Anyone who checks out the 201 thread on RCTech will know I am pretty transparent about my testing.  For those who don't check it out, I will copy and paste a few of my submissions so you can follow along with my testing in preparation for the Reedy Race in January.  This is a long submission, but should give any readers an idea of what I'm testing.  I check on the 201 thread on RCTech daily, so if you have a 201 and have any questions don't hesitate to ask on there!

9/5/11 - Giving my 201 a complete rebuild, almost have it all back together. Have some new setup ideas on the car right now, going for a really smooth/easy to drive setup that lands a little better than my previous setup(s).
Rebuilt the transmission and put the new Tamiya ceramic diff balls and carbide thrust balls in, gotta say my diff is as smooth as glass without sanding the rings down. I usually run AE carbide balls because up to this point they were the smoothest diff balls I've used, but the new Tamiya ceramics are just as smooth but should last a lot longer.
Really looking forward to the track on Tuesday, excited to see some good results with the new setup.

9/6/11 - It's kind of going in the exact opposite direction of mounting everything down the center of the car, but in my testing today I actually ended up putting weight on the outermost sides of the chassis next to the receiver and ESC. I was having issues with the car tipping over really easily without the weight, but with it the car felt a lot more planted. I have been running the optional chassis but went back to the stock one to generate some extra grip. It is lighter and I think that's what was part of the cause of my unstable car.
I have mainly run the 201 with extra weight in the rear of the car but as of late have been shifting the weight up towards the front. Today was the first time I've run it with no added weight in the rear and all up front. The car worked really well with this setup. With the weight in the rear it will want to continue rotating as you are exiting a turn, with the weight up front it is more of a point and shoot feel. As soon as the car was pointed in the direction you needed it to go, you could hammer on the throttle and had plenty of grip exiting the corners.
We both tried 1.3mm and 1.4mm front pistons with 30wt oil in our cars. Both of us favored the 1.4mm pistons to the 1.3's. The lighter dampening actually helped make the car less twitchy off center but had more steering overall. A few months back I tried running the 4wd front yellow springs on my 201, and those ended up being the spring of choice today for Jake and I, they felt really good. My setup for the rear end stayed with a yellow spring, 1.3mm piston with 27.5wt oil. Both of us had no lack of steering even with the added rear bite, so you couldn't ask for a better combination.

9/9/11 - I forgot to mention one of the major changes that Jake liked on his car was unthreading the rear shock eyelets 2 turns to give the shock an extra 1mm of length. Once he did that the car went over the bumpy sections of the track much better. That has been the 1 thing on my car that has stayed for a long time, really helps make the car easier to drive.

9/11/11 - Another day of testing is in the books with a club race to top it off. Jake and I hit WCRC again yesteday to try and improve on our times from last Tuesday, gotta say it was a success. I played around with battery position, and changed my rear shock oil/piston combos a total of 5 times, but it was Jake who hit the nail on the head by drilling out 42166 blank pistons into 3 hole #56's that really worked. We started off with 27wt oil, I put 30wt in for my 2'nd qualifier, and both of us ended up with 30wt for the main. I ended up liking my battery in the forward position after playing around with that.
Had an awesome turnout with 2wd mod buggies, 2 heats of sportsman mod, and a near full heat of expert mod. Jake qualified 4'th with me in 5'th, and after the dust settled I worked my way up to a 2'nd place finish with Jake right behind me in 3'rd. I am a bit out of practice and a little bummed with myself because I had a decent size lead at one point, but bobbles took that lead away, so because of that it's another full day at the track tomorrow so I can feel more confident in running 5 mins without mistakes.
In short, we have both really benefitted from the practice days this week, both of us have the same attitude where if something is working OK we just get comfortable with it. Watching and driving eachother's cars we have ended up making numerous changes and have really gotten both of them going around the track a lot faster.

