Pics from FCD, June 26 2011

I didn't have my camera with me, so I borrowed one of John's to snap a few pics. Enjoy. :)

[/Tim Sanderson]

FastCats Depot, June 26 2011

This Sunday was the best turn out so far this year. Saturday night I went to the NOFX show, so I was in no shape to race the next day. (all I can say is: holy crap The Decline, The Decline HOLY CRAP!) I did however, manage to get myself to the track at the end of the first qualifier. Here are the GT1 A & B mains, as well as the GT2 A-main.

GT2 A-main


GT1 B-main


GT1 A-main

I did a chance to run a few laps on this layout... Joe Bielski volunteered to record the GT2 race for me, and let me run his car for the main. I took a few photos with John's camera, but was unable to get them off of the card before it was time to leave. He'll email them to me when he gets a chance, and I'll upload them to the site. results for this day have already been uploaded. Get to them following the link on the right side of the page. -->

See you next Sunday!

[/Tim Sanderson]

Tamiya M05

Here are a few pics of the M05 before I tore it apart. As you can see it is quite dirty. Many of the moving parts are a little stiff to move. (steering rack, suspension arms etc)

This chassis came with a whole bunch of goodies, including CVD's, TRF threaded shocks, and aluminum uprights/knuckles. What you can't see is the ball diff inside the gearbox.

Here are most of the extra parts that came with the car. The LRP esc that is in the box is most likely fried... it was used in a TCS race as it rained. there are however tons of other great parts in there. There are also a bunch of M03parts in there. Between these parts, and the 2 parts cars I already had, I can probably get a couple of M03's made.

[/Tim Sanderson]

FastCats Depot, June 19 2011

Yet another beautiful day at the Depot track, in Toronto, Canada! There wasn't a bad turnout, considering it was Fathers Day. Here are the GT1 and GT2 mains:

GT2


GT1

However, one of the most exciting parts of my day was receiving a Tamiya M05 and a ton of parts from the Hardman's. The M-05 needs a complete tear-down/rebuild, but hey, that's part of the fun! Not to mention, I got a really good deal on it. Like, a super-good deal... pretty much as good as a deal can actually get! I'll try and post some pics of all the swag later tonight.
I'm hoping to have this up and running for the TCS race that FastCats is hosting in July.

We may have another practice night sometime during the week, so be sure to keep an eye out on the FastCats forum for updates. Also, don't forget, you can find the race results by clicking on the FastCats race results link, found on the right-side of this site.

**EDIT- just realized I had the date wrong... was on the 19th, not the 20th**

[/Tim Sanderson]

Tamiya TB-02 first run

Friday afternoon I took the TB-02 out for it's debut run at the FastCats Depot track. It was setup for open practice, so it was the perfect time to do a bit of setup work. Seeing as it didn't rain, the sugar water sprayed last Sunday was still visible. That means the layout stayed the same.

After a bit of suspension work, and adjusting camber I managed to get down to a fast lap of 14.2. A good average lap for me was a 14.5 to 14.7. This was quite a bit of improvement over the Sprint 2's time. (better by about half a second) I had a nasty clicking coming from the rear gear box that was getting louder as the day went on. It turns out the rear diff was just excessively shimmed.

Here's a video showing a few laps:


[/Tim Sanderson]

TB-02 completed

Here is the TB-02, ready to test out at the Depot track tonight. Again, I suck at wiring up electronics, so it's not as good looking as it could be. Maybe sometime this weekend I'll try to clean up the wires.

Even though I have a brand new Mazda Speed 6 body at home, I didn't have time to paint it yet. So, I've drilled some new holes on the back of my old very-well-used Sprint 2 body, and mounted it to the TB.

[/Tim Sanderson]

Tamiya TB-02 spur gear mod

Well, it turned out to be much easier to modify my TB02 to 64dp gearing than I thought it would be. I stopped by Hobby Hobby on my way home from work. As luck would have it, they happened to have a TB02 'M' parts tree in stock. I say lucky because I'm told that tree has been discontinued, and is no longer being made. Apparently it was on a peg board, hidden behind the flight simulator.

The first photo shows what was purchased for this modification: The M-parts tree, 64dp pinion gears, and a 76t 64dp spur gear. Shown in the last row of pictures is another necessary part of the mod... a modified motor mount. The original mounts have 8 holes drilled in it, which only allows for only very specific pinion gear sizes, as well as only works with 48 pitch metric pinions. None of those gears let me come even close to the 4.0 maximum final drive ratio allowed in our GT2 class, thus the reason I'm doing this mod.

The middle photo below shows the original gear still on the shaft, with the adapter (found on the M-parts tree) on the right, and the new 64dp gear on the left. The far right photo shows the 64dp gear mounted to the adapter on the shaft. The shaft has 2 holes for the pin to go through. To use the adapter, you use the hole that is closet to the rear of the shaft.

The photo on the left side of the next row shows the new gear in place, before reattaching the cover/brace. The motor I'll be installing into this car is a Trinity Epic Duo 2 21.5.

The left-side photo below show's the motor mount that was modified by the previous owner. It's needs to have the bottom slot cut a little better... the motor screw heads still get caught in some original hole locations, keeping the motor from being totally adjustable. Either that, or I may simply buy a Yeah Racing adjustable motor. I found the easiest way to adjust the gear mesh was to remove the shock mount and tighten the top motor screw once I was happy with the gear spacing. Then I'd remove the mount/motor, and tighten the bottom screw. The last photo shows the new gearing and motor installed, before reinstalling the top cover/brace. Using the 46t pinion and 76t spur, combined with the internal ratio of 2.6, I get a 4.3 FDR.

