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The summer is over, finally. Why do I say âśfinallyâť do you say? I love this hobby⦠the cars, the racing atmosphere, the R&D work, the excitement and adrenaline. But this summer was really extremely exhausting and I am happy it is over so I can have a few days to rest, relax and then take the time to summarize everything â“ all the small details and situations we have experienced this summer. The high pressure from all the competition in this industry does not allow for much sleep so despite looking for a much-deserved break I know we to forego rest a little while longer and move on once again.
This summer was certainly very demanding and exhausting, but at the same time it was extremely successful for us and I had many incredible moments of happiness and satisfaction for the entire team. We also had to face moments of sorrow and disappointment, but such is life and the daily challenge of a model car designer. We live through a lot of moments but take only the best and look for future improvement all the time. Now in a relaxing mood â“ without the stress of an upcoming race â“ I can summarize the summer of 2009. |
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European Championship "B" 1/10 Nitro Touring Cars
With the most of XRAY cars on the entry list; with TQ position; with 6 cars in the main final; with 2 podium finishes; with the Junior title; and with the EC victory â“ this race could not have been more successful for XRAY. A perfect job by the whole team who worked very hard the entire week and a well-deserved win for Freddy Sudhoff from Team XRAY Germany supported by Bertram Kessler, and a 3rd place position for Daan Jacobs from Netherlands. This race was a shining moment for young Italian racer Biago Spataro who was crowned the European Junior Champion. |
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European 1/8 Off-road Championship
The most competitive race with extremely competitive ambitions and efforts from all major manufacturers â“ to be exact I counted 17 different teams and brands on this race. With 180 drivers on the entry list I was very happy that the XRAY XB808 was the second most frequently used car. The highest ambitions I had was to get some cars into the final and get a podium finish. In the end my ambitions were only partially fulfilled. Teemu Leino was the only one who got into the main final, while the only podium finishes for Team XRAY were the 3rd place Junior position but also 1st and 2nd places in the Senior race. |
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| Personally for me this Championship was one of the best as I earned a very nice Senior Vice-Champion title right behind Italian teammate Stefano Moretti. It was a great personal achievement for an old papa such as me. Professionally I could imagine a better result but to be realistic I achieved fairly good results within such a strong competitive environment. I will certainly be looking to improve in the future. |
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European Championship 1/10 Nitro Touring Cars
If I had to rate the most successful races for Team XRAY, then this one would definitely be the best of the best. With more than 50% share of the entry list; with 8 out of 10 cars in the main final being NT1; with all 3 podium finishes; with the Junior title earned by Biago Spataro (who already grabbed the same title at the EC âśBâť ) â“ we could not have had a better possible result. Dirk Wischnewski, once again supported by Bertram Kessler, earned the very well-deserved title for the entire team; and young Swedish star Alex Hagberg shone at his first large nitro touring race by earning the Vice-Champion title. I left Italy SO very happy, satisfied, and proud⦠and that is probably one of the biggest understatements of my life. |
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European Championship 1/10 Electric Touring Cars
After all the great moments this summer I was looking forward to this race with high expectations but also with huge respect. For the last few months we were fully focused on nitro touring and preparations for off-road races, so preparation time spent on the electric touring car Euros this year was minimal. The competition in this category was turbulent once again within the last year, and the competition has focused a lot of attention to prepare for this race. Due to lack of time, we were not able to get any practice while the competition did their homework with several practices at the track. With no practice and an extremely demanding track, right from the beginning we were behind the competition. Considering that attention to the smallest details in touring car set-up is the most critical thing amongst all the RC hobby categories and with only a few runs during the entire event, we had hard times in the qualifiers to catch up. |
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| At the end it was only Alex Hagberg who was able to qualify into the main final and I was disappointed by the overall result. Even the fact that XRAY was the most frequently used car on the entry list and that on the last day after we finally found the correct set-up and that Teemu in the B final was achieving the same overall finish time as the best drivers in the main final⦠these positives did not improve my disappointment. The disappointment was really only personal because the team had worked very hard and did the very best possible, the car has worked well and at at the end we were able to find the set-up so it was very obvious that the missed practices and lack of preparation prior this race really affected us greatly. It sure goes to show that in high-competition racing there is no chance for those who do not focus their efforts and resources on the exhaustive practices and preparations. Well, such is racing and everyone (including the competition) always pushes the limits; either you are able to keep up or you lose. |
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European Championship 235mm On-road
Despite this class being not as popular as it used to be several years ago, and despite XRAY not having a purpose designed car for this category, it was still great news that the NT1 modified for this class won the European Championship race. The NT1 platform keeps collecting the wins all around and adding this European Champion title really improved my mood.
