A brief pop-up shower this afternoon left the track a little wetter than I'd expected.
However, traction was exceptional and a good time was had by all. Even managed to carry the front wheels through certain sections - and that never happens.
Seems the secret to hooking-up on this reddish stuff the locals call "dirt" is to just add water.
Under the circumstances, I decided to leave the other car "on the trailer" today so I won't have two cars to clean.
I've had some time this afternoon to run a few laps. We've gotten some rain here but that was a few days ago so track conditions today were just about perfect.
I've swapped bodies; I think maybe the Viper looks a little better on the old worlds car.
I'm running some old Proline Bowties and they still seem to hook-up very well.
XLR8 wrote: ↑Wed May 01, 2019 8:37 pm
A brief pop-up shower this afternoon left the track a little wetter than I'd expected.
However, traction was exceptional and a good time was had by all. Even managed to carry the front wheels through certain sections - and that never happens.
Seems the secret to hooking-up on this reddish stuff the locals call "dirt" is to just add water.
P1010310.JPG
Under the circumstances, I decided to leave the other car "on the trailer" today so I won't have two cars to clean.
At my local track on race day when they water the track every 5-min my '91 runner will hook up through the s-turn hairpins (basically that section along with landing quad jump make or break your run) and I can pull decent lap times. Once it dries out there's no way to have good traction through those sections; you basically have to drive a perfect line (and stay on that line) or there's no chance. Of course you can't always do that when others are on the track so it's a bit frustrating. There's just not enough on power steering with vintage cars. I have added .75 oz of weight up by the nose with my battery pack moved as far forward as possible and that still won't compensate. I'm going to add another .50-.75 oz and see if that helps.
What's equally as difficult is the lead up to the quad/camel back jump. If you enter it where the track has high bite you can just blip the throttle and maintain momentum. If you don't have that bite you'll either not clear the jump or you overshoot it and land too far in between and then can't negotiate the second cleanly. With a modern 4WD buggy this doesn't matter because you can just jump the entire thing.
Hahahaha!
The other day when I was at Indy RC World, it was oval night and they were soaking down the main course. My dad and I really wanted to get the ol' RC10 on the track for nostalgia and just for fun, and MAN! The tires were caked with mud!
It took a long time and a lot of compressed air to get it off. Same problem with the loaned Traxxas Bandit that we also played around with on the track. Caked and hardened!
The employee that was soaking it down was really nice though, he just came up and explained that he was soaking down the track and politely asked us to get off the track. (Which was perfectly reasonable, since we weren't even supposed to be on there)
Original Cadillac A stamp AE RC10 with Hot Trick parts! That's how I roll!
JTSpeedDemon wrote: ↑Wed Nov 27, 2019 12:46 pm
Hahahaha!
The other day when I was at Indy RC World, it was oval night and they were soaking down the main course. My dad and I really wanted to get the ol' RC10 on the track for nostalgia and just for fun, and MAN! The tires were caked with mud!
It took a long time and a lot of compressed air to get it off. Same problem with the loaned Traxxas Bandit that we also played around with on the track. Caked and hardened!
The employee that was soaking it down was really nice though, he just came up and explained that he was soaking down the track and politely asked us to get off the track. (Which was perfectly reasonable, since we weren't even supposed to be on there)
Actually, the truth is that I never actually cleaned the car after the mud run. It sat for a few days and when I ran it again, the mud was dry and it just fell off.
Given a choice, I think I prefer a dry slick track. Although lap times are slower, it's kinda fun to steer the car with the throttle.
XLR8 wrote: ↑Wed May 01, 2019 8:37 pm
A brief pop-up shower this afternoon left the track a little wetter than I'd expected.
However, traction was exceptional and a good time was had by all. Even managed to carry the front wheels through certain sections - and that never happens.
Seems the secret to hooking-up on this reddish stuff the locals call "dirt" is to just add water.
P1010310.JPG
Under the circumstances, I decided to leave the other car "on the trailer" today so I won't have two cars to clean.
At my local track on race day when they water the track every 5-min my '91 runner will hook up through the s-turn hairpins (basically that section along with landing quad jump make or break your run) and I can pull decent lap times. Once it dries out there's no way to have good traction through those sections; you basically have to drive a perfect line (and stay on that line) or there's no chance. Of course you can't always do that when others are on the track so it's a bit frustrating. There's just not enough on power steering with vintage cars. I have added .75 oz of weight up by the nose with my battery pack moved as far forward as possible and that still won't compensate. I'm going to add another .50-.75 oz and see if that helps.
What's equally as difficult is the lead up to the quad/camel back jump. If you enter it where the track has high bite you can just blip the throttle and maintain momentum. If you don't have that bite you'll either not clear the jump or you overshoot it and land too far in between and then can't negotiate the second cleanly. With a modern 4WD buggy this doesn't matter because you can just jump the entire thing.
For some reason (laziness probably) I really never take the time to add or move weight around in the car. On the most recent outing, the car was under-steering so it would have responded well to an extra few grams of weight in the nose.
Overall traction on my little backyard track varies greatly depending upon humidity. Since I'm not actually competing, I tend to adjust my driving style to suit the conditions - it requires less actual work.
Man, how I wish there was a track close by. I miss racing!
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