Vintage RC10T kicks butt at local club track

[Bluegroove]

Well, my first winter racing season after almost a 12yr break is now over and the ol' 10T finished 2nd in overall points. This was not a vintage class mind you but beating and bang'n with the latest AE and Losi as to offer. I started racing off-road in Mitchell In. at P&T Raceway in 96 with a Losi XX-T CR and did well with it but starting a family took me out of racing after a few yrs. While I never left R/C completly, I kept flying planes and helis over the yrs, I never could get motivated enough to stay in racing. Over time, the CR found a new owner and I never gave anymore thought to racing untill last summer when a friend gave me an RC10T chassis. It was in bad shape, no wheels, no bearing and the tranny felt like it had square gears. I politly thanked him and tossed it in the back corner of my shop and went on. About mid Dec. I heard a new track was about to open up just a meer 15mins away in N. Vernon In and that was all it took for the bug to bite me again. I decided If I was going to race again, I would just test the waters and would need to stay on a tight budget. I looked over that mess of a truck and started a list of parts it would need to get it into race form again, at least circa 1995 race form Ebay had all I needed and nobody wanted any of the old stuff so little money went a long way and with a refurbished trans, full BBs, T2 CVD's and wheels, a T3 body, GT front bumper and a old skool CRP rear bumper modified to fit, all I needed was electronics. A Traxxas 2ch was bought from a friend for 20 bucks, Ebay got me two CO27's new for $40, I still (somehow) had my Tekin 410 sp control, add a couple of 3300 from Radio Shack, racing rubber and a good selection of spurs and pinions and I was good to go. My charger is a Triton that I have from my hobby's aircraft side and it does car batts very well too.

The first few weekends were spent tweeking motor/brush combos and gear ratios mixed with caster, camber and ride hight adj. I placed 4th the first weekend out and got better from there but never finised higher the 2nd or lower then 5th in the A main with upto 15 other racers. Half of these guys were really good with most of the others being newbies to racing. I am amazed at how robust this 10T is compared to the newer, spindily looking trucks of today. I never broke and if someone got pushy on the track, I seemed a bit heavier than most and didnt get pushed around so hard during the heat of racing.

This new track is oval only and I'm learning to run around in circles but I'll post some questions later about how to get more steering from the middle of the turn out later. I'll post my setup and pics of the truck later.

Mike E.

[MOmo]

Considering that you were running truck against more modern vehicles, Im impressed. If you were in OR, Id say come out and run vintage w/ me and several others.

For push, try a softer Fr. spring. Also, what kind of tires are you using? The Traxxas radio might not allow for enough "throw" that it could also be the culprit.

Best of luck. it always pleases me that people are still running the vintage.



MOmo

[carloco8]

Welcome to the site Bluegroove, keep rock'in the oldskool ride

[JK Racing]

I may have to clean up my 10T I picked up just to play with the new cars...

[RC Chick]

congrats, welcome to the site and keep that vintage 10T racing.

[Bluegroove]

Well Momo, it wasent easy to be sure. I'm one of those drivers that checks out the local hotshots, find his weakness on the track and how he reacts when his buttons get pushed in the race then start pushing buttons and exploiting all the while trying to hide my own, lol. Hey, I'm racing old stuff and cheap batteries, but I always race clean , I can have a bag of dirty tricks to fall back on right?

Lets see, I'm useing Losi red dot 8 rib fronts and Losi red dot taper pin at the rear. Oh! the track is hard clay btw. I'm running bones level. the rear shocks lower mount is at outer hole and upper is inner most hole, nice and laid down. oil is Trinity 40 and piston is unknown, whatever was in the box and I hope it was only one to help narrow it down. Springs are box stock too, look to be gold but most has wore away. RR tire has 2.5 neg camber LR 1 or so Pos. Rear toe and anti-sqat appear box stock. It took me a few weekends to come to this set up and it works. The back end stays planted under power and is ever so slightly loose at turn in off power, the sweet spot it would seem to me.

The front end. Trinity 35 oil.Spring, box stock gold(right?) Ride is just a bit lower than rear.FR has 0 camber FL has 1 or so neg but heres the sticky part, the stock 25* caster blocks seem way to much when flat tracking so without a reliable source of caster blocks with less caster I filled and re-drilled my own to 12* caster in a setup I made for my drill press. Whoa! Now I'm turning left! Turn in was super, mid corner very good, I could hit my mark at the apex every time. On power..What the..? well its a little more but not much. I've got full throw, stop to stop, and I still cant get on the power hard till I've got the truck pointed down the straite. Others are hard on power from mid turn out even steping the back out a bit as they hit the straite and I'm stuck burping the power to get it to turn

My first guess too, would be to soften the front but maybe it should be stiffen the rear. I might be squatting the rear under power and unloading the front end way too much. (sigh) I just dont know, any thoughts?

[markt311]

Try adding preload to the right rear spring. or if you can find any get some rear arm mounts with less toe in. some more aggresive front tires like proline blades in M3 or some silver compound losi tires might also help. Make sure your slipper is all but locked down and the diff is not slipping at all. If you can make a rear sway bar that also might help keep the rear end flat while cornering. When I used to race dirt oval I experimented with limiting the shocks downtravel by putting a piece of fuel tubing on the shock shaft under the piston inside the shock. This made the truck a little harder to control but, hey loose is fast. Good luck with your oval racing

Mark

[carloco8]

Oh! the track is hard clay btw.

I would try taper pins in the front first. When taper pins are the hot ticket in the back, I've found them to usually be the best for the front too. When dusty and/or dry, silver compound in the front, red in the back. If running on a damp clay track, pink taper pins all around.

[Bluegroove]

pics of truck and track...

[Bluegroove]

and the truck...

[MOmo]

Oh! the track is hard clay btw.

I would try taper pins in the front first. When taper pins are the hot ticket in the back, I've found them to usually be the best for the front too. When dusty and/or dry, silver compound in the front, red in the back. If running on a damp clay track, pink taper pins all around.

Tapers are the tire of choice at my track as well, also packed clay. Im working on getting a set of B2/ TT Phoenix BX rims to mount up for racing. I have a set of tapers ready to go. I think that will be the ticket to my traction.

I agree with the above though, look into a 2nd set of fr rims and mount up a set of tapers. Im not sure what the local guys are running in truck. Might look at Green Rears and Silver Fr, or green all around. The track appears fairly level w/ few jumps, more of a speed track?

I should snap pics of the "Wall Ride" at my local track. Nice to see a vintage getting used!


momo

[markt311]

Tell that guy to stop leaning over the wall! Sorry one of my pet peeves

[Charlie don't surf]

best steering balance on that trucks front end is--

run 15* castor blocks, but run your steering link on the BOTTOM of the LEFT side steering arm-
set your toe for 0* at ride height and leave enough up travel so the trucks front end "bumps out"
in otherwords when your truck is at neutral dive your front end is at 0 toe, durring rear load (or acceleration) your front up travel will allow the front end to toe out about 3*, BUT-----what you get out of it is hard turn in (because of the toe out) smooth center off (the geometry cancels itself out in center transition, (the toe goes back to 0* with the wheels turned left) and great steering out (the truck is no longer loose off,((because it goes back to toe out at rear load)) or wants to hit the outside wall)


Reggie

[Bluegroove]

Hey, thanks for all the input. I'm taking notes here but I'm flybar deep into my heli for the summer and will remember all of this in the fall when the winter season kicks in.

[Bluegroove]

Oh I forgot. Reg, now thats slick! I had to read it a few times over to get my head around it. Lets see, new batteries, full spring set all 'round and a new bag of tuning tricks. I almost cant wait