- Awesomatix A700 - Steve Fowler - RC Niagara Indoor - 24.01.2012 -


Have you considered going from a 3 bearing steering plate to a 4 bearing steering plate?

At full-steering lock, tapping the board can derail the steering rack. Had a couple of occurrences past weekend.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Were you using the IAS when this happened? I attached a pic of something you can do to limit the travel on the one side (still symmetrical left/right). I haven't had any issues with the stock rack, and with this fix I haven't had any issues with the IAS rack.

This Sunday was a really intense day of racing, Martin Crisp came out for some testing before the Snowbirds race, and was in my qualifier (we were nose to tail pretty much all day). I managed to get Tq after round 3 (Martin kept having issues with lapped traffic, he was also on Jaco Blues, so I had a bit of an advantage). In the final, Martin was all over the back end of my car, but wasn't able to get by clean so he kept giving back the position he could make it without contact. In the process we ended up dropping to 2nd and 3rd, with about a minute left to go we were about a second behind first. Literally on the last lap, first place scrubbed a corner pushing wide enough for me to squeeze by, I ended up getting first by 0.215 seconds. Martins fast lap was 9.799, and mine was 9.800

Setup-wise, I decided to try shorter upper arms front and rear, as well as asymmetric dampening. I came to the conclusion that I prefer the front and rear dampening settings that are closer together (not much difference between front and rear). This setup was the best I've felt the car so far!

I also had a very high impact crash (one that would've most likely broken the front arm, c-hub, and maybe even a knuckle on a conventional TC), I ended up bending the front rear upper turnbuckle, and the front universal disassembled. I think Oleg put a lot of thought into the front universals, it seems that at a certain force of an impact, they're designed to just pop open, rather than sheering off or bending (reassembled using original cage and it has no slop still).

Steve

How different did the car feel with the shorter links? Got a big meeting this weekend (uk indoor narional) with sorex as the control tyre, pretty much all my running has been with a much bigger profile ride tyre, the place I'm running is also renowned for having chicanes in place.

It made the car a bit more responsive (quicker to change direction), and as Mark said, more rotation. I was honestly a bit hesitant at first because I hadn't seen anyone using this link length yet, but I'm really glad I did, it really woke the car up.

I'll take a look at your pic. It was with the IAS. The issue for me is the type of t-nut that is used to hold the back side of the rack loosen which then can add all sorts of havoc. I am using a different configuration now. Will see how well it holds up at Snowbirds. I also found that lengthening the ball stud screws to act as stops will prevent the rack from going to full-throw which with slight impact might displace the rack.

Martin will surely be up on his game for Snowbirds. The Jaco is an interesting tire. With no setup changes, it makes my car push a bit as opposed to Sweeps or Solaris (M).

The shorter links really helps the car rotate. I have gone to #3 holes front and rear and this is the best my car has been. Good to hear that your car is coming to life.

As for the front universals, I have tried to run the units without shrinkwrap. Although having a breakaway part is helpful, it doesn’t help you finish a race. I will not be running the universals without heat shrink any time soon. Racing includes some level of impact and the goal is to finish the race. What is the old saying, to finish first – you have to finish!


When you say "t-nut that is used to hold the back side of the rack loosen", are you talking about what the rear screw on the rack screws into (with bearing between)? I've applied some thread-lock to all the screws on the rack and haven't had anything loosen off.

As for the front Universals, I've only had this happen twice in 5 race days, and they were impacts that would end a race anyways (one broke a ball cup, the other bent the turnbuckle). Both occasions the universals had heat shrink, and because of that all the parts stayed together (didn't have to go searching for pins or anything). Personally I'd prefer to have a DNF rather than having a part that has no give, that ends up needing replacing after these high impacts (could get pretty pricey, although with the Awesomatix we're able to order each individual part), my originals are still working perfectly with no slop!

I'm going to cut the extra length on the axles off (the part that sticks out past the wheel nuts when tightened down), I think this should help transfer more of the impact to the rim, ball cups, and arms. Steve

Steen's set up uses the shorter links AFAIK

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