mid motor!? You might be the first!

It does prove though just how refined the design of these cars are now, there's so little performance to be found.

[Lonestar]

Thank you Paul for the kind comments, I think there were only three rear motored cars - a B4.1 (belonging to a fellow club member who was trying out off road for the 1st time in many years) an Associated B3 (my mate's who is also more of a TC driver) & my XX - mine was the top placed of these three. Looking at the drivers in the A final & where i'd expect to qualify against them - I would say I sacraficed about 5 or 6 places by running the XX instead of the AC CR2.

This is awesome - you are then the first rear-motor car in this race

I'm still stunned to hear didn't break a single part... when my buddy Didier pulled out his xxcr a couple of years back to race against the modern cars, he would really not finish a round... the slightest mistake (we all hit curbs or land a jump not 100% right once in a while, don't we?) would cost him an arm or a bulkhead... Wonder what had actually happened to his car's plastics...

Paul

[Headling]

Nice write up Dan and well done on the result!

Glad to hear it all went well, keep us posted on future outings!

[DerbyDan]

@ Lonestar.... I wonder if your friend's car had been stored on a window cill in direct sunlight, i'm sure UV light from the sun could deteriate the plastic on these cars? I have this XX and a XXT truck that I recently rebuilt & have now run a fair-few times without breakage.

Will definately stick with this buggy for a little while, i'm sure I can improve on my pace on the Astro Turf, & I can't wait to try it on a traditional (for the UK) grass track - I will keep this thread updated with results/findings & hopefully some more pics

[DerbyDan]

Race meeting No.2.......

Popped over to another local club over near Milton Keynes last night with the XX.

The track is set out inside a school Gymnasium laid over carpet (of two differing grip levels) with plywood ramps & a spot of polished floor where there isn't quite enough carpet to cover the whole area.



Again the car proved to be 100% reliable & was so pleasant to drive - docile even!



Anyway i'm pleased to repot that I managed to qualify in 6th position putting me into the A final, despite being booked into one of the lower heats during qualifying.



I even managed to make up a place to 5th in the final itself - & finished just over a lap down from the leading three cars (all three of which are capable of getting into the top 30 at national level) The old XX I feel was again at a slight dissadvantge being rear motored (rather than being an old design). I believe it was the only rear motored 2wd car there, it was great on the small peice of slippery floor but it didn't make up for the lack of front end bite coming around the a tight switch back section that led onto the straight - where I was also loosing out slightly having to keep off the power to tame the understeer until I was fully on the straight. Its got to be said that my own abilities are still somewhat rusty.... I am primarily an on-road touring car racer & Off Road buggy racing is something I do just as & when I can & they are very different disciplines to say the least - not that I would consider myself 'top-flight' in either

[Lonestar]

Just as awesome a result as the first one

did you really see a true advantage on the polished wood section over the mid cars?

Anyways, that's great!

Paul

[DerbyDan]

Paul - thanks for the comment; I definately had better control on the slippery floor, you can see the small strip of where the carpet was missing in my photo - many of the guys with mid-motored cars were trying to hook the into that left handed corner after the straight with a dab of brakes but were just spinning around, I could 'gun it' from the end of the straight & catch a lovely four wheel drift into the next bend - then maintain the extra speed around to the corner afterwards.

Unfortunately this advantage was slight with the small amount of polished floor, a well driven mid-motored car could neatly negotiate this section with minimal fuss - I could just take more of a liberty with my inputs, & get away with it.

For next time i'm going to modify the rear (orig XX) arms to put in the extra outer shock position like we did Bitd - i'm hoping this will help the rear end to 'pivot' more on & off power?

[Lonestar]

ok, next project... mid-motored XX