Blog active again, a.k.a. July update

So i have been away for some time.

No real reason for that.

Mostly, i have been driving cars and developing my own parts, for drifting/performance.

I've repaired some cars, crashed some and i am not nearly done, driving&experimenting, having fun&crashing..

..but i haven't left the rc sailing hobby.

All along i have been sailing evolution and for the last month or two fila 89, with mostly evolution guts(rigg,keel,rudders). Fila 89 is fast, not much faster than evolution, but handles better, gets up to speed faster. It will be raced in the end of august in the model olympics. Trying to take all the top spots from the get go.
So far in the F5g sailing season i have been doing great. Not sure if the boat(evolution) is  fast or my sailing is that good :D.
Videos of races follow on yt.
Posts on fila 89 follow.
A super narrow f5g boat follows.

The Jif got it's fair share of sailing too. Rg's are funny as hell, 270g of ballast on a 44cm ultra thin bendy keelfin and a full sailarea 90cm tall rigg make for a boat that is capable of carrying the same rigg up to 15knots, gusting to 20.
Damn that v botom can plan downwind. Not sure if it is actual plnning but is exceeds the hull speed for sure.
Project angeldust got dropped after a desk lamp heated the 3d printed plug so it got deformed.
A post on jif follows.

Footys have been down tho. I made it to the goldcup in Germany, but with prototypes of questionable speed. With noone to compare to, and not as much fun as the faster rg65 and f5g i won't sail footys often in the near future. The goldcup result confirms that.
Footys didn't grow roots in Slovenia, despite me bringing the footys to every rc event i went, giving them and lendind them to anyone interested.
Only two Karo replicas were built, but they weren't really race capable.(yet)
Now i am to busy&have other interests to actively promote footys here in slo. But footys are still great boats, and i will, maybe, take part in future goldcups with a borrowed boat(ICE would be nice, or a Slim perhaps..)

Rc-sailing.net, i have been following the forum for years, before i made my own blog, before i've built my first footy.
Now everytime i try to enter it a vbulletin message appers: "Sorry. The administrator has banned your IP address. To contact the administrator click here"   ...i have written (clicked) messages to the admin. But with no reply, not sure why all the devices i use got banned, And i don't think i've done something wrong according to forum rules.
I have yet to try other contacts to reach the admin.
If anyone has any info on the subject please contact me.
From time to time an interesting topic does pop up in the forum, and i would like to be a part of it, or at least read it.


And that would conclude the "july update".

Hitting the "real" world with the sakura.

Finally, the car is set to chase down some CS/4wd drifters on local parking lots, and show them what is real rc drifting! :P
The goal is to keep the setup between carpet/slippery surface/ asphalt as similar as possible, because i run all "terrains" almost one after another.
The current setup is all about the tires and rear spring stiffness.
Front are ansmann touge tires, which are super hard, alowing the fron end to slide also, preventing the twichiness that rwd cars experience when there is no gyro.
Rear are Hpi t-drift radials, which are not good drift tyres at all since they are grippy, and not very predictable. But with the backpack(battery behind the back axle) they work good, providing the much needed grip.
Front shocks are still vertical, with hard springs(equivalent to 3racing orange), rideheight is not limited or set, droop is as much as the shock allows=geat response from fron wheels even on uneven surfaces.
Rear shocks are tilted abit, the same as they are for some months now. Springs are 3racing orange, and the amount of preload on the rear springs is responsible for all the cars handling. No droop at the rear, rideheight is 8mm.
Asphalt is considered as the primary surface, because asphalt is everywhere and all drift meets/competitions here are on asphalt.
The focus is speed and agressive transitions(besides fun offcourse). I will have to work on tandem skills when i find someone who drifts near me.

Below are some clips of dialing in rear preload on some ruff ground.

Some MST tires are on the way, maybe those tires can make the car more balanced in terms of compound(front/rear)

So far so good, i am happy with the setup, feels good and is fun tho it is sort of intense to drive.

To sum up, i only have to change three things when going from surface to surface.

1.Tires:
-carpet=hard allround(sakura stock/ansmann touge)
-slippery surface=t drift radials allround
-asphalt=touge front, t drift rear
2.Ackermann
-at full lock i like some ackermann on all surfaces, more on asphalt and carpet to make the hard tires grip.
-less on slippery surface, because t drifts are to grippy anyway.
-the number is between 2-8deg, and is set by eye(but was also measured, once on every surface)
3.Rear preload
-very little on carpet, about 3mm
-more on slippery s. 5-10mm
-maxed out or some mm less than maxed out on asphalt


Additional mods to the car are:
-Lowered final drive ratio(using front axle pulley on the rear), better throttle response and less strain on the torqueless motor
-cooling fan to keep the brushed motor cool(can't wait to see the, so they tell me, outdated silver-can kick some brushless ass)


Preparations for F5g sailing seasons are ongoing, more on that soon.
That's it.

