Andrew Cartwright

3/28/12 - Race 4

Andrew Cartwright on Mar 31, 2012
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Two more races left. More progress is being made. First thing I did was go back to the white and blue springs on the car and run a thinner oil in the rear gear diff (70wt).

Over the course of the night I tried gearing up two teeth on the pinion. I think that was the wrong way to go. It’s been tough to figure gearing on the brushless motors has been very different than the old brushed stuff. The motor was fading badly during the last minute.

I switched to blue and silver AE springs on the car. They might be a touch on the stiff side so I might drop to silver/silver or silver/green. I also want to go back to the spool.

I ended up qualifiying 6^th after having some trouble with traffic. The main event was a great race with six of us separated by about a straight away for a few. Then 5 of us diced it up for the next couple miniutes going back and forth with a little pushing. I ended up 3^rd.

I think I’ve finally figure out the tire saucing technique after talking with some of our local fast guys. The main event the car was great out of the gate and just stabilized rather than fading. Too bad the motor faded.

Next outing should go very well I’m hoping

3/14/12 - Race 3

Andrew Cartwright on Mar 15, 2012
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Another late Wednesday night down. The indoor season is also winding down. I think there are only 3 more carpet races til fall. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do this summer....

Family illness and my forgetfulness prevented me from preparing better. I only had time to comb through the car and build a second set of shocks for the day. Practice time is very, very limited so it's easier having extra shocks, diffs, etc. ready for quick testing. I changed from 30 to 40wt shock oil and the car became much more calm and stable. I also built them with 0 rebound so the car was incredibly stable but it was rolling too hard on the front end which caused a slight push and loss of corner speed. I raised the front roll center .5mm and it helped but it was still digging hard. I ended up taking the white springs off and running the old tamiya greys (heavier). The car got even faster but now the rear end was digging a little too much. I ended up trying white springs in the rear during the main but the car was just too stiff all the way around. At least I wanted to find out that a slightly stiffer car was going the right direction and it was. So now I have some more ideas for next time out.

I qualified 3rd after making some silly mistakes. I don't think any of us drove our best.....it was like a full moon. I went from 3rd to 1st to 3rd again and ended up in 4th crossing the line. There was some great racing and everyone is getting faster so the field is pretty tight. I think I ended up knocking .2-.3 off my best lap time.

I still haven't run thinner rear diff oil which I need to try. I'm still trying to find out the best way to sauce these tires since they are so different than the ones I used to run years ago. Plus I think it's time for new tires....

2/22/12 - Race two

Andrew Cartwright on Feb 23, 2012
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Went out again....this is becoming a habit again. Big thanks again to Mike Malkinson for the car (417). He's hooked me up for the time being til I get my own.

I felt like I made big strides with the car. Right from the first practice it was far more comfortable. This was a good sign that things were fixed from last week. No more flipper! In practice I ended up pulling the spool out and putting the front gear diff in and also put the split rear hinge pin blocks on. During the quals I cut the top deck (looks like the 417x now), put some aluminum castor blocks on (realized I had been running the soft, flexible ones) and changed from SXT to Jack the Gripper. All were changes in the right direction. Each time out I picked up a tenth on the track. The traction compound change also made the car more consistent through the whole run.

I ended up qualifying 5th and finishing 5th after a minor mistake and getting pushed around a little. There are two guys that are very fast and two that are just a tick slower than them. Another outing or two with some more minor changes to pick up the corner speed and I should be right there. Nobody else is currently running a Tamiya so hopefully the car will start turning some heads soon

For next time:

I keep putting more and more teeth on the pinion gear. I haven't quite found the perfect gearing on the motor yet so I'll focus more on that next time. Car handling and driving has been my focus. These brushless motors are still foreign to me....

Also I'm going to change the rear diff oil. I'm running 2k currently and feel like it could be thinner which would help rotation and hopefully corner speed.

If time allows I might also try different/lighter springs.

Till next time

2/11/12

Andrew Cartwright on Feb 11, 2012
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Hello Everyone,

I'm a former TRF driver from many years back. I haven't pulled the trigger in a long time, about 5 years. After getting married and having kids racing was put on hold. Now I'm returning but in a different way. I'm no longer traveling or doing this as a job. It's now just for fun, and it's good to be back with a great company

I borrowed a 417 from a friend for the time being. I went to our local track (seattlercracers.com) Wednesday to figure things out and shake the rust off. The car was good in practice but towards the end the car began to tip. As traction kept picking up the car continued to traction roll. I still managed to qualify for the main but sat out the main due to something being wrong with the car and being brutally tired (10:30pm main is tough when you get up at 4am). I tore the car down Friday night to find some binding issues with the car.

Next race should go much better. I found Jilles 2011 snowbirds setup and will probably start with that next time. One thing I need to learn better is traction compound. We use Jack the gripper, SXT 3.0 or sticky fingers. I was using SXT but if I have time I wanna test Jack.

AC

TRF Blog

3/28/12 - Race 4

3/14/12 - Race 3

2/22/12 - Race two

2/11/12