The Tigermoth flies and then flies the coop...

So, the other "alternative" car that I was looking at before settling on the Photon was the Tigermoth LCG V10. I liked the layout with everything straight down the middle like the Losi, and the laydown shocks were an interesting feature. I didn't get a real warm and fuzzy from their presence on rctech.net - I had asked if they had an electronic version of the manual available and got nothing but silence. I'm very happy with my choice, and think I would have regretted very much choosing the Tigermoth over the Photon.

Without further ado :




So Dave had brought it out for one night of testing - he had some problems with the car mostly related to fit and finish and having the "Oreo cookie" (carbon fiber) de-laminate on the steering bellcrank. Nothing too major or unfixable, but he couldn't get anyone from Tigermoth on the phone or to respond to his e-mails for a few days, and when they did finally respond the answer was "figure it out yourself", which really did not sit well with him - so he very politely let them know he would not be racing for them at this time and proceeded to send the cars back!

However - he did manage to marshal this night!

Nevermind that all the other cars are lined up like they would before a race even starts...

Vintage Trans Am - Early August Edition

It's been a couple weeks since I've updated, sorry folks! I was on vacation at Gen Con last week, and hadn't had time to post anything about the racing from August 5th before I left. Sadly my memory isn't as sharp on that night as it would have been two weeks ago, but what I do remember.

A - The track was unchanged from the previous week
B - My first qualifier was faster than my second
C - I qualified 2nd
D - Fast lap was again a 13.0 - no 12.9 for me :(
E - I missed 23 laps again
F - There were 7 VTA guys - all in one heat, and paces varied between 18 and 23 laps

However, in the main, I was running in second a ways back from James, but Kevin and I were racing close for second and ran together for a good three minutes with the gap staying between .7 and 1.6 seconds until with about 30 seconds to go, Kevin boarded it giving me the easy second place. It was the first time in a long time I can remember that I was racing that closely for position and didn't get a shaky hand. I finished with a time almost as good as my qualifying, and very much recall how I had avoided any major incidents even with seven guys out there running around. After the race, Matt told me how he felt like a ping-pong ball out there - he had his fastest laps of the night but finished a number of laps below his qualifying pace due to the number of incidents he got tangled up in. It sounded like my story for three months and it took a lot of changes to get me past that (new car, new radio, more practice)

Gen Con was awesome - as always! It's like an extended family that I only see one week each year, but we get a years worth of socializing in during that time! I did wish I was able to race that Wednesday, because when I got home and showed up at the track on Monday for practice, it felt like I hadn't been there in forever. Racing night I heard Jeff talking to Matt and he asked "Where's Joe been?" - apparently I was hiding behind Matt or a pillar or something as he was only two pit tables down from me ;)

This week's track layout

Oh - Monday practice - what a good day that was! While I was gone, the track had changed slightly, and I had thought it was the same track until I looked up last weeks layout. The first 6 turns were the same, but the last 5 were changed, and this made the track quite a bit faster. In the first couple lap out, I turn a 12.2. I played with the car over the course of a few hours, changing roll centers, camber links, and rear toe, and am still hitting 12.2's for a fast lap. The last thing I do is clean the front tires off as they were getting a bit of buildup, and reduce the negative camber by about .25 of a degree. On the five laps I turned after that, my last four were 12.3, 12.1, 12.0 and 11.8. I pulled the car off the track and packed up on that string of laps! :D

Wednesday came, and I felt really good about it thanks to my practice session on Monday. James had even told me that Marc had said I was running fast (rumor mill of speed? - w00t!). I checked my car for loose screws, loose CVA joints, loose spool cups and anything else that could go wrong, and found nothing. I had found out on Monday that the short side of my spool is completely rounded out - it's only through sheer screw tension that it's not slipping. So, after finding no gremlins lurking, I went out for the first qualifier without changing a thing. There were only five of us tonight in VTA, but it was a large turnout overall with two heats of 1/12 scale as a bunch of Grand Rapids guys showed up. I'm in the fourth qualifying spot, ahead of everyone but Jeff - well, rather, Jeffs car being driven by Will... James jumps out and is on a great pace, and I have a slight bobble as turn 2 has next to no grip and I'm battling with the car through there. Both Kevin and I are on a 24/5:08 pace , but I close up on him and he lets me by and I finish with a 24/5:03 - fast lap 12.0.

