The weather here in the plains has definitely changed to more of a winter feel, and almost all racing has changed over to indoor electrics. One of the disadvantages of living in this area is that we don't get to run nitro all year round like many other locations.

I have had a few other things come up at the end of my season which has kept me from racing for a few weeks, but hopefully it won't be much longer before I can get my electric season up and running.

Our nitro season here starts around April, so it's giving me plenty of time to work on set up's and new ideas for my 801's.

Until next time,

Kyle

Well, I finished my season off by attending the Jammin challenge at Pleasant Hill, MO. It was extremely cold that day, actual temps were around 35 degrees with wind chills slightly colder then that most of the day.

During my first practice run, I caught a rut which threw me into a wood post on the side of the track. 100% my fault as I should have let off when the car was thrown, but thought I could drive out of it. No luck there. Ended up breaking the front arm, steering knuckle, upper camber link, and losing the kingpin bushing.

Luckily, I had everything except the bushing which Steve Hale was kind enough to supply me with another brand that I was able to make work with a washer.  Having reassembled the car, I went back out to practice again. The track was very hard and unforgiving since the top 4-5 inches had to be scraped off with a bobcat because of all the rain leading up to that day. Coupled with the low temperatures, it became a very challenging course.

I struggled with my car as the engine seemed to be idling a little strange- at first I blamed it on the cold temps, but after during my second heat I had a run away on the straight that led me to believe I had something else wrong. After speaking with Steve about the symptoms, he suggested I might have an air leak, which sounded very plausible with all that had happened. Apparently, when I broke in practice, I hit hard enough to actually crack the case on the OS Speed I was running. This was in large part due to the cold temps I'm sure, as this was the first time I had broken anything on my 801X, it has been spectacular all summer on durability.

That basically ended my day and my season here. I very much wanted to attend the RC Pro Series Finals in November, but due to commitments at home I won't be able too. Now I have the long wait until I get to race nitro again, but it's always worth it.

I can't say enough about how great the 801X did all summer. Besides this cold day I never broke a part and everything showed very minimal wear. I can't wait until next season now that I have several months experience with this car. I need to work on a rough track/high bite setup as that's one area I seemed to struggle with, but I'm sure with a little tuning I can find something that just as good as my dry track setup is.

Turnouts at the local track are getting better and better, and the competition keeps going up every  week. We're lucky enough to have a couple of the best drivers in the world run on a some what consistent basis, and several national talent drivers from a few different teams as well.

 I'm still working with setups every week with the buggy, changing things here and there just to see the effect it has on the car. Lately tire setups have become extremely important along with suspension, so it can keep you on your toes- last night was a prime example:

 The track was run dry all day, but temps were only in the lower 70's with low humidity. Somewhat over cast as well, so the track never would really groove up. It started with a fine layer of dust that just didn't seem to want to polish off. My first heat was ok, was one of only 4 drivers to turn in a 10 lap run, but I definitely had room to improve that time. Several mistakes cost me more then 10 seconds.

 2nd Heat- Switched out some tires and made a tune adjustment. The car felt good in warm up, but certain areas of the track were beginning to break up throwing small clods onto the track. I was lucky enough to hit one on the first corner right after going "live" on the loop and it threw me right into the tube. Normal laps for me are in the 31- 32 second range, but that first lap was an astounding 44 seconds! Finished that heat in third, 5 seconds short of a 10 lap run.

 Final heat- Changed tires again to a brand that I've never had good luck with. By this time the track had finally polished off some, so I just wanted to see if they'd hook. By chance I stumbled on the perfect tire choice for those exact conditions and the car was on rails. Early on I was several seconds ahead of TQ, but between traffic and my own mistakes I ended up 2 seconds off of TQ but still 2nd qualifyer overall out of a very talented 10 car field.