9/12/11 - Jake and I have been working really well together on the setups, and we seem to like the same feel out of the car, so that really helps.
He made a switch to the high bite chassis for Saturday where I stayed with the stock chassis. I know at the beginning of the day he was really happy with his car, but after the mains we drove eachother's cars and I think (not 100% sure) that he was going to switch back to the stock chassis. Even though our setups are almost identical our cars feel very different, and that is due to the electronics. He has a good amount more push brake than I do, he handles it well on the track but I have a really hard time keeping the back of his car in line under the brakes. Also because of the electronics I am able to fit more lead weight at the outsides of the chassis which I feel gives my car a more planted feel where his car has a more nimble feel and changes direction really quickly. Without the added weight on the stock chassis, my car was having issues rolling over in corners or on landings and felt too springy.
I am once again heading to WCRC today and have decided to stay away from the big bore shocks for one last testing session to get a couple questions in my head answered.
First off I wanted to try running 3mm anti-squat for the main on Saturday, but realized there wasn't space for more than 2mm of washers. I tore the back end down last night, took everything off of the back end of the chassis and cut off the cross piece of the chassis above the pivot mount. That will allow me plenty of room for more anti-squat shims. Without any of the pieces mounted on the chassis, it did have a small amount more flex without that brace on there, but once everything was mounted and bolted down I didn't feel any difference. My baseline today is starting with the 2mm anti-squat to see if I can feel any difference from cutting that brace off.
Once the anti-squat is settled I am going to move to my front camber links. I have 3mm on the inside of the link which makes the car fairly aggressive off center but has really good steering. Because of the aggressive feel I ended up dialing in 10% expo in my steering. I'm hoping that I can lower that down to at least 2mm and get the car even easier to drive into the corners without sacrificing any steering. (My car has a TON of steering as well, so there is room to give some of it back)

9/13/11 - Alright, time for an update from testing yesterday.
First off is the 3mm of anti-squat. I have been running 2mm but basically just wanted to see how 3mm would feel around the track, the only thing I knew was from my on-road racing and that has taught me more anti-squat = more rotation in the corners. Sure enough the car rotated extremely well in the hairpins, but this also makes it a bit harder to drive in the higher speed corners where you need the car to stay a bit more planted in the rear end. One thing that it did help with was give the car a little extra push off the lip of jumps. I noticed the car would jump further than with 2mm of anti-squat. There is a large triple on the track that I like cutting the corner fairly close on, however I end up casing it most of the time if I take that line. With the 3mm anti-squat I was able to cut the corner fairly close and still make the jump consistently. I still have more testing I want to do with the added anti-squat, but because it did make the car a bit harder to drive, I went back down to 2mm. Next time I am going to try running 3mm, but also lowering all of my camber links on the inside by .5mm in the rear and 1mm in the front. That should make the car a bit less aggressive to hopefully mellow out the added anti-squat. If I can get the car easier to drive with the 3mm there, I will be running it.
The second test ended up being with the big bore shocks. Although I had time to change springs once, I didn't have enough time to play with different oil and piston combinations. I ended up starting off with what the Losi guys will generally run on the indoor tracks which is 55 pistons and 27.5 wt oil on all 4 corners. I started with Kyosho red rear springs & pink front springs. The car felt a bit soft with that setup so I switched to a yellow rear spring which is 1 step down from the stiffest they offer. The car still felt softer all around than with my Tamiya shocks & yellow springs. Because it was softer, I couldn't get the car to jump like I wanted it to. That is basically where the negative points end though. Even with the car feeling softer, it bottomed out less on landings and over bumps. There is 1 bump on the front straight that has been giving me issues for the past week, it is a high speed area and when you hit it just right, it kicks the back end of your car over and smacks the rear shock tower right into the face of a jump... hard. I've gone through 3 pairs of wing mounts and 3 wings because of it. With the big bore shocks, I saw my car hitting the bump numerous times, but it kicked the back end of the car up a couple inches and the car kept going. The big bores really handled bumps better than anything I've tried so far with the stock shocks. I have also had issues with my car being a bit hard to correct on sideways landings or when it gets out of shape. One thing I noticed right off with the big bore shocks is that I could drive the car right out of those situations on power without losing much time at all.
Now I said the shocks felt soft around the track, so I called one of my Kyosho buddies who is a setup expert to get a little feedback from him. It turns out that I was running my rear springs 3 steps heavier then the Kyosho guys generally do, and the front springs 1 step softer. I was going off of a setup sheet from the Reedy Race last year when I chose my springs, but things have changed quite a bit with their setups since then. He gave me a few pointers on how to get the softer springs working well and jumping like they should, and now I have some things to try next time at the track. I can see these changes making the car easier to drive with a softer more plush feel around the track, which hopefully will bring the 3mm of anti-squat back into play as well.

