MA-010 - Blueprinting
a car for the World Championships - Part 2


So where do we start for the second part... In the first part of the article we went over how to do the basic build of the car. This time, we move on to the finishing touches and fine tuning details of the build. |


|
Since we are still putting the car together, we follow with wheels and tires. At the rear, we choose +3.5 offset narrow wheels wrapped in Kyosho 20 degree semi-wide rubber. The AWD generates a ton of traction, and as grip comes up on a track the wide tires at the rear are one of the reasons why the car starts to chatter badly. With less rubber, there is less rolling resistance and less friction with the track surface. This translates into more steering and higher corner speeds. |
In the front, we like atomic tires. Atomic AW Grove tires seem to be the only readily-available tires that provide enough steering without causing traction rolling problems. We like to start out with 40 degree fronts in higher grip conditions and 30 degree fronts on lower grip tracks. We pair the Atomic tires with +3.5 offset narrow wheels at the front. If we crave a little more steering, we opt for +3.0 offset wheels.

Having finished the wiring, we move on to slightly modify the chassis. Notice how we ground away the small bump on the bottom of the rear chassis piece so that it is flush with the rest of the chassis. This allows for more ground clearance for your car and allows it to run lower to the ground, without having to worry about bottoming out on RCP joints.
By the spur gear, we also remove the little guard with a dremel. That piece is there to protect the spur, but on a prepared racing surface, there should be nothing to damage it.
By the way, don't forget to do the bump in the front too!

To provide dampening to the suspension we like to use thick silicone oil. In the rear end of the car, the most effective point to do this we found is where the pin goes through the rear toe bar. Our basic set-up uses 10000 wt in the rear.

For the front you can't do it through the knuckle pins because they have to rotate when steering, and if you did, they would gum up and become a complete mess. So with that in mind, we apply the lube on the upper deck where the kingpin goes through. We like to start off with 10000 wt as well.

The final step before hitting the track is installing a body. We have found the ENZO to be a super consistent, easy-to-drive-fast body. In stock we would select the McLaren perhaps, but the wheel offsets would chage to +2.5 front and +3.0 rear. For high speed tracks, We install a lip spoiler in the rear to get a little more downforce.
So that is it! You are ready to hit the track. Remember that this article is about how we build our cars to get them track ready, by no means is it the way we always run them. So do not be afraid to experiment with your settings, because although this set-up will run great most everywhere, fine tuning it is what is going to make it excellent.