Mini-Z Norway

New motormount and more

2012-02-05T19:47:00.002+01:00

Been testing lately.

The new RR motormount, spur, and a couple of other things as well have been put trough some real stress.

Reviews are coming soon, but here are some impressions.

The new RR motormount is very nice. It is an evolution of the first one.

Wheelbase settings has changed. It is now adjustable in 1mm increments. Stock form with std T-plate gives you 94- 95 - 98 - 99. With 96mm T-plate you get 96- 97- 100 - 101 wheelbase.

It is beefed up in some parts, and my initial feeling is that it gives you more correct side to side balance in the rear.

The V3 spur is superlight, and gives you superb accelleration/ decelleration.

Other things:

We have been able to build a ball diff that weighs only 3.2 grams with everything. Cant tell you more yet, but man it rocks!

Other prototypes have also been in the testing stages. More on that later on.

Mini-Z Buggy. New Kyosho option parts

2012-01-04T21:35:00.001+01:00

Fully hopped up Buggy
- Rear shock stay
- Rear suspension mount with toe
- Front shock tower
- Front suspension mount
- Front knuckles
- Rear Hub
- Steering bar
- Ti covered suspension rods
- Hard center shaft
- Ball diffs
- RR Silver springs
- RR Lexan Wing
- RR 43 turn motor
- DIY foam inserts F/ R tires

The added rear toe stabilizes the car a lot. 2 degrees are shown in the pics. Also available are 1 & 3.
The steering plate and alu knuckles removes the irritating steering bar pop outs.
Front shock tower gives you more adjustability, as it has a set of outer holes extra compared to the stock tower. The rear is identical.
On the Lazer you now mount the rear of the body with a cbodyclip instead of the plastic ears.
The rear wing has much better support.

There is some weight added, and the balance of the car are changed some. The rear is slightly heavier than before, so it is not so sensitive regarding nosedive when you let off the throttle in the air.

Total weight included transponder is 217 grams. A bit on the heavy side, but the traction levels and stability is actually very good with stock tires on RCP.
Jumping and wheel to wheel racing is so fun:D

Also expect exiting parts from Reflex Racing in the near future.

I am doing a detailed write up about these parts sometime later.

MB-010 Buggy. First impressions.

2011-12-20T22:51:00.000+01:00

The MB-010.

This has to be one of the most well thought out mini cars ever made.

The quality has impressed everybody at our track.

In stock configuration it holds up extremely well. It jumps beautifully. Reacts well to setup changes, and are very easy to drive.

The stock suspension config are good. Springs, oil and angles really do work well together, especially with the stock motor.

A couple of things to improve.

The dogbones do get worn, so the cvd's are wanted soon. Use some soft foam, or RR reverse king pin soft (black) springs inside the diff drive cups front. This helps a lot.
Take care when building the shocks. Front rear are different length! Also. Use green slime or equl to help seal.
The steering rods pops out a bit easy, but a small simple fix helps a lot. Use some thick sealing tape (0.5mm) and fasten it to the hubs in front. See pic right at the bottom. This limits the throw, but only when you clip a curb etc. It is not noticeable when driving.
The differentials are the same as the AWD. If they break, change to ball diffs, or the strengthened gear diffs scheduled for release. But I have to say. The stock diffs has held up and functions very well.
Slop. Shim the hell out of it. There is some slop in the suspension. Shims from 0,1 to 0,3 are very useful here. Also shim the rear wheels. After a good round with shimming, you get an amazingly tight car. Dont overdo as you get to much friction in your suspension.
Glue the tires!
Inserts. The front tires can fold up and you loose grip when traction gets good. I feel soft inserts helps out a lot. Some dont. (Tip. The Losi micro SCT inserts are usable)

With stock drivetrain we have limited the motors to around 40 - 50 turn motors. If you go any hotter I would think the diffs and the drive cups would suffer.

Other than this it is not much needed on this car.

On RCP you need to sand the tires to get rid of the smooth surface. After this they hook up reasonably on RCP, and gives you real fun.

The options Kyosho has released so far is very high quality as usual. The only thing I have not tried are the hard center shaft.

The car in the pics are set up like this:

RR 43 turn motor.

RR silver springs.

4mm preload rear.

3mm preload front.

55WT oil f/r. (the kit includes 400cst)

1 degree toe out.

Kyosho front tower.

Kyosho front hubs.

Kyosho rear hubs.

Kyosho front brace.

Kyosho Ti suspension pins front.

Kyosho AWD ball diffs.

RR rear wing.

Atomic Mini-Z Aluminium lower arm set

2011-11-24T21:09:00.000+01:00

Atomic has been real busy lately, and are sending out new products all the tmie.

This time I have tried out the new aluminium lower arm.
The one I got was without the lower servo cover, but a version with this in the package is also out.

Inside the package you find very nice machined delrin lower balls, kingpins, and the alu bar.
I have not tried the king pins and balls, but they are very precise. The king pins are of the same diameter (this is not always the case if you measure your kingpins), and the balls are a very nice fit to the lower mount.

The alu piece is of real nice quality, and I am overall impressed by the quality of ATM parts lately.

All in all this gives you a lot of good parts for the money.

As I use the RR low profile reversed setup, I wanted to see if this could be used together with the RR recessed balls. I can confirm this!
They are a perfect fit. Nice.

It offers the exact same geometry as the stock lower mounts. (I was maybe hoping for it to be a bit a tad wider, and with slightly raised king pin mount. This would have given us another setup option, but I understand why they also make it equal to stock.)

It adds a bit of weight, but since most race rules are giving the MR-03 a weight penalty, this is a good thing in my book. CG is important, and this adds weight to the lowest part of your car.

(In the pictures you can see the lower cover from RR)

A well thought out product from Atomic.

Prototypes from Reflex Racing. First look!.

2011-09-14T17:11:00.004+02:00

A lot of new products are in the works at Reflex Racing.
Some of these have been mentioned at a couple of forums, but pictures has not been published. Yet.....

Yesterday we showed a couple of pics of a car with these new parts installed, but they are very hard to see so only a few people noticed them.
Yes i got some emails about this:-)

1.
First up is the new diffuser for the Reflex Racing adjustable wheelbase motormount.
The angle of the diffuser are spot on to what we have been having good results with. The weight are also placed in a way so that it balances out the rear end quite nicely.

This diffuser is in production as we speak, and are scheduled for release soon.

More detailed pics are coming up soon.

The other part is a first proto of the raised lower arm. This is not the final product, but it gives you an impression.

It will be redesigned, and a new revision are in the plans.

The main feature of this is the raised lower arm. Perfect for reverse king pin setups. This makes it really unike in the way that the springs and e-clips is no longer the lowes part of your car. For this you can use your old low profile reverse king pins, delrin balls and springs.

Extra long "spring over" king pins will also be made, so you can choose your favourite configuration.

More pics in the next couple of days.

If your still reading, take another look at the diffuser pics to check out the new RR differential parts. A closer look are coming up.

It works superb, are even lighter than the Qtec parts, and reduces the wobble of the spur gear.

Prototypes! Can you spot them? First seen on Mini-Z Norway

2011-09-13T22:55:00.001+02:00

Yes. i know they are hard to see, but look closely.

One of them is a first proto, and the other is in production as we speak. Both from Reflex Racing.

Have a guess in the comment field;)

Thermal image of MR-03

2011-09-08T19:49:00.000+02:00

Here you can see a MR-03 a few minutes after running. This is with Reflex Racing alu cover installed.

Peak temperatures just after running are as hot as 58 °C

Reflex Racing Top Cover & Knuckles

2011-09-01T18:27:00.013+02:00

It has been busy lately, so I have not had much time to do any updates. Sorry for this. Now we are on again.

Reflex Racing has released their new aluminium top cover for the MR-03.
The top chassis cover are maybe the weakest part on the MR-03. Not only does it break quite often, but you also have to buy the whole chassis set to get the cover.
The original cover are also very soft, so you get a lot of unwanted flex where you want all movements to go through your damper system.
Reflex Racing hit the nail on the head with this release. The new top cover are strong. You can clamp down your damper system without worry that destroy the plastic threads. It does not move or flex at all!

When you run hot motors, the FET's get really hot. We are talking so hot that the solder can melt. Roughly around 180°C.
Because of these temperatures, the top cover also deforms from the temperature.

It also acts as a very good heat sink. A lot of the heat from the FET's gets channeled trough the cover, and should make everything more efficient, and your electronics should last longer.
I will get back to you with surface temperatures later. I am doing a small project to transfer even more heat to this plate. Stay tuned for more on this.

The fitment are superb. It is an exact replica of the stock cover, but requires a bit more fiddling to get it on, as it does not flex at all. But this is no problem at all.
It weighs 2 grams more than the stock cover, but finally we never have to change these again.

Knuckles!
The knuckles are not that much to write about. They are of great quality, and has no more slop than other makes.

The main feature of these, are that they are a lot shorter than the stock knuckles.
Stock knuckles are 6.55 mm
These are only 5.07 mm, so you get a lot more room to play around with your suspension geometry, and also are opens up new possibilities in wheel diameters.
The axle are placed at 2.80 mm from the bottom (blame me if slightly wrong), so this gives room for shimming both over and under the knuckle.
This picture shows it with 2mm under the knuckle. 0,7 over, and 0 preload on top.

Compared to some other knuckles.
Stock plastic: 6.55 mm. 0.6 grams each.
3Racing: 6.57 mm height. 0.9 grams each.
Atomic FS: 6.07 mm height. 1 grams each.
Reflex Racing: 5.07 mm height. 0.8 grams each.

For a regular sliding knuckle setup, they give you less friction. For a reverse king pin type setup, they give you more setup options.

PNWC Stockholm Sweden 2011

2011-05-25T15:44:00.001+02:00

A little writeup about PNWC Sweden, April 2011.

Image: Isak Hjelte

This year I did not have to travel alone. Oslo Z'ers Christoffer and his father Dag joined in, and gave me a ride down to Stockholm.

We arrived at the track friday evening, and was met by a lot of nice swedes. Super friendly as always.

The sight that met us inside was amazing. The track was the biggest i have ever seen live. It measured 17,5 X 7 meters.

The event were held in MHF's locals just outside Stockholm. The facilities were very nice, although a bit cold. The temperature in the building was only 13 degrees celsius, so i am glad I brought my slippers and some thick sweaters.

As always Jocke & co gave us a really nice professional event. Everything went according to their plans.

Christoffer was attending his first race ever, but he has a lot of practice on a local track in Oslo. He knows what to do, and kept his cool all weekend. Only 16 years old, he has shown a lot of improvement this year. He is open for setup tips, and really sucks up all the information he can get.
He signed up for stock and mod GT with only one car, and you can say he got the hang of changing motors between qualifiers and training! My guess he will be builiding another car for next outing:-)

In mod GT he had some troubles initially, but just kept on practising. In the end he qualified for B finals, and ended up in a very impressive 11 overall. Considering the level all these guys are at, this is very impressive for first outing.
In Stock he had a bit easier way to the finals. In the last qualifier he managed P6. A big crash at the start of the A-main messed up the field a bit, but he came trough and finished in P3. Well done!
I am sure he will be hard to beat in the future, as he has shown big improvement in the last few months.
Christopher rocks an all Reflex Racing tricked out car, wich he is truly happy with. His driver profile will be up later. Here you can see pics of his car.

As for myself, I signed up for Mod GT and Pan car.
I really dont like pan cars that much, and have never raced one in my life. But I really enjoyed the experience. These lightweight cars are very fun, and can be really fast.

I had a base setup I had decided to use before the race, and stuck with it. The car was quite easy to drive, but not as fast as some of the others out there.
Q1 & Q2 went ok, and I was in the A main. In Q3 i had a horrible crash at the end of the main straight. Busfrö went on the inside and we brushed for a second. I ended up in the wall 1 meter above the track and destroyed two wheels. The Jomurema carbon axle actually held up the punishment! This surprised me, and I am now very sure of its durability.
Q4 went very good, and I ended up P3.

The race was very good until my nerves cracked. I was P2, but started to shake as a leaf and made a lot of mistakes.
Busfrö beat me to third by 3 tenths of a second. Ola Nordström took an impressive second. Dahlis took a superb victory. Congrats!

Mod GT.
I really struggled with traction rolls at the end of the main straight. The cars had around 35 kmh at the end of the straight, so you had to be extremely careful with the steering input.
After Q1, Q2, and Q3 I was in the A-main, but was unsure if it would hold as a lot of the other racers really found a lot of speed.
Before Q4 I completely altered the setup. I usually use small bodies and 0 - 1 offset wheels. This time I went for 2 front and 3 rear to get the car a bit wider. This helped with the traction rolling problems I encountered earlier.
P6 was my result in qualifying.

My goal all weekend was a podium, but this seemed to slip out of my hand.
Before the mains I took a chance and went for a very soft setup.
This did the trick, and I secured 3 place! I was super happy with that. I also had the second fastest lap of the race. 1 tenth behind the super fast Dahlis. Ola Westholm secured second, after a thrilling battle with Dahlis. Ola must be one of the fastest guys I have ever seen on the track. He is very laidback, but extremely fast.
I only had 1 second down to Busfrö in fourth, so you can say the racing really was tight.

I feel I am starting to learn more about RCP, and how the cars reacts to setup changes. Chatting up with Dahlis and Busfö gave me some good setup tips for RCP.

The traction at this race was extremely good. Even better than what we experience on Regupol with rubber tires.

I also must send out a big thanks to Cristian Tabush, and Reflex Racing for their great support, and wonderful parts.

As for the F1 class. I really wish I could have attended this. These races looks so much fun. Actually this tempted me so much, that I have now built me a car so I can join in on the fun next time :)

Finally. A big thank to Jocke and everyone who made this possible. Also a very big thanks to every racer attending. The racing was very clean, and everybody are friendly to each other. You are all extremely good drivers!
See you next time in September!

My Setups.
Pancar:
Front;
Wheels: 1 offset. PN Delrin dish wheels.
Tires: PN Slick 8 front. Trued to 23mm.
Reflex Racing low profile front end.
Caster 4 degree
Camber 1 degree
Toe. 0 degree
30000WT grease for front dampening.

Rear:
Wheels. 2 offset. PN Plastic.
Tires: PN Radial 6. Untrued.
PN 98-102 LCG V4. 98mm.
Lowest rideheigt
Diff: QteQ, Jomurema, Reflex.
PN/ Reflex tri damper. Mix & match:-)
Kyosho 15000WT grease.
Kyosho oil shock. 560cst oil. Yellow spring.
QteQ T-bar set to "free floating".

Other.
Bearings: Reflex Racing High grade
Body: PN Lexan
Chassis set to level.

Mod GT:

Front:
Wheels: 2 offset. PN Plastic.
Tires: PN X pattern 15. Trued to 23mm.
Reflex Racing low profile front end.

Caster 4 degree

Camber 1 degree

Toe. 0 degree

Kyosho 30000WT grease for dampening.

Rear:

Wheels: 2 offset. Atomic dish

Tires: PN Radial 6. Untrued.

Reflex Racing adjustable wheelbase motormount. 96mm.

