Fastest Banzai

[GMballistic]

46 minutes ago, Redback said:

There are no mounts, the wheel arches are way higher than they should be the body is resting on the shock towers if i used mounts it would be higher up.

Yeah looks like an awkward issue to fix. 

Obviously you don't have to cut the wheel arches to the marks on the body so my thought is it still could be made to fit but without seeing it in person it is a little hard to judge. 

[Redback]

1 hour ago, Jack Reacher said:

Make a flat plastic base to go on each set of mounts and use sticky back velcro, neat solution and no posts sticking out job done

  This wont work as noted there are no mounts the shock posts are to high and cause the body to be to high.

43 minutes ago, GMballistic said:

Yeah looks like an awkward issue to fix. 

Obviously you don't have to cut the wheel arches to the marks on the body so my thought is it still could be made to fit but without seeing it in person it is a little hard to judge. 

True but i did want the front as low as possible to stop air undercutting, ideally i want it to sit how it should anything higher shifts the CoG. I dont want the shock towers poking through also. Going to take some 🤔 to get right.

[tomr]

Is it possible to move the upper shock mounts inwards and cut the shock tower down  ?

[Redback]

57 minutes ago, tomr said:

Is it possible to move the upper shock mounts inwards and cut the shock tower down  ?

The front shocks stick out raising the body, I will need to fabricate a new front and rear shock mount to pull the shocks back somewhat.

 

2 hours ago, GMballistic said:

Yeah looks like an awkward issue to fix. 

Obviously you don't have to cut the wheel arches to the marks on the body so my thought is it still could be made to fit but without seeing it in person it is a little hard to judge. 

I was only considering cutting the front for some steering, would keeping the back covered help with airflow or make it balloon and take off?

[GMballistic]

Just now, Redback said:

I was only considering cutting the front for some steering, would keeping the back covered help with airflow or make it balloon and take off?

Causes parachuting sometimes/a lot of the time.
You're better off cutting out the back of the shell as much as possible. This is how the back of my Serpent S120LTX speed runner looks...

 

Regarding the issue with the body shell and shocks/shock towers I know a lot of speed runners in various scales who don't run any shocks at all with great success. Could make cutting down the towers easier if you didn't use shocks and just had tie rods instead. 
As an example you can see on Mark's car here he has no front shocks and just use tie rods. 

 

[Redback]

Didnt consider running without shocks, rather keep them for the time being and modify lightly to get the body to work.
Thank you for the cutting advice! this body has a pretty big cutout area as it is, will see how it runs and cut out more if needed.
All changes made with stock hardware no extra screws or longer ones needed...

Flipped around the front shock tower mounted it behind the diff, this pulls the top of the shock towers back allowing the bonnet to sit were it should.
Also flipped around the lower arms to allow use of the sway bar mounting hole for the shocks. Cut the foam bumper back a bit...

 

Cut the rear shock tower tops off and moved mounts, Inwards as cut off the body post mounts.

 

Wheels now fill up the wheel holes correctly. And front sits nice and low. 👍

 

Wew one less thing to send back 😃

Edited March 14, 2021 by Redback

[Lone-wolf]

Looks like body is sorted, now we just need to find a body to fit tomr strada

[GMballistic]

Great stuff @Redback .

Very happy some inventive thinking got the shell on nicely, ...now you just need to decide on a nice bright paintjob. 

[Redback]

Just now, GMballistic said:

Great stuff @Redback .

Very happy some inventive thinking got the shell on nicely, ...now you just need to decide on a nice bright paintjob. 

Just finished painting first coat and yep its very bright. Will post in a bit, not good at panting shells this is only the 2nd ive done. Came out better than the gatekeeper atleast haha.

[tomr]

12 hours ago, Redback said:

Didnt consider running without shocks, rather keep them for the time being and modify lightly to get the body to work.
Thank you for the cutting advice! this body has a pretty big cutout area as it is, will see how it runs and cut out more if needed.
All changes made with stock hardware no extra screws or longer ones needed...

Flipped around the front shock tower mounted it behind the diff, this pulls the top of the shock towers back allowing the bonnet to sit were it should.
Also flipped around the lower arms to allow use of the sway bar mounting hole for the shocks. Cut the foam bumper back a bit...

 

Cut the rear shock tower tops off and moved mounts, Inwards as cut off the body post mounts.

 

Wheels now fill up the wheel holes correctly. And front sits nice and low. 👍

 

Wew one less thing to send back 😃

Like a glove 👍 Top work mate 

Edited March 14, 2021 by tomr

[GMballistic]

Just now, tomr said:

Like a glove 👍 Top work mate 

Just to clarify it's the "like a glove" comment I'm laughing at. 

[Redback]

Cheers lads, like a glove indeed 😁

Battery bar that i should have made before but couldnt as didnt have posts long enough. replaced the stock  battery posts with body posts, 1.1 fit can now clamp down big batteries no worries.

[Redback]

Not bad, the masks came a bit loose so not the cleanest job. Should be easy to spot and know what direction its going in.

