This is a rather new page, so it will take a while to have pictures posted. Anyway, I'd like to add my comments on this new project of mine.
I started thinking building a Touring Car with one main reason in mind: competition. After racing last year in 4x2 (NASCAR-style) pan-chassis electric cars, I decided joining the most crowded category down here in my hometown. Everyone seems to be racing these cars, and the top drivers are all driving HPI RS4 Pro cars. Just to be different, I decided to take a different route; I was trying to decide amongst Losi's new Street Weapon or OFNA Racing's Z10 tourer. After thinking a while, I decided for the Z10, for 2 reasons:
1 - Price. A standard Z10 (fiberglass chassis) is US$ 100 cheaper than the other cars in this category; it comes with full ball bearings (a standard RS4 is equipped with bushings, another US$ 40 of savings).
2 - Features: no e-clips, big oil shocks, and standard hex hub style, allowing to use any wheels designed for Tamiya or HPI cars. The Street Weapon only accepts Losi wheels.
After I got to see the package of the car at a store in São Paulo, I got a bit disappointed, for the box is not up to the, say, HPI or Tamiya standards. But hey, you don't race a box, do you? Anyway, I decided to go for it. I thought to myself, "I won't be losing too much money".
Anyway, when I got the kit I started assembling it on a Friday lunch hour, and got it ready by Sunday afternoon; some 10 hours of work. Easy to assemble (very much alike the RS4 Nitro I've assembled); no filing necessary. One word of advice, though; don't bother using the shock oil that came in the box, it doesn't look worth a dime. Also, don't bother using the tires that come with the kit; they're absolutely crappy, I wouldn't use them on a Barbie doll car. Toy stuff. I then decided to purchase a set of Tozai tires, medium compound, and glued them to the kit's rims.
Second advice: be EXTREMELY careful with the plastic on this car. It is extremely soft, and the screws can strip it VERY easily. It happened to the rear knuckle arms on my car, and I am going to replace them with alloy parts.
Other than that, the assembly is very easy, provided you follow the manual closely. I test-drove the model using my Old Faithful Tekin Rebel forward-and-reverse ESC and a Trinity Ruby 16-turn double winding motor.
After waiting some good 25 days, I got my new motor (a Trinity GT-1 10-Turn Quad) and ESC (Tekin G12 CIII) from Tower Hobbies, assembled it and went to practice on a hot Thursday evening. As we were on DST, we have daylight in Brazil up to 8pm, and the track temperatures would be close to those we would find on race days, when we start racing at about 1030am. Track temperatures are about 200F at this time of year.
I got the Tozai tires assembled on the kit's rims, besides a set of HPI's V-Groove M2 radials (wide rears, standard fronts), that I chose to practice first. I thought that both sets of tires were pretty close on grip (that's what I felt when using the Ruby engine), but after the first battery run using the GT-1, it was pretty clear that the HPI rubber was much better with that track conditions.
Anyway, the car felt pretty comfortable to drive; I only felt there is too much chassis roll, which makes it slow in a narrow and twisty track such as ours.
Come race day, I got pretty good battles with a fellow driving a Losi Street Weapon, but the RS4 Pros took all the higher spots on the podium. It became clear that my car has a good potential , but needed some tweaks in order to be fully competitive. I managed to get to the B-main, got the 4th place, 14th overall (A-main and B-main results considered). My lap times fell heat after heat, which means one thing: I HAVE TO PRACTICE!!
After the race, as it was the track's first anniversary, we got a big BBQ celebration. There were several model distributors there too, and they brought some prizes to be given to the BBQ participants. Well, to make a long story short, I won the big prize of the night: a brand new Schumacher SST 2000 '98 chassis, fully loaded with all the hop-ups. I've already sold the Z10, assembled the Schummy, and I am ready for big-time crashing!
In fact, the SST (Schumacher Scale Tourer) 2000 comes say, 80% assembled. I had to fill up the shocks, because they were hop-ups and arrived assembled, but empty! I left the other setups (toe-in, camber, caster, anti-squat) as they came from the factory, but I put Greg (front) and blue (rear) springs. I will try this setup and follow advice from the Schumacher site.
