Monday 22 December 2014

Narrow carbon chassis

After a good year with the aluminum chassis I decided to try a variation of the design in carbon fiber. 

The chassis is made by Bezerk RC in Australia. (https://www.facebook.com/BezerkRc)

The quality is excellent. The fit of the parts is perfect and the dampers slide in the 'channels' smoothly and without much play.

Finally the finish is 3K gloss which makes it considerably more shiny than the standard carbon chassis we are used to.


Wednesday 5 November 2014

Greek National Championship 1/10 EP Touring - Race 3. Grand Final.

Last weekend, on the 1st and 2nd of November 2014 we had our last and decisive race for the 2014 National Championship in 1/10 EP Touring.
As I have already done a piece for each of the potential winners the race went down to the wire between Nick, Filip and me.
In the end it was a hard fought battle between Nick and me as Fillip lacked a bit of pace and could not consistently challenge us.
In qualifying I pretty much messed up.  I lost round one on new tyres by only 0.5 of second after 5 minutes of running and then on the following runs I ruined a total of 7 laps of tyre life due to unforced errors, going too deep on the curbs and flipping over.
I qualified 2nd behind Nick but Nick new already that he had this covered so I went for a more aggressive tyre strategy.
That almost, worked. Almost
Nick has proved to be a formidable opponent. He is fast, consistent, adaptive and what is now clear, rock solid in maintaining his composure. I tried everything I had on better tyres and he just did not blink once. Well done to him. A very well deserved win.
2013 had ended with a bittersweet feeling whereas 2014 has been a much more pleasant season.
I am delighted with my competitiveness and still being able to challenge for wins. It is not an easy task racing against young guns like Nick. Of course I expect that this competitiveness will soon fade as Nick is improving and new blood is expected to enter our series with more time, more budget, better support and very likely, although hard to admit, more talent.
I will not give up but I can only do as much as my schedule allows me.
In the end it is just a hobby and as long as I enjoy races like the one I just had, I am more than happy.

My focus will shift more on running well organized races and try and increase entries. It is vital to have new kids enter our hobby and I have a few ideas on how this can be achieved.
I am eager to implement them.

Most of the future posts will most likely have some new kit and equipment reviews but there will be no change of my race equipment as I like what I have and I am sticking to it.

Now enjoy some photos and two videos of the race:

Amain Nr. 1. I sacrificed a little pace on this one to gain an advantage on Amain Nr. 2 and Nr. 3.
The delayed start meant that tyres were cold and way off their operating temperature. We made a gents' agreement not to attack each other on the first lap until the tyres would start to work and all drivers respected this.




Amain Nr. 2. The decisive final. Faster starting proceedure meant better grip from the start and we were 'on' it from lap 1. Enjoy it..
























Sources:
1) Stelios Chatzopoulos via Facebook

Thursday 30 October 2014

National Championship 2014 - Title Contenders. Part 3

Part 3 and final of the title contenders review.
I've been racing the Awesomatix kit since 2012 and I've been slowly learning more and more about how it works, what needs attention and how to set it up.
Lately there has been a number of new parts introduced by designer and owner, Oleg and I've installed part of them, not all.
In its current form I think it is a very good platform and although international results may not do justice to the potential of the chassis, in regional and national championship it is doing pretty well both on carpet and on asphalt.
It is not a car you can built in one afternoon, install electronics and win the next day unless of course you get lucky with the set up. In general terms it will require a little getting used to and finding a basic set up that can work well in most conditions.
I think this is the level I am at now, where I can visit any track and be competitive in relative terms to the level we have in our country.

Car                   : Awesomatix A700 Evo

Motor               : Team Orion VST2 Light Weight 5.5T
Timing             : 4 lines (12 degrees I think)
Speedo             : Team Orion R10.1 Pro
Batteries           : Much More 6000mAh
Body                : Protoform LTCR Lightweight / Sick Paint
Years in racing : Since 1991
First race kit     : Yokomo YZ10 Works 91
Current results  : 8th in 1st race, 1st in 2nd race








Wednesday 29 October 2014

National Championship 2014 - Title Contenders. Part 2

Part 2 of my Championship title contenders and this time the focus is on Nick's car.
Nick has been the current 3 time National Champion, dominating seasons 2011, 2012, 2013 with consistent fast performance.
He has worked on his driving and car preparation very thoroughly and to my surprise he has adapted his driving according to the conditions, from the safe "start/stop" habit to a more flowing and fluid style. This has allowed him to be a contender at all tracks under any condition.
He enjoys the support of local Xray distributor and always tries to make time to test new things between his obligations at the shop.

Car                   : XRAY T4 '15

Motor               : HOBBYWING V10 4.5T
Timing              : 30 degrees
Speedo              : HOBBYWING XERUN V3.1
Batteries           : ORCA Infinite 6200 90c
Body                   : Protoform LTCR LightWeight / Nsquared
Years in racing : Since 2007
First race kit      : Kyosho V one RRR
Current results   : 2nd in race 1 and 6th in race 2












Tuesday 28 October 2014

National Championship 2014 - Title Contenders. Part 1

This year's National Championship for the 1/10 electric open mod touring class is one of the most exciting in years. We have one final race left and there is a three way tie between Fillip, Nick and me.

We all had good performances and bad luck and it is now up to who will finish the race at a higher position than the other two.

The race is coming this weekend and I've decided to make three separate articles for each of the three cars.

First up is Fillip's race car.


Car                      : Top Photon EX
Motor                  : Much More Fleta ZX 4.5T
Timing                : 20 degrees
Speedo               : Advanced Electronics BD
Batteries             : Vempire Racing 7200mAh 90c
Body                  : Protoform LTCR LightWeight / GX LightWeight
Years in racing  : Since 2004
First race kit      : HPI Micro RS4
Current results  : 6th in race 1 and 2nd in race 2.

Fillip is relatively new to our National Championship series. Prior to this year he was mainly competing in club racing. He has certainly improved a lot and he pays a lot of attention to detail while preparing his car, evident by the excellent condition of his kit shown below.
His car is very flexible with generally soft settings. I've paid close attention to his car in low grip conditions and he had excellent pace, much more consistent than my package.











Saturday 25 October 2014