10/4/11 - Inline axles and 25* caster blocks will give you the most initial/turn in steering. 30* caster blocks and the axles in the trailing position should give you the most mid-exit steering.

10/11/11 - Ran at OCRC today, they have a really fun layout in right now. No big jumps on the track, just a technical layout that flows really well. Track has a good amount less grip than WCRC so I was struggling a bit with rear bite, but managed to change a few things and get a bit more.
Tried the XA block for a little more inner toe and it actually helped give the car a little extra traction. My car was a little soft and the extra inboard toe helped to stiffen it up just a hair, I also added a 1mm shim under the inner camber link ballstuds to get the rear end to roll a little less as well. Those changes seemed to help get the car a little more forward bite out of corners.
All of the weight in my car is towards the front and this layout exploited that a bit, the nose felt heavy over a lot of the jumps, need to work on that without adding any weight to the rear end.
My hopes are that getting the car really good on a lower grip track will help make it easier to drive at WC. My car still has a TON of steering, so I'm not worried about having any pushing issues.

 

Since getting the 201, I have been doing a lot of club racing and small local races.  I have done really well locally, but I haven't been to a big off-road race since the 2000 Hot-Rod Shootout.  Leading up to the Reedy Race I kept asking friends who would be fast, and it seemed like half of the people I have never heard of or raced with, so I was going in relatively blind as to where I stacked up.

I do a fair amount of club racing at WCRC, it's a little bit of a drive so I don't get up there as much as I should, but I still had a good feel for the clay and how the track normally is.  After day 1 of practice had ended, I realized that the track felt nothing like it normally did, so the locals really didn't hold an advantage.

One thing I hate doing at any race, on or off-road, is changing my setups after practice has ended.  Unfortunately I was still making changes on both my 201 and 502 through every qualifier.  The main reason I don't like doing this is I never get fully comfortable with the cars and tend to make more mistakes and bobbles.  That really ended up being my problem for the weekend though was not being able to complete a single clean run with either car.

I still managed to place both cars into the B-Mains which wasn't quite where I wanted to be, but considering the unknown competition that showed up for the race, I was pretty happy with the B's.  In 2wd, I ended up 15'th overall, and in 4wd I ended up 11'th overall.

I have been getting requests for my setup sheets for both cars, but to be honest I never got either car where I wanted it to be.  I am going to resort back to my standard 201 setup, and will continue to work on the 502 setup a bit more.  It ended up being really close by the end of the weekend, but I feel that I still need to find more grip overall with that car.

Well I've had some time with the TRF201 now, and have to say I am really loving the buggy.  I have worked on my setup, and have put one together that is easy to drive and still has plenty of speed, a great combo!

I have run the track at 4 different tracks so far, WCRC, OCRC, PRCR, and Pegasus.  I have been able to lay down competitive runs at all of those tracks, and the best part is I haven't had to change my base setup at all for any of them.

The car's durability is insane, I have yet to break a single suspension part.  The original idler gears are prone to be weak, but Tamiya should have a replacement for them in the very near future.  RW racing also has a replacement idler gear, I'll be testing it's durability this coming weekend, but it looks good so far!

I update on RCTech often with anything I find regarding the 201.  My setup sheet should be available on the TRF site anytime now, but for the meantime, it was posted on RCTech about a month ago.

I've been doing a ton of running lately at both OCRC and WCRC raceways, getting the track time and knowledge to get a running start with the TRF201.  I am really excited for the release of our new 2wd buggy, from the pictures it looks as if it should be a real competitor.

