UK Lightweight Racer

[MarkyDents]

Very nice, still wondering what you may do with that big ol’ noseplate….

[dinglem]

Very nice, still wondering what you may do with that big ol’ noseplate….

Motor plate next, then on to the nose plate

[MarkyDents]

Awesome

[dinglem]

Little bit of rough n ready motor plate lightening to match the overall theme of the rest of the car... It is a bit scuffed up but as it was the original plate which came with the chassis and already had the elongated motor slot I was really keen to retain and use it. All that has been done is the normal pair of holes on the rear facing flat plate have been opened up, the lower corners have been rounded off and the side-bottom profile has had a curve machined into it to miss the gearbox outdrive. Small differences but I am really happy with the result and so now the focus switches to the nose plate....

[MarkyDents]

Nicely done touch

[DWRCMTB]

What a cool car, that chassis is awesome!

[dinglem]

Quick look lightened front-end mock-up just for MarkyDents....

[Dadio]

I like it aesthetically (a lot) but it's going to funnel dirt into the car .

[dinglem]

I like it aesthetically (a lot) but it's going to funnel dirt into the car .

Don't worry, i already have that covered

[Dadio]

Well your no idiot

[MarkyDents]

Quick look lightened front-end mock-up just for MarkyDents....

nose red.jpg

Dude !! Way more then I assumed you’d have done !
Your a beast !!
Looks killer and definitely ties it in with the rest…
NICE

[dinglem]

I realised I probably haven't explained this build very well as it was very much a UK thing to lighten the RC10's as much as possible like this. The lightweight 'shortie' era was a short-lived period through late 1985 and into 1986 when, in the UK at least, 2wd cars and 4wd cars ran in the same class. The next thing to consider is that we ran 5minute races as opposed to the US 4minutes, and we were running mainly on thick mud/grass tracks as opposed to low grip dirt/clay tracks. My red MMS-lightened car is in such a 'shortie' configuration, and the Schumacher chassis RC10 was also converted due to the lightweight nature of that chassis.

Weight was a massive issue - the 2wd cars had the speed advantage because being so much lighter you could gear up compared to the heavier 4wd cars which often struggled to make the 5 minute target. 2wd cars had a 3lbs weight limit, so 1360grams, whereas the 4wd limit was over 1600grams. Weight at this time, was everything.

5minutes was tough to achieve so back then it was a bit of a dark art to get good speed and endurance.

Anyway - the RC10's racing the UK circuit, particularly through 1986 generally had around 3/4inch trimmed off the front end of the chassis, were drilled out extensively, had pieces trimmed off the nose piece, and some of the team drivers even had ESC's using the higher spec FETs so 6 could be used instead of 8.... (usual 8 x BUZ11 FET configuration - 240amp total, the lightweight bad boy had a 6 x 50amp SMP50N05 FET - 300amp total). I have seen 8 FET Demon ProKings weigh 80grams, whereas i have checked a 6 FET equivalent which weighed in at 59grams for example. I am not too sure when those higher spec FETs came out, but i know Demon offered ProKings in a 6 FET configuration, and with or without reverse relay as i have collected quite a few of varying specs (and vastly varying weights). The bodyshells were also specific to this period, with Demon producing the 'Ultralite' and Penn Models producing their Jackal. Both were thinner and lighter than typical bodyshells and were very low-slung, without the rear pod part which extended over and behind the rear shock tower. Probably with a bit of nostalgia, these are by far my favorite RC10 bodyshells as they are what i recall from my earliest racing days.

[Frankentruck]

Were ESCs with reverse permitted in UK racing? In the US they were not.

Thank you for the excellent summary.

[Dadio]

That explains why my memory has nothing of the rear section of the RC10 body , I never even realised until now what was wrong with the picture in my memory

[dinglem]

Were ESCs with reverse permitted in UK racing? In the US they were not.

Thank you for the excellent summary.

Yes, you could use an ESC with reverse, but that was often the weak point on the earlier ESC's. Many racers removed the reverse relay or specified them to be built without.

One thing i also forgot to mention in my summery - we ran 6 cells, not 7!!! So as you can imagine, it was a very fine line between having the fastest car for 4.5 minutes.... or passing everybody on the last lap with a slightly slower car for the win!