| I ran the SMC 3.7 LiPO/13.5
in my GenX yesterday for the first time. It's an absolutely amazing car,
but with the 3.7 LiPO, it's even BETTER. We've had the same layout down for quite some time, so it's easy to compare lap times from previous weeks and see what's going on... With the 3.7 LiPO, I went from 830 grams down to 672 grams. I can shave a few more grams from that because I made the wiring heavier than necessary to make it very easy to switch back to 4 cell NIMH if I wanted to. The ONLY change I made to the car setup at first was to back off the shock spring collar a little, to get the car to sit level. No other changes for the first run. I immediately was able to match my best lap times that I ran with the 4cell/17.5, but I noticed that I could run fast laps MUCH more easily and consistently. With the 4 cell setup, I needed to drive the car hard and tight to make the good laps, with the LiPO/13.5 it seemed effortless. THe printouts showed my best lap, best 5, and best 10 to be jsut about identical to the week before with 4 cell, but the mistakes just werent there. I gained THREE full laps on my good runs without actually going any faster... just more consistent good laps without the ruhn-killing mistake laps. The car DOES feel different... but a GOOD different in my opinion... It reminds me of the feel of a mod car from back in the early to mid 1990's... Sort of edgy, sort of nervous, but get used to driving it that way and you're going to be FAST. I wound up qualifying third on the grid, right behind Donny Lia and Rob D, so that's some pretty good company to be in... IN the main, Donny's best lap was about a tenth faster than mine, but his best 5 and best 10 were right on par. He turned his best lap in pretty early in the run, mine came near the middle. I had a solder joint fail on me so I DNF'd but the car was GREAT and I felt like the driving slump I seem to have been in for the past several years has lifted. Here's the setup I ran:
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