The main: While it had been roughly an hour and a half since my final heat, I decided to stick with the same tire setup as the track conditions didn't appear much different to me. The temps had come down some more, and the sun was low in the sky, but I just didn't realize how  different things really were. From my first warm up lap I knew I was in trouble: the car was drifting everywhere. Since it's just a club race, I left the tires on and attempted to use throttle control and a steady wheel hand for the experience if nothing else. I can honestly say that was one of the hardest 20 minutes I've ever ran as the car struggled to hold any line on what felt like ice.  No where on the track could I take a breather as even on the straight any correction on the wheel could send the back end sliding past the front. At first I thought it had to be a blown out diff, but careful examination after the race proved the diffs were still good to go. Just a very bad choice of tires on my part. Ended up with second, but should have been third as the leader purposely pulled off  with a very large lead over the rest of the field mid race.

I am very happy to report that after all the weekend of racing I've put my 801X and XT through in the last few months, I still have yet to break a single thing. I've had my share of problems with pins in the cvds, fly wheel pins, and the king pin screws early on, but those were easy resolutions and have definitely not been a factor after taking time to properly address the root cause of each of those issues.  These cars are extremely durable and don't require the constant up keep that I see many other brands needing. Don't get me wrong, I pull my cars down every week to inspect, clean, and rebuild as needed, but I am very impressed with the way the components are holding up. The CVD's are still originals and the drive pins show hardly any wear at all. Diff gears still look very good, and shock seals haven't leaked a drop yet. Definitely all very high quality components, but that's what you expect when you get a TRF vehicle.

 No matter what, I'd still take a "bad" day of racing my Tamiya's over a good day at work, they always put a smile on my face!

Just got back from the RC Pro Series round #3 race in Omaha, Nebraska. This was hosted by the same track that did the ROAR Electric Nationals this year and they did an excellent job with this race as well.

 I had to run in the open class as this was my first time attending the Pro Series and did not qualify for the pro class yet. My 801X and XT did not disappoint and I ended up with TQ in both classes with times that would have placed me in the top 5 overall in the Pro class qualifying. Unfortunately, the mains were rained out and even though I technically "won" both classes, I don't feel comfortable making that claim without actually running the race.

 Both vehicles attracted a fair amount of interest as I heard the same comment- "this is the first time we've seen the Tamiya..." again and again. I think more and more people are starting to realize that Tamiya has made a serious commitment to the 1/8 scale racing scene and that these are very advanced and capable vehicles.

 With every new track I go to, I appreciate both vehicles more and more as their stability and speed is obvious on the first lap. I watched several different brands stuggle with sections of the track that took very little effort to drive my Tamiya's through. There isn't another brand out there I would want to be driving that's for sure. 

I've been learning a lot about how the buggy responds to changes, and I must say I'm very impressed with the feedback it gives you. With some vehicles in the past, I could make a small shock oil change and not really "feel" the difference on the track. Laptimes would help me decide if it was a good change or not, but with the 801X I can feel those small changes right away.

 This last weekend the track was very dry with a fine layer of dust on it. The car seemed a little loose with M2 bowties all the way around and 40wt front / 35wt in the back. Before my 3rd qualifyer I switched out to 35wt front and 30wt rear- the difference was amazing. The car was hooked much better, the increased weight transfer made a huge difference. 

 I reset the ride height to 24mm all the way around for the main and used 7k/7k/3k in the diffs. From my 3rd qualifying position I was right on first place from the start, and within a lap I had made the pass for the lead.  Because I was struggling with run time (engine tune to blame), I knew I would be making an extra pit stop for the 20 minute main so my main focus was to stay consistent and get as far out front as I could. Making my first pit before anyone else, I lost the lead temporarily, but gained it back when the others started making their first pit stops. From there, I pushed a little to get out as far as I could didn't relinquish the lead again. With 5 minutes to go, I was close to lapping second place so I made my final pit stop at that point and ended up taking the win by a good margin. 

 On that slick track, the 801X showed how well it responded to input both while driving and setup changes. I had also tried some AKA city blocks for the main, but this car with my setup seems to favor bow ties on this track as the AKA's proved to be a little slicker.

