Just got back from my first day outdoors with the 416, and the second time with 5cell mod (ok, weedy 5cell mod, what with a 4.5, but hey, I'm learning!).

Started off with a setup close to Viktor's reedy race one, except put on Blue/Yellow springs, as I thought the lower traction of a cold, damp UK summer morning might warrent it...
Had two runs in practice. First run, felt good, but was pushing badly through the 180 sweeper off the end of the straight. Brought the car in, and raised the rear roll centre up with 0.5mm of shims under the blocks.
Next run, much better, car pushing much less, and the rear more mobile. Seem to lose a little corner speed versus some other cars, so back in again, and changed over to white/blue springs for the first round of Q.

Now that was more like it. Despite the track being a little green due to the light rain shower in the previous heat (!!), car felt planted, straight from the off. Managed to get a reasonably clean run in, and just missed out on a 17lapper by about 0.7 of a second... in comparison, Olly Jefferies and Ben Cosgrove did 19's... so not too unhappy given first time in mod to be in that position!

Was noted by a fellow driver that the rear looked to be rolling a bit much, so for the 2nd round, I moved the rear shocks out one hole (from 3-4). Certainly felt better again next run, although was getting a little interesting with rain starting to fall at the end. Kept the car on track, but didn't improve, but was happily the 2nd fastest car in the heat.

By now the weather was really starting to turn, ended up for the forth run hurridly finding some blue tack, and bolting on the wet tyres, as the track was really wet from another rain shower. Made no other changes, and yet the car was easily the quickest on track. Caught the first placed driver, overtook cleanly, then pulled away... simply amazing. Actually, tell a lie, I did make a setup change, and that was to put on 1mm of wheel spacers, simply to get the wet tyre wheels to clear the wishbones!
Unfortunately my speedo decided not to like moisture, so I pulled it off before causing anymore damage. Thankfully, it's running ok again now, so hopefully nothing long term has resulted....

And that was the end of my day, decided not to risk it anymore (as the weather couldn't make it's mind up), so packed up and came home. But overall, very happy, as I now know:

a) the car works at Wet London
b) it works in the wet and dry!
c) I've got no issues with runtime on the batts (I'll solve that when I get the 3.5 this week)
d) I seemingly can drive mod fairly compently.

Cheers
Ed

I saw on your setup that you ran the red sponge in your shocks. Can you tell me what the difference will be in handling when your run that sponge or not? I don't know what happens with the car when i put them in or when i have to run them.

The way I think of it is simply that it makes the shock a bit more pack. That allows the tyres to stay in contact with the ground better over bumps, as they are being forced down faster.
Certainly I'm going to have a little play with the shocks next weekend, try 450wt oil all round, but I don't want too change too much, as the car works well atm - Ed

I compared your setup with the manual of the 416, and i see that you give 3mm spacers in the rear (at the bulkhead and also the upright) instead of 0,5mm.

How does that affect the handling? is it a better choice for any type of surface? (tarmac and carpet).

At the front you lowerd the inner (bulkhead) one from 5 to 3mm. This should raise the rollcenter. Right?