Something that isn't spelled out in the manual for the 201 is the anti squat settings. The list below shows "J" parts which come in the 201 kit and are part of the plastic "J" parts tree. The 54XXX numbers are aluminum Hop Ups that can be purchased separately. 

Here is a short guide to help you tune for better performance.

J5 and 54243 (upside down)      2.0*
J5 and J1            (no Shim)              2.5*
J5 and J1            (1mm Shim)         3.0*  (kit stock)
J5 and J1            (2mm shims)       3.5*
etc.

J1 can be replaced with 54243
J5 can be replaced with 54242 (no shims needed as they have 1mm built in)

J5 can also be replaced with 54291 or 54292 for added toe in. (no shims needed as they also have 1mm built in)

January 26-29, 2012 West Coast R/C Raceway, La Mirada California

         One of the most prestigious r/c races is the Reedy Off Road Race of Champions held every year around the birthday of Mike Reedy as most all of you know is of Reedy Modifieds motor fame. This year held a special place in our hearts as Mike lost his long battle with Parkinson's and past late last year.  Brent Thielke from Associated Electrics now holds the daunting task of organizing this great event and what an event it was!

      For myself this year was not only a chance to gauge myself against some of the fastest 1/10 off road racers in the country, but also a time to reflect and remember who and how I got to where I am today in our industry. In 1986 I graduated high school and spent my summer racing all over southern California and met Mike while running at RCH (Radio Controlled Hobbies) in Costa Mesa. Later I again ran across Mike at Hot Trax where we had a long conversation about motors and it wasn't but a week later when I saw him next that he asked me to come to work for him. I spent the next year and a half working with Mike sharing some great times on and off of the track. 

     Fast forwarding to this past weekend seeing the short video that was made to commemorate Mike and the great drivers that he helped along the way was both moving and inspiring. After which I headed back to my pit for a little more reflection and amped myself up grabbing my 201 and headed out for the first call to practice. Having worked diligently on my 201 for the last couple of months I thought that I definitely had a fast, well handling enough car capable of winning. Now the driver has to do the rest. First practice my 201 was as good as it ever had been. Wanting a little less initial steering and more corner speed I opted to move the front upper shock mounts one hole out. The next practice was stellar! My 201 was doing everything I wanted it to. 

   Now switching to the 502x of which I have had little time with (again, which is my own fault) I set out and found that it was pretty good actually. I didn't feel ballistic but felt that it was fast yet still needed some changes. I made the shock spring and diff changes to it that I thought were needed and set out for the next practice. The 502 was really good! Much better than before. After practice was over I was sitting 21st quick in 2wd and 27th quick in 4wd. Which may sound funny but our last two practice sessions seeded us into our qualifiers.

   Day one of qualifying went really well. The only change I made to both cars was the addition of the new LMR "Electra" wing. After all four rounds of qualifying I was sitting 31st in 2wd and 37th in 4wd. That equates into 1st in the D and 7th in the D as they only took 8 in each main with two bumps. My first main was 2wd. At the tone I lead the way for the first lap and was relegated back to 2nd after going wide off of the straight. I held on to second til the end but not without a very close battle with Derek Furutani which was one of the best I have ever had racing r/c! (Thanks for not "motor homing" me Derek :)

   The very next main was 4wd. My 502 seemed very ill handling. I later found that I had a loose upper left king pin which ejected itself and broke the bearing carrier ending my race. Right after which was yet again my "C' main for 2wd. Starting from the back I had my work cut out for me and drove my way into a dog fight amongst the rest of the field. A lot of beating and banging went on allowing the top 3 to drive away. I settled in and did my best to pass some drivers that were seeing red at anyone trying to get by. I made my way up to sixth by the 7 minute mark and slowly reeled in 5th who was in a battle with 3rd and 4th. They all wrecked in the triple jump with roughly 2 minutes to go. I tried to take advantage of this but to my dismay the corner marshal ran into the triple as I rounded the berm and gassed it. I hit him square in the shoulder with the right front and broke the suspension arm off of my 201..... 

   My weekend overall was great. I was able to see some of my overseas friends that I hardly get to see and some of my local friends that I never see as well. My finishing results in my opinion were good for me given that the top 17 drivers were only 5 seconds apart and the top 50 were 17 seconds apart. Finishing with broken cars was not the ideal situation but none the less 9th in the "C" for 2wd out of 109 entries and 7th in the "D" for 4wd out of 90 entries at the Reedy Race of Champions were acceptable finishes.

