Marshall Banana’s RC Action

F1 Field Testing

TFTR

Before any Formula One season kicks off, the teams do some pre season testing. A time to try new cars, new parts, do long distance runs and get a feeling of where each other are at before the first race of the season. I see no reason for it to be any different in RC F1 land, so 2 teams headed to TFTR for some pre season testing of their own.

It was a sunny morning when the teams arrived. Attending was Team Josh driving the Tamiya F104 Pro (called the pro from this point forward), and Team Brant driving the Tamiya F104W Wolf (called the Gulf). Both are running 21.5t Brushless motors with no timing. This was not the first preseason test. In previous tests, a stock gulf had massive oversteer until a change of tires from stock rubber to F103 Tamiya foams had planted the rear end. The pro on the other hand, was running with the X1 backend, and putting in respectable times, until the last test where the cold weather and a tight diff had made it very difficult to control. The rear of the pro was sliding out around corners, making the driver very frustrated and almost glad when an on track incident down the back straight had caused a barrier collision and a broken T-Bar. The test was over that day for the pro. The Gulf would continue for the remainder of that test, with the driver very satisfied with the end results, consistent laptimes over a longer run.

But back to the current test and what was happening. The Gulf and the Pro had arrived, and waited in the pit area. There was not alot of new upgrades to the cars this time, which meant that today was about concentrating on learning to drive the cars more. The Pro had a new Rear Roll Damper (Tamiya Part #54342), which was required after the stock plastic one from the X1 was snapped in half in the T-Bar accident. Setup changes on the pro were just an increase to 1 degree of camber from the stock 0, and changing the top deck posts to 2 middle and 2 rear posts. Gulf was still the standard setup. Both cars are were running foams.

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RM-01 Roll Damper Upgrade

RM01 Roll Damper

In a heated battle down the back straight, I came off 2nd best after having an argument with a barrier. Much to my disappointment, my T Bar was now in 2 pieces, which wasnt very useful. Even worse, the new roll damper that had 3 runs in it was now in 2 pieces as it didn’t enjoy getting ripped sideways.
Having a look on the internet, the roll damper wasnt available outside of the X1 Upper Deck and Roll Damper Set. I didn’t want to buy the whole set again, and from what i had read, the damper was a common breaking point in similar accidents.

Enter the RM-01 Aluminum Roll Damper Set (Tamiya Part #54342). Just released and a direct replacement part for the X1 Roll Damper. I added to the cart and got it sent out.

I’ve built it up, and it feels alot better then the original. Will have to wait until the track to see it in action, but initial signs are good, and its a nice looking piece to boot.

F104 Pro Gets Some Upgrades

F104 Pro Build 01

The Tamiya F104 X1 brought with it a different rear end. Instead of the friction damper, there was a new roll damper. Other third party companies had released alternates to the friction damper, and this new upgrade seemed to follow suit. I decided that I had to have it, and placed an order for:

  • F104X1 Upper Deck & Roll Damper Set [54331]
  • Tamiya, F104 Rear Shaft Counterweight [54332]
  • Steel F104 Shaft

I was looking to add more weight to the rear, which the new shaft and the counter weight would give me, and the roll damper set would provide a more consistent feel. The FRP half upper deck will also give the chassis more flex, which is something I had read would make the car handle better on the asphalt.

It was also time for one more change. After reading what the rules and regulations for racing the F104 would be in the local F1 class, I reverted back to the silver can motor.

So on a nice sunny melbourne day, I hit the track with a mate to give the f104 another go. Running Tamiya foam tires, the car rolled out onto the track. I took a few sighting laps, taking it easy, making sure everything was as it should be, and then hit the gas. Woah. I was shocked. The car wasn’t in the barrier, and was heading in the direction I told it to go. This was not the f104 of before, it was like a new car. And it was amazing to drive. Lap after lap I drove it around, getting to grips with the car. Some laps felt good, some spent more time pointing in the wrong direction. Now I’m not going to lie to you, the car still needed some work. But from where it was, the change was unbelievable. My mate had a drive of the car, and just one taste of it, and he was off to order his F1 car. You’ll hear more about that later.