Lowest rideheight.
Diff: QteQ, Jomurema, Reflex.

Reflex Racing tri damper.

Kyosho 15000WT grease.

Kyosho oil shock. 560cst oil. Yellow spring.

QteQ T-bar set to free floating.

Other.

Bearings: Reflex Racing High grade

Body: GT-R 2008

Reflex Racing lexan wing.

Atomic diffuser

Chassis set to level.

Here are videos from the A-mains (courtesy of Jocke the Boss), and a few more pictures.

Stock

Mod GT

Pan

Image: Isak Hjelte

Review: QteQ Four Ball Connect T-Bar Set

2011-05-09T19:26:00.000+02:00

This is a product I have been using for a couple months.
The review has been in the pipeline for as long, but I just never had the time to finish it.
Sorry for taking so long.

The parts are of the usual great QteQ quality. The finish of the alu parts are as good as it gets, and the plastic parts are very precise and durable.

Monting this piece together takes some patience and accuracy.
Make use of the instructions found here: Instructions
And diagram found here: Diagram

If you have any questions regarding installing, or need some more information, dont hesitate to contact me by email, or post a comment below.

A couple of extra tips:

Do not overtighten the screws that connects to the chassis. The pillow balls can deform, and the threads in the chassis can strip easily.
The T-bar has tweak screws. They do work, but aint necessary if you are using a tri damper setup. Then you can adjust tweak with preloading the springs on the side damper.
Where the bar attaches to the motormount, you have a small set screw. Adjust this carefully until slop is minimized. Do not overtighten!
When you have everything installed, remove all dampers attached to your rear end.
You should now have free movement both laterally and pitch. Make sure nothing binds.

This T-plate are ideal combined with a tri shock system.
You will then have a completely "free-floating" rear end, that you are able to control to perfection with different springs and dampening fluids.

Between the mounting screws, you have a small screw for adjusting the tenison of the plate. This is for use if you want a more regular T-bar feel, or want to use it with a disc damper.

This is very good for making small adjustments on the fly, without having to change the springs on your dampers.Think of it as an adjustable anti roll bar.

The slop in total is very small. The car behaves as precise as with regular T-plates, but it does not change after use as a regular T-plate.

I dont think I will go back to regular T-plates in a while.
I feel i am much more in control over my setup, since all spring action are controlled by the different springs you mount on your dampers.

After two months hard use and abuse, it has never failed. It is extremely consistent and still my favorite T-bar to this date.

Long term review's. A little write-up on my "essentials"

2011-04-25T02:05:00.000+02:00

A lot of products have come and gone on my car these past months.
Products I don't end up using or keeping as alternative parts for different setups, I rarely write about. This will not be changed in the future.

The products I have on my car now, has stayed there for a good while, and I have a feeling they will for a good time (until something better shows up)
This is a little write-up about what i think is the essentials of my setups on two of my race cars.
Click "recap" on all the reviews to see the full original reviews.

I will start with the latest addition to my setup.
The Reflex Racing adjustable wheelbase motormount.

First a little recap from the first review.

Light weight. 5 grams.
Very easy to adjust wheelbase
Very easy to adjust gearmesh
Suspension mount are very sturdy
Very precise bearing cups
Compact
Well thought out, and seems to be solid

I can confirm these initial results.

The mount has taken some serious abuse. It has been smacked into walls in almost 35 kmh. It has fell off elevated tracks. It has been hit hard by fellow racers.

Not a single time has the angle of the suspension mount changed. Nothing is bent out of shape. The adjustable wheelbase part has not become loose or anything at all.

This mount really can take all the abuse I have been able to give it. Seriously. It is tough as nails.

As for adjustability, it still works absolutely fantastic.

I cant recomend this piece high enough!

The Jomurema carbon diff shaft.

The recap.

Very light weight!
Precise
Looks skinny, but has held this far

As for the long term review.

The shaft has held up remarkably good.

It has taken a lot of direct hits, with the results of a few broken wheels. I have even hit a wall after a 17 meter straight with a speed of around 35 kmh. The car rolled, and went about a meter into the air, and hit a wood wall. Both rear wheels splintered to pieces, but the shaft was as good as new. The shaft is still straight as an arrow, without any signs of breakage or flex in the carbon shaft.

I have used this shaft now in two of my cars for the last 4 months. And I drive quite frequently. None of them has failed me a single time.

I actually dont think I have destroyed a diff shaft in my almost 10 years with Mini-Z's, but I have seen a lot of bent shafts over the years.

I think some of the hits this shaft has taken, could have easily bent most other shafts out there.

The Reflex Racing adjustable upper arm mount.

The recap.

Looks great
Highly adjustable
Very sturdy
Compatible with almost any part out there

Long term.

The front end really holds up well.

The adjustability has really helped me many times with dialing in my cars. Camber, caster and roll center adjustments "on the fly"

Securing the arms after adjusting camber or caster has never loosened. Thread lock has not been needed.

I really like this one.

Reflex Racing Low profile suspension & Delrin arms

The recap.

Removes slop form your front end
Light weight
Very smooth suspension
Easy to dampen with different types of grease in the lower pillow balls
A bit tricky to adjust rideheight and preload.

Long term.

Still silky smooth. Almost never needed a rebuild. I just remove the lower e-clip, take out the pring, lift the king pin a bit, and clean the dampening grease out with a paper twirl. Regrase, and go!

As for tricky adjustments, you learn how to do it fast. No problems here.

The e-clips have never even loosened on me.

A-arms holds up as they should. No problems here at all!

This is a really good option!

The PN tri damper setup 98mm.

The recap

Very adjustable
Easy to adjust dampening individually front/ side
Easy to adjust tweak
A bit tricky to route the motor cables
A little heavy.

The long term.

Holds up very well. Low maintenance. The pillow balls and shocks has not worn out after a lot of use. It is a bit heavy, but works flawlessly every time.

The one thing I dont like much, is that the dampers are mounted so far out from center, that they will give you problems with new rear tires and wheel offsets less than 3mm.

I use this together with the PN 98-102mm LCG mount for my pan car.

A real good product.

The Reflex Multi option rear suspension.

The recap.

Light weight
Very adjustable
Easy to adjust dampening individually front/ side
Easy to adjust tweak
A bit tricky to route the motor cables

The long term

It only works for the RR motormount and the PN LCG 94mm mount, but that is no problem since these are perhaps the best mounts out there.

The shocks and pivot balls holds up real well. A fellow racer has had one pillow ball fail after tightening the screws to much. Other than that is has given no problems at all.

It works with all wheel offsets. Are very compact, and are super lightweight.

It is my favorite side damper kit by far.

QteQ diff parts.

Recap.

Very light weight
Strong
Looks great
Great fitment

Long term.

These has never failed me. Ever. Insanely great parts. These are essential for a real lightweight diff build. QteQ rocks!

Reflex Racing Spur gear V2.

Recap.

Light weight
Precise
A bit tricky to get right, but super smooth when doing so
Fits superb with the 64 pitch pinions available

The long term.

It is almost indestructible. I have changed out one spur gear after an incredible amount of mileage. In kilometers I have done a quick calculation. The one i have pensioned have been run at least 480000 meters.

This was still absolutely usable, and will be kept as a spare.

The pinions wear in a faster rate though, but that is ok with me. They wear a bit quicker since the contact patch are a bit smaller than on the other spurs available.

The reduced rotating mass are also really important for me and my driving style. Coupled together with the other diff parts I use, it gives i my view the absolute best ball diff out there.

The "unreviewed" parts.

Some parts has stayed on my car for longer than this site has existed, and have been forgotten.

I would like to mention some of them.

The yellow Kyosho oil shock.

This is by far the best top shock I have ever used (and I have tried every single one). Superb dampening. A lot of springs available. Only the imagination stops you.

Leaking is no problem, and it is light weight. Since the top shock are the highest part you have on your chassis, this actually does a lot regarding the handling of your car.

PN LCG 98-102 motormount.

It is the motormount with the lowest cog. If you use 98 or 102 wheelbase, this is a motormount you really should consider trying out.

It is strong and very well thought out.

The gear mesh system is not everyones favourite, but it works ok.

The cups for the bearings are not very precise, but this can be fixed.

The next upcoming review will be the QteQ pivoting T-plate system.

This is so extremely good. It is on all my cars now, and works absolutely fantastic.

Reflex Racing Adjustable Wheelbase Motor Mount

2011-03-06T03:08:00.001+01:00

Finally I have the new Reflex Racing motor mount in my hands.
This is a prototype, but the latest one. I think this is the final design before production.

RRAWM:-)

This is truly a well thought out motormount.
Only 6 screws, 4 alu pieces, and the bearing inserts.

The name states it features adjustable wheelbase. This is done by the piece that you mount the t-plate on. Regular position gives you 94 - 98mm. Switch it around, and you have 96 - 100mm whellbase.

In the future they will release optional parts for 1mm increments adjustment. This is one of the great features of this mount.

The complete motormount, with all hardware, are advertised weighing in at only 5.1 grams. I had to check out this, and on two different scales I measured 5.0 grams. This is with everything but the ball bearings.
This has to be one of the lightest mounts out there.

A pivoting design makes it super easy to get the correct gear mesh.
The top motor screw, are also the screw you use for setting gear mesh. Almost as the old Atomic mounts.
One of the best things are that the motor are never loosened from the motor mount when you adjust the gear mesh.

Mounting it together was really easy. Just look at the pics. Not a lot of parts.
Everything fit really good together. Even the bearing inserts are a precise fit. Not sloppy, and not to tight. Just perfect.

Damper position.
Loosen one screw on each side, and you can slide the damper mount up and down as you like. The difference between this and most other mounts, are that it is fastened at both sides of the mount. This means a much more stable base for your dampening system.
Misalignment should be of no worry. The damper mount are really stable since it is fastened on both sides. It also slides on guides, so there really are no chance on movement at all.

The part where you bolt on the T-plate seems to fit perfect on the following plates: Atomic, PN, Reflex Racing, QteQ and Kyosho. I guess the other makes also fits.
As mentioned, this bracket can be switched around for wheelbase adjustment. In the picture you can see the 96mm configuration.

In the picture above you can also see the screwholes for attaching a diffusor. ATM diffusor fits, and RR are also planning a Lexan version.

Regarding durability, I guess Reflex has done their homework. I only tested it alone on track for about two hours, and it still holds up (no surprise). But the way this is built, I think the material are plenty strong to hold up even the hardest impacts.

Reflex Racing says the centre of gravity are optimized for best all round performance. I am not doubting them. Our track has quite good grip, and it seems perfect for this track.

At $39.99 this mount surely must be most bang for the buck. As for adjustments you can make. Wheelbase, ride height and damper position, it is one of the, if not the most, configurable mount out there. I also doubt there are lighter motormounts out there.
My old 94mm mount weighs in at 6,4 grams with hardware.

As for tracktest.
Slapped the car on track after installation. Works great!
Now lets see if I can go any faster than before :-)

Atomic Lexan Windows

2011-03-06T03:00:00.001+01:00

Lexan Windows.
Why you ask?

The windows in the Autoscale bodies are usually very heavy. This weight is at the highest possible point in your car, and this is something we usually dont want.

Typical weight of the stock windows are around 6 - 8 grams. Many of us do the "sunroof" mod to shave of some weight, and to lower the CG. You can save maybe 1,5 grams from this, and it is really noticeable in the handling of the cars.
Imagine what saving 4 - 6 grams will do.

The lexan windows gives you a real performance gain regarding CG and weight saving.

A couple of examples:
Lexus SC430.
Stock window: : 6,2
ATM Lexan 2,1

Nissan GT-R 08.
Stock window: 8,2 grams
ATM Lexan: 2,3 grams.

The fitment are really good. They are quite precise, and are vacuum formed to almost 100% the correct shape.
In this pic you see the GT-R 500. Here you replace not only the windows, but also the roof.

Here you see the SC430:

They are made as lexan pieces usually are, so that you have to cut away the extra material around the part you will want to use. Instructions are in the package, so this is not hard to understand.

You must also remove the tabs used for the stock window in your body before you glue it in.

These windows are clear. I like the way the car looks with them, and a lot of the lap counters out there use IR, and this will aid regarding better signal for the reciever unit.

With all this weight saved, you now have much more room for playing around with ballast and really hone in your perfect setup.

The only downside I find with these are that they are not allowed in some races.

For only around $3 you get a real good upgrade for your cars.

For now they are available for the following bodies:
Ferrari 360/ GTC
Ferrari F430
Chevrolet C5-R
Sauber C9
Nissan GT-R 500 2008
Lexus SC430

Jomurema Ceramic pressure plates

2011-02-04T21:51:00.002+01:00

Jomurema was kind enough to send me two sets of their new product for testing.
Ceramic pressure plates for 2WD ball diffs.
Big thanks to Johannes at KB-M.

Reducing rotating mass have always been important, but this has not always been so easy to do with the parts available.

Reflex Racing was early on with their Lightweight spurs, and this sparked the interest of a lot of other manufacturers out there to do something about this.
PN came out with their superb alu lightweight shaft, and QteQ have the insanely good and light diff housings and hub.

Various manufacturers has recently released prebuildt lightweight ball diffs, and these are actually very good products.
But for the ultimate lightweight diff you have to combine a few parts from different manufacturers.

Now onto the review.

The ceramic plates arrived in a small plastic bag.
White in color, they look trick, and the dirt buildup is very easy to spot. Nice!
No sanding necessary, since they are super flat.

I was a bit worried about the fitment, since ceramic are next until impossible to modify without breaking it. I took a pair of QteQ diff housings to testfit, and they were a direct fit. Kyosho housing was also a direct fit.
I have been told that D cut plates also will be available for Atomic and PN diffs.

Measurements Jomurema:
- Thickness: 0,83mm
- Outer diameter: 15,14mm
- Inner diameter: 8,20mm
- Weight pr plate: 0,3 grams

Measurements Kyosho original:

- Thickness: 0,83mm

- Outer diameter: 15,33mm

- Inner diameter: 8,20mm

- Weight pr plate: 0,8 grams

Mounting is easy.

Remember to glue the pressure plates to the diff housings.

I used ceramic balls in my build, but I am not sure if this is the best for these plates.

The feeling of the diff changed a bit, especially if you run some slip in your differential. I guess this is because of ceramic against ceramic. The wear does look to be zero.

I have a feeling that the grease will be very important in diffs built like this. You can change the way the diff "grips" quite a lot with different grease, so do not be afraid to try different manufacturers ball diff grease.

I have always used Kyosho and RC246 ball diff grease in my diffs. This is a grease that contains some kind of filler to grip better.

The action of the diff are extremely smooth. I had to adjust the tension a bit harder than I am used to to get the action to be the same as before. The good part is that it is possible to get the feeling to be almost exactly as with regular pressure plates.

The total weight of my diff is now as stated 4,0 grams. This is insane.

Acceleration and deceleration are improved. I guess this will be very popular in stock class, but also in modified if you like lots of drag brake and the added response.

I am going to try these plates with steel balls also to see if I can spot a difference. This could also affect the wearing rate.