Second qualifier - same ritual of looking for any gremlins, and find nothing, which is such a nice thing! The grip had definitely come up since qualifier #1, and the car is noticeably more stuck through turn 2. A minute or two in, and I stuff it against the board at turn ten, but get my own way out, losing about 3 seconds, which puts me just a bit ahead of Kevin. A lap or two later, and I turn the car hard into turn 2, and find it rolling on me - Luckily right back onto its wheels, and only losing a couple seconds. Now I'm behind Kevin, and pull up on him and we run nose to tail for a bit, with me getting the advantage in some corners, and he in some others - we're turning 12.4's, which is slower than my pace. Kevin lets me by and says "I'd rather let you by than see us both wreck" - well, thank you Kevin :) I proceed to string out a 12.1, 12.0, 11.9, etc. and put quite a bit of distance on him. I finish with a 24/5:06 - slower than qualifier #1, but turn an 11.995 - it's still an 11, and James and I are the only one who dipped into the 11's all night. Without those two incidents that could have been a 25 lap run - 25 is a goal then!

It's time for the main, and we're the last race of the night. I think I'm finally in the habit of checking everything I need to on the car now - I still find nothing loose or missing, which is still a welcome thing. It's then I realize I haven't changed a spur or a pinion in almost a month - I'm still running 100/45, which was what I put on back in July! The order is James, Me, Kevin, Matt and Jeff (who didn't compete well in either qualifier because he has a bad ball cup on the front of his car - change that out man!), and when the tone goes off, James is gone from me, and I am gone from Kevin, which is fortunate as my car is a little loose around turns 3 and 7. The race is fairly uneventful, however I notice that every time I'm getting close to passing Matt, he wrecks sepctacularly. He wrecked once just after turn seven, landing on his lid, I was right behind him, and give him a tap as he's right in front of me, which slows me just a bit but also rights his car. Four minutes in, Marc announces that I'm up to a 25/5:12 pace! I turn a couple more laps, and am closing in on Matt, who slows and pulls over on the inside of turn 6. I pass him, and about to thank him when he floors it and spears me as I hit the apex of turn 7, not such a huge wreck, but it's a couple second delay. With only 20 seconds left, there's not much time to make up the lost time, and I wind up finishing with a 24/5:00.32. James won, but was almost a full lap up on me, finishing with a 25/5:01 and sweeping the VTA points series, garnering a perfect score TQing and winning each of the first six weeks. I congratulated him, and knew he didn't plan to run the last two weeks because there was no need, but I told him I would be happy to finish in second behind him the last two weeks as I am enjoying chasing him down. Everyone I had set out to race with and pass I have. There are a few guys who were fast in VTA that don't show anymore or race VTA - Mike D, John, and Greg come to mind. I'm hoping they all want to race VTA again come the fall season.

I've got some pictures of Dave and his Tigermoth to post soon - he was tearing up the track on foams last night in between qualifiers in his new car... And like the sasquatch, Dave Johnson marshaling is a difficult thing to photograph...

Futaba 3pk - Before and After!

Well, thanks to Matt I snagged a couple shots of the new radio after I did my cleanup and instilled a little love into it.

Here's the before :


And the After :


Gone is the franken-grip handle. Gone is the stock wheel and foam. Time-wise, it had 3:36 on it when I got it, and after finishing practice today, it's already at 5:30.

I do still need to work on the foam from the new wheel - it was rubbing when I pulled it out of the bag this morning.

Vintage Trans Am - Freebie Friday

It's the late edition on Friday night! Why freebie Friday? On Wednesday, Marc drew my name in the new racer appreciation drawing where one racer on Wednesday gets to race for free on a Friday and vice versa on the Friday night drawing.

Not only was I racing for free tonight, but I received my new radio today! I have been patiently waiting to find a great deal on a radio, and just last week I did! 3PK, FASST module, receiver, FM module and receiver, nylon carrying case for less than you would pay for the FASST module and receiver alone! Now this thing was no beauty queen, but I had a good feeling that I could remedy that. I ordered a new Dynamite Red anodized aluminum wheel, a new grip and a dry cell holder for the radio in advance to be certain. I got the thing and immediately knew what kind of racing the previous owner did with it - there was dirt EVERYWHERE! Needless to say, I cleaned it up, put on my new parts, greased the wheel centering plastic (creaky plastic when turning the wheel - ewww!), removed the drop-wheel, replaced his mismatched screws with all new M3 stainless hardware and removed all the tape residue left over from removing the Frankenstein's monsters hand grip that had been field-engineered onto this radio. Cutting to the chase, it looks and performs like new now! I'll post before and after pics together early next week.