Rwd is what real rc drifting is.

During busy school days i get my relief by driving my sakura d3 rc car.
The car is getting better and better, and soare my driving skills.
Over the pas month some new parts where designed and build for the car, mostly steering components to improve handling.

here is the right steering arm, which is 3d printed in green, and enables the wheel to get more lock, but there is still room for iprovement

a green "achslenkel", stering hub, is a heavy duty design, shock clearance is les than a mm at full lock

Ackermann isn't bad at all.

This is the type of wheels i use, 5mm offset, "gangster steelies" with a 15mm lip

Deepdish is my style

The car runs superbly, looks ok, and is fast, now running hpi t drifts allround. these tyres give me enough grip to keep up with awd guys on all surfaces.
Hopefully this will become the first competitive rwd drift car, and even with no gyro.

Some indoor clips below:

Drift cars and such

Lately, a lot of time went into rc cars, more specifically two 3racing sakura D3's.
The sakura is a great chassis, everything is adjustabble, the plastic is hard, all the screws are aluminum, with a fine thread, everything fits perfectly and al parts fit perfectly.
I got mine from R2hobbies, for 120$, shipping incl.
No the cheapest countersteer drifter out there but one that can stand up to cars that are three times the price.
Offcourse the it is not prefect, the main belt is too lose, the problem can be fixed, by deleting the rear belt tensioner(the rear can be tensioned via excentric diff holder) and mounting it on top of the upper deck like this:

The pins that hold the CVDs together keep sliding out, despite the screw holding them in place. 

The steering system puts quite a lot of strain on the servo.

The car originally comes with CS, in rc drift world that means that the rears are spinning more than the fronts(1:2.16 in this case). This gives the car a more realistic feel, while having the control of 4wd when drifting.

With the sakura you need a front one way deferential instead of a solid axle, because the way tha components are layed out it is impossible to drift long corners at speed with a solid front axle, you will just spin out.

Another thing is that the antenna tube doses not fit into any of the two given parts for mounting it, so u have to drill one of the in order to fit it.

I have all ways been a fan of rwd rc drifting, because its just real, it ain't cheating like some say.
But a 1/10th scale rc car is a light, supper unstable platform to do that. So it is a challenge, and i like 'em.

During december of 2013 i've slowly been improving the car, using my knowlage obtained from rc car racing and searching the web for tips. the method was trial and error obviously.

So this is where the car is at:

Rears are stock tires on stock rimes(5mm ofset i belive), fronts are ansmann touge, but are identical to the stock, the reason i run them is that they were on a crazy offset rimm(9mm)

The battery is a robitronic 2s, relocated to the back, to give more grip and a smoother drift curve

80g ballast in front for a better steering response

the hubs have been re-drilled, the c hubs are cut to give more room.

this is the max lock, note the big ackermann angle

made of a leftover pice of glassfibre laminate, this skid enables me to jump and attack the curbs(prevents the foam gripping, and spinning the car)

this is a great pistol i am using, it is expensive tho

power comes from a prehistoric tamiya black ecu and a 540 brushed motor

the set up, oil is as by manual, rear springs are sakura orange(stiff) fronts are 1.35mm thick from an old rc car highly important is the shock anglem note the holes on the shock tower

the 9mm offset ansmann wheel, front camber is 8deg, caster is stock

this is the body ia am using, it is not finished yet, the fitment is god, note the rear wheel looks retarded in this picture, the camber is negative not positive

I don't use gyro, maybe will in the future, but for now i like the pure drivers car!

The huge ackermann angle seen above helps the car's stabillity, the inner wheel has always more gripp and gives direction, the outer one stabilises the agressive changes to grip of the inner tire.(inner=the one with more lock)
These agressive changes of grip come from the change in angle of attack that the tire has in refference to the direction in which the car is going. Meaning that the tyre does not always point into the that direction the car is going(cause i dont have 10 milisec reflexes to drive the car around a perfect curve)

here are some running clips from the hallway:

The current car weight is 1307g, which is far to light for good asphalt running, it works well on polished concrete, carpet and at home, but i have yet to find good tyres for the street.
Run time with this battery is 30-35min which is very good.

below is a friend sakura, mostly stock, with a brushless motor, he is waiting for a one way diff but other than that it's running fine with a similar shock set up.(difference= front springs)

The electronics have to bi mounted, and new conectors will be used

a nissan r32 body will  be used with this one, tires will be stocks and those ansmann touges as they are 10€ per set of four.

lock difference between mine and his