1/21/12 TQ R/C Raceway Chino Calif.

    The week previous I decided to get my feet wet in a class that I haven't run in over 15 years; Formula 1. I took the plunge and ran my F104 at the ROAR Region 12 Indoor Champs and had a blast with it and wanted to race it again soon.

    This past Saturday I had that very opportunity and decided to run against Southern California's best drivers in this class at the UF1 series. UF1 is the brain-child of local racer Charles Lightfoot who has a passion for R/C and the realism that this class brings. So why not put the two together and create a similar format as to the 1:1 F1 cars which goes like this.

    There is one class and the rules are simple. Any F1 kit with F1 rubber tires, 21.5 motor on 2S lipo, "blinky" (no turbo or ramp timing) esc and make it look as real as possible either with replica graphics or your own. The format is set into heats of 5-6 drivers for 2 minutes. Within those 2 minutes you run the best single lap you can to seed you in the "mains" or groups with the same speed of driver. Then each group runs three, 10minute races. Each ten minute race there is 2 mandatory pit stops. One in the first 5 minutes and one in the last 5 minutes. Each pit stop is on a timer for 8 seconds. There is a "pit marshal" that runs the timer and puts a sticker on your car showing that you made your stop an when your timer is done he releases you out.

    What makes this format unique is that even if you ended up in a "slower" group for your 3 "mains" you can still win the over all by running the fastest time with the most laps just like in conventional "rocket round" qualifying. It's a nail biter right down to the last main to see who will win the over all for the day. So with that explained lets report.

     I started out the day with the same set up that I had from the Regionals.  Practice proved that I was roughly .6 avg slower than the fast guys. During practice I heard "12.9 & 13.0" where I was running 13.7 and my hero lap was a 13.5. Changes needed to be made. The new layout was a bit more technical than the Regionals and my F104 just wouldn't transfer through the chicane nor would it stay rotating when I got on the throttle. My first change was to loosen the pod so I dug into my off road pit box for some of our (Track Star RC's) silicone orings for the SC10 4x4. This along with changing the side damper to 375cst fluid made the car transfer through the chicane. My next challenge was to get the car to stay rotated under throttle. For this I changed the center shock spring from red to yellow. This was a major improvement! My lap times were now down in the 12.8 range. 

    We set out for qualifying and I ended up starting P4 in Group A for the mains. My rivals had sped up as well. The P1 car had posted a 12.4!! I again have to find .4 seconds. The practice between qualifying and the mains was a test and tune session. I tried different saucing techniques, battery placement, radio settings, ride height etc What I ended up doing was taking camber out (going from 2 to 1 degree) and added more physical steering back into the car with a little more sauce on the fronts and more dual rate on the radio. I found .2 seconds here.

   The mains started and were pretty straight forward. I ran the best I could making a few mistakes in Main 1. I ran a flawless run in Main 2 and made one mistake in Main 3 trying to get past a back marker that wouldn't move over even under direction from the race director. :-/ My Main #2 run was good enough to secure me a 3rd position on the podium. These guys are fast at the UF1 series. With only a couple of rounds more to go it will be interesting to see how I come out in points after missing the first 4 rounds. Stay tuned for more!

1/15/2012  TQ R/C Raceway  Chino, California

        ROAR's  Region 12 Indoor On Road Championship took place this past weekend at TQ R/C Raceway in Chino California. With over 17 heats of competition it would go down as a very successful race not only for TQ but for Tamiya as well.

      Starting Saturday we had a full day of testing and practice on TQ's very smooth carpet track, owner Sean Park put in a  flowing yet tricky layout for us to compete with. I started my day with confidence that my F104 Pro would be good but how good would I be? My first run I tip toed around the track to figure out how this car was going to handle since I have not driven F1 since 1995-96.  After 2-3 sighting laps I started pulling back the trigger to find that my set up was very tricky to drive.  It didn't want to turn but was twitchy, back to the pits.

    Giving the car another once over to see what I may have wrong the pod felt much to "tight". Well as that was the case. The center screw for the T-Plate was "too tight". Another trip to the track. Much better! I shaved .2 of my lap time avg off. The rear was more planted but now to deal with the twitchy part. I tried no sauce on the front tires,  nope now the car won't steer. Back to sauce and harder front springs..... ah! Now this is better another .2 off my average but still.... 