My main concern is to have the knowledge to be able to answer any questions that should come my way about the car when it arrives, and I feel I'm definitely on the right track.

OCRC is a pretty consistent medium bite track, changes a slight bit throughout the day but you can pretty much get away with running 1 set of tires without having to make changes as the grip changes.  WCRC is a very high bite track when it's wet, but the grip really goes away as it dries out.  The advantage there is it gives me the opportunity to run on 2 extremely different track conditions throughout the day.  I've also been able to make it up to Hot Rod Hobbies for a JBRL race in which the track actually formed a blue groove condition and had really high bite while the sun was out.

I just got home from a club race at WCRC which had a 10 minute main, definitely not used to that from my normal 5 minute experience on the asphalt side of things, but it was a blast.  Going to head to one of the tracks on this Friday for more club racing, and then the same on Sunday.  Having a lot of fun running off-road!

Randy

I never thought I'd say it, but right now in SoCal, we honestly just have too many tracks!  Racers are now spread between about 6 or 7 locations (if you count the parking lot tracks running as well) within a 30 mile distance of each other.  3 of these tracks are indoor facilities on top of that!  Although it's great to see race directors trying to pump up on-road racing, it is really just killing race turnouts at the individual tracks.  It seems like a new track will open, thrive for 3 or 4 months, and then the crowd will flock to a newer track leaving the previous one with horrible turnouts.  Unfortunately, already in the past year a couple of tracks have been shunned and eventually just closed the doors...

It's mainly because of this that I have been running more and more electric off-road, where turnouts are fairly consistent and the competition is always good.  Happy to say that last Saturday there was an A and B main for 2wd modified at a normal club race.  Right now seems like a good time to sit back and let the on-road tracks battle it out while I get more and more wheel time with the EP off-road cars like the TRF511 and soon to be released TRF201.

One good note for the sedan side of things is the directors of the Reedy Race have selected a host track for this year.  Although the announcement is late I'm hoping that they will end up with a good mod turnout, if so I'll head up for that race as well.

Finally, the long awaited 416X kits have arrived at Tamiya USA.  I'm really excited to start running this kit.  The changes are subtle, but should make for a car that drives completely different than the 416WC.  My WC has always been competitive on outdoor tracks, and even on carpet with rubber tires.  However, with the opening of the high bite indoor asphalt track WCRCR, I just haven't been able to find the steering I need without sacrificing traction or driveability.

I still have a couple of practice/race days left in my WC kit, and I'm going to focus on doing as much suspension testing as I can so that I can apply the knowledge to the build of my X kit.

I'll be back soon to report on how the new car is doing!

 

Randy Caster

Well the long weekend for the KO race is over.  I spent full days at the WCRCR track from Thursday through Sunday.  Going into the race, my previous setup was far too aggressive for the new track layout, so Thursday and Friday were spent searching for a new setup.  By the last round of controlled practice on Saturday morning I landed on a setup that felt really good.

Qualifying on Saturday went fairly well.  With all clean runs in both my 13.5 and Mod classes, I was able to secure a 2'nd place start in the 13.5 main, and a mid pack start in Mod.  On Sunday, we started with our 4'th and final round of qualifying, and since I was already guaranteed starts in both A-Mains I made setup changes to my car to try and improve my starting position, unfortunately they only slowed me down.

For the Modified AAA mains, I was starting in 6'th position, went out for my practice laps and the car felt great.  Did a couple practice starts, the car went perfectly straight, so I went to the line.  At the tone, I hit the throttle and my car jerks left and smacks the wall.  Finally got it back in line but it was tweaked.  At that point I was last but worked up to a 5'th place finish.  2'nd main, I went out and wanted to make sure the car would go straight from a stop, so on my warm-up lap I did several stop and go's and the car went perfectly straight every time.  Went to the grid and at the tone hit the throttle and the car jerks left again and smacks the wall.  Same outcome, I think I was able to work up to 6'th or so after another start sending me to the back of the pack.  3'rd main I went to the 6'th place grid in my warm up, hit the throttle and the car goes left.  Did a few other stop and starts and the car goes perfectly straight anywhere besides that part of the grid.  I asked to be lined up outside of the box, but because it is a large race they require me to start in the box, so at the tone I baby the throttle hoping to end up anywhere besides dead last at that start.  Sure enough the car behind me smacks me at that start, and another dead last beginning.  I finished 8'th in that class.