After roughly 3 hours runtime, mine has started to show signs of a groove. (More of a polished look really) It looks to be as other plates regarding wear. Only time will tell if they are better or worse.

All in all. If you are trying to build the lightest diff out there, these plates are a must. I love them already :D

This is my part list for my (for now) ultimate differential:

QteQ Ultra light weight differential housing set. QT-081101
QteQ Light weight differential left hub. QT-080801
Reflex Racing 64 pitch Machined spur. RX1154
Reflex Racing High grade diff center bearing. RX1157Reflex Racing High grade ceramic thrust bearing. RX1137
Reflex Racing ceramic differential balls. RX1119
Jomurema Carbon diff shaft. JOM280001
Jomurema Ceramic Pressure plates. JOM280002(Prototype parts)

4.0 gram ball diff! Jomurema/ QteQ/ Reflex Racing!

2011-02-04T01:19:00.004+01:00

For full review, click here!

New prototype pressure plates from Jomurena.

Diff complete with everything, and bearing in the Reflex Spur.
I did a long tracktest today, but now its late so more on this tomorrow :D

Part list:
QteQ Ultra light weight differential housing set. QT-081101
QteQ Light weight differential left hub. QT-080801
Reflex Racing 64 pitch Machined spur. RX1154
Reflex Racing High grade diff center bearing. RX1157Reflex Racing High grade ceramic thrust bearing. RX1137
Reflex Racing ceramic differential balls. RX1119
Jomurema Carbon diff shaft. JOM280001
Jomurema Ceramic Pressure plates. (Prototype parts)

Until then. enjoy the pics:-)

Jomurema Carbon diff axle

2011-01-17T23:56:00.002+01:00

I found this on eBay just browsing around, and couldn't help myself ordering one.

The axle are made by 4 parts. One carbon axle in center, carbon pin, and two aluminum pieces at the ends.
It looks a bit skinny, but actually seems to be quite solid.

The whole piece are straight as an arrow, and the aluminium pieces seems to be well glued to the shaft.

I had to weigh it when I opened the package. 0,9 grams. That is 0,3 grams lighter than the previous lightest axle out there!
As we know, the diff weight is very important, so I was looking forward to try it out.

I built it together with the following parts:

QteQ Ultrra light weight differential housing set. QT-081101
QteQ Light weight differential left hub. QT-080801
Reflex Racing 64 pitch Machined spur. RX1154
Reflex Racing High grade ceramic thrust bearing. RX1137
Kyosho pressure plates. MZW206-3
Reflex Racing ceramic differential balls. RX1119

Fully assembled, with left hub, this differential now weighs in at 4,8 grams. That is insane:O

The axle seems well thought out. The main alu part where the spur and everything goes looks to be an exact replica of the Kyosho steel axle. The other side are as the PN lightweigh alu shaft.

Initial testing are very promising.
I have only used it alone on track, so I have not had any hard impacts with it, but I think as long as the wheels are protected by the body, it will be very hard to destroy it. I will write a follow up after I have tested it some more on track with more racers.

I assume the weak points are where the carbon shaft are glued to the alu parts, and it will be interesting to see how it holds up.

The weight saving on the differential are as always noticeable. Be prepared to adjust your drag brake :D

It absolutely seems to be a real good product, and I will be looking forward to see what other parts this manufacturer will come up with.

Reflex Racing Low profile front suspension

2010-12-23T23:12:00.004+01:00

I have been somewhat sceptic about the whole reverse king pin idea. This is mainly because of the added unsprung weight.

It took me a while before I installed the system in one of my cars, but when i finally did, I am happy to report that I have been wrong.

Mounting are very easy, but a bit fiddling are requiered. Spend time making sure everything are absolutely bind free.
Click here for a full installation "how to"
One thing you need to get are a ball end reamer. 4.75mm. I cant praise this tool to much!

The fact that you remove a lot of slop, and have less friction in the front suspension really makes up or the added unsprung weight.
There are much less slop and as a result you get a much more precise car.

As for it beeing low profile, it will give you a lot more room inside your body. You can now use for example the Atomic pan car bodies etc without having to modify them.

Compared to the Extra long king pin suspension, it wont give you a faster car over one lap. Over a race distance however, I feel it gives an advantage.
I have at least shattered my own personal best 3 minute stints :D

Go ahead and rebuild your suspension. I dont think you will regret it.

I have buildt it using the "how to" on Reflexracing.net, but tweaked it a bit to get it to work with the Atomic FS knuckles. These are 0,5mm lower than stock.

Settings are as follows:

Silver springs
Bottom shim (ride height): 0,5mm
Middle shim (camber): 0,5mm
Top shim (preload): 0,3mm
1 degree camber
30000WT K grease

PN sidedampers with Reflex Racing damper plate.

2010-10-26T23:36:00.000+02:00

The Reflex damper plate fits perfectly with the PN sidedampers for the LCG 98mm mount.

The angles are matching up better than ever.

Will try to come up with a way to make the RR dampers work. The PN lower mount are way to wide for them to work, and I dont want to modify the motormount. I really need to shed some rear weight on this setup.

Aerodynamics

2010-10-17T20:08:00.004+02:00

A lot of talk has been going on regarding aerodynamics on these small cars.

The opinions are many, and a lot of people has been secretly experimenting with these things.

Does adding a wing a wing really help?

Can you add downforce by changing the underside of the cars?

At our track we have been using lexan wings for some time now. Made fron the Autoscale boxes. Cut and bent to shape using different tools. We think it works!
Lately Reflex Racing has made a lexan wing that the rumors say are much more efficient than the home made big wings. Racers all over the world says they work!
Brian Ma (Color01 on mini-zracer.com), and the creator of the MRCG pan car, has been making some interesting discoveries regarding front diffusers. The results so far shows that it seems to work! He are also investigating on rear diffusers.

I could not resist trying out a few things myself, so I made a flat floor and a rear "semi diffuser".

It went trough various revisions before I could barely make a conclusion.

The first test was done with a flat floor, and a very simple rear flap to see if I could notice any effect.

It actually seemed to have an effect. A almost completely neutral car actually got a bit understeery in high speed corners.

This sparked me into making a few different diffusers, and the last one is the one you can see pics at the bottom.

The ideal solution would be to include the body in the floor, but I have not found a way to make this practical.

The diffuser itself are form fitted to the rear of the Supra. All the air that channels trough under the car will now be let out at the rear without making turbulence inside the body.

The effect I feel it gives are not a "night and day" difference, but it does something!

Notice all the grit that attaches to the roof of the diffuser. That I think shows that the air seems to attach all the way to the end of the diffuser.

In my mind this shows that it actually works.

I am not sure that it actually gives any faster laps (at least so far). The grip these cars have these days are really good, but maybe in low grip situations it could help?

Take a look at the pictures, and feel free to comment.

Reviews

2010-10-17T17:34:00.233+02:00

Click on the picture or text to read the full review.

Atomic reinforced lower arm

Reflex Racing Alu Top Cover & Knuckles

QteQ 4 ball connect T-plate

Atomic Lexan Windows

Reflex Racing adjustable wheelbase motor mount

Jomurena Ceramic pressure plates

Jomurema Carbon ball diff axle

Reflex Racing Low profile front suspension

Reflex Racing Multi option damper kit

Reflex Racing adjustable upper arm mount

Reflex Racing Spur Gear V2

Eagle Racing Setup board & Ride height gauge

Atomic Oil filled shock

Reflex Racing Adjustable T-Bar mount

PN Tri Damper

Atomic Front suspension lower arm

PN Racing upper alu caster arm

Atomic Front upper brace

Mantis Worx adjustable offset wheels

Reflex Racing Extra long king pins

Reflex Racing WTF 2

Atomic Stock-R

Atomic AD Stock Motor

PN Racing PNWC33 Motor

Reflex Racing Ultra High Grade HW Motor

Reflex Racing UL Delrin Spur

QteQ Ball Diff parts

PN Ultra Light diff shaft

PN Racing Double A-Arm MR-02

PNWC Stockholm, Sweden 2010

2010-09-28T15:48:00.004+02:00

My first RCP Race.

Radicalrides in Sweden has been asking us to participate in the PNWC event for some time, but as everyone are quite buzy I ended up as the only Norwegian there. But I had a great time.
The event was very professional, and the people were absolutely amazing.

I came down friday night, and were in desperate need of some sleep.I had an 8 hour drive to get here. The practice started at 0900, but I was still asleep. I made it to the track just before the qualifying started.

Since this was my first RCP outing, and not beeing able to participate in he practice, I had to make the best use of the quailfying rounds to dial in my setup and learn the track layout.
From the getgo, my car was decent. I managed to stay on the same pace as most of the other after a few laps, and could increace the pace gradually.

Q1 results: 45 laps. my best lap time was 9.679.
For Q2 I changed a few things in my setup to get a bit more steering. This proved to be the right thing to do.

Q2 results: 45 laps. Best lap of 9.318
I was on the pace for roughly 47 laps, but a collision took of my body and I ended up with no improvement other than best lap.

Q3 was another story. Now I had a setup that was working ok. I still wish I could have practiced a bit and tried some other tires etc, but i had no time to do so.

Q3 results: 48 laps. Best lap of 9.020. Fastest lap time in my heat. I was happy with that.
I am happy to say I qualified for A-Main:-)

I had by then roughly 40 minutes of tracktime before the main, and felt quite good before the race.
Before the race I did not change much. I did a differential service, and relubed the front king pins.

Race summary:
I had a really bad start. I messed up, collided, and my car hooked in a barrier. Result was a start lap of 14 seconds. 4 seconds lost for a newbie mistake.

I tried to relax and get into the rythm for the rest of the final.
After halfway race I was in 4 position, and kept on increasing my pace. The car worked great, and I could just concentrate on my lines and avoiding other cars.

I ended up as P4. 3 seconds behind P3 Joakim Linné, and 7 seconds behind P2 Isak Hjelte. 60 laps on all of us was the end result. I had the second fastest lap in the A-main. 0,150 behind Ola Westholm who managed a 8.859 lap wich was the fastest lap in the finals.
Dahlis managed to squeeze out 63 laps. He was extremely consistent, and handled traffic superbly. Congratulations to everyone!
Ola Westholm turned some crazy fast laps, but i think he tangled into some of the other drivers during the race.

To sum everything up, I have to be pleased with my first RCP outing.
I really wish I had the chance to test some other tire combos, but went with what almost everyone else was running.
I also regret that I only signed up for one class. GT Mod. It would have given me much more tracktime if i had run a couple of other classes also. Lesson learned!

After this experience, I can now say that the setups we use with rubber tires on Regupol tracks are very equal to the RCP setups.
The thing that differs the most are the high speed steering. The car understeered badly in the high speed corners. As for the low speed corners it is very much the same feeling.
The fact that the track are made up by tiles also makes for some inconsistent grip and you can notice some hooking between the tiles.
The main difference between our regular tracks, and the RCP tracks are the soft barriers. You will hook if you touch the barrier!

As for the whole event. It was real great to talk to the other drivers, discuss setups and also have a face to the guys you have been talking to on forums etc.
It was also cool to see the famous P28 pan cars, and talking to the guys behind it. I hope I can test it out sometime;-)
Everyone were superfriendly, and showed really good sportmansship. I will definetly attend more races in Sweden. Hopefully there will be some events closer to home also:-)

Now to my setup:

Front end:
Reflex Racing extra long king pins
Reflex Racing adjustable front end
PN White lowdown Springs
Reflex Racing Spring cups
Lowered 1mm
0,3 mm preload
Atomic alu knuckles
1 degree camber
4 degree caster
Roll center raised with 0,1mm
0 toe
3000 WT oil on the king pins
20mm wheels.
0 offset
PN Slick 10 shore tires
Tires trued down to 22mm
Glued tires

Rear end:
Reflex Racing multi damper (15000WT grease)
Soft springs
Reflex G10 T-bar. Medium
Kyosho oil shock (500WT oil)
Reflex Racing V2 Spur. 53 tooth
QteQ hubs, and diff housing
Reflex Racing light weight pressure plates
Reflex Racing Abec 7 thrust bearing
Reflex Racing carbon balls
PN Ultra light weight diff shaft
PN 94mm V3 motormount
Second highest axle position
PNWC 33 turn motor. Trued by CT
PN Parada tires. 6 shore
Taped tires
20mm wheels
1 offset

Other:
TRP 900 batteries
QteQ wheel nuts
Reflex Racing Ti screws
Reflex Racing High grade bearings
TQ motor wire
350Z 2007 GT body
PN Front body mount
Lexan wing
Total weight 178 grams

Click here for the results

Some pics from the event. Courtesy of Radicalrides.se

More pics can be found by clicking here

Jocke the Boss

Review. Reflex Racing Tri shock system

2010-08-21T00:03:00.001+02:00

I have always liked side damper systems.
When Reflex Racing released their single side damper tube for a few years ago, I have never gone back to the DDS type dampers. For some reason, my cars have always been the fastest and most consistent with this system.

When PN released their side damper system, the PN Tri shock, this was my favourite. Mainly because of the added adjustablity.

Now Reflex Racing has made their improved tri shock system. This is super light weight, and has superb geometry. The side dampers are perfectly aligned in 90 degrees. This makes for a perfect linear motion.

The system consists of the following parts:

Friction shocks in plastic
Top plate with an all purpose design. Can be used as DDS and TDS
Three different pairs of springs. Hard, medium and soft.
DDS plates
Mounting screws and spacers

You also need:

Kyosho oil shock
Dampening fluid/ grease

Installation is quite straight forward.
You have to make sure that the side shocks are not binding. A little rubbing with 1000 grit sandpaper on the "pistons" takes care of that.

The side shock spacers are made a little long. These have to be grinded down to make the perfect length.
Take your time on this. Make sure that you grind down one side at the time, and make sure you have them equal.
I chose to make one side 1mm longer than the other. This is to have two options on damper angle. Just switch them around to adjust the angle.

When you have done all four. Grease up the dampers, mount together, and install the Kyosho oil shock.

Even though this is a prototype, the quality are very good.

The parts fits really good together, and the finish of the carbon mounting plate are great.

The weight will be an advantage. I also feel the damper angles etc really helps in improving the feel of the car.
Compared to DDS systems, the TDS systems really makes for a faster car especially in fast direction changes, and I feel it gives overall better steering response.
The lighter weight also gives you an accelleration and decelleration advantage.

Pros:

The mounting screws on the side dampers dont interfere with the rear wheels in any way. Even with 0 offset and new rear tires.
The top plate and mounting postions of the dampers does not interfere with the motor in any wheelbase.
Perfect geometry= linear dampening.
Light weight!

Cons (not really):

Takes some time to mount together (But when you are ready, it really works!)
Routing the motor wires takes a bit of work, but easier than other systems due to the smaller size dampers and position.
I would have loved if a body mounting system was included as on the old RR side damper.

Reflex Racing Tri Shock system

2010-08-19T23:49:00.002+02:00

Review. Reflex Racing adjustable upper arm mount

2010-08-12T00:37:00.003+02:00

It was with great anticipation I opened the package with these mounts.