  I looked at the rear damper plate set up where the post slides over the screw and thought even though everything is build correctly it has too much slop. I was getting ready to run a longer bolt through to hold down and center the outer post and local F1 fast guy Brett Reichert came by to say hello and I posed my fix for my issue. He shook his head agreeably but said instead I should switch to the X1's top plate and side damper assembly 54331 . So on that recommendation I did. How about .5 seconds avg gain! which put me at the heals of the track record.

   Sunday, Race day:  I'm ready for this race and with a few more practice sessions this was confirmed. My first qualifier went well though I made two mistakes one I traction rolled the sweeper at the end of the straight and then a lap later stuffed the exit of an infield turn. Even so I managed to pull of a second qualifying position for the first round. the second qualifier I "short time" sauced the front tires which made the car push for the first few laps and it paid off. I had a flawless run and took the TQ spot for the A main.

   The A main would see some good battles for position and as the tone went off I carefully rounded the first lap not to hand my first position away. On lap 3 someone had crashed in the sweeper and with no call I hit the car that was dead in the middle of the line coming off of the straight. I was now a 1/2 track down in 3rd. Determined, I set off to run the tightest lines I could and catch first and second. A few laps later a big wreck in the sweeper again this time it was a couple of cars in the back of the field but did slow first and second and by the time I made it to the scene it was clear and I had made up about 4 seconds. Now within sight of the second place car I skinned more of the Pirelli names off of my sidewalls to further tighten my lines to catch up. On lap 14 in the first corner after the loop second place turned in too soon bounced the pipe and I went underneath to set my sights on  first. With only half way to go I had to make up 3.3 seconds. I chewed away at his time a tenth here a couple of thousandths there. Then there was a wreck on the back straight. Could it have been first?!? No it was another back marker. 

   Once I passed the already marshaled wreck on the straight the guy followed in behind me and for the next several laps. I drove defensively to keep him from klobbering me. Alas even with verbal warnings from the race director you guessed it..... I took one in the diffuser on lap 25. After being marshaled I was still able to retain second and finished out the race uncontested. 

Podium:

Steven Jackson    F104

Jimmy Wright      F104

Brett Reichert      F104

(pictures up soon)

January, 8 West Coast R/C Raceway La Mirada California

    The season starts off with a series race in grand fashion... The 2012 Super Cross Series at WCRC for the months of January and February. This series brings the big names like Truhe, Root, Rogers, Wernimont, Numan, Theilke, King, Numendahl and this year even Dustin Evans and with 200+ entries the norm last year,  by the time things were to kick off we had 24 full heats and more and more late entries came in to try their hand at obtaining those valuable point for the series end totals.

    One of the races within the series this year is the Proline Challenge. This consists of two classes, 2wd Mod Buggy and 17.5/ Stock Buggy. The points are tallied the same as the rest of the series with the exception of two things. In these classes you must run ProLine tires and the points winners from each class at the end of the series receives airfare, 3night-2day stay and two tickets to the Super Cross finale' in Las Vegas!

  So without further delay this is how things went:

      First qualifier of the PL Challenge in Mod was a bit of a shock as the front tires weren't scrubbed in all of the way and my 201 was pushing pretty bad. Though as luck would have it, the other guys had a worse time coping than I did and I ended up 2nd qualifier for the round.    The second qualifier the track was a bit dusty on the surface and made things push and slide a bit slowing us down. I had the unfortunate luck to wheel spin off of the big triple and throw myself into the fence breaking the front shock tower off of my 201. Because of the track conditions everyone went slower this round thus I retained my second place starting position in the A main. 

    During warm up for the main I noticed that my 201 was steering better than it had previously and I felt confident I could attack right from the start and attack I did. At the sound of the tone I jumped right onto the back bumper of first and stayed there swapping the lead in a few corners for a few  laps until I flat landed the triple a bit hard and bounced the car over and ending up in third. By the second corner I dove under second to take the spot back and drove solidly for the next few laps trying to catch first. Until I landed the triple wrong again and now 4th and 3rd got by and now running 4th I was on the attack again. My 201 was fantastic and I just had to make sure I didn't screw up the triple any more and thus by being a little more patient I got by for 3rd over the triple! I set my sights on second and pulled within a couple of car lengths behind and he made a slight bobble and went wide I dove underneath to obtain the second position and stayed there for the remainder of that lap which would be our last.