For the 13.5 mains I was starting 2'nd.  Got off to a great start in the 1'st main, but on the straightaway I was extremely under powered for some reason.  I had both Keven Hebert and Rick Hohward knocking at my rear bumper as I drove the closest lines I possibly could trying to hold them behind me.  It wasn't long before they were able to sneak inside me at the end of the straight and move me back.  Unfortunately for myself one of the passes had contact and spun me out.  I worked back up in a 3 person battle for 3'rd place, but without enough motor to make a move on anyone, I ended up at the back of that train for a 5'th place finish in A1.  For A2 I switched to an LRP SPX ESC, never having run the ESC before, it just felt weird compared to the KO I am used to.  Got the gearing a bit off, and had the same power issues but less luck with people making their aggressive end of the straightaway passes and finished towards the back.  For A3, we got the gearing down really well and the power was there.  Barry Baker had already wrapped up the title by this point, so I started first on the grid.  First corner I bobbled and went wide allowing both Keven and Rick to pass on the inside, and the positions didn't change much after that, finished 3'rd right behind Keven.  I ended up 4'th overall in 13.5.

This race was a huge learning experience.  I really don't run spec classes all that often, and I found that in order to run them alongside modified, you really need 2 cars because of the different ESC's needed for each class.

I'd like to thank Barry Baker for all of his help the past weekend, I was using motors and batteries that he supplied me from Team Checkpoint.  The motors felt great, and once I got the right ESC in there for 13.5 they had all the speed needed.  Also, congrats Barry on your 13.5 and Mod wins, and welcome to the RCRevealed race team!

I can't wait for the next big race at WCRCR, the race was run on schedule the entire time with excellent announcing from Charlie Suangka and Jeremy Felles.  This is also the first race I've ever seen with paid turnmarshals, none of the racers had to turnmarshal a single time.  Even better than that was the effort that the marshals put into their job, any bobble and they were right there to help, I didn't see a single one of them watching the race and missing an opportunity to help, truly a great job!  Robert from KO and Danny from WCRCR really put on a top notch race, thanks for all your efforts, they made it a great weekend for everyone.

The KO Race is just around the corner at WCRC Raceway in La Mirada, CA.  The competition is going to be excellent at this event, so I decided to build a new car for the event.  This is the last large event that I will be running the 416WC, I will be switching over to the new 416X platform soon after this race.

I'm very excited to say that my 801x will be arriving tomorrow.  Touring car racing has slowed down a bit out here so I've decided to pick up 1/8 buggy as another racing class.  I have run the 801xt in the past and really enjoyed it, so I am looking forward to receiving my buggy.  I'll post pics as soon as I get it completed.

Well I have to appologize for not updating my blog in a while, but life has kept me busy lately!  I was checking the site out to see the new TRF goodies, and when I saw the date of my last blog entry I felt embarrased, lol.

 I've been racing and practicing at a few different tracks since my last blog, Pound It Raceway, West Coast R/C Raceway, Bending Cornerz, and the Tamiya USA track, so I've been getting my fill of different track conditions.  Through it all I have kept very competitive, and my car has stayed excellent for the most part, I haven't had to make too many setup changes to suit the different track surfaces.

 I am planning on heading down to San Diego next weekend for some more racing at Pound It Raceway, which is a high traction, smooth parking lot track that is home to some fast local drivers.

 This is somewhat a spur of the moment entry so I don't have a whole lot on my mind.  But as always, if anyone is seeking help with the TRF products I'm easy to find on RCTech with username Randy Caster and am always open to questions.

 Hope everyone is enjoying the 416WC as much as I am!

 Randy Caster