I got an OLD Opel Calibra body from the Z10 (originally from a Street Spec chassis), beaten and bruised, with lots of mounting holes in it; before I decided for a new shell, I checked and found that the mounting holes for the Z10 are exactly the same for the Schumacher, so I will use it for racing. Later I decided for the ProtoForm Volvo S40 body, and was thinking what kind of paint scheme I would do. The picture on the ProtoForm catalog resembles the 1997 BTCC S40, and I almost went for it, but... I did a little search on the 'net, and found out that at http://www.car.volvo.se/racing there was the 1998 paint scheme for the Team Volvo; I got both colors (Pactra Metallic Blue and Tamiya PS-31 Silver), and then started searching for the right decals. I then found out that I could use most of the decals from the Tamiya Volvo 850 kit (#58183), as well as the kit's BBS replica wheels. Some more decals from Parma's Euro Sponsor sheet and some spare HPI completed the job; oh, and the red-anodized wheel nuts are real attention-grabbers! After that, I got hold of some spare rear-view mirrors and a windshield wiper from a Kyosho Renault Laguna body set, and added Pactra tape trim to trace the door hinges. I still plan on purchasing fake disk brakes and a complete interior, but even without them the guys at Radio Control Car Action published the photo on their web site. I've just installed a complete interior with a driver's figure from Parma, along with fake disk brake rotors to make it look a little more 'real'.
After selling the Z10 after just one race, I just took its electronics and installed them on the Schummy. In fact, after a couple of weeks I got a brand new motor, a Dirtinator D3 12-turn hex-wire and replaced the 10-turn quad-wire GT1 (both of them Trinity). The ESC is a Tekin G12 CIII, and the radio is now an Aitronics M8. The radio is simply awesome, much more than a lousy driver like me needs, but it looks oh-so-cool!
We just had this past Sunday (03/08/98) the 1st racing of our local championship. Again, I only got time to drop the car on the track the day before the race; I used the old Calibra body (I still don't have the guts to use the Volvo...). I made a basic setup, leaving the front end a little stiffer than the rear (60WT oil and gray springs in front, 30WT and blue springs in rear), used the Schumacher tires and no sway bars. Much to my surprise, it handled pretty similar to the Z10, although it has the one-way front differential. I set it up with almost no brakes, and went to racing.
Well, as it happened, I got a little disappointed; in a crowded field (27 entries), I barely got to the C-Main, and ended 6th. I couldn't come close to my lap times using the Z10; in fact, with the Z10 my best time was 13"640, and with the Schummy 14"070. And this at the cost of going up a couple of teeth on gear ratio (23/83), and a battery dump on the C-Main...
I don't know what to do; I will try changing motors and limiting the Tekin ESC current a bit, but all in all it seems that the stock Z10 is faster than the fully-hopped-up SST 2000. What gives? I'll let you know after the next race.
Yes! After having another terrible race, I finally sorted out the problems with the Schummy. It happens that the belt tensioners are just crappy (sorry 'bout that, I got to take it out of my chest). It happens that the axles on the pulleys are supported by plastic housings, generating too much drag and heat; so much that they melted on the last race, and I got a DNF. The ideal solution would be getting Schumacher's ball bearing, but a quick fix is rework the pulleys, removing the little tabs that cause friction, and putting a pair of washers with good oil or silicone grease. It got so good that I managed to use the same gear ratios that the fast guys use here (6.96 final ratio), and I believe that I can drop below the 13" mark. Keep your fingers crossed!!!!
After that, I kept racing and experimenting with suspension setups and tires. I tried Kawada tyres, Orange (mid-soft compound) rears and Red (soft compound) fronts. They are OK, but due to the fact that the Red ones were non-belted, I couldn't use them in the rear; it made the car undriveable on straightaways. After a couple of races, I could see that my setback were the tires. I then decided for the new Pro-Line capped slicks, initially on Green (medium) compound. Result? First Win! The tires are awesome on our track, provided it is warm enough. And the more they wear, the better the grip. I still have some understeering, but I am trying to correct it with springs and oil changes. The car is awesome fast after the first time I retrued the commutator and changed brushes and springs. The battery comsumption is OK also, with over 5'30" of runtime. I can barely wait for the second half of the racing season!
One word of advice is in order for this car. The kit's bearings are not that good; if I had the money, I'd replace them with teflon-sealed ones. They get so hot that deform the housing on the outdrives, and give way to terrible binding.