The first race for 2012 I ended up 2nd in the PL Challenge 2wd Mod "A" for a great way to kick off the new season!

  I first and foremost want to say "Thank you" to Fred Medel from Tamiya U.S.A. for having me back with the TRF for my 4th year and I look forward again to putting Tamiya on top for 2012.

   Focus for me has changed classes. If you have followed my posts here on TeamTRF.com  over the years you will have seen a slow progression from 1/8 GP Off Road & 1/10 EP onroad to 1/10 EP Short Course with some sprinkles of the aforementioned to just SC and 1/10 EP buggy and the progression continues as I am now focused on 1/10 EP Buggy running the 201 and 502x cars for the 2012 season as my vision is to qualify for the 2013 1/10 IFMAR Worlds.

  This is not to say that I won't run SC, 1/8 GP Off Road or Touring Car this year which is quite the contrary as I may even add F1 to my stable of Tamiya race vehicles. The first 6 months of this year is paramount for the EP buggies and the races that will lead up to the Nationals at WCRC this late Spring.  Time behind the radio and understanding every nuance that the 201 and 502x require down to the tenth of a millimeter will be required for me to step up my skill from being "One of the local fast guys" to being "one of the worlds fastest".

    Having Tamiya backing me along with Speed Passion, AKA Tires, Venom, Track Star R/C, KO Propo, GMK Supply, DE Racing wheels & Imagine It Graphics  will definitely help me reach the goals that I have set for myself this year.

Thank you for having me back!

In the written format that Jake Thayer used for his latest post for the 201 I'm sharing my latest set up with "K" Big Bore shocks.

FRONT

K BB shock with 5 hole piston,PTRC 375wt, kyosho BB white spring
No limiting-shock
Second from inside tower, outside arm
Camber-inside tower, inside block with 1mm shim under ballstud
30 deg blocks, spindles up, blocks middle
Axles back
3.5mm shim under spindle Ballstud, short Ballstud on rack
-1 camber
Hard arms
24mm ride height
21g weight glued in upper nose piece

MIDDLE
Shorty pack 15mm back. 28g weight across front area of battery tray
14g on outside of Rx

REAR

K BB with 56 Losi piston, PTRC 275wt, TLR white BB spring

Second from Inside tower, middle arm. 

501x arms part#51279
XA block, with 3mm shims antisquat
3.0 rear block upside down for HRC
TLR 22 plastic hubs, middle hole front row, 3mm under Ballstud, hubs middle
Link- inside chassis with 1mm under inside Ballstud, middle hub
Tranny mounts on t plate cut off, using nuts under U brace
Diff- med. tight(approx 1.5 revolutions)

*This is on a 6mm lengthened chassis but works great on a standard length chassis as well.

If you have any questions about the 201 or any other Tamiya car I can be reached at trackstarrc@gmail.com

Happy New Year 502x owner/racers!

Lets get some info generated.

Big bore shocks, Weight placement, suspension geometry mods, steering mods and upper deck mods.

Something recently I have been testing is taking the front upper deck and removing both of the "bridges" which creates a two piece upper deck. By doing this we have found a substantial amount of steering.

Big bore shocks vs. just using BB springs. Something I have yet to try is BB shocks on this car. However I have tried the BB springs both from the 22 and the RB5. It has made an improvement in handling and corner speed but this car still lacks the bump handling that a big bore shock will bring IMO.

Weight placement has been limited to the center between the batteries. I have added up to 63g of weight and found this to be a great help both in jumping and getting the 502 to pivot around tighter, med-high speed corners.

The steering rack mod is a must to enable for mechanical steering from the 502 in conjunction with this we have also come up with a mod that Lee Martin started, that Brad Krans posted on www.TeamTRF.com a while back. Both of these mods IMO are needed if you want better control of your 502x.

if you have any questions you'd like to discuss please feel free to drop me an email at trackstarrc@gmail.com

Tonight starts the teardown and rebuild of my 201 and 502x for this weekends ROAR Regionals at WCRC in La Mirada California.

I have chose to run 17.5 and Mod with the 201 and of course Mod with the 502x. Having only raced the 502 twice this year after the Reedy Race I have my work cut out for me in 4wd.

I have been testing and racing my 201 for the last 4 weeks straight and I must say it is pretty dialed! I am looking very much forward to this weekend especially being that it is an open tire event.

Wish me luck as being as confident as I am with my cars a little luck goes a long way :)

From my family to yours have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving weekend!