Monday 29 October 2012

AWESOMATIX A700 New parts

Some more new parts announced by AWESOMATIX for the latest editions of the A700 car.
 

 New plastic lightweight diff holders
 
New two piece outdrives for easier removal and maintenance
 
 
 
New steering plate for easier adjustments
 
 New two piece motor mount 
 
 
New gear diff set with metal internal parts
 
 
 New short steering block

 
Finally a modification I did on my car in order to improve the consistency of the rear toe-in settings. I managed to hold the toe-in link on the main bulkhead thus making it considerably longer than standard and in theory this minimizes the change in teo-in angle during suspension movement. Additionally the turnbucle is fastened further in into the ball cup and provides a stronger setup.
This same setup of the toe-in link is standard on the newest editions that use the updated AM01-1 Gear Box.
 

Thursday 25 October 2012

America's Cup 2013

The America's Cup is the oldest trophy in international sport. It is about sailing and involves the fastest most technologically advanced sailboats with the best sailors and the biggest budgets ofcourse.
 
Teams are now testing and practicing with their new boats for the actual America's Cup race that will take place in July 2013.
 
These boats are twin hull catamarans with massive fixed wing mainsails 40 meters high (approximately 12 story building height).
 
For the first time in its history the boats involved are designed with hydrofoils in order to lift off the sufrace of the water and achieve incredible speeds.
This new approach comes with many challenges and as you will see below the risk and danger involved is very high.

The boat from Team New Zealand:













The boat from Team USA:







Team Oracle USA 17, AC72 foiling: (skip to 3:11 for the actual action)




Disaster strikes for Team Oracle USA 17:





Tuesday 9 October 2012

2012 National title. Final race & Championship

So the final race of the year for the National Federation's 2012 Championship is now over. The result is that I lost for the 2nd consecutive time the title. The bad thing is that I tried quite a lot but it just wasn't my day, or better yet, my season. The good thing is that the winner is super cool guy and a very desrved Champion. Throughout the season my driving has been off, never as focused as I've been in the past, with many errors and inconsistent driving. Nick Geo (the 'Kid') on the other hand avoided any big mistakes all season and in the last race where everything was at stake he performed flawlessly, with a superb TQ run and 2 clean wins in the first two Amains.
I made a mess on my qualifying run and ruined a new set of tyres and then, starting 2nd on the grid, I simply did not have the pace to chase Nick in the Amain finals.
I take some comfort in the fact that I achieved a new lap record but on the other hand that confirms that the car had the potential but the driver simply failed. Anyway that's racing.
The car was running quite well and I am very pleased with the way it behaves. The deciding factor was my bad driving and then the lack of power as I had set up the speedo with wrong settings giving me too much power at the start and then big drop off after the 2nd minute.

Here are some videos that Nick F. recorded, for which I thank him very much!


My 3rd and final qualifying attempt in which I finally managed to complete a run without mistakes. Unfortunatelly my tyres had already run 4 minutes in the previous attempt and were simply to old to give any chance in getting pole.


Amain Nr.1


Amain Nr.2


Amain Nr.3 pretty much sums up my season with a spectacular full speed exit. (note the carbon "THiNK" wing did not brake!)


Some pictures thanks to rcdevil.gr

 
 




Champion's car!