Well, I finally took the buggy to a big race! Top Gun at SDRC Raceway.
The event was a blast. car pulled consistant 24 second laps. shame over half the field was pulling 22's!
Here's some of the changes I made during the event:
* I ended up taking off the RPM front A-Arms after they consistantley rubbed the B4 rims. put back on the stock to resolve the issue.
* replaced the reproduction world's bellcranks with the Jconcepts units, which had a bit less play in them. Also, had to add a few shims underneath for proper ball stud clearnance.
* broke a few ball studs, that were original!! Next time I do a race build all the old ball studs are coming off. May do what Brian Kinwald did and put on the B5 ball ends
* strengthening the chassis braces I never had an issue again. Also put nuts on every exposed nuts all over the car, nothing loosened up but a few in the shock tower bolts would back out a half a turn or so.
* leave your ribs and holeshots at home for clay. I ended up racing a set of green jconcepts dirt-webs all weekend, which got better every run.
Wish I could report a fairy-tale ending, but it didn't got down that way.
ended up qualifying 3rd in the F main out of 6 rounds. after consistent 12 lap runs in all 4 qualifiers without a hitch. Got up to 2nd before a crash and a bad Marshall put me on the wrong side of the track, and went to eight, bit worked my way up to 6th before the end of the main.
not mad about it, but more than anything i'm impressed with how the buggy worked, it was fast and dialed, and was getting a lot of complements from drivers.
I leave the event knowing I gave it all I had and the buggy held it all together through over 30 battery pack runs.
I pack up today knowing that this car is ready to hit the track in the future, lets see what events I make it back out to in the next year to go.
If anyone would like to see what a closed practice session around the new track layout looks like here's a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWImhtX2pnA
Thanks for reading!