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