When I have them here in my hand, I am impressed.The anodizing looks to be of good quality. Everything is smooth and has an even surface.
The fitment of the parts are as always good, and the adjustment tool looks like a Ninja star:-) This will be a good weapon in the pit when you are about to loose an argument.

Since I use Reflex Racing upper arm pins, I had to polish these a bit with "Autosol" metal polish.
After a few spins in my Dremel they were absolutely the perfect size.
I also test mounted with both Kyosho and PN pins. Both fits fine without any polishing etc.

The total added weight on your car is only 2 grams. 1 gram if you have used the ATM brace before.
The mounting are really straight forward.

Cut off the stock mounting points with some wire cutters.
Unscrew the two screws on the top cover.
Testmount the new mounting points on the brace and to find out what side you want to face forward. One side gives 2 degrees of caster, and the other gives you 4 degrees. Here you can see it in 4 degree caster configuration.
Push the top brace into its place. It fits perfectly in the holes, but gently force it all the way down.
If you need to raise your roll centre, this is where you do it. Add shims in the holes to adjust it.
Place the arms on the brace. Fasten them lightly with the supplied 3mm screws on the inner hole.
Insert the longer screws in the outer hole. Do not tighten all the way at this point.
The supplied tool are made for the upper arm pins. Use some stock ones or the ones you have and place them in the position you want. The 4 sides on the tool are marked with 0 , 1 , 2 and 3 holes. These tells you have much static camber you will have. 0 - 3 degrees.
Insert the tool into the new mounting points. Make sure the key hole in the middle are in the correct place.
Now you can tighten it down. Use tread-lock if you feel the need for it.

Now you are set. Mount everything together and drive.

Also see Reflex Racing's own install guide.

Use this mount together with the longer king pins from Reflex Racing. They are made for each other.

The adjustable camber is nice. You can use the stock plastic arms ( they are the lightest available now) Feel free to cut of the inner pivot. Reflex are also coming out with there own arms. Hopefully these will be even lighter than the cut down stock ones.

Unsprung weight is something you really should focus on minimizing. The more unsprung weight, the slower suspension movement you get.

The caster settings are one of the strongpoints of this front end. You get maximum 4 degrees of caster, but this really! helps dialing your car in.

You get a much more stable, straight tracking car with more caster. You get away with more toe out if you add caster. The gravity will always try to straighten the wheels. You can say that caster adds self centering to your front end.

You also get added camber gain.

The camber adjustment are really solid. I have not needed any tread-lock to fasten them good enough.

On track this front end really rocks. The adjustments you can do on it really helps you dialing in your car for every track conditions.

Just try it and you want be disappointed!

Finally! Reflex Racing adjustable front end & Tri shock

2010-08-11T00:58:00.000+02:00

Reviews are coming up tomorrow, but I just had to share some pictures.

Forget about the cone tires. I just ran a few laps with to much camber:-)

The Supra is back!

2010-08-08T17:43:00.001+02:00

I got a hold of a couple of the new Supra whitebodies. They look really good. The front should be quite strong, and the body fits nicely on top of a 94/ 96mm chassis. The pics show it on a 96mm. I removed roughly 2mm from the rear wheel arches.

There are plenty of room for the wheels even when the body is slammed to the ground, and I think every damper system out there should fit without any problems inside.

On track it handles good. I would say somewhere inbetween the 430GTC and the 2007 350Z GT500 regarding steering, grip and stability.

Review. Reflex Racing Spur Gear v2

2010-07-21T12:58:00.006+02:00

Also see the article on the ultimate differential. 5.0 grams total weight!

As stated before: Reducing rotating mass is critical in extracting performance from your Mini-Z. You will get an increase in response. Acceleration and deceleration is increased, and your batteries will last longer.

Reflex Racing always focus on the right stuff, and came out with a lightweight spur gear earlier on. See review here. The Reflex Racing 64 pitch machined Delrin Spur gear.

Now they have made a spur gear that is even lighter than the previous version. The V2!

It is a lot lighter than any other spur out there. It is also very durable since it is made from delrin.

You can choose to run with a bearing, or with the provided spacer. I always focus on reducing weight, so I opted for the spacer. With a bearing you can save some maintenance but at the cost of added weight.

The spur is a lot thinner than other spurs. This helps with friction as well.

Adjusting the diff tension with this gear is for some reason very sensitive. You have to adjust in very small increments, but by doing so you can achieve a perfect diff action.

It has space for 6 balls, witch also is a good thing, since 10 balls are to much, and 5 is sometimes to little. On our high grip track 10 balls are never necessary, and just adds weight to your drive train. 5 balls can be to little, and gives excessive slipping.

Since RR supplies this spur with two different spacers you will always find the correct spacing. One is fitted for almost all combos, and the other is quite thick so you can grind it down to match every combo out there.

Supplied in the kit are one 2mm spacer, and one 3,3mm spacer.

I mounted this with a PN alu diff shaft, and QteQ diff parts.

Compared to the old spur, this weighs 0,2 grams less. This sounds like very little, but I promise you. This will be noticed!

The accelleration and decelleration is improved!

You also get an ultra responsive car, since your throttle input are instant. You get a lot better feel for your car.

Combine this with PN Racing Ultra light alu diff shaft, and QteQ diff parts, you get the ultimate differential. This is actually lighter than the stock plastic diff!!!!!

5.0 grams! You cant beat that with any other combo!

Note: You have to glue the spacer or bearing in the spur. See Reflex Racing's tutorial regarding installation.

Review. Eagle Racing Setup board & Ride height gauge

2010-06-17T19:11:00.001+02:00

Eagle Racing has been coming out with a lot of parts lately, and I was eager to look at some of their products.

The first thing I wanted a look at is the setup tools they recently released.

Setup board.
The kit comes nicely boxed in a solid box with bubble wrap around. No damage in shipping should occur.

The three pegs provided is for adjusting it level on the work table. In the center it is a bubble leveler that looks to be quite accurate.

They are spring loaded, so that they will keep in position when you handle the board.

It looks solid and the print on the surface are of great quality. It seems to be resistant to oil and grease, and should provide everything you need.
The print is very visible. Black against light grey.

The track measuremts are in 1mm increments. Centre to max with is 0 - 130mm. This is where you also measure the wheel offsets.

Wheel base measurements are in these increments. 86, 90, 94, 98, 102, 106mm.

The surface are completely flat, and should provide the optimum surface for setup work.

Ride height gauges.
There are two gauges included in the kit.
one stepped gauge used with a couple of 3mm spacers, and one straight one for using when the car is in resting position on the work bench or your setup board.

When I control measure them, they are very accurate.
The stepped gauge are in increments of 0,5 mm. Range from - 2,5mm to + 2,5mm. This is used together with two pcs 3mm spacers that you place your car on when measuring.

The gauge without steps are for when the car sits down on the surface. Here you have increments in 0,1mm. Markings on the side and on top of the gauge.

A setup board are not that much needed, but gives you an accurate base for working the setup on your car. The printed measurements are a nice touch, and will be helpful in those heated moments at the track when you are rushing a setup.

The gauges are also in the category "nice to have". They will help you when you are logging your setup, and also makes it easy for you to measure the ride height etc on the fly.

If you are in the market for a setup board and ride height gauges, I would definitely consider Eagle Racing's version.
They are cheap, and has great quality.

The ultimate differential. Updated. Now 5.0 grams!

2010-05-27T13:28:00.005+02:00

This is a little article on what I feel is the ultimate differential today.

I have buildt this from the following parts:
PN Ultra light weight differential shaft. MR2045UL.
QteQ Ultrra light weight differential housing set. QT-081101
QteQ Light weight differential left hub. QT-080801
Reflex Racing 64 pitch Machined spur. RX1154
Reflex Racing High grade ceramic thrust bearing. RX1137
Reflex Racing Light weight 8mm diff rings. RX1134S
Reflex Racing ceramic differential balls. RX1119

Assembled, this differential weighs in at 5.0 grams. This is complete with left hub.

The diff is a large rotating mass, and this has a large impact on the overall handling of the car.
The lighter your diff is, the faster your car will accellerate, and the faster it will decellerate. This is one of the strongpoints for myself, as I love a car that has lots of motor brake.
The drivetrain gets much more efficient because of less friction between the spur and pinion. The spur is much narrower than other spurs, and is almost everlasting. The only downside is that you wear out the pinions at a higher rate, but everyone wants to go faster right;-)

The spur has 6 balls. This makes it quite grippy, and you can adjust it quite loose and still have sufficient engagement.

My favourite diff grease is at the moment the R246 ball diff grease.

Click here for a maintenance tutorial.

Here are the reviews of the main parts:
Review PN Racing Ultra Light alu diff shaft
Review Reflex Racing Spur gear V2
Review QteQ differential parts

Here are some product links:
R246 Ball diff grease
PN Racing Ultra light weight shaft
Reflex Racing Spur gear
QteQ Left hub
QteQ Diff housing
Reflex Racing High grade thrust bearing
Reflex Racing Light weight diff rings
Reflex Racing Ceramic diff balls

Review. Atomic oil filled shock

2010-05-13T19:10:00.005+02:00

The first spy pics of this shock was seen for over one year ago, and now Atomic finally has released them.

The packaging is really nice. The shock, oil, and the rest of the parts has their own compartment in the packaging.

They also have provided a user manual and parts list.

First look inside the package revealed that the oil bottle had leaked out all of the content. The foam packaging and the user manual were completely soaked.

The kit comes with two springs. One black and one silver. No description on witch of them were hard or soft. I measured them on my spring measuring device, and found that the Black Spring were the softest one, altough they differ very little.

They are much stiffer than for example the springs for the Kyosho oil filled shock. This worried me a bit. More on that later.

It comes with two different chassis mounts. A nice feature. I ended up using a PN shock mount on my setup.

Since the oil bottle were empty on arrival, I had to use another oil. I decided to fill it up with my favourite for the kyosho oil shock. This is Kyosho 500WT silicone oil.

Disassembling it is very easy, and filling it with oil also. I waited a good hour to get all the air out of the oil. Mounted the cap back on, and wow. This feels good!

Installing the damper on a conventional disc damper equipped car is straight forward. However I mounted it on a PN Tri damper setup, so I had to come up with some solutions to make it fit good.

It is very long compared to the Kyosho shock. When mounted on a PN TDS fitted car this makes the space left for the transponder very little.

When i finally got around mounting it, the feel of it is extremely smooth. The dampening it provide is superb. I really like this one.
The spring hardness worried me a bit, since they are very hard compared to the Kyosho oil shock springs. But to my surprise, this was not a problem at all. The springs are quite progressive, and the small shock travel these cars actually use, the hardness were near perfect for me with 0 preload.

The first track test proved its a real good shock. Both the adjustability it gives, and the dampening it provides is superb.

It is a bit heavier than the old Kyosho oil shock, but since it adds a lot of adjustablity it can be worth the extra 1,4 gram.

It weighs in at 2,8 grams filled up.

The kyosho schok weighs 1,4 grams filled up.

This gets my recomendation. A really good product.

MR-03 96 mm setup

2010-05-13T19:06:00.001+02:00

For the last couple of years I have been using 98mm cars exclusively. This is mainly because of the Reflex Racing side damper setup.

Now that more side dampers are available, I built myself a new car in 96mm configuration.

This car differs in a couple of things from my 98mm car.
The front end is almost stock. Only Reflex Racing kingpins delrin balls, plus some shims are used.
The top shock is Atomic's newes oil filled shock. This was a bit tricky to install with this setup, but it works absolutely fantastic. The only downside compared to the Kyosho shock is that it is exactely double the weight. See own review of the Atomic shock.

As soon as more of the RR spring cups are available again, I will order up some for this car. I am also waiting on the new Reflex Racing front end. This will be highly adjustable, and I have a feeling that this will rock the Z world.

Front end parts:
Reflex Racing king pins
PN front spring cups
PN Racing Lowdown springs
Kyosho stock arms. (modified)
Mantisworx wheels
GPM 891 30 shore tires

Rear end parts:

PN Racing 94 - 98 LCG motormount V3

PN Racing side dampers

PN Racing central shock springs for the side dampers

Atomic oil filled shock.

Reflex Racing G10 96mm T-bar.

Reflex Racing T bar mount

Mantisworx wheels

GPM 891 25 shore tires

Differential (5,1 grams total weight):
QteQ left hub
QteQ diff housing
QteQ left nut
PN Racing ultra light weight diff axle
Reflex Racing carbon ceramic balls
Reflex Racing abec 7 thrust bearing
Reflex Racing light weight diff rings
Reflex Racing spur
Reflex Racing O ring

Other:
Reflex Racing high grade bearings
Reflex Racing 36 turn Ultra performance handwound motor
QteQ wheel nuts
PN Racing hex screws

Reflex Racing body mount

Atomic TS-043 washer kits (used for spacers between front wheel bearings and various shimming)

R246 ball diff grease
PN Tire tape
AKA tire glue
Ko Propo EX1UR radio
PN front body mount
Ferrari 430GT body
Team Orion 900HV batteries

Settings Front:
1 degree static camber via shimming
0 degree caster
+0,5 offset front wheels
1mm shim under knuckle
0,2mm shim between knuckle and upper arm
0,1mm preload on front springs
PN purple Lowdown springs
Taped and glued tires

Settings rear:
Diff axle position to give next highest ride height
Kyosho 500WT oil in top shock
Kyosho 15000WT Grease in side dampers

Zero preload on top spring

PN Orange central shock springs on side dampers

0,5mm preload on side shocks

Reflex Racing 96mm hard G10 T plate

Rear pivot point is on the inner postion on the T plate mount.

Taped tires

+ 1,5 offset rear

96mm wheelbase

Total weight is 184 grams

This setup is very nimble, and quick trough the tighter section on our tracks. It is also surprisingly stable on high speed corners.
Tire wear affects the setup very little. New tires works as good as completely worned down tires.

Comparison pics of my two MR-03's.

New layout on the test track

2010-05-09T01:46:00.004+02:00

Mid 2011 we have transferred all our tracks to RCP.

More info on this later.

The new layout was made to be a real challenge for setups. It is very technical, although it looks quite easy. The high speed sections are very hard on the setup, and are both clockwise and anti clockwise. You have to have a completely balanced setup to be able to go real fast. The second last corner before the main straight really unsettles your car, and it is hard to carry the speed you want in the last corner before the main straight.

Compared to the old layout, the lap times has increased roughly two seconds. Lap record so far is 8.001.

The grip levels on this track is awesome. It is heated from below and have a constant surface temperature of 22 degrees celcius, and are well rubbered in.

Martin and Rune battling it out.

