The 13th edition of the â Super Glisseâ™ (â Glisseâ™ means â slideâ™ in French) race was hosted last Sunday 7 April 2013 at the Auto Model Club Rumilly (AMCR) in France. The limited number of 50 participants were reached and were welcomed by the AMCR clubâ™s crew.
The principle of this race was exactly the same as touring car racing, except we were provided with very hard drift type tyres and the improvised race track was on a very smooth and slippery surface (no tyre additive allowed). Somewhat a combination of a drift style touring car race, which saw 3 Qualifications and 3 Finals, with rules similar to the traditional touring car racing.
(click to enlarge)
I was looking forward to this interesting challenge as it was completely different from the traditional touring car racing, as there was supposed to be zero (or very little) traction in play here. This was the time to test my knowledge and see if I could generate enough grip, with setup changes, to drive my XRAY T4 around the track without sliding (or sliding less).
At my arrival at the fantastic AMCR facility, I was darned. Visibly since this was the 13th edition of this race and most of the top pilots had their speed secrets for such grip-less conditions. Some cars had a ton of added weight to their cars and others with â hugeâ™ 1:10 off-road sized wings on their touring car bodies.. Here I was thinking to my-self, I have this bone stock T4 which is specially engineered for high grip tracks and probably the lightest touring car on the r/c market, with my Mazda Speed 6 light weight body and â tinyâ™ touring car wing, cut down to spec.
After giving a test spin on the newly glued tires I did the necessary logical setup changes, oils, springs, diff positions and diff weights. How the car would handle during was going to be a complete surprise.
Qualifications were 8 mins long! During the 1st qualification I rediscovered the car. With the added traction, my XRAY T4 was gripping more noticeable than others, but still controllably sliding in the corners. My XRAY T4 was so predictable that it was so easy to drive. I felt in perfect symbiosis with it, as if it were an extension of my body controlled by my mind. I TQâ™d qualifications 1 and 3, permitting me to sit at the top of the starting grids for the finals.
With a change in diff oil for the finals my XRAY T4 was even better. With the advantage of sitting on pole I was able to have clean starts to all of my finals and winning them all with one lap more than the rest of the field. Canâ™t find the words to explain how well my car performed so here is a video of A final 2.
Conclusion:
Though the XRAY T4 might have seemed to be architecture for high grip conditions like those found in the Euro Touring Series (ETS), it even works perfect on very low grip conditions.