Oh, and since I had been thinking ahead by putting in that Futaba BLS451, I was able to put the transmitter into HRS mode right away :) This combination of radio, servo and car really is clicking - the radio really made the whole thing gel for me tonight!

Anyway - it's Friday, which means lower turnout and three qualifiers. I get a few laps practice with the new radio, and the car is loose mid-corner and pushes out of the corner - it was UGLY! I wrenched quite a bit after that before qualifier #1. I loosened the diff significanlty - it's still not free-wheeling loose like James runs, but it's super smooth and still not slipping. Then I also checked my suspension travel and droop and found it just didn't seem to be where I left it - one arm at each end was off pretty badly, so I evened everything out, taking just a bit of droop out of the rear and making sure I had just a bit in the front. I moved the inner rear upper camber link out to the middle hole to shorten that up just a bit, and then set all wheels to -2 degrees of camber.

Same track as Wednesday, it's just myself, James and Bob in VTA tonight. Qualifier #1 again was going to be my fastest - James didn't get to pass me until the absolute last minute and I turned a 22/5:10. I tagged a number of boards still getting used to the new radio feel, plus the car just TURNS! Fast lap of 13.2, and top 10 average lap was 13.477. Fast lap on Wednesday was a 13.549!

Qualifier #2 was much the same as #1, but I had two problems - the foam on the new wheel started rubbing against the face of the radio and wasn't centering properly since I have the centering spring very loose. Also, the front right tire was peeled from the rim on the outside lip. I only managed a 22/5:12 this time. Fast lap of 13.2 again! Filed the foam quite a bit more, can see daylight between the foam and radio face now!

Qualifier #3 was a near replay of #2 with two exceptions. I was on a 23 lap pace most of the time until I started banging off some boards, got stuck and needed marshalling - then James accidentially rolled me in turn 10 thinking I was going wide for him to pass me, when I was actually about to do it in turn 11. And again, the right front tire peeled off the rim. Time worsened to 22/5:14, but I was faster by quite a bit with a fast lap down at 13.091! After this qualifier, I noticed the front left CVA binding due to a loose setscrew/axlepin. Cue Incredible Hulk tightening job.

I glued the hell out of that right front tire for the second time tonight, and then I swapped the front tires from side to side, putting the lip that kept coming off in a position to where it would be pushed the opposite direction most of the time. I got about 5 laps of practice where I turned a 13.1, 13.2 and 13.3 plus two scrubbed laps. James asked to drive my car and did three to four laps - it wasn't to his liking and he wasn't too fast with it, and then, the car died in the middle of the sweeper - the right rear CVA came loose and the pin took a chunk out of the rear hub! I was able to get it fixed and I again performed my best imitation of the Incredible Hulk when I tightened it - so far, I've had to rebuild the joints approximately four times. James offered a suggestion of a drop of superglue, but that sounds a bit extreme - I'll get it sorted eventually.

The main started wonderfully! I didn't lead the first lap this week, but I was glued to James' rear bumper, and even got inside his rear fender a couple times - once in turn nine and again in turn ten, and was close enough to draft him down the straight, where I noted I didn't lose ground on him. He got some breathing room when I bobbled turn three - oh well! I kept him in my sights though and cranked out two consecutive 13.1's, two laps later a 13.038, then two laps after that a 13.098. I had a 14.7 in there for some reason, and on about lap 16 I boarded, having to bump my way out losing 2.5 seconds or so. I wanted 23 laps so badly, but I fell just short at 22/5:01. I'm certainly not upset though, because that's still outstanding as it's nearly 10 second better than my previous fast time, I almost broke into the 12's, improving yet another .2 seconds on fast lap and the best part : my 20 lap average was 13.545, faster than my fastest single lap on 13.549 just two days ago! James took fast lap in the main with a 12.599, but had a 12.505 in a previous qualifier. I'm closing up the gap slowly but surely, and am certain to surprise Kevin next Wednesday as he's running in the 22/5:10 neighborhood.

Later today - practice!