WC1982's 1/10th scale thread

[THEYTOOKMYTHUMB]

That's awesome about the bodies being different for big races. That got me thinking about another issue and I apologize if it's been brought up before and I missed it, but what about batteries? I know from experience that a lot of emphasis was put on batteries during that period because the tech was so far behind what we see today. Any cool battery or motor stories? I heard rumors of dry cells being used at times. I can only imagine the things that went on by companies to get an edge. Power was such an issue back then compared to today. Kind of a shame that power comes so easy these days in my opinion. It's like comparing Southwest airlines to Star Wars. Anyway, please share. And I don't mean to imply cheating by any of the companies, I'm just curious about the tech.

[Dirtdiver]

Wow, what an amazing collection!
Let me know when you open the museum.

[WC1982]

That's awesome about the bodies being different for big races. That got me thinking about another issue and I apologize if it's been brought up before and I missed it, but what about batteries? I know from experience that a lot of emphasis was put on batteries during that period because the tech was so far behind what we see today. Any cool battery or motor stories? I heard rumors of dry cells being used at times. I can only imagine the things that went on by companies to get an edge. Power was such an issue back then compared to today. Kind of a shame that power comes so easy these days in my opinion. It's like comparing Southwest airlines to Star Wars. Anyway, please share. And I don't mean to imply cheating by any of the companies, I'm just curious about the tech.

For the 1982 Worlds we used Sanyo SC1200 sticks. At the time there really wasn't much testing for capacity. But we used to note which series seemed to work best. I think for that race I used "ME" sticks. Mike Lavacot and I used a digital scale to go through a few boxes and weighed the sticks. We chose the heaviest ones we could find. How's that for technology!

By about 1985 Mike Lavacot made our first LAVco battery testing system, I think Reedy commissioned it so he could test for Team packs. That developed into single cell LAVco "Cell-Mates" that we also built for Reedy and Team Orion, and then eventually sold them to the public. Those really helped sort out the best cells. And we also had units to test the complete pack.

Unfortunately Sanyo changed to the SCE1600 cells that were very fragile. They basically only lasted a few charges before the capacity took a dive. So for a while we ran new packs for the big races, they had only been charged/discharged once or twice to match them.

I spent a lot of time trying to come up with the best ways to charge the batteries for maximum output. We did some crazy things, charging backwards, freezing the cells, soaking them in icewater etc. Each time the cell technology changed we had to re-assess the way we handled the cells. So it was always changing, which was actually kind of fun because you could get a pretty big advantage if you found a good technique.

On Team Associated we never pushed the rules very hard or cheated. Reedy and Gene never wanted to go that far. Other teams went a lot farther, getting the battery manufacturers to make them special cells or cells that were only available to them for a big race. That was a bummer when we were on the short end of that stick.

Nowdays the LiPo batteries are just amazing with how much power they put out. In some ways it's good because the average guy has a fair shot at beating the team drivers.

[THEYTOOKMYTHUMB]

That's great stuff! It's funny you mentioned that you weighed the batteries. I was just debating with my brother-in-law at Christmas that the weight of a battery was one quick way to tell if it was of any decent capacity. It came up because of all the toys the kids were getting that come with those cheap batteries(better than none I guess). He said that weight had nothing to do with it. I told him he was crazy...Anyway, what about motors? Any input on how they evolved? Thanks for taking the time to give all the info. That's pretty cool.

[rcracr20]

All I can say is that seeing some of these pics bring back a lot of memories!


I remember my first 1/10 oval pan car was an Associated RC10L wide car. Upgraded to a 10Lss and eventually a Trinity Evolution 10SS. Those were the days!

[scr8p]

kent, did you ever build up an rc10 as an oval/on-road car to race in the gearbox classes, or just stick to the pan cars?

[WC1982]

I built an RC10 that I used at an indoor short-track paved oval called One-Stop Raceway in Los Alamitos, CA. My buddy Shawn Ireland and I used to go there for weeknight oval races. The track was very short and the lap times were only about 4 seconds. The surface was banked and kinda bumpy so it really kept you on your toes. I still clearly remember watching the car lean into the corner with the RC10 suspension soaking up the bumps, cranking hard left around the banking, weaving through the traffic lap after lap. That was some of the most fun I ever had racing. The winner would get "Race Bucks" that we used to buy our Pactra spray cans. We painted a lot of bodies for big races, so those Race Bucks were important!

Shawn and I built two identical RC10's (maybe the TQ10 version?) with carbon fiber chassis and lowered suspension. I think the bodies were the same wide Lumina's you see in the "Clausen Caught Speeding" advertisement. The tires were pre-mounted Associated foams with Associated on-road wheels. We limited ourselves to unmatched stick packs and 13T Reedy off-the-shelf modified motors to keep the racing close. And man, was it close! We bashed door-to-door every heat. I think one race we ended up crossing the finish line with one car on top of the other Fun times. Unfortunately I don't know where the car ended up so I don't have any photos.

[WC1982]

Update: I found a few photos that show my RC10 Tide oval car and a few others as well. I think the RC10L is the car I took to the first 1/10 On-Road Nationals in Alabama. Also shown is my RC10T truck with "Dirt Shark!" stickers on the hood.

[littleVETTE]

i always knew you would dye your parts, if you raced off road. sweet truck kent. is that your insane run car in the first photo, bottom car?

[WC1982]

I was never a fan of the beige stock nylon parts so I dyed parts most of the time. The flo yellow dye turned out really nice on that RC10T so I did the same treatment on some of my pan cars as well. Yes, that's one of my speed run cars.

BTW, I actually went out and drove one of our HPI Blitz trucks last month at a club race. Man is my driving rusty But at least the truck looked cool.

[AscotConversion]

The paint scheme is still awesome!!!

[WC1982]

Well Kent i was really waiting for this associated ad to show up on this thread it was very influential on me as a kid. If you couldn't tell by my avatar I am a huge fan and have been since around 87 and alway wanted to see more of this car never saw any other pics of this car anywere? I hope you might have some pics so i could finally complete the electronics and any other info would be great. Thanks big fan Ryan

I'll have to dig around to see if I have any photos of that car. I know I still have the body but I'm fairly certain the car is gone. Right after that we went to the RC10L SS cars, much narrower versions than the body shown. I probably converted the car into the SS.

I found the body. Here are a couple of photos that show the decal placement.

[reign79]

Thanks Kent ahhh....... your the man

[Dirtdiver]

Kent-
When you raced for AE did they let you build and drive behind closed doors the competition's cars (Thorp, JoMac, etc)?

Thanks

dirtdiver

[WC1982]

For on-road the Associated cars were always very competive so we just focused on making our cars as good as possible and didn't do any formal testing of the competition's cars. I acquired a few kits from other companies over the years, I think I got them for special parts (Delta shock etc) but I never built or drove them.