My latest MR-03 setup

2010-04-29T22:14:00.001+02:00

Front end parts:
Reflex Racing king pins
Reflex Racing Front spring cups
PN Racing Lowdown springs
PN Racing caster arms
Atomic upper suspension mount
Mantisworx wheels
GPM 891 30 shore tires

Rear end parts:
PN Racing 98 - 102 motormount V3
PN Racing side dampers
PN Racing central shock springs for the side dampers
Kyosho oil shock/ K Red spring
Reflex Racing G10 T bar.
Reflex Racing T bar mount
Mantisworx wheels
GPM 891 25 shore tires

Differential:
QteQ left hub
QteQ diff housing
QteQ left nut
PN Racing ultra light weight diff axle
Reflex Racing carbon ceramic balls
Reflex Racing abec 7 thrust bearing
Reflex Racing light weight diff rings
Reflex Racing spur
Kyosho O ring

Other:
Reflex Racing high grade bearings
Reflex Racing 36 turn Ultra performance handwound motor
TQ motor wire
QteQ wheel nuts
PN Racing hex screws

Reflex Racing body mount

Atomic TS-043 washer kits (used for spacers between front wheel bearings and various shimming)

R246 ball diff grease
PN Tire tape
AKA tire glue
Ko Propo EX1UR radio
PN front body mount
Nissan GT-R 2008 body
Team Orion 900HV batteries

Settings Front:
1 degree static camber via upper arm
0,9 degree caster
+0,5 offset front wheels
1mm shim under knuckle
0,1mm shim between knuckle and upper arm
0,3mm preload on front springs
PN White Lowdown springs
Taped and glued tires

Settings rear:
Diff axle position to give next highest ride height
Kyosho 500WT oil in top shock
Kyosho 15000WT Grease in side dampers

Reduced top shock travel by 2mm

Zero preload on top spring

PN Blue central shock springs on side dampers

1,5mm preload on side shocks

Reflex Racing hard G10 T plate

Rear pivot point is on the inner postion on the T plate mount.

Taped tires

+ 2,5 offset rear

98mm wheelbase

Total weight is 184 grams

This setup is very stable in high speed corners, and a bit on the loose side in low speed corners.
Tire wear affects the setup very little. New tires works as good as completely worned down tires.

Review. Reflex Racing Adjustable T bar mount

2010-04-13T20:43:00.001+02:00

I heard about this for a long time ago, and was a little curious on this product. I now finally got one in my hand.

The finish looks very good. I opted for the gold color. A nice "race look".

The mount attaches to the chassis with only one screw. This is more than enough, since the side supports in the chassis takes care of the rest.

The threads for the T plate fastening is precise, and can handle the load nicely.
In the side that protrudes at the rear of the car, there are 3 threaded holes for a little screw you can use for adjusting the pivot point on the T bar. This way you change the hardness both sideways and up/ down movement.
For a small amount of money, you have a lot more adjustablilty for your rear end.

Other than that there are not much to say on this product. Track testing etc is done, and everything works and responds as it should. The feel of the car does change quite a lot when you adjust the pivot point, and it works nicely for adjusting rear end sag when you are using soft T plates.
Perfect match for the Tri shock system from PN?

Top rating from BankenZ!

Review. PN Tri damper system. Update 1.

2010-04-11T20:27:00.009+02:00

Finally got these kits.
First up for review is the 98mm version.

The hardware looks to be good quality.
It is a bit time consuming to mount correctly, but this is mainly because of three things.
- I wanted to use the Kyosho oil filled shock.
- I wanted to use the Reflex Racing side damper bracket for body mounting. (All my race bodies are configured for this)
- Routing the motor cables.

Parts included are:
- Top mounting plate.
- Lower mounting plate.
- Side dampers.
- Screws
- Plastic nuts

Additional parts used:
- Kyosho oil filled shock
- Kyosho red spring for MM
- QteQ lock nuts
- M2 x 16 screw
- M2 x 12 screw
- Reflex Racing side damper bracket. Modified.
- PN Racing Center shock spring set. 2 pcs.

Mounting was straightforward as long as you think a bit of what you do.
The only complain under installation was that the plastic nuts are of poor quality. They will not tighten at all. They seem to big for the screws.

I see that most people mounts the side shocks on top of the upper mounting plate. I tried that and found that the angle of the side shocks was quite steep. I have a feeling that this will make the rear end a bit to progressive for my taste. Although i did not try this on the track (yet).

As you can see from the pictures, the angle now is as close to flat as possible without making problems with binding in any way.

This car has always used a side damper setup, so I kept it as it was as far as the rest of the setup goes.

Pro's:
- Very simple to adjust tweak
- Easy to tune spring load side to side together with T plates.
- Easy to adjust dampening with different grease etc.
- The quality seems to be very good. Everything fits very well together.

Con's:
- More weight.
- Not easy to lay the motor cables.
- The rear end becomes a bit cluttered.
- The plastic nuts that came with it was a joke. The holes are to big to even make threads in.

This rear end actually works very well. I have not used anything other than side dampers since Reflex Racing came out with their version. I just love this system. Nothing is faster on our tracks.

The TDS setup behaves very much like the RR side damper. I adjusted the spring tension on the side damper to zero. On the track it just worked exactly as the old system. The main benefit I see is that you are able to adjust tweak much easier than before.
I loaded it with Kyosho 15000WT grease. In the RR side damper I use 30000WT. I will try out some more on the next track test.

I will add to this review when I have done some more testing with it. I have a feeling that this could be as fast, if not faster than the old setup. It adds some 5 grams to the total weight, but I think it could be worth it with respects to the added adjustability. Time will tell.

Track test 1:

First run was as suspected. I had to adjust a little on the spring tension in the rear

The feeling of the car was almost exactly as it was with the RR side damper. It almost seemed as the same setup.

I tried with almost every T plate I had to see how it responded to these changes, and it was as it should be.

The springs from the spring set is not very good regarding how equal they are. They differ in length and in the rates. But I could adjust it to where the car behaves neutral to both sides.

After some dialing in, I was able to extract a little bit more from it. I adjusted the springs to zero preload, and regreased the dampers.

Now it started to work really good.

Turn in at full speed is extreme. Not to much, but exactly as I like it. The corner speed in long on throttle corners are just as with the RR side damper. Bumps are absorbed as before. This is a tribute to the yellow Kyosho oil shock. This is in my view the absolute best out there.

On throttle steering is also the same as with the RR side damper setup.

Now to the best part. The speed I can carry to the chicane is noticeably higher than before. I have so much grip in the fast transitions. I guess this is because of the side springs helping to counter the chassis roll in these types of corners. It changes direction so predictive and easy, that it is a blast to drive.

All in all I can say that this is just as good as the Reflex Racing side damper, and even better in some aspects such as the chicane speed it can help produce. The added weight is no problem regarding modified cars, but i suspect it can be a bad thing on stock cars. Time will tell.

It really shines regarding direction changes and the added adjustability.

Regarding lap times. After 334 laps at our permanent track, I was able to get within 0,022 seconds of the lap record. It was actually the next fastest lap ever.

This product gets top rating from me.

Review. Atomic MR-03 Front suspension Lower arm set

2010-04-06T20:53:00.002+02:00

The parts came in the usual Atomic clear plastic bag.
Included in the package was mounts for wide and narrow front, and all other necessary hardware for mounting.
Also, it included a user manual. Great!

Mounting is super easy. First you remove the original bottom plate.
Then you fasten the front and rear part of the kit.
Now you mount the middle section. This is what makes this mount great. This makes you able to change out the tie rod with only removing two screws, and not remove the whole front end.

The fitment is great. Everything align perfectly. No modification needed at all.

I mounted this with the Reflex Racing extra long king pins. They popped right in, without any binding what so ever. No exess movement in any way either.

Now I come to the not so good part.

Everything worked flawlessly for about 10 - 15 hours of runtime. Then my car started to behave inconsistently. Slowly it went from neutral, to really bad oversteer on corner entry. It took me some time to understand what the problem is. See own article here: Inconsistent car

The king pin sockets did wear out incredibly fast. Now the king pins has about 1mm play up/ down, and this can not be shimmed out in any way. That is why I do not use this lower arm kit any more. Other than the rapid wear, I love it. Very fast and easy to swap tie rods. Light weight. Very flat and precise mould. But wears out to fast for me. The stock mounting plate has over 100 hours of runtime on it, without any noticeable wear.

Hopefully this was a bad unit. If not, I hope Atomic will come up with this product with another plastic or composite material that can last a bit longer.

Inconsistent car

2010-04-05T00:13:00.002+02:00

This is a little write up of some troubleshooting i have been doing today.
I have been battling an unconsistent car for a couple of days now.

It worked flawlessly a long time, until it suddenly started to snap into terrible oversteer on corner entry, and even some terrible traction rolling from time to time. Not on every lap, but more and more often. So I had to change my setup towards understeer.

The reason i suspected was the track temperature had fallen quite a few degrees lately.
Today i had plans to find out if this was correct, or if something had changed on my car.

I tested for about 100 laps before I started to look at it. It was snappy as ever.

I checked every part of the car for wear, tweak and even measured the front spring rates to see if they had changed dramatically.
No faults were found.

I stared at the car for a few minutes and could not understand what the problem was.

I readjusted everything. Made the setup exactly as it was before the problem started, and tested it on track. Horrible!

I then disassembled the front end to control everything once more. Then i noticed that the king pins were a bit sloppy regarding up/ down movement in the ball cup in the lower mounting plate.
I had installed the ATM lower arm set for a few weeks ago, but this was not a problem then.
I replaced it with the stock lower cover, and BAM! The car was dialed again.

It seems that the ATM lower cover does wear out quite fast. In my case only after about 15 - 20 hours of use before it started to give me problems!
The stock cover has at least 100 hours of runtime on it without any noticeable wear.

It could be that my set was a bit loose to begin with, but I dont know. I love the ATM lower cover, but I actually think I will use the stock for a while now:-)

My favorite setup

Påskeracing. Oppdatert. #72 forsøker seg endelig på 3 minutters pass

2010-04-04T17:20:00.003+02:00

Litt kjøring har det da blitt i påsken.
Alf, Thomas, Martin og Rune har holdt det gående.

Alle gutta kjører bra om dagen, men tidene er ikke helt de samme som for et par uker siden. Ingen klarer å komme seg ned mot sine bestetider bortsett fra Alf, som virkelig har satt inn støtet.
Han ender opp med og tangere sin bestetid hver gang han møter på banen. I kveld har han for første gang forsøkt seg på 3 minutters pass.
1 gjennomkjøring gav totalt 20 runder på 3.01. Gjennomsnittstid 9.05 sekunder.
2 gjennomkjøring gav totalt 21 runder på 3.06 min. Gjennomsnittstid 8,85 sekunder.
3 og siste forsøk gav totalt 22 runder på 3.07 min. Gjennomsnittstid 8,5 sekunder.
4 forsøk ble avbrutt etter 19 runder. Han lå da an til vannvittige 24 runder, og en snitttid ned mot 7.6 sekunder. Nå går det unna med #72.

Thomas er tilbake etter et langt fravær. Han jobber seg sakte ned mot sine tidligere godtider, og er ikke mer enn et tidel unna. Han er et kjempetalent, men trenger sårt mer kjøretid.

Martin er jevnheten selv, men sliter litt med å klemme seg ned mot sin gamle rekord. Han venter på ny motor, og en helt ny bakstilling. Det blir fryktelig spennende å se hva dette vil gjøre med tempoet hans.

Rune har sliti fælt med oppsettet i det siste, og klarer ikke å komme seg nærmere enn 2 tideler unna sin bestetid. Jevnheten er det dog ikke noe å si på.

Han har nok skrudd seg bort. Det er blitt testet alt fra nye karosserier, til alt mellom himmel og jord av deler. Nå har han satt på det gode gamle oppsett og karosseri, så da venter vi forbedringer fremover.

Banen er antakeligvis like rask som før, men grepet virker å variere noe nå som utetemperaturen øker. Det blir da en periode kaldere i lokalet, og dette påvirker nok grepet negativt.

Det må og nevnes at ny rekord for 3 minutters pass nå er 25 runder med snitt tid på ~~7.39~~ sekunder. Nå 7.28 sekunder. Totaltid 3.02 min!
Utfordringen er nå satt.
Den første som tangerer rundeantallet vil premieres med et nytt karosseri. Honda NSX Whitebody eller et Atomic 98mm pan car!
Den første som slår totaltiden vil premieres med en Reflex Racing Ultra high performance håndviklet motor. BankenZ spec!

Gi gass!!!!!

More new parts on its way for testing!

2010-04-01T16:13:00.002+02:00

It looks to be a interesting month regarding product testing. Here are some more items on its way for a review.

Reflex Racing MR-03 front spring cups.

I am also awaiting news on the Reflex Racing MR-03 adjustable front brace. I have a feeling this will be the next big hit for the MR-03. Stay put for more details soon.
A sneak peak of this and other items can be seen at Mini-Z World.

Onsdag 24 mars. Tormod våknet fra dvalen

2010-03-29T12:00:00.003+02:00

Ryktene har svirret en stund, og i dag kom bekreftelsen. Praten gikk: "Tormod skal kjøre!" "Hæ". "Er'n ferdig i kjeller'n?" "Skal han kjøre i dag?"

Tormod!

Han entret lokalet som bare Tormod kan. Kommenterte tørt størrelsen på tørkerull/ stativ, og noen av endringene som var gjort på banen, før han kom igang med lading av batterier.
Tormod's mål for dagen var å komme seg ned på 8 tallet.
Det brukte han ca 9 runder på å klare, så her hadde han satt seg et alt for lavt mål.
Hans tidligere rekord er på 7.7xx, og denne kom faktisk nesten innen rekkevidde. Dagens bestetid på Tormod ble 8.276.
Nå tenker du sikkert at over et halvt sekund er langt bak, men det er faktisk forsvinnende lite. Det skal ikke mer til enn en litt dårlig utgang ut på langsiden før du mister 4 tideler.
Han sleit litt med å kjøre like trangt som før, men kom seg utrolig fort inn i kjøringa.
Det er fortsatt standard front på bilen hans, så det er nok en del å hente på å montere WTF front. Vi antar dette er på plass til neste kjøring.

Alf er skikkelig i siget, og lader som vanlig hardt. Han kjører nå utrolig jevnt og fint, og jobber seg sakte ned mot 7.2xx. Han endte nok en gang opp ned på 7.3xx runder, men nå tror vi det løsner for han.
Bilen hans fungerer veldig bra for tiden, og dette gjør at Alf kan fokusere mer på sporvalg enn før. Han er utrolig vrien å kjøre forbi, og er ekstremt rask i det nedre partiet på banen. Her er det ingen som holder følge.

Martin fortsetter og sin gode kjøring, og kampen med Alf er hard. De kjemper stadig om bestetider, og begge begynner å bli skummelt jevne.
Martin endte vel og kvelden med 7.3xx runder. Martin har en bil som nå fungerer perfekt. Han lar seg stresse mindre og mindre, og kjører faktisk absolutt best med en annen rask bil halsende bak. Transponderen til Martin begynner å svikte ham innimellom til hans store frustrasjon. Det er bittert når du kjenner runden sitter som den skal, og man ikke får telling.