With all the up & downs I am generally very satisfied with this summer and all the races and results. Finally it was the right moment to realize this and say to myself that it is time to move on. |
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| After the thrilling summer races we headed to a relaxing race in Hong Kong : the Asian XRAY Nitro Touring Challenge. After all this summerâ™s races when I have been all the time on the pins & needles watching for team work on the set-ups and putting in maximum effort every minute, this was a great change for a relaxing race. We met with XRAY drivers from around the Asia and had great times talking with all the people, taking photos and giving autographs, discussing NT1 technical and set-up questions, and simply enjoying the friendly atmosphere. Along with the fun factor we also had some thrilling racing moments as well. With competition including World Champion Surikarn and Martin Hudy, the competition level was very high and everybody enjoyed this great race. We will continue with the XRAY challenges next year as well. |
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The summer is over which means the winter indoor season is coming up very quickly. That means we now must concentrate all our time and energy on the electric-powered cars: T2, X10 and XII. Anytime you think you have a perfect design, there is always something that changes the situation and forces you back to drawing board. The main influencing factor for the further development of the touring car platform (and also all other electric-powered cars) is that LiPo batteries have now become the standard. New rules and new technologies require always updates in the platform as well.
The main challenge with furthering the T2 platform was to make the car design accommodate both standard sub-cell batteries as well as LiPo batteries. Both have completely different designs, sizes and weight which greatly influence the weight of the car and of course its balance. As I have mentioned in previous columns we have already spent a lot of time on further development of the car and we had some great improvements, but we have also faced some situations when new parts did not give any improvement or even on some particular track conditions made the performance even worse. The goal of course is to look for such a compromise where you can get maximum speed, good steering and high corner speed and desired traction, while still allowing the car to be forgiving and easy to drive. To blend all of these features requires real alchemy and countless hours spent testing and designing.
Between the initial prototypes and the final-stage prototype we made 6 completely different designs which were tested and compared. To keep testing data relevant and objective we had to run under the same conditions and also use a variety of conditions at the factory indoor & outdoor tracks and also at the very old low-traction outdoor track in downtown Trencin. Most of the time was of course spent on the indoor track which allowed for the same conditions and where every small detail in handling and performance was immediately noticeable. As I was very busy with new projects and production planning, Martin took the lead with preparing prototypes and testing during the day, and just after the whole day work I was able to stop by the tracks to give some side-by-side testing. The tests were performed with the standard T2â™009 as well.
All the different prototypes had specific advantages, but their mutual characteristic was that every one of the designs was faster and more easily handling than the T2â™009 if you can believe it! It was interesting that the most noticeable differences were on the outdoor track. Some of the cars used to âśpushâť more in the corners, while some of the others had less steering. Of course these differences were very small and for typical drivers might have seemed insignificant, but for professional drivers those were big differences; to reduce a lap time by a fragment of a second it may mean at the end of a 5min run the difference of 2 seconds, which may be difference between making the main final or a lower sub-final. |
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During the past several weeks we have put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears at the tracks to test everything possible⦠and I can honestly say that we have tested almost everything. From different lateral chassis balance (and also side direction), through over a dozen different-style bulkhead designs with different suspension mounting systems, different single- and multiple- steering systems and Ackermann positions, to different overall chassis and front and rear suspension strength and flexibility. Not only were the milling and cutting machines kept busy with dozens of different prototypes being produced over such a short period of time, but also the graphite milling machine was almost exclusively reserved and busy producing dozens of different chassis, top decks, and shock tower designs.
After several weeks of active testing we have collected feedback on all the different parts specific for each prototype and mixed the high points of all the good ideas into one final prototype with some minor final adjustments. We realized that we actually have to modify almost all of the parts! So, when we got to this point we realized that this was the time to move on. So we can finally acknowledge that the final prototype will be known as the T3.
After the T3 prototype hit the track I was very pleased with the new track record lap times flashing across the screen. After running a few batteries through it I was very satisfied with the handling of the car which was not only faster but also had much better corner speed and generally the car was more forgiving and more predictable. I was happy with the performance but I still felt the car was missing some aggressiveness and I had the feeling we could still squeeze more out of the car. So we returned back to the computer and after several months of intense computer and track work we were happy that we were able to maximize the carâ™s performance; once again we have raised the bar. |
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So what is actually new? Almost everything! New chassis; new longer top deck; new layshaft mounting; more centralized motor position; all-new bulkheads and suspension holders; new steering block for better cornering, new servo saver position and Ackermann; new front and rear suspension arms; new rear shock tower with higher roll center positions; new geometry for shocks, roll centers and anti-roll bars; and plenty of other details including Multi-Flex system with alu top deck mounts for high-traction tracks. And of course the main goal of optimizing the platform for LiPo batteries was achieved. With a very smart drivetrain design and chassis layout you can turn around the diff and belts positions to transform the sub-cell optimized platform into a Li-Po optimized design. There is much more great stuff which I am sure will once again make all XRAY fans happy and satisfied and will help them get into the Winnersâ™ Circle.
Do you think my summer was busy? Heck, yeah! It was not only busy but was full of adrenaline, excitement, joy, happiness and satisfaction for the very dedicated work of the entire R&D, racing and support team. A great team with great results. I cannot wait for the futureâ¦there are of course plenty of other projects and products in progress.
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See you around the tracks. Enjoy the ride and â til next timeâ¦
Dipl. Eng. Juraj Hudy
XRAY Chief Designer
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