A sliping and a sliding!

I went out for practice at OCRC today to get a feel for the new layout. Wow! Talk about no grip! The dirt had no traction at all :( Probably because all the dirt got turned over for the rebuild, thus getting rid of all the rubber and syrup that has been put down over the last 2 months. I sure hope that as the track gets run in, the traction will come back up to the level I'm used to. Hopefully in time for the Platinum Battle race in 2 weeks.

The layout is more of a "flowing" style vs the "supercross" style track, like the last layout. There is really only 1 big jump on the track (the step-up table top in front of the LiveRC camera). The rest of the track is mainly flat, with alot of fast sweepers, a whoops section, and 2 sets of doubles (one that's easy to clear and another that nearly impossible). There's also a medium table top in the middle of the track, but it's so easy to clear, that its a non-issue. The last layout has 3 big jumps and a hill, and the lanes went back and forth in front of the driver's stand, supercross style. This new layout will require more "line" driving through the sweepers, kinda like on-road, but without the grip :(

Since I was working on learning the layout, I didn't want to make any setup changes to my T4 or B44. I just wanted to work on my lines and get a feel for how each car handled. But, my T4 was suffering from a lack of both front and rear grip :( It didn't turn in and rotate like I wanted and it was hard to get on the gas :( I tried old R3 Edges, M3 Blades, and a new set of M3 Edges on the front. The new M3 Edges provided the most steering. While on the rear I tried a set of older Stingers and Holeshots. The Holeshots worked the best, but it was still hard to put the power down. I plan to play around with the roll centers on the front and rear tomorrow, as a lower ball stud height or shorter camber link length is supposed to work better in low traction conditions.

My B44 worked pretty well! (love that 4wd!) I was trying out a different tire combination, Blockheads up front and Square Fuzzies on the rear. The rear felt ok, but the front pushed a little on power in the sweepers. I think I'll go back to my Inside Jobs on all 4 corners for racing tomorrow.

Well, I've got a feel for the layout now. Time to whittle away at the lap times :)

Some other random thoughts. I love LiPo batteries! At first I was running NiMh in my truck for practice (like I normally do). But I didn't have the punch I needed to down-side the step-up table top. I switched to my Reedly LiPo for my last run. Ah! That's where my acceleration went! It was now easier to down-side the step-up table top :) And I charged this battery more than 24 hours ago! I need to pick up another LiPo for my truck, so I can run LiPo during practice, and stop using my NiMh's.

Track piping. While the white PVC pipe that OCRC was using will shear off an A-arm if you hit it at the right angle, you were able to "bounce" off of it if you touched at a shallow angle. The black corrugated pipe that's on the track now, seems to suck you in if you touch it at all. Since it flexes, it turns your car, and you end up stuck on the pipe. Personally, I prefer the PVC pipe, since if you touch it at least you can keep going. With the black pipe, you need to drive extremely tidy and not touch the pipe, as you'll probably end up stuck.

Anyhoo.... Time to get some sleep and rest up for tomorrow's racing :)