Posted by: jpowell
on Mar 11, 2010
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Heading in to the weekend I was very excited. It was the 1st really big race with my Tamiya801xT. Also we had at least three member of the TRF team attending this race also. Ryan was heading in from California fresh off a trip to Texas and Alex and I where locals here in Ga. “Camp Tamiya” didn’t work out the way I hoped. The blistering wind and cold air had us all tucked away in a trailer or in a tent. Either way we had a great time and represented The Team well.
Practice – The track was more technical that the PNB tracks in the past. Not a lot of huge jumps instead had a few jumps that where easy to over jump and under jump. Timing was important. Also had a large sweeper heading into a 200+ foot straight away into larger cork screw style sweeper (Straight jacket). This was by far my favorite part on the track ;-)… After a few laps with my 801xT…again I didn’t feel like much change was needed over my current setup. I did go a little lighter on my shock oil due try and calm the truggy down on some really tricky whoop section. Other than that my 801xT felt good. After battling the “Wall” for several laps I finally felt good going into qualifying.
Qualifying – 1st round was a little shaky. It was a mixture of battling traffic and poor decision on my part. But we where running on qual points so I knew I had 2 more rounds to make it up. 2nd round – With the exception of 1 bobble that cost me a 12 lap run, I knew I laid down a good time that could place me in the higher mains if I could repeat in the 3rd round. 3 round – I had a feeling that running at 3am in the morning might not produce the best of results from my driving. And I was correct….Needless to say my timing was a little off.
Main – With only 1 decent Qualifier on Sat., it placed me 4th in the C-Main. Even with a few heavy hitters in the C with me, I was feeling good about the bump. At the start I was able to make a move that put me directly into the second position. After a few laps I caught the bad end of a mix up and rolled over in a turn marshal “dead zone”(spot on the track where turn marshal can’t get to that fast) …Went from 2nd to last in 1 turn. DOH! After a struggle to make up ground…I finished 7th roughly 18 seconds from the bump. My Tamiya 801xT performed great all weekend. Unfortunately my disappointment was in my driving performance. Even with my poor results I received many compliments on how well my truggy looked on the track.
This weekend was really tough. A roller coaster of emotions for sure….I had a great time with my friends and Teammates. Mourned the lost of a fellow racer, as well as welcome new ones to our home area. Can’t wait til next year!
Tamiya 2010!
Posted by: jpowell
on Jan 20, 2010
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CWC in Savannah Georgia - The weather was horrible. Forecast was for rain and they were right on the money. Practice on Friday was cherry! Great track conditions allow me to get several tanks in on my new truggy. After a few radio adjustments I was ripping around the track like I had been driving this truggy for months. The 801xT was just easy to drive. I felt I could have made a little adjustment for some rougher sections, but overall I couldn’t see changing anything to make it handle any better. Really nice! We were able to get 1 round of quals in on Sat morning. Then the rain ended all hopes for racing on Sat. After lots of work on the Track we were able to get started about noon. The condition where muddy. Even with the poor track condition, I was able to Qual 3rd overall heading into the mains. The Sunday weather scared off many, so it was a low turnout for the mains. Evens so I was poised for a podium finish with my 1st time out with my new Truggy. Unfortunately my continuous radio/electrical issues hit me again. Add yet another DNF from crazy radio issues…It’s time for an overall electronics change….
I truly am excited running the 801xT in the coming months.
Tamiya 2010!
JP
Posted by: jpowell
on Jan 11, 2010
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The truggy went together nicely. I'm not sure if I'm going to change over to the angle engine like in the 801x. I'm going to see how well it performs before making any changes. I did install the buggy front C-Hubs and steering knuckles. Also, I installed the some prototype front and rear a-arms. These are about 3mm narrower and should be a lot stronger. Overall I think this Truggy is going to run well. See Ya!