Rune hadde store problemer med bilen. Han har skrudd seg fullstendig bort i jakten på nye rekorder, og brukte stort sett kvelden på å finne tilbake til et oppsett som funker.
Til slutt traff han sånn noenlunde, men finner ikke tilbake til de skikkelig gode rundene. Det er nok et fryktelig lite vindu hvor et så ekstremt oppsett funker, og det skal ikke rare forandringen til før det går helt feil vei. Temperatur, fukt og mengde støv etc på banen påvirker utrolig mye.
Nå er det nok bare å finne et oppsett som er noe tregere, men som går an å kjøre med som gjelder.

Spring rates. Update

2010-03-21T22:23:00.003+01:00

A little follow up to the previous spring rate charts.

As some of you have seen before, I have measured every single spring I have found in my tool box on a spring tester.

Some of these springs were never tested before, and were even some that i accidentally had ordered wrong etc.

When you look at the charts, you see that there are some springs that are quite equal to others somewhere in the compression rate.

This transits directly to the feeling on the track.

From this I have found that I can fine tune my front setup much more than before. I can now just look at the chart, and pick a spring set from that maybe are a bit harder in the mid compression but have the same hardness as a softer one initially etc.

I really can recommend measuring your springs to see how they really compares to each other. Not only to find the real rates, but also because the spring rates really differs quite a lot from set to set.

These charts really helps me a lot when I work on my setup.

I now frequently use AWD ProII springs on my MR-03 that have the same initial hardness as the MR-02 spring of choice, but are just a littlebit harder further down in the compression.

For those of you that hasn't seen the charts, here they are again.

Helgekjøring i BankenZ. Martin og Alf er i støtet

2010-03-21T01:39:00.001+01:00

Etter en uke med lav aktivitet i BankenZ er det nå full fart igjen.
Alf, Martin og Rune har virkelig fått blod på tann i jakten på nye godtider.

Alle tre kjører nå så fort at vi tviler på det er andre som kan matche dem for tiden. Dere andre får vise at vi tar feil:-)

Martin er skikkelig i støtet, og fortsetter sin gode kjøring fra onsdagen. Han var nær på å forbedre sin bestetid men endte opp med flere 7.3xx runder. Dette er styggfort.

Alf har nå også virkelig fått fart på sakene igjen og ligger nå stødig nede på 7.4 og 7.3 runder. Han jakter fortsatt på den magiske 7.2 runden. Vi antar denne kommer snart.

Vi ser nå tendenser til at vi jobber i litt forskjellig retning mht oppsett.
Martin liker en superkvikk bil, med masse styring både inn i sving, midt i og spesielt ut av svingen. Karosserier med lite overheng både foran og bak er essensielt for Martin.
Han har en følsom kjørestil som klarer et ekstremt oppsett bra.

Hard H-plate og relativt myke frontfjærer er Martin's preferanser.

Alf har en ekstremt agressiv kjørestil, og ender derfor opp med et oppsett som er mye roligere enn Martin.
Bilen er lettkjørt, og har tendens til understyring fra midten til ut av sving. Turn in er dog viktig, så Alf har et oppsett foran som gjør fjærene progressive. Først myk i starten, så gradvis hardere jo mer bilen krenger.
Mykest mulig H-plate og progressiv front er Alf's oppskrift på suksess. Karosseriene Alf trives best med er Pan Car.

Rune har også en myk kjørestil. Han takler ikke understyrte biler, og bruker gassen aktivt til å bestemme mengden styring spesielt i de tregere svingene.
Oppsettet her er en bil som krenger en god del. Bak kjører han med en bil som er stiv sideveis, men myk demping opp og ned. Fronten er veldig myk. Karosseriene Rune kjører fortest med er de som gir en lik vektbalanse foran og bak.

Nok en onsdag i BankenZ

2010-03-18T00:38:00.006+01:00

I denne rapporten velger vi å sette hovedfokus på en fører.

Martin har sin første sesong med Mini-Z.
Han er en ivrig kar, som er teknisk anlagt og som aldri gir seg mht til oppsett. Dette har resultert i en rask fremgang på banen.
I starten var han noe ujevn, men til tider ganske rask. Han kom seg raskt ned på lave 8 runder, men slet en stund med å komme seg ned på 7 tallet.

Etter å ha kommet seg ned på 7.5xx runder så stagnerte han noe. 7.4xx kom aldri, ennå han kjørte mye og bra.
Etter noen turer til Ballerud og en økt på GarasjenZ, begynte det å løsne. 7.5xx kom oftere og oftere, men 7.4xx viste seg vrient å komme ned på.

Rekorden hans har nå lenge stått på 7.507.

17 mars 2010 var kvelden det skulle vise seg å løsne skikkelig. Han startet bra med 7.645, og krøp sakte nedover.
Etter noen gode runder som ble avbrutt mot slutten begynte han å få trua.

Han klinka plutselig til med 7,421! Dette med en krasj på langsida. Vi skjønte tidlig at det bodde mer i både bil og Martin
Nytt batterisett ble satt inn, og jaggu klinta han til med 7.368, deretter 7.399. Nå gikk det styggfort. Han tok styggfort inn på Rune i noen runder og hoier at "NÅ MÅ DU GASSE". Rune gjorde sitt beste, men ble rett og slett utspsyka og ble frakjørt.

Han lada nok et sett batterier, og fikk 10 minutter alene på banen.
Oioiooi mumlet han! 7.261.
Gladgutten spratt rett bort på oppslagstavla og noterte sin nye pers.
En tilleggspopplysning er at det kun er 3 andre førere som har vært under 7.3xx, så dette er styggfort.

Gratulerer Martin. Endelig satt den!
Her ser dere bilder av bilen.

Alf og Rune var de to andre førerne på banen denne kvelden.
Alf har hatt et langt fravær, noe som gjør at han rett og slett er ute av form. Han tok seg respektablet inn i løpet av kvelden, og er nede på jevne 7.6xx runder. Nytt oppsett og godtider kommer neste gang.
Rune fortsetter med finjustering av oppsett på MR-03'en og kjørte nesten opp mot sitt beste. Neste gang skal rekorden sitte!

Det skal dog sies at klokka ikke nådde midnatt. Det er jo etter dette godtidene til disse kara settes .

Reflex Racing Ultra High performance Handwound motor

2010-03-04T22:09:00.003+01:00

Motors are of course important.
Finding a motor that suit your driving style and track can be a real challenge.

Reflex Racing has come up with a product that can help you in the way.
The Ultra high performance handwound motors was released for about a week ago, and I jumped on straight away.

For me, a motor has to have a smooth powerband, have good amount of drag brake, and of course be as effective as possible.

Cristian made me a motor after my inputs, and his expertise, and came up with the following:

- Regular endbell
- 36 turns
- 28 gauge wire
- 4 mm comm.

After a long time brush break in, I finally got to test it out, and wow. This thing is good.

The motor has about the same RPM's as the PNWC33 motor, but just a littlebit more torque, and much more motor brake.
It is extremely more efficient than the other motors. I think this is because of the balancing and lightweight rotor.
It also has a very very smooth powerband.
The temperature on the motor can after a run is surprisingly cool. I will measure the temperature next time.

Nonetheless. Buying a high end motor is absolutely worth the extra cost. You get a motor exactly to your own specification, so you can focus on what is important for you in a motor.

Review. PN MR-03 upper alu caster arm

2010-03-04T21:45:00.004+01:00

Bought these to get some more udjustability in the front end.

The parts comes in a regular PN clear plastic bag.
Arms, pins wth hex head, caster adjusting shims, and black delrin balls.

Mounting them are straighforward.
Remove C clip, springs, washers etc.
Loosen your old pins.
Remove the stock arms.

Now mount the new arms.
Installing the shims is a bit tricky, buti f you are used to the PN double A-arm shimming you know what to do.

One shim on either side of the arm, you will get 0,9 degree caster
Two shims in front equals 0 degree caster (stock setting)
Two shims in the back equals 1,8 degree caster.

The new pins with hex heads are nice. You can use your favourite hex tool on these.

The delrin balls are nice, but are 0,6mm lower than the stock kyosho ones.
This is ok, and gives you a bit more room to play with roll center etc.
The arms looks to be of the usual good PN quality.

One thing with the pins, is that they do not fit the Atomic alu upper brace. They are to big.
The stock kyosho ones have the same threads, so if you wich to use these together you have to stick with those.
EDIT: It was only one of the pins that were to big. The difference was 0,02mm. When I polished it the problem was gone.

They come with static camber. You have to buy the camber you need. I choose 1 degree camber.

This set removes a lot of slop in the front end when you use the stock mounting in the servo gear cover.
When coupled with the Atomic alu brace, the feel is exactely the same. No more or no less slop.

If your goal is to remove the slop in the front end, you can also use the Atomic alu brace.
If you need camber and adjustable caster, you go with these arms, or both.

The adjustable caster really makes a difference. If you have used the WTF2 on the MR-02, you know what caster does to your car. Caster is an important tuning option, and will help you on your way to the perfect setup.

Track test:
The tire wear improved, as I finally got the static camber I needed.
The adjustable caster helped me get a little more front end grip in the middle of the corner, and the car also tracks straighter with added caster.

If these arms were available in plastic or delrin, this would be better. These arms add some unsprung weight, witch you dont want, but the adjustable caster and added static camber makes up for this.

It has been a lot of talk regarding flexing arms, but this is really no problem if you try the Atomic alu brace. The flexing is more in the mounting holes, than in the arms themself. Especially if you use the Reflex Racing kingpins and springs on top.

The best result came when I used them together with the ATM alu brace. I really like the feel of the car when everything is tight and witout slop. The car gets so predictable.

Adjustable caster and static camber is the only reason why I would consider this arms. If you modify the stock arms to be able to shim them with 2 - 4 degrees caster, that would be the better option because of the unsprung weight.

Review. Atomic MR-03 Front upper brace

2010-03-02T20:14:00.004+01:00

I received an envelope today with a couple of Atomic parts for the MR-03 that someone wanted me to do a review on. Thank you!

First up is the MR-03 Front upper brace.

The parts came in the usual Atomic clear plastic bag.
Included in the package was the aluminum brace, and a new servo gear cover.
Also, it included a user manual. Great!

The mounting is super easy. First you have to unscrew the four screws that holds the servo gear cover, and loosen the pins for the suspension arms. pull out the pin screws, and just turn the suspension arms aside.
Clip of the original servo gear cover, and get set for mounting the new one.

Now set the new cover in place. Tighten it down with two screws.
Then you can mount the new brace with two of the screws.

Now place the suspension arms again, and insert the pin screws and tighten them down.

Then you are set. Super easy.

The first impression is good.
The parts are a good fit. Virtually no space between the servo gear cover and alu brace.
All the slop in the front end are gone. This is with stock Arms!
The brace looks very good, and has a nice finish in the usual Atomic blue.
The plastic in the servo gear cover also seems to be of good quality.
Very easy to mount, with no modifications needed to anything.

The thing i did not like is that there will be a small opening where the original servo gear cover slips on to the top chassis plate (right side).
Tire dust and other debris will easily get in here and potentially jam up the servo gears.
It is an easy fix though. A dab of silicone or other sealant will keep all debris out.

Track test:
Track 1: (a tight technical layout)
The feeling of the car did not change much.

The geometry of the front end does not change at all, so it is not a part for set-up. More a part to make your front end more solid.
(You can change the roll center with shimming underneath the aluminum brace, but this is something you can do on the stock front end also)
As mentioned before, this part removes a bit of slop in the front, so the car may be a little more precise, but I did not notice any change in this on this track. I think it will be more noticeable on the other track.
Lap times were the same as before.

I will test it some more tomorrow on a fast flowing track and give more feedback.

Track 2: ( a fast, flowing layout)
The tighter front end really helped here.
The car is a little more precise in the fast sections. It could also be driven much more agressively.
Regarding the lap times they were lowered. Not by much, but the difference was there.

Overall I can recomend this upgrade.
- It is cheap.
- You remove a lot of slop in the front end., and take out some variables regarding wheel angles.
- Easy to install.

For the ultimate MR-03 front end. Try this together with Reflex Racing MR-03 kingpins, and PN Racing Adjustable caster Arms

Den siste ukes hendelser

2010-02-20T17:25:00.001+01:00

Nok en uke har gått, og det har blitt litt dårlig med oppdateringer. Mye grunnet store snømengder.

De fleste gutta har fått til litt kjøring i det siste.
Søndag rigga Stian opp en ny tellesoftware. Dette ble knallbra. Nå får vi lest opp bestetidene, samt at både siste og beste runde vises på veggen under heatet.

Stian har også fått igang en kiosk. Nå kan vi tilby diverse brus og sjokolade. Vær lojal! Support the locals! skrev han så fint på prislista.
Målet med dette er at vi på sikt skal kunne få en klubbkasse som kan bidra til finansiering av diverse prosjekter.

Stian er ikke bare flittig i arbeidet mot felles goder, men også med kjøringa si.
Han kjører mye om dagen, og viser seg som et kjempetalent.
Onsdag klinka han til med en drøss med 7.2xx runder, og jobber nå hardt for å komme ned på 7.1xx. Med fremgangen han har vist i det siste så tror vi dette skjer raskt.
7.235 ble dagens beste på Stian.
Oppsettet Stian kjører på nå er som følger:
MR-02.
WTF2 front
1 grad camber knuckler
0 offset hjul front
3 offset hjul bak
GPM 25 shore dekk rund baut.
PN Lowdown Lilla fjærer front
0,6 mm forspenn
PNWC33 motor
10/53 giring
700WT olje på diskdemper
Grønne PN fjærer topp/ bunn diskdemper.
Diffaksel i laveste posisjon i motorfestet
PN LCG 98/ 102 motorfeste
Honda NSX 07 karosseri.

Fredrik har vært borte fra banen en stund, men stilte til start på onsdag. Det var mange som nok hadde satt seg som mål om slå han.
Fredrik var nok litt smånervøs for dette da det nå er så mange på banen som virkelig har løfta seg mange hakk i perioden han har vært borte.
Fredrik viste at han ikke hadde glemt gamle kunster, og kjørte rett ned på 7.3xx og 7.2xx runder.
Dette var nok til å holde både Alf og Martin bak seg, men han måtte nok se seg slått av Stian på beste runde for dagen.
7.265 ble dagens beste for Fredrik.

Alf trener mye om dagen han også, og jobber nå intenst med sporvalg og kjørestil.
Han knuste de 3 siste pan car karosseriene i løpet av kvelden, og måtte da gå over på et GT-R 2008 karosseri som tidligere har vært omtalt.
Dette fungerte minst like bra som pan car for Alf, og han forbedrer seg stadig. 7.530 ble dagens beste for Alf.

Martin kjører knallsterkt om dagen. En kombinasjon av mange biler på banen, og et godt brukt karosseri var nok årsaken til en kort kveld for Martin. Karosseriet hans mista fronten, og gjorde at han pakka tidlig sammen.
Han kjører som nevnt bra om dagen, og slo sin tidligere bestenotering. Ny pers for Martin er 7.507.
Det ryktes og at han neste gang stiller med nytt karosseri. Det sies at det også denne gangen blir et Lexus SC430 (Antakeligvis det mest brukte karosseriet for mini-Z racing verden over). Karbonforsterket front, og en kanll lakkering er noe av det vi tror kommer.

