Last night I headed to Harcore RC Raceway again for some practice to try and prepare myself for the upcoming GLORCS Race, and the RC Pro Canadian National Championships in Edmonton. I only brought my buggy last night just so I could get a little more track time with it on one of the toughest tracks in Canada as I had only ran it on tracks that have fewer and smaller jumps than Harcore. From the get-go my buggy was awesome and very easy to drive, but I wanted to fool around with shock rebound last night. I tried the following all on the front because the sun went down before I got a chance to play with the rear shocks. Here is what I tried and my thoughts on how it worked:

 Associated 45wt oil, Y1 piston

-No Rebound: I drilled a hole in the shock cap to accomplish this. The buggy had a lot of steering and felt very lazy when transitioning from left to right turns. Lots of mid-corner steering and very "numb" off center.

-1/2 Rebound: With the hole still in the shock cap I put a red urethane bushing ontop of the bladder. This made getting 1/2 rebound a lot easier and quicker to accomplish when building the shocks. The buggy felt okay with this setup. I didn't seem to loose any steering, and as expected the car felt less lazy when transitioning, and less numb off center. Harcore is well maintained so there are very few rough sections in the track making this shock package the best for that track. Over the washboard section of the track the buggy felt very stable with this package aswell. The buggy also seemed to land the best with this setup. As soon as the tires hit the ground there was no drama if I immediately turned the wheel, it just landed and stuck.

-Full Rebound: I plugged the hole in the shock cap, and continued to use the red urethane bushing ontop of the bladder. If you don't know what I mean when I say red urethane bushing, it comes in most (if not all) TRF onroad kits. I use this because it seems to keep the rebound more consistant over time. However it does eventually flatten out so be sure to change it after every5 race days or so. This setup was average, and the easiest to drive. The buggy seemed to be the norm with this shock package. It did everything sufficient and will always be the safe bet as far as shock building goes.

On a side note, I'm really beginning to enjoy my first season of offroad racing. Coming from onroad, I didn't know what to expect aside from having to take home a dirty car every week. However I am having a lot more fun, and enjoying it a lot more than I ever expected. Competition in onroad in the Toronto area is very thin right now, which made racing with the same 2 other fast guys really boring as the years went on.  I am loving the new challenge of offroad, and going to races with 15 - 20+ heats, in the surrounding area is very refreshing. Wednesday practice nights have also been a blast because I get to try whatever I want and see the difference in affect from how a car would react in onroad to how my buggy reacts in offroad. Big races are great, and we have done a number of them so far this season with success but I am a firm believer that practice nights are as/if not more important than big race weekends. Getting to the track in low pressure situations just to try things and make notes has been a huge key in getting me comfortable in knowing what to do at big races when the track conditions change over the course of the weekend with limited track time to go out and try the car. My advice for new people and experienced drivers in both onroad and offroad has always been to go to the track and just practice. Learn something about the car, learn something about the setup and go drive it to see how it works. It will only make you a better driver in more diverse situations.

 Thanks for reading my blog,

Steve