Jp
Posted by: jpowell
on Jan 08, 2010
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Hope everyone had a great Holiday Season! It seems that every year I get more and more to be thankful for. Holidays are over and it's time to get to business. Lots of really good racing in store for us this year. Hopefully the economy will be better and the tracks will have better turnout for racing . My wife surprised me with a Tamiya 801xT for Christmas. So it looks like I'm going to finally get to run Truggy again. I have been reading a lot more about the 801xT and I'm really eager to hit the track with my new Truggy. I'm in the process of building and getting it ready for action. I'll post up some more thought about my 801xT.
TAMIYA 2010 !!
Posted by: jpowell
on Nov 16, 2009
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I went out this weekend to a Fall Series at one of our Local tracks. Competition was moderate and the track condition where primo. I went out to practice on my basic setup running AKA soft Crossbraces. Buggy felt great. Qualifying- Had a problem counting laps in the 1st Rnd. Race director said my PT had to be mounted flat. I have been running my PT mounted to the side of my servo. I relocated it and started counting just fine. I broke a left front drive shaft in my 3rd Qual. Ended up Qualifying 5th . MAIN – The track got a little slick as the sun started to go down. After a bad start I had to work my way up thru the field. I made my way up to second but was running out of time. On the last lap 1st and where about 10 seconds apart. With less than 5 feet from the finish line 1st place flames out and I coasted to victory with ¼ tank of fuel left.
Overall my 801x felt great. It felt a little loose in the rear but I think a better tire choice for the main might have been better. I look forward to the 2010 season with my 801x…. TAMIYA 2010 !
Posted by: jpowell
on Oct 01, 2009
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Practice- I got starting practicing kind of late on Friday. I would say about 4:00pm. I went out on 10-5-7 diff set up which I have used as the track before. The track was med to high bite with mostly smooth surface and med size jumps with some technical sections. My 801x Jumped well but had way to much turn in (off power steering). After speaking to Lutz about this issue I decided to move my front outer hinge pins to the lower position. Lowering the front kick up. This calmed the steering down drastically. The buggy fell good but not perfect. Before practice ended, I decided to try out the try out the 15-5-10 diff setup that Lutz and a few other where using. This felt better and I was comfortable that I could go fast with the diff setup.
Qualifying – We knew that the day was calling for rain but only a 30%..which isn’t bad for Savannah Ga this time of year. Well it happened..shortly into the 1st round of qualifying it started to rain and continued for about an hour and half. So all setups where out the window. 1st round of qual was horrible. Mud city! But we came to race and that’s just what we did. One nose dive and I had 2 pounds of mud in my front end. I went back to the pits and made a few changes…mostly just some tires and round 2 and 3 where much better. I was able to qualify 2nd
Mains – After dodging some major threats of even more rain, Sunday morning was looking good. The sun came out and we started racing. By main time the track had dried out with a distinct line in the track. I decided to go with AKA Grid Irons (soft) for my tire. I got a rough start dropping back to 7th spot. But quickly made it up to the the 4th position. Suddenly my buggy died. At 1st I thought I may have flamed out. But come to find out after minutes in the pits ..my battery had came unplugged. Time to try some stronger plugs. I was not able to recover and end the race finishing 7th.
Overall the weekend went well. The weather was crape but the racing and fellowship with the other racers was worth the drive. I’m liking my 801x !
-Jamey
Posted by: jpowell
on Jun 24, 2009
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Well I just officially got through the build of my 801x. I fired it up and took it a few passes down the driveway(12am so couldn't run it but a few seconds)...Hope to take it to the track later this week to burn a few tanks out.
Many things impressed me about the 801x. The Diff design and the tie rod brake linkage are really smooth. The shocks where a breeze to build with no fighting air bubbles and getting the rebound right etc.....they went together very smoothly. Plastic feels really good. No over tightening and stripping out the plastic. Has a really good hold to screws. A-arms feel really nuetral between the flex and strength. Not to rigid and not to soft. I'm sure they will be very durable.
This is going to be a really good buggy. Cant wait to get it on the track.
See Ya!
Jp