FastCats is having an open practice day this Friday, so I'm looking forward to getting the a decent asphalt setup hammered out before Sunday's racing.

**UPDATE: click here to see completed TB-02**

[/Tim Sanderson]

Tamiya TB-02

I picked up a TB02 last night, with the hopes of running it in our GT2/21.5 class at the FastCats Depot track. The only problem is, I may not be able to get it to a 4.0 final drive ratio. It takes very specific gears made for the car, not to mention they are metric. Although the motor mount in this car has been modified to run a wider variety of pinion gears, the problem is I don't think i can get a 48 pitch metric pinion gear as big as I'd need... something like a 35 tooth. I'll have to try and come up with a modification to run either 48dp or 64dp spurs/pinions.If I can't get my gearing solved in the next week or 2, I may just sell it, and look for a different metric shaft driven TC. (Ironically enough, I want a metric car, but don't want metric gears.)

Here are a few pics of the chassis. Not shown, is a box full of spare parts, 3 bodies (2 used, one brand new) and some old rally tires/wheels. Also not shown is the carbon fiber strip along the bottom of the chassis.

[/Tim Sanderson]

FastCats Depot, June 12 2011

The 2nd Depot races were held yesterday. It was another great day. It was quite windy, and although it was very cloudy for all but an hour or so, I still managed to get a nasty sunburn. While I did record a couple of videos, GT2 unfortunately, was not one of them. There was some very close racing for the lead position in GT2, between Art Trinos and Dave Locke. Ultimately, Art won the main, but Dave was right on his heels.

Also in GT2, Joe Bielski was having a very good day too, qualifying 3rd place, and one position ahead of me all day. It was looking like he was slated to take a podium finish, only to have yours truly run his best race of the day, stealing the last spot on the podium. However, if the race had been 15 seconds longer, Henry Delacruz would have most likely taken the 3rd spot away from me. He had managed to get only a couple of corners behind me by the time the clock ran out of time.

If you look in the 'LINKS' section, on the right-hand site of the site, you'll see a link that takes you to the results page for the Depot races. You can also get there by clicking here. I'll try and update them weekly, so people can download their results.

Here are the A-main videos for GT1 and Mod:

GT1/13.5


Mod/Open


Also, with the help of Joe's wife Trish, (actually, it's all thanks to Trish, she's the one crunching the numbers) we will be unofically running a points series. I'll get the details from Joe later today, but basically you'll be receiving points based on your position in the mains, with a few drops to get rid of any worst/missed races. Trish has already run the numbers for June 12th's racing. I'll post the numbers as soon as everything is ready.

[/Tim Sanderson]

RB5 rebuild two, part 2

I made it to Speed World last night, with enough time to finish rebuilding my RB5, and mounting up a new set of Schumacher yellow mini pins. The wheels and inserts I used were some that were salvaged a while back. I went with some firmer inserts this time.

I finished up with about an hour left to spare, giving me enough time to scrub my new tires before Friday's racing. It also gave me enough time to get used to the triple along the back wall. It's not quite perpendicular to the drivers stand, making it pretty tricky. The safest bet by far, is to land on top of the tabletop, instead of trying to make the entire triple. With that being said, there's just something extra fun about clearing the whole thing in one shot!

Here is a hastily made panoramic view of the entire track:

See you there!

[/Tim Sanderson]

RB5 rebuild two, part 1

This past weekend I had harvested much of the RB5's parts/electronics to run my ZX5 FS at the FastCats Depot race last Sunday. So, it was time to start putting everything back into the RB5 for Friday's racing at Speed World. I had borrowed the front and rear shocks, front camber links, steering servo and esc.

There is an important step one must take before starting such a task. Food. (a.k.a. grub, a.k.a. chow) Tonight I chose to dine on a chicken burger/fries combo. Notice how the over-sized buns have been cut down to a more patty-friendly size. Patty-to-bun ratio is a commonly over looked aspect of the the successful burger, be it chicken or beef.



The springs I have been using lately are from Team Associated's spring kits. They are a little bit less in diameter, so it takes a bit of work getting the ends of the springs around the collars/retainers. The reason I've been using these is they are much less expensive. I think each front and rear kit (contains 5 sets in each kit) costs about the same as a single set of Kyosho springs. I think it was around $12 for the A.E. kits. I've been using the rear springs for a while, but this Friday's racing will be the first time I try the fronts.

Of all the fluids/lotions/potions that are used in building an R/C car, arguably the most important fluids is ice-cold beer. However, I'm sure you already know, too much of this specific fluid can be counter productive to the quality of the build. I personally recommend between one and four bottles per build session.




One of my least favorite parts of the rebuild is wiring my car. I seem to be pretty terrible at it. It never looks as good as some of these other guys. I can never get the receiver wires to look neat and tidy. If I was smart, I'd get Super Pit co-founder Bill Jones to 'murder out' my setup for me. One day I'll post a picture of a typical Jonesy setup.


This is where I stopped the rebuild. After all, it was getting close to 10:30, which means it's time to watch the new South Park episode. I'll probably go to Speed World tonight (thurs jun 9) to finish of the build, and maybe squeeze in a few laps on the new layout. I'll post some more pics later tonight.

[/Tim Sanderson]

FastCats Depot Opener 2011

Well, the weather was finally on our side, and we were able to start this season's FastCats Depot series! For most of the day there wasn't even a cloud in the sky. The classes we ran today were GT2 (21.5 SPEC), GT1 (13.5), FF03 (silver can/FWD) and a mixed class of Tarmac Buggy & VTA.

Here are videos of a few of the mains:

GT2:


GT1:


MOD:

Be sure to visit the FastCats forum for more details.
See you next Sunday!

[/Tim Sanderson]