The practice session ended with a smile on my face, this was finally a car that I could embark on racing with. It had even held its own against another F104 at the track. It was fun, and challenging to drive which meant we were going to have a great time trying to race these cars.

F104 Pro, The Journey Begins.

F104 Pro Finished Side-on

The Tamiya F104 Pro was a car I was particularly excited about as I am a big fan of Formula One. With it been a rear 2WD car, I knew it was going to be a challenge to drive compared to a tourer, but I don’t think I ever imagined just what a handful this car was going to be. For the first runs, the car did nothing but loop around on power. It had amazing steering, but was teamed with a backend that for the life of me I couldn’t get under control. I know that setup is not something I am strong at, I’m still learning, but it seemed that nothing I tried could tame this beast. The behaviour meant that I was driving this car at half throttle most of the time, knowing that if I went to full power, off it would go into a spin and probably a barrier. It wasn’t the fun I was hoping for.

I took comfort in reading alot of forums. It seemed that most people were having the same issues as I was. Loose backend, can’t use the throttle, spinning on straights. All people reporting the issues were also on asphalt the same as me. I tried many things that they suggested, run no rear damper spring, try the new rubber tires, sauce the foams, be smoother on the throttle. And guess what, some of the ideas helped. Slowly but surely, it was starting to become controllable, it was becoming fun. Around this time though, I started playing with off road cars more, and the F1 went into the cupboard for a while. But one day, just flicking through some forums I saw something that was going to bring my F1 back onto the track. The F104 X1 was released, and with it, hop up parts that could be used on the pro. The F104 Pro was about to change…..

The Blog Returns

Well its been a while and i think its time to bring the blog back to life. Alot has happened since the last post, there are new cars, new competitors, a change from on-road to off-road and back to on-road.

With a good friend, I have decided to embark on racing the f104 at a club level. We haven’t made it there yet, but practice is underway, and as we try new things, we’ll let you all know what we find. It will be reports from newbies, for newbies. There will also be reports on new cars and accessories as we acquire new toys, err, i mean hobby grade vehicles.

Well, thats all for now. Its time to start gathering information for our first posts, as a couple of newbies begin their journey.

F-104 Pro Build

F104 Pro Finished Front

While in Japan I picked up an F-104 Pro. I’ve ummed and ahhhhhed about the purchase for ages, but once you’re standing in the shop on the other side of the world holding the box there isn’t much of a choice. So back in Australia it was time to build it. Of all the cars I’ve built, this one was the easiest, which isn’t a bad thing.

I’ve build it stock except for the following:

  • Tamiya 54166 – Aluminium Motor Mount
  • Tamiya 54165 – F104 Soft T-bar

For the electronics I ended up with

  • Standard Futaba 3003 servo
  • Hobbywing 35A ESC with 13T 3000kv brushless motor

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Durga And Baldre. The showdown….

For the first time since November last year, Dan and I finally got to take our cars out together. For one reason or another, 1 car has always been broken or not working quite right for the last 6 months, so there was some excitement in finally getting the cars out together.

We built a new rear diff for Dan’s car in the morning, so it would be running the metal diff like mine. When Dan took his car apart, his pulley was also starting to melt, with oblong holes for the diff balls. With everything tighened up and the sun shining we headed out.
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Offroad, onroad, diffs and tires….its rc day.

The parts arrived during last week (or was it the end of the week before) and the durga is finally repaired. In the end i purchased the parts for the rear diff and the aluminum suspension mounts. I didn’t get the front uni’s for the db01, but now wish i had.