Rune prøver fortsatt å finne ut av MR-03 bilen. Det går bedre og bedre, og har nå fått til et opspett som er raskt og lettkjørt. Bilen er nå bedre over lengre distanse enn noen gang.
Det er nok mulig å kjøre fortere med et mer nervøst oppsett, men dette får bli fokus ved en senere anledning.. Det er nære på at banerekorden ryker, men vi tror nok at denne nok kommer til å stå en stund til.

Updated! Spring rates. Measured.

2010-02-18T00:57:00.000+01:00

I have measured the spring rates on a few different springs I had in my pitbox.
Every spring was measured two times on three different compression settings. I then calculated the average spring in pairs. See table for data:

I will add more springs when I receive some more:

Førerprofil. Martin Haslestad #12

2010-02-17T11:38:00.006+01:00

Martin har sin første sesong med Mini-Z.

Han er en ivrig kar, som er teknisk anlagt og som aldri gir seg mht til oppsett. Dette har resultert i en rask fremgang på banen.

I starten var han noe ujevn, men til tider ganske rask. Han kom seg raskt ned på lave 8 runder, men slet en stund med å komme seg ned på 7 tallet.

Etter å ha kommet seg ned på 7.5xx runder så stagnerte han noe. 7.4xx kom aldri, ennå han kjørte mye og bra.

Etter noen turer til Ballerud og en økt på GarasjenZ, begynte det å løsne. 7.5xx kom oftere og oftere, men 7.4xx viste seg vrient å komme ned på.

Rekorden hans har nå lenge stått på 7.507.

17 mars 2010 var kvelden det skulle vise seg å løsne skikkelig. Han startet bra med 7.645, og krøp sakte nedover.

Etter noen gode runder som ble avbrutt mot slutten begynte han å få trua.

Han klinka plutselig til med 7,421! Dette med en krasj på langsida. Vi skjønte tidlig at det bodde mer i både bil og Martin

Nytt batterisett ble satt inn, og jaggu klinta han til med 7.368, deretter 7.399. Nå gikk det styggfort. Han tok styggfort inn på Rune i noen runder og hoier at "NÅ MÅ DU GASSE". Rune gjorde sitt beste, men ble rett og slett utspsyka og ble frakjørt.

Han lada nok et sett batterier, og fikk 10 minutter alene på banen.

Oioiooi mumlet han! 7.261.

Gladgutten spratt rett bort på oppslagstavla og noterte sin nye pers.

En tilleggspopplysning er at det kun er 3 andre førere som har vært under 7.3xx, så dette er styggfort.

Gratulerer Martin. Endelig satt den!

Her ser dere bilder av bilen.

To glade gutter! Gratulerer med personlige rekorder til både Alf og Stian

2010-02-11T02:15:00.010+01:00

Les også sammendrag fra de siste dagers hendelser i miljøet rundt BankenZ

Alf og Stian begynner virkelig å bli farlige.

Stian kjørte på tusendelen samme tid som sin tidligere rekord på første batterisett for kvelden. 7.507. I dag skal det gå fort hoiet han ut,
Han kjørte som vanlig rundt på tynne lefser av noen dekk, og skjønte vel ikke helt hvorfor det ikke var mulig å komme seg ned på 7.4xx.
Det viste seg at bakhjula var så tynnslitte at spur drevet tok nedi banen!
Han slo til med nye bakdekk, og var med en gang nede på sine tidligere bestetider.
Etter litt tilvenning så klinte han til med 7.499. Ny pers.
Deretter klinka han til med 7.400. Helt værst. Nok en ny pers.
Nytt sett med batterier ble satt i, og plutselig skriker han ut. JAAAAAAHH.
7.399. Nok en barriere ble brutt. Det tok ikke mange rundene før denne tiden også ble grunding slått. Han endte da opp med 7.340 som beste runde, og en flere noe høyrere 7.3 runder.
Nok en ny lading, og et hyl som kunne gjort selveste Tarzan misunnelig runget i BankenZ.

7.230 ble dagens tid for Stian. En utrolig tid fra en så fersk sjåfør. Her må gamlekara bite tenna sammen for ikke å bli knust i fremtida.

En konsentrert kar.

Alf holdt senga når Stian begynte å få fart på sakene. En SMS med et lite tips om at Stian kjørte styggfort ble sendt Alf's vei, og det tok ikke lange tida før han befant seg på banen.
Her skal det vris sier han!
Og han skuffet på ingen måte.
Etter den vanlige skruinga med banning og sverting, begynte Alf å gasse.
Han tok seg tidlig ned på sine gamle godtider. Lave 7.4. Etter litt småjusteringer av både kjørestil og bil, forbedret han seg i rask rekkefølge.
Han kjørte et titalls runder nede på 7.4xx før han klinka til med ny pers. 7.400. På neste runde kom godrunden. 7.340. Altså personlig beste to runder på rad.
Alf er nå skikkelig i siget, og er klar for full satsning videre i vinter. Stian skal nok jobbe for å holde Alf bak seg nå når #72 har fått blod på tann.

Gratulerer til begge to.

(Fredrik: Stian er nå kun 8 tusendeler unna deg)

Det må sies at det nå virkelig har tatt seg opp i lokalene. Det er gjort en skikkelig innsats på rydding og oppfreshing av banen. Projektor er på palss, så førerne nå kan følge med på tidene sine underveis.
Flere mekkeplasser er og på plass. Det er nå mekkeplass til ca 12 førere (Vi liker det litt intimt)

Gutta har fått en god del kjøretrening i det siste. Alf har testa hardt på GarasjenZ, og Stian, Martin, Edwin og Rune har tilbrakt nok en mandag på Ballerud. Egen artikkel om de siste dagers sprell kommer snart.

De siste dagers hendelser

2010-02-10T11:37:00.001+01:00

Det har vært høy aktivitet rundt BankenZ Mini-Z i det siste.

Banen er fikset opp. Gress er festet skikkelig, baneskillene er kontrollert og reparert, nye banemarkeringer er på plass, mekkeplassene er doblet i antall (totalt 12 stk), og en generell storopprydning er gjort. Nå er det trivelig på banen.
Sist men ikke minst har vi endelig gått til anskaffelse av projektor. Nå kan vi følge tidene våre uten å forlate kjøreplassene våre. dette skaper mindre forstyrrelse av førerne, og gir et kick i jakten på nye bestetider.

Mange av førerne har også fått seg et skikkelig løft. Vi har vært på Ballerud Miniracing to ganger nå, og har virkelig satt spor etter oss der inne.
Kjøretreningen dette har gitt har resultert i nye rekorder på hjemmebane også.

En av førerne som ikke kunne stille på Ballerud har tatt treningen på GarasjenZ, og også dette viser seg å gi resultater.

Det går fortere enn noensinne for de av oss som har vært litt rundt om kring å kjørt. Det viser seg at det å lære seg flere baner gjør at man blir flinkere til å kjøre rolig og bruke hodet underveis.

Besøkene vi har vært på hos Ballerud har gitt såpass mersmak at vi vurderer å komme oss litt rundt til andre steder. Sveriga har blandt annet flere artige løp, både på Regupol baner og RCP baner. Dette blir spennende.

Det jobbes også nå med å få til et nyt telleprogram. Både Prolap og Zround testes ut. Det som er spennende med Zround er at vi da har muligheten til å få til talefunksjon. Da kan man få lest opp rundetidene og posisjoner i løp etc.

Med dette oppfordrer vi alle gutta til å lade batterier og stille på kjøringene. Det går styggfort om dagen.

Review Mantis Worx adjustable offset wheels. Updated

2010-02-04T17:35:00.002+01:00

Look at these! They look good!

These wheels are developed by Mantis Worx, and sold exlusevly by Reflex Racing.

The front wheels can be used in: -1 offset, 0 offset and + 1 offset.

the rear wheels can be used in -1 offset, 0, +1, +2 and + 3 offset

They come with a tool for adjusting.

The weight of these wheels total is 6 grams. Not as light as some plastic wheels, but lighter than every other Delrin or dish wheels.

They are super true, and very precise made.

Diameter is almost the same as other wheels, but not exactly. The front wheels are slightly smaller, and the rear are slightly taller.

Test report will follow.

Testing results:

After some initial troubles (because of the diameter change)), these wheels really make me happy.

They hold up very good, and looks even better.

Not a single dent/ scratch in the Delrin after quite a few hard hits. A regular plastic wheel picks up a few dents really fast.

The offset adjustment are a nice thing, but i tend to almost every time ending up with the same offsets I always use. Regupol is making the setups we use very equal from track to track.

I had as mentioned earlier some initial problems with the diameter of the wheels. This made very small changes to my setup, but is not a problem when you set your car up for a new track. The only time i had these problems, was on my local permanent track, where I have been driving for 5 hours, two times a week for almost two years. Because of this the setup is a bit on the extreme side.

It only took this small change in the relative rideheight front to rear to mess this up.

After a couple of weeks of use, I can say that these are the best wheels ever. Hopefully they will last a long time.

Training night/ Treningskveld

2010-02-04T13:13:00.001+01:00

English translation further down.

Kvelden gikk med til trening før vi blir utfordret av Ballerud gutta på mandag. Alle fokuserte på å finne seg et oppsett og jobbe med jevnheten.

Rune testet ut et Ferrari 575GTC karosseri. Se egen artikkel. Og var meget fornøyd med resultatet. MR-03 bilen har en annen vektfordeling, og fungerer tydeligvis med flere karosserier enn MR-02 bilene.

Han fokuserte mest på jevn kjøring, og å finne et optimalt oppsett for dette.

Stian fokuserte mest på kjøringen. Bilen hans er jevn og fin, men han sliter litt med understyring. Det som er morsomt å se er at han da legger om kjørestieln utrolig fort, og klarer å klemme ut kjempetider selv om bilen ikke er helt etter hans smak.

Han er alltid veldig god på 3 minutters passene, og jobbet en del med dette også.

Martin jobbet masse med oppsett. Han bygget om differensialen med QteQ deler, men endte da opp med en meget nervøs bil.

Etter litt jobbing med opspettet fant han til slutt et som fungerte utrolig bra. Han kjører nå farlig fort både i 3 minutters pass og noen skrekkelig raske enkeltrunder.

Thomas kom endelig innom igjen etter lang tids fravær. Bilen hans var litt trøblete, men han fikk ihvertfall litt verdifull trening. Det trengs nok en service av bilen før den er like god som før. Uansett er han raskt nede på gode tider, og skal nok gi Ballerud kara en skikkelig utfordring.

Vi føler oss nå klare til å kjempe mot Ballerud gutta. Fredrik og Tommy er for tiden på snøscooter safari, men vi krysser fingra for at de er klare på mandag.

Edwind var og forhindret fra å trene, men vi antar han stiller i helga. Tormod må også snart komme seg ut på banen igjen. vi savner både han og kjøringen hans.

Prosjektør er montert opp, og banen skal ryddes og fikses opp litt i helga. Dugnad! Møt opp.

Yesterday evening everyone were training hard for our next outing with some guys from another track. Everyone was focusing on their setups and trying to dial in the cars.
Monday February 8 they will be visiting us. Hopefully we will be competitive enough to give them a challenge.

Rune tested the 575GTC body, and were very happy with the results. See own article.
He was focusing on racepace, and found a really good setup for mondays race.

Stian focused on driving, and was working hard on his race pace. He struggles with some understeer, but is impressing us with how he just changes his driving style to cope with the car.
Stian is always fast in 3 minute sessions, and also manages to squeese out some really good hotlaps.

Martin worked a lot on his setup. He rebuildt his differential with some QteQ parts, but ended up with a nervous car. After a little adjustments he were on the pace, and drives smoother than ever. He is getting really good at extracting some great hotlaps, and is also improving fast in the 3 minute sessions. Great job by Martin.

Thomas finally showed up after a long period out of Mini-Z. He struggles a bit with a nervous car, but he at least got some valuable training. He was doing good laps from the start, so we are suspecting him to give the visitors a bit of a challenge.

Body Characteristics

2010-01-31T14:21:00.010+01:00

This will be a little writeup regarding handling characteristics of different bodys.

Body shape and weight has a big influence on the setup of your car.

Body types/ Shape
We can split the body shapes inte a few different categories.

Cab placement:

Cab forward. These bodies has the cab more over the front wheels. This results in a sharper handling car. More steering. Less rear grip.
Cab rear. These bodies has the cab located near the rear wheels. This results in a less agressive car. Less steering. Turn in at lower speed. More rear grip.

Overhang:

Large front overhang. Less turn in. The front end will tend to be overloaded, and the car will act sluggish.
Little front overhang. More responsive steering.
Large rear overhang. Off throttle steering added.. This is caused by the added mass, and gives you a "swing" effect. On power steering will be reduced. Usually this gives you a stable car.
Less rear overhang. Off power steering decreases. On power steering increases. This can give you a nervous car.

Center of gravity:

High CG adds body roll. This will give you more mid corner steering, since the suspension will be loaded more. On low traction surfaces this can often be the way to go.
Low CG gives you less body roll. On high traction surfaces this is the correct setup. It will keep your car from flipping, and also give you a somewhat more responsive car. The weight shifts faster from side to side.

Overall weight:

The cars overall weight are extremely important regarding balance and handling. A heavier car are often more stable and easy to drive than a lighter car. The ususal weight limit ranges around 170 - 180 grams for the different races.

Lower weight. A lighter car gives you more agility and added response. A lighter car with enough grip will let you hug the corners tighter.
Higher weight. A heavier car will give you a more easy to drive car. It can be a bit sluggish, and slower in the infield. It can also cause problems mid corner as the car pushes out because of the added weight.

Lower weight body's will also give you more room to play around with additional ballast in your car to fine tune the balance of your car.

A small selection of my favourite race body's:

Førerprofil. Tormod De Lange Hansen

2010-01-29T10:59:00.005+01:00

Tormod startet med Mini-Z høsten 2007.
Han var en av de absolutt ivrigste i et par år, før han tok seg vann over hodet med oppussing av kjeller.
Ryktene sa han nå var ferdig med prosjektet, og vi ventet ikke forgjeves. Tormod er endelig tilbake!

Hansen er en ekstremt fingernem fyr, som aldri går av veien for å skru. Han har god teknisk forståelse, og klarer for det meste å jobbe seg frem til oppsett som fungerer bra.
I tillegg til bil, driver han også mye med både fly og helikopter innen RC.

Han kjører rolig, og er lite innblandet i uhell på banen.
Tormod liker ikke overstyrte biler. Du ser ham oftest med en bil som tendenserer til understyring i de fleste partiene på banen.

Han har masse erfaring fra før pausen, og viste raskt at han fortsatt hadde teknikken inne. Det å komme seg innenfor et sekund av de andre førerne på banen etter et års fravær kan ikke sies annet enn å være direkte imponerende.

Hvis Tormod bruker litt tid på banen fremover vil han nok raskt blande seg inn i topp 3.
Bilen han kjører er en MR-02 i 94mm konfigurasjon. Han har fortsatt smal front, så det er nok derfor et stort potensiale mht til oppsett. Vi tror det er en WTF front blant delene hans, så denne ender nok opp på bilen hans i nærmeste fremtid.

