Race Day

So we finally made it up for some race day trials. It was a small day for indoor racers being that many of them went to an indoor off road race in ME. This made it perfect for me to learn and try the car.

Now I cant say I know technical things about this car but racing is racing and the basics never change. So to start I put 1* of camber in the front wheels, left the castor at the recommended settings in the instruction manual. Trued down some foams, set the preload on my center shock and threw a battery. Knowing I was under geared I just drove it around to see how she tracked, looked and sounded. I was really surprised with how smooth this thing felt not having driven one before.

Personal impression was always they’re to darty for me – to fragile – to small for me. After about 5 packs and 4 teeth added to the pinion I felt like I had been missing out on this for the last few years. So as I drove around trying different things with my throttle finger, roll the corner in … jab the throttle when exiting … drive it like a nitro car, I got more comfortable with the car.

Now Im not gonna try and get into the technical talk or try to sound like I know what Im doing so Ill just throw some of my thoughts out there. While the car seems smooth in the corners I felt like that was where Im loosing my time. The car was fast, I was able to pull some pretty consistent lap times matching the top half of regular racers. My best lap of the day was in the same area as them and my second qualifying spot was on average for laps.

The more practice I get with this car can only help me. The more I get to run the car Im fairly confident that although it may look like an Associated there is enough small changes that help this chassis kit stand out as a winner. Ill keep posting as I continue to drive, tune and make progress on some fast stuff.