|
(click to enlarge) |
|
| Race report by Cham Dassanayake |
|
Happy New Year to all! My R/C year started out pretty well and I foresee it to get better! Firstly, my darling wife gifted me with the most anticipated 1/10th scale 2WD car on the market - the XB2! And secondly I have gotten authorization (the family guys know what I am talking about) to participate in three big races in the first quarter of 2016! Wasnâ™t looking forward to it in 2WD, until I unwrapped my Christmas present and found a package with HUDY tape all around it.. Competition.. here I come...
This is my first XRAY 1/10 buggy! The build went super well and easy. The only thing I can complain about was popping the ball studs in! I had sore fingers for days. Actually that is not a bad thing, as I knew this would mean no camber links coming un-done during a race! How many times has that ruined oneâ™s race? The quality of the kit is un-comparable. The precision of its production is proved by the friction free transmission.. it just spins forever.. Some racers might want to add just a little more drag brake..
With the above being mentioned, I was super anxious to get my 2WD competing in a race, and see where I could place it. The first race of the season for me was the Swiss Indoor Off Road Cup (SIORC).
As usual the ERMC team put together a very fun and demanding track layout, which I personally found to be the most challenging of the season, in terms of track layout. It was an easy to go slow and dare you to go fast type layout. Not to speak of my challengers, who used the year-end holidays to brush-up their driving skills and fine tune their set-ups.
I was pretty confident coming into the race as at my local track the car work lovely out of the box set-up. I therefore started the day, using the kit set-up and started from there.
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
The practice round also served as the re-seeding round, based on the fastest two consecutive laps. Once I managed to put a decent two consecutive laps, I started attacking and pushing the car. The carpet being ultra-thin, I qualified the grip being low, and was missing the incisive front end I normally had at my local track, compared to this small tight track with the box set-up. From here I knew I had a few tweaks to do before I can contend for the podium. Immediately after marshalling I changed the caster to 26 degrees (from 28.5) and reduced the rear toe to 3 degrees (from 4).
Q1:
Re-seeding had me starting 2nd in line and soon I was heading for TQ until I made a silly mistake which cost me 5 seconds, and the TQ time. Still not satisfied with the front end reactivity I removed the front wing and placed my front shocks up-right.
Q2:
Having messed up my first qualifier, and starting 3rd in line, I imposed on myself a handicap with slower cars in front of me.. Having a good pace again I was heading for a TQ run. Due to some heavy traffic issues I lost time and despite my car being the fastest by far I only managed 2nd fastest. I was the first 2WD racer to break in to the 14 second mark, and being four tenths of a second faster than any other 2WD! Wanting to understand how the XB2 reacted to some further changes, I decided to redo my second pair of shocks with fresh oil and remove the up/down limiters.
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
Q3:
Starting 2nd in line, I was astonished how the car reacted to the setup changes. The additional weight transfer made a difference, despite the heavy tire wear. I was actually finding the carâ™s rear delicate on throttle. I might have taken things a bit too far.
I ended 3rd on the grid for finals. There were two XB2s in the A main (limited to a max of 8 drivers). And it was the first race ever for both XB2s!! (Paul Franceschi qualified just behind me, 4th on the grid)
Final 1:
Having suffered a loose rear I moved the pack backwards and inversed the bushings on the caster blocks for a higher roll center. At the start of the tone, I conserved my third place for a few corners and quickly grabbed second place. A lap later I made a mistake as I still had a little less rear grip, and got myself caught in the timing loop bridge. Pole man had check-out early. Loosing many places I was able to make my way up back to third, despite heavy battling for second place.
Final 2:
Deciding to re-balance the car by adding a millimeter more to the inner rear camber link, I started the second and last final determined to win. The change to the camber link was magical, and the car was perfect despite the worn-out tires. My fate unfortunately was a remake of the final 1. Pole man checked out again and after being forced into an error I ended up dead last. I managed to tear my way back to third place.
With the accumulation of the two finals I would end up third. Not bad for a first outing with the XB2, but not 100% satisfied, as I didnâ™t do the XB2 justice.. To be more optimistic, I have a starting point for the next SIORC. My XB2 was the fastest by half a second on the fastest lap. This could only mean I could only do better next time!
Here is Paul Franceschiâ™s car and his description of the XB2 is: âś Premium-quality, engineered with a purpose, and yet accessible to allâť
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
| Final results 2WD: |
|
1. Arnaud Buffat
2. David Naldini
3. Cham Dassanayake - XRAY XB2
4. Cyrille Gruaz
5. Didier Baltensperger
6. Nicolas Albina
7. Daniel Favre
8. Paul Franceschi - XRAY XB2
|
|