The rear diff has been rebuilt, using the TRF501X diff joints, and it feels smoother, stronger and all round better. Using the numerous howto’s / guides / forum posts I have now adjusted the diff to a “nice” feel. Reading these posts is something i should have done before putting the brushless in, but thats life. The manual gives you the basic idea of how tight to tighten the diff, but what is tight. The advise differs greatly, from tighten until you can’t tighten anymore (which i still don’t know how to judge) and back off a bit, to just follow the manual and tighten until you can’t turn the pulley with the diff joints held in place. In the end, I followed the advise of tighten until the diff feels tightened which i figured, was when the screw went from easy to turn to hard to turn. Then lock the slipper (basically tighten until the slipper spring is fully compressed) and hold the rear wheels. Try to turn the spur gear with your thumb, if you can then you need to tighten it further, in 1/8 turns until you can’t. Then repeat at the front. For the slipper, tighten so that it slips for the first few feet of acceleration. I started with it at about 5mm. I of course don’t claim that this is the right method, or that it will work and not break your diff, but this is what i did, and it seemed to work.

So with the diff rebuilt I went off to the Knox Offroad RC Track to have a look and a drive. This was actually the first time that i had taken the Durga with the Mamba Max in it to an actual track instead of the famous figure 8 BMX track in North Melbourne (and by famous i mean Dan and i know what i’m talking about). Arriving at the track at 9am, i was suprised to see a few people already there, it was a public holiday afterall, why aren’t u sleeping in. Oh well, may as well show them how n00bish i am. I placed the car on the track and accelerated. It lacked punch and made a whirring sound. This i now know means that the slipper is slipping, but it was slipping too much so I tightened it up and the durga came to life. Driving it on the track turned out to be a lot harder then i expected, the durga jumped around all over the place and took alot of getting used to. I really couldn’t use the power thru most of the course as its tight, but it flew down the straight and took the jumps very nicely. I admit that this is the first car i’ve had that can go off jumps, but it seemed like the durga is nicely weighted over the jumps. It takes off nice and straight and lands without slap. There was a DF-03 and a 2wd Tamiya buggy there and the durga seemed much nicer over the jumps. The others seemed to be very front heavy. And in case you were wondering, the durga easily cleared the 3 bump jumps below in the pictures, on the first attempt landing in the next corner. After that I took it alot easier over that one :)

Last thing to note with the durga was the new tires that were on it. I ended up buying a cheap set of tires for the car. They were rubbish. the rubber been so hard it was last forever, but also not able to grip to the dirt. I think that made the whole exercise that little bit harder, may have to rethink the situation, cause the kit tires were much nicer (and don’t really want to spend massive amounts on high grip, quick wear alternatives).

After Knox i went up to templestowe to run the mini. I haven’t driven the mini for ages, and I don’t believe i have driven the Hobbywing brushless system at templestowe. For today, i popped on some new tires, Team Powers 36′s, and the car was a delight to drive. The hobbywing was smooth, and responsive and onlookers were even impressed with the little cars speed. And the tires, where the durga’s were a disappointment, these ones were fantastic! The extra grip they provided over the kit ones was amazing. This grip was so good it begun to cause me problems. I was able to carry so much more speed into the corners that I was beginning to roll over through the faster ones! They also still look like new after a 40 minute run. I give both products 2 thumbs up.

Today really reminded me how much fun it is to drive on actual tracks. To have a purpose and course forces you to drive the cars, not just go flat out in a straight line, spin, and go back the other way. Great fun.

Check out the knox track and the new tires on the mini below (and i am hoping that apple will give me some money for some nice ad placement):

knox knox knox

knox knox knox

knox knox knox

Overheard In Knox…..

At the Knox Offroad RC track, while driving the durga…….

Little kid 1: you ask him

Little kid 2: no you ask him

Little kid 1: no you ask

Little kid 2 to me: Excuse me, but can we have a drive of your car

* Thoughts of introducing a new kid to the sport, giving them the rush of a powerful rc car, the joy and excitement for them, and the fear of a parent as they think of how much it will cost them. Then the thought of trees, poles and clubhouses and my newly fixed car *

Me: no