B1M

[mk-Zero]

It's got paint!


Still left to do: increase droop front and rear, adjust front and rear camber, adjust front toe. Should be ready for the track Thursday no problem

[JK Racing]

I'll stop by thursday

[DaveM]

Wow, It looks really good!

I like clear wings.

The paint looks understated, yet very good.

Some stickers in the future?

Cheers, Dave.

[JasonB]

This might be the absolute most exciting project (to me) that I have been following on here. I can appreciate the careful consideration that went into it. Great work; I can't wait to hear how it performs once you get it dialed in!

[mk-Zero]

Thanks guys!
Yes on the stickers, a few
This is the same paint job my Hot Trick rc10 and my b44 have. I don't like painting, it's as complicated as I'm willing to get, lol.

[mk-Zero]

Gonna go full tilt with it on the track tonight, wish me luck I don't break it!

[romulus22]

I like the overall look of the car. But ever car needs at least a couple stickers. I'm a number plate freak. Gotta have number plates

Get some video of it at the track if you can. This site needs more videos to watch.

[mk-Zero]

getting some stickers for sure. Probably not in time for tonight though.
I'd actually like to make some custom "B1M" stickers for it

[Harvey Wood]

Great work and keep sharing. Regardless I have one of my which is a 1/10 offroad buggy, that is additionally i have self assembled kit however it is controlled with an internal combustion engine motor rather than an electric engine.

[mk-Zero]

The car was great on the track last night! I can't believe how well this car jumps. When it was rear motor, I always had to stab the brakes in the air to get it to fly level, and that was with a couple 7g weights at the nose. Now it just flies level, no finness needed. The steering is really good, especially off-power. In the coming weeks I'll play with the springs and front suspension geometry to see if I can get a bit more on-power steering, but it's waaay better than it was as a rear-motor car. for now, I'm running white BB springs rear, gray BB springs front, 35wt front, 30 wt rear, -1 camber everywhere, and 25 degree caster blocks. Motor is a Tekin 8.5T.
The other interesting thing is, with the 3-gear mid motor setup, the car does not try to wheelie. With the 3-gear, the motor torque tries to push the front of the car down. The drawback is rear traction is a little less on hard acceleration than it would be with a 4-gear mid motor. Once I get my 4-gear mid motor case made I'll be able to compare the two and see which I like more.
Here it is in my pit area before I took it out.

Had a few pretty good crashes, and the long front arms took them no problem. Next up, long rear arms

[fredswain]

I've moved to full time 3 gear mid motor on my Durango and have no desire to ever go back to 4. In 4 gear, I never knew when it could back flip. It wasn't always off the line. Sometimes it would suddenly do it at a pretty high speed while still accelerating. I also found that I had to be much more gentle on the throttle coming out of a corner since 4 gear would pick the front wheels up too much to steer. In 3 gear I can drive it much more like a rear motor. No, I can't do back flips in the air or whip it around really hard but aside from looking cool I've never seen the point to it. I run no antisquat in mid motor 3 gear and have about 65% of my weight on the rear wheels. No problems at all.

[mk-Zero]

Makes sense Fred. Interesting that AE came out with the 3-gear box for the B5M, and in fact the new B5M Factory Lite comes with it. Makes sense to me that you would want the motor torque to be transfered to the front wheels for increased steering and reduced wheelie tendancy.

[fredswain]

You definitely get less forward grip during acceleration with a 3 gear but the underlying problem is that going from RM to MM shifts so much weight forwards that you don't have enough on the rear wheels which lowers grip. 4 gear artificially shifts weight rearwards but in doing so takes it off of the fronts. Not a problem in a straight line but potentially a handful during on power corner exit unless grip is really high. I like saddle packs in mid motor where grip is lower. Where grip is high it doesn't really matter. If I still can't hookup in mid motor, I just run rear but we don't have a lower grip track here anymore.

Associated is marketing the 3 gear as an upgrade for stock class racers due to lower rotational inertia which must mean faster. As a person who designed drivetrains for oilfield equipment up to 2200 hp, I can tell you that one little extra gear isn't going to do squat with mechanical efficiency. It sounds good from a marketing perspective and they know that most people will think it makes sense so that's how they'll sell them.

[RC10th]

I find my 10M loves to wheelie and will pick up the front at the drop of a hat. It's the same configuration as yours, the good thing about the mid is without a motor guard you can hold some pretty impressive wheelies without the wobbles.

[mk-Zero]

Ready for tomorrow night at the track. I added some stickers to spruce it up a bit.