Følg med på Tormod's videre fremfart i BankenZ i de neste utgavene av onsdagsrapportene.

Hektisk treningskveld

2010-01-28T17:45:00.000+01:00

I dag var det akkurat passe oppmøte på banen til å få litt skikkelig treningstid.
Edwin, Stian, Martin, Alf og Rune.

Inspirert av Ballerud Miniracing, så ble det fokusert mer på 3 minutters pass i kveld, istedenfor det vanlige jaget etter rundetider.

Edwin har hatt et langt avbrekk, og trengte all banetid han kunne få. Han er fortsatt litt fersk på dette med mini-Z, men begynner å få ting til å funke. Det registreres stadig tider ned på 8 tallet, og vi ser stor fremgang. Han trøbler litt med en lei overstyring av gass i høyfartssvingene, så litt jobbing med oppsettet må nok til. Det er også viktig å få masse kjøretid for å få bilen inn i fingrene.
Uansett er det morsomt å se at han sakte krabber nedover mot gode tider.
Han fikk en bestetid i kveld på 8.865. Beste antall runder på 3 minutter ble 14 runder. Totaltid 3.04. Snitttid 14.15 sekunder. Dette er en ekstremt krevende utfordring, og for å få til et godt antall runder krever det masse kjøretrening.

Stian har ikke hatt avbrekk. Han kjører ofte, mye og bra.
Etter noen harde smeller i starten på sesongen har det kommet til et punkt hvor noe deler måtte skiftes ut. Diffaksling og felger var det som ble byttet i går.
Etter mye skruing var han raskt nede på 7.9xx runder.
Han har i den siste tiden sliti med fryktelig dårlig effekt i bilen, og har mistenkt noen dårlige celler blandt batteriene. Dette viste seg å være feil. Problemet har rett og slett vært dårlig kontakt til motorledningene. Vi endte opp med å lodde ledningene rett i kortet. Etter dette gikk bilen som et uvær igjen.
Stian er som tidligere nevnt en utrolig jevn fører, og fokuserer for fullt på disse utfordrende 3 minutters passene.
Dagens beste antall runder på 3 minutter ble 21 runder. Totaltid 3.01. Snitttid 8.61 sekunder. Dette er virkelig bra.
Dagens bestetid på Stian ble 7.590. Han har et potensiale til å kutte denne tiden ganske mye bare han finner et nytt spor etter langsiden. og muligens et noe stivere oppsett.

Martin jobber utrolig hardt med både kjøring og oppsett. Han viser fortsatt en stor fremgang, og kjører nå jevnere enn noen sinne.
3 minutters pass var noe som også falt i smak hos Martin, så dette samt noe jaging etter rundetider ble fokuset for kvelden. Bilen hans viste seg også å være litt trøblete i dag. Her var det også motorledningene som var problemet. Etter at dette ble fikset opp var han i skikkelig slag. Han gir Stian og Alf virkelig konkuranse om dagen, og vil være utrolig farlig i løp med sin jevne kjøring.
Dessverre så ble 3 minutters forsøkene til Martin satt mens bilen fusket litt, så vi mistenker at de burde vært en del bedre enn det resultatene tilsier.
Dagens beste antall runder på 3 minutter ble 19 runder. Totaltid 3.02. Snitttid 9.57 sekunder. Dagens beste rundetid på Martin ble 7.609. Han er nok raskt nede på 7.5xx og kanskje 7.4xx neste gang.

Alf har vært fokusert på andre ting en periode, og har hatt lite kjøring denne sesongen. Han ser nå ut til å prioritere litt kjøring igjen, og blir farlig når tempoet i fingra øker.
Han har en periode kjørt med normale karosserier, men hans aggressive kjørestil gjør at dette ikke fungerer optimalt. Han er den føreren som er mest følsom på oppsettet (noe man også ser i roadracing satsingen hans), og trenger en utrolig direkte bil.
Pan car er hans favoritt, og dette endte opp på bilen hans i løpet av kvelden. Det som er morsomt å se er at han klarte 7.897 som beste med NSX karosseriet. Med Pan car smeller han rett ned på 7.550. Han kjørte ikke noen 3 minutters pass i går, da det ble mye skruing på han, men jag etter rundetider ble det satt fullt fokus på.
Dagens bestetid for Alf ble 7.516.

Rune fortsetter uttestingen av en protoforstiling fra Reflex Racing, og viser nå virkelig hva denne er god for.
Beste antall runder på 3 minutter ble 25 runder. Totaltid 3.07. Snitttid ble 7.491. Dette var han fornøyd med.
Det ble også ny banerekord 2 ganger i løpet av kvelden. Først 7.054. Så ble det lenge etterlengtede 6 tallet endelig innen rekkevidde. Ny banerekord lyder nå på 6.962!

De av oss som var på Ballerud å kjørte på mandag viser faktisk en del fremgang. Det viser seg verdifullt å få litt kjøretid på andre baner. Vi har lært en masse om oppsett og kjøring på et underlag som har et annet grepsnivå enn vårt eget. Man blir rett og slett flinkere til å kjøre mer forsiktig og følsomt, og kan da kjøre med en "løsere" bil.

Nå ser vi frem til hard konkuranse fra Ballerudgjengen mandag 8 februar.

BankenZ gutta på tur

2010-01-28T14:54:00.000+01:00

3 av gutta var på besøk hos Ballerud Miniracing mandag 25 januar.

En liten times kjøretur fra Vestofold, ligger Ballerud Miniracing's lokaler.
Vi var fryktelig spente på nivået, da dette er gutter som har holdt på med Mini-Z i mange mange år.

Det var flotte lokaler, med en utrolig velassortert butikk. Et utrolig lager av Kyosho, Atomic, GPM, og PN Racing deler.

Gutta var trivelige, og imponerte oss virkelig med teknisk kompetanse. De kjører blandt annet med en egenutviklet tellesoftware som leser opp nye bestetider pr fører. De har også et opplegg hvor du uavhengig av de andre på banen kan kjøre timede 3 minutters pass.
Et utrolig velfungerende system, som sammen med en flott bane og ålreite folk gav en morsom kveld.

Lokalheltene

Det var alt i fra egenutviklede radioer, biler med 1 cellers lipo, dreiebenk, ultralydvasker osv. Med andre ord en skikkelig gutteklubb.

Vi var som sagt fryktelig spente på nivået, og de skuffet ikke. Disse gutta kunne virkelig kjøre bil. De kjørte utrolig jevnt og fort. Det tok litt tid før vi kunne nærme oss tidene de presterte.

Banerekorden på Ballerud var på 8.209.

Noe som er artig å notere seg er at vi alle tre kom oss i løpet av kvelden ned på et absolutt akseptabelt nivå.

Martin gikk hardt ut, og brukte utrolig nok kun et par batterisett før han var nede på tider under 9 sekunder. Dette er utrolig bra! Martin endte opp med beste notering for kvelden på 8.869. Veldig bra med tanke på at det var første gangen på denne banen. Han kjørte også jevnt og fint. Noe 3 minutters pass ble det ikke på Martin, men dette bør testes ut neste gang vi kommer på besøk.
Bilen funka med oppsettet fra BankenZ, noe som bekrefter at Regupol som baneunderlag er utrolig jevnt over alt.

Stian satte også akseptable tider fra første stund, men sleit med voldsom understyring. Litt jobbing med set-up gav resultater, men da begynte bilen og stoppe for han. Børstene måtte etterstrammes, og da var han tilbake i skremmende form.
Stian slo til med en bestetid for kvelden på respektable 8.789.
Han prøvde også et par 3 minutters pass som man kan si gikk utrolig bra. Snitt rundetid husker jeg ikke, så Stian får melde inn denne til undertegnede.

Fullt fokus hos Stian & Martin

Rune var vel den av gutta som var mest nervøs. Han satte seg et mål om å komme innenfor 1 sekund av bestetiden på banen. Dette viste seg raskt å være fullt mulig. På første batterisett så ble beste notering 8.888. Etter dette gikk det gradvis nedover. 8.396 ble bestetid på batterisett nummer to.
Deretter ble det hard kamp om tidelene.
Etter 3 sett var faktisk banerekorden innen rekkevidde. En knalltid på 8.259 ble satt. Altså kun 0.050 sekunder unna rekorden.
Et nytt sett batterier ble satt i bilen, en liten justering av motorbrems ble gjort, så kom rekordene. Først 8.200, så 8.179. Deretter 8.059. Nå satt banen i fingra, og han fikk blod på tann.
Nye 30 shore dekk ble montert foran på et halvferdig batterisett og tidene lå snart rundt 8.3xx - 8.2xx. Nytt batterisett, og akkurat innkjørte framhjul resulterte i 3 kjappe forbedringer av den nå ikke så veldig gamle rekorden.
Dagens beste notering, og ny banerekord ble Rune's. Den nye rekorden er nå 7.989!
gjennomsnittstid ble forsøkt på et 3 minutters pass. Resultatet ble dessverre ikke bedre enn 8.740, og rundeantall på 21 runder.
Neste gang skal det fokuseres fullt på disse utfordende 3 minutters passene.

Rekordgliset

Oppsett på denne banen kontra BankenZ er ikke så ulike. Banen krever god styring, men også en bil som er stabil under innbremsing og på gass i lange svinger. Altså ikke så ulikt det vi er vant med i BankenZ. Endringer man kan vurdere er faktisk en noe stivere bil, da underlaget her er 100% jevnt.
Bilene vi bruker er relativt like. Det går i MR-02 biler med diskdempere og 1 grad camber foran. Både 94mm og 98mm var i bruk. De fleste på Ballerud kjører på AR30 og StockR Atomic motorer. Vi stilte med PNWC33 motoren som er noe mer linær enn StockR, men rimelig tilsvarende effektmessig. Dekkvalg er identisk med BankenZ.

Avslappet kjørestil

Det mistenkes nå at Ballerudgutta legger seg i hardtrening, og at rekorden snart forbedres. Gutta kjører utrolig jevnt og godt, og vil nok gi BankenZ gutta hard konkurranse også på bortebane. Men det må nok sies at de fikk uventet hard konkuranse fra disse Vestfoldkara.

Review Reflex Racing MR-03 front end. Updated

2010-01-28T11:25:00.001+01:00

New option parts for the MR-03 are coming out almost every day, but as usual there are a few of them that are really beneficial.
Spring sets from Kyosho and PN were available very early on, and most racers use these today. These springs work great on the 03 front end, but no matter how careful you polish the king pins, balls and every suspension part, the 03 front never feels like a well prepped MR-02 front.
Until now!

Reflex Racing has finally came up with a product that makes the front end really work as it should.

This consists of two parts.

Delrin pivot balls
Long Ti nitride coated King Pins

As you can see from the picture, the springs are now located on top of the king pins, rather than at the end of the suspension arms.

I see the following benefits

You can use all your trusted MR-02 springs, and they act as the same hardness you are used to.
Easier to set up, since you are familiar with the spring characteristics
Cost saving. You don't have to buy every available spring set to find the ones you get the right feel with since you most probably have them already.
Smooooooooooth suspension. This is incredible. More on that later.

Mounting:

Delrin pivot balls. Fits perfectly. I did not even had to polish anything. Much smoother than the stainless orignal ones.

King Pins. Again. Fits perfectly. No polishing needed. These are a direct fit.

The height of this suspension looks tall compared to the stock front end, but I have yet to find a body that does not fit. They are not taller than the MR-02 King pins, so I guess every body out there fits just fine.

When I had them installed, I was amazed by how smooth the suspension got. This is absolutely incredible.

White PN low-down springs was chosen.

1 mm shim under the knuckle

0,2 mm shim on top of the knuckle to get the static camber i needed.

Everything else was left untouched.

With the regular MR-03 front end, this car currently holds the track record. That was after a long night with just hotlaps trying to lower the record.

I headed to the track as soon as it was installed, and slapped in a battery set.

The car was dialed from the beginning. I immediately was on the pace, and was able to get within half a tenth of the lap record in few laps. That is incredible, as the track usually gets more and more grippy hour by hour. Unfortunately I had to get up early the next day, so I did not get the chance to drive it as much as I wanted to. But I assure you, the track record will soon be lowered.

This is hands down the most successful tuning part for the MR-03 as of today.

Buy it, and you will not regret it.

After a couple of weeks in use, this front end still rocks. It is solid, and very consistent from day to day.
This front end ow has the track record on two different permanent tracks. One very fast flowing layout, and one tight tricky layout.
Compared to the standard MR-03 front end, I feel I can claim it is roughly two tenths faster on a hotlap. That sounds much, but in this case true.
It reacts so good on setup changes, and is very easy and low maintenance.

To find a good setup, I have found that you favourite front springs from the MR-02 is almost always the correct ones to use.

This front end is now available trough Reflex Racing. See banner on the front page.

Førerprofil. Edwin Pauli #261

2010-01-21T22:00:00.003+01:00

Edwin er det nyeste tilskuddet i BankenZ.

Mange kjenner ham fra tidligere prestasjoner som et av verdens største motocross talenter. Her har vi en kar med masse erfaring fra konkuranser verden over.
Skader har dessværre stoppet den utrolige fremfarten han hadde i motocross, så nå satser han hardt på drifting og Mini-Z.
Edwin er en rolig kar som til tider låner bort bilen sin mer enn han kjører selv.

Han er en mann med mye å gjøre og lite tid, så dessværre har det blitt litt lite kjøring på han i BankenZ.
Vi håper alle at han får mer tid fremover, og viser oss alle hvordan ting skal gjøres.

Han kjører agressivt og bra, men sliter litt med å skru på disse småbilene. Han er vant til noe større verktøy, men dette kommer seg stadig.
Han viste i det siste en stor fremgang i kjøringen sin, og fikk en del oppsettshjelp fra Stian. Nå håper vi han kliner til og fortsetter treninga. Han har alle muligheter til å kjøre styggfort!

Her har vi noen utdrag fra tidligere rapporter om Edwin:

Edwin har hatt et langt avbrekk, og trengte all banetid han kunne få. Han er fortsatt litt fersk på dette med mini-Z, men begynner å få ting til å funke. Det registreres stadig tider ned på 8 tallet, og vi ser stor fremgang. Han trøbler litt med en lei overstyring av gass i høyfartssvingene, så litt jobbing med oppsettet må nok til. Det er også viktig å få masse kjøretid for å få bilen inn i fingrene.
Uansett er det morsomt å se at han sakte krabber nedover mot gode tider.
Han fikk en bestetid i kveld på 8.865. Beste antall runder på 3 minutter ble 14 runder. Totaltid 3.04. Snitttid 14.15 sekunder. Dette er en ekstremt krevende utfordring, og for å få til et godt antall runder krever det masse kjøretrening.

Edwin fikk også fart på sakene etter litt skruing. Ny front, og ny motor. Den gamle motoren hans var ikke mulig å få bra igjen, så vi satte i en gammel og god sliter. Dette funka meget bra, og han satte ny personlig rekord. Nå tror vi det løsner for Edwin, og forventer 7.9xx runder neste gang.