 For this week, I plan on playing with the diff oils more going thicker in the rear of the car and possbily lighter in the center diff just to see what the results are. I have the North RC Pro Series coming up August 7th, so I'm trying to make as many changes as I can in race environments so I can see how the car reacts. Nothing worse then getting to a new track and having no idea which way you need to go with your car to make it better.

Location: Pleasant Hill, MO

Track Type: Motocross style, with supercross features

Track Surface: Hard pack, groove style. Rained the morning of the race so the track was sticky most of the night

Practice: Spent most of practice seating the clutch and fine tuning trims, brake EPA, and generally just getting a feel for the car. Short sessions coming back in frequently to the pits to look for screws coming lose, or other new car gremlins.

First qualifier: Still taking it easy, the car felt extremely planted. Great steering, very neutral in the air over jumps, and still had gobs of traction coming out of the corners. I was running a solid 3rd on the track and feeling like the car had much more to give me.  Roughly 3/4 of the way into the heat, my steering seemed to stop on a corner. I had figured a king pin screw had backed out, but upon investigation my RX pack had died. Easy enough to fix.

Second qualifier: RX pack fixed and working great this time. As we are now running under the lights, it's taking me a little bit to get used to. I end up in 4th position in that heat, running my best time I ever had on this track by 5 seconds. 

Third qualifier: I decide to start pushing the car to see what it's (or more to the point-- what I'm) capable of. During the first lap of the heat something doesn't feel right in the suspension, but I make driving adjustments and finish out the race. Get back to the pits and see that the upper shock cap on the left rear had come loose and lost 3/4 of the oil in that shock. That certainly explains the feeling on the track.

 A-Main: I end up qualifying 6th, behind such names as Taylor James, Jared Tebo, Chad Parks, Traver Mullin, Steve Hale...etc which I was happy with for the first time out with the car. Running a shortened main because of weather (lightning and rain very close), I move into 5th on the first lap. The car is running flawless! Great speed on the straight, but giving nothing up shooting out of corners either. I believe the straight drive train on the Tamiya cars is to be given credit for this. The weather has gotten extremely humid with the rain moving in, and all the cars are running rich as the race goes on. I opt to go for a 7:30ish pit strategy, but at the 7:15 mark or so, I flame out due to fuel. Takes quite a bit to get restarted and by that time I've lost 3 laps at the minimum. End up finishing in 7th or 8th I think.

To sum up, I made no setup changes on the car at all on this night. I just wanted to get a feel for how it drives and reacts to certain obstacles. I basically used Ryan Lutz's Neo-Buggy setup posted on this site, but upped the oil from what he listed to 40 Front and 35 Rear. This still seemed a little light as the car did roll quite a bit on this traction heavy track.  I ran M2 bowties all night and the only traction problem I encountered was during the main as it started to rain on the groove- made it a little slick, but nothing that wasn't controlable with the throttle finger. Other drivers were using much smaller pins from AKA saying that the bowties were to loose all night. All in all, I'm extremely happy with the 801X and the 801XT, they are both extremely well put together vehicles that are capable of the highest level of competition. 

I'm looking forward to my next larger race, the RC Pro Series North Division in Omaha, NE coming up on August 7th. I wish I would have been able to get into the nitro nats, as I think these cars are the best there is on the market right now. Stable, fast, steer with any other car, but yet have the traction you need - it's a very tough combination to acheive, but Tamiya has done it!

Just finished up my 801X build and I can honestly say this is the nicest kit I've had the fortune to assemble. The quality of materials, the fit and finish, and the ease of assembly is second to none.

The suspension on this car feels better then any car I have previously owned, very smooth! I did use the optional gold shafts during my build, but even with the stockers it's very plush. I based my set up on Ryan's Neo Buggy that he has posted on this site, but did up the oil to 35 front and 30 rear as the oil he had posted seemed a little to light for the larger jumps my local track has.  I really like how the diffs are sealed in cases, not using the chassis as most car/truggy's do. From my first tear down with my truggy I can see that the diffs will stay cleaner this way. Plus removale of the diff's is a breeze.

 The only downside now is that I have to wait 2 weeks to drive it as I am leaving for the ROAR Electric Nats tomorrow.