[Stormbringer]

Nice and bright mate mind take your sunglasses with you when you run it 😎

[GMballistic]

@Redback one thing about your new shell, ...I'd ditch the rear wing OR cut it flatter OR replace it with a flat one (if you've got any of that aluminium you had before a straight piece of that should be easy enough to make a spoiler from). 

The reason I say to change it is because the shape of that current wing at some speed will start putting too much pressure on the rear causing the front to lift. 

[Redback]

Edit: Rather than chain post...
Made a little holder for the gps speedo doodad.

Uses existing hardware, uses 2 screws for the top plate to hold it and the strap inplace.

And this is the max size battery the car can take, bracket lightened as no need for a solid lump of metal.

 

12 hours ago, GMballistic said:

@Redback one thing about your new shell, ...I'd ditch the rear wing OR cut it flatter OR replace it with a flat one (if you've got any of that aluminium you had before a straight piece of that should be easy enough to make a spoiler from). 

The reason I say to change it is because the shape of that current wing at some speed will start putting too much pressure on the rear causing the front to lift. 

Indeed was thinking it looked a bit extreme, cut it down, trimmed body, fibertaped the inside 2 rolls wasnt even enough to complete the job.

So moved on to re inforcing it with some stickers.

Foams fit. Couple of loose ends to sort out and its ready for ROSSA 😎

Still sorta a Banzai says so on the front 🥴😂

As a final bonus, and didnt think it would work with the size of the back window, can read the speedo without having to remove the shell. Win!

Edited March 15, 2021 by Redback
Stuff!

[Lone-wolf]

The Banzai has come along way, and looking very smart, whens next run................you know the ton is just waiting for you

[Stormbringer]

Looking really smart mate and awaiting results of your next run 

[Redback]

 

I'm keen to go again soon, got a few more things i want to address before attempting 80+ again.
Meanwhile i wanted to check if the driveshaft mod would even take 4s full throttle as i dont want a failure during a pass due to lack of testing and have only tested on 3s once.
So spun up the motor on the shelf to see what would happen, here are the results.

 

Thats max rpm, with all boosts turned up, with only mechanical timing changes left at stock.

 

Edit: upon watching the video back i can see the dogbone / drive saft bending slightly in the middle or am i just seeing things?

Edited March 16, 2021 by Redback

[GMballistic]

@Redback you could put a small O-ring inside your diff cup to take up the slack, ...you don't want to completely eliminate the movement though but you could lessen it a little.  
If you haven't an O-ring that'll fit you could use something else like nitro fuel piping or a small piece of silicone tubing.  

[Lone-wolf]

6 hours ago, GMballistic said:

@Redback you could put a small O-ring inside your diff cup to take up the slack, ...you don't want to completely eliminate the movement though but you could lessen it a little.  
If you haven't an O-ring that'll fit you could use something else like nitro fuel piping or a small piece of silicone tubing.  

great minds, i am thinking of adding a small o-ring each end to my vantage, a bit like some tamiya have on the dogbones

[GMballistic]

8 hours ago, Jack Reacher said:

great minds, i am thinking of adding a small o-ring each end to my vantage, a bit like some tamiya have on the dogbones

I learnt that trick a few years ago from some of the ROSSA speed run guys I run with. Knowledge is power and it's good to spread the wealth. 😉

[Redback]

Nothing really new to report, but thought there wasnt a better place to post this.
Same highspeed gearing on the Banzai on 2s
vs
a Stock DR10 on 2s (50% limited) then driven by me on 3s 120c maxed.

 

So the lad drove the Banzai in race 2-3-4 😱 Drove it very well for a first time racer, think might have to join a racetrack.

 

Speedo battery is dead due to the crash so no readings yet, was all about the fun anyway.

 

 

[RC-Complex]

On 31/01/2021 at 00:23, Redback said:

I wondered how fast can you push a cheapish ftx drift car go, build still in progress and no gps or real speed readings yet but here goes. Worth even doing probably not, fun experiment yeah! Maybe the topic should be titled "A clueless attempt at speedrunning a driftcar"

I picked the Banzai as i was looking at the HPI RS4 Sport 3 CE for a rally platform and the FTX being the same price and also shaft driven caught my eye.

Cheap spare parts & shares parts with the outlaw, vantage, carnage, eg the diffs, steering, bearings etc got me thinking about setting it up for rally or speedruns.

 

Gave it a go as stock drifting, was good fun and will keep the drift wheels as its a nice change.
Before going to my RW hardened pinion and spurs that are higher geared, given it a blast on the 30t stock pinion on rally block tires so slight over gear at the tires.
 

 

For the motor I started with what i used to use in the outlaw a HW 3652 3200kv & MAX10 SCT on 3s 120c lipo.

 

 

Started doing some test runs tired peeled off the rims after a couple of passes, so now mounted on crawler beadlocks.

No issue with peeling and the extra weight helps plant the power, if rotational mass is good or bad for speed runs i don't know, ive never done this before, just going with what works 🤷‍♂️

Added a gyro, mounted above the rear diff, mounted in foam for its safety.
Added a skidplate to help a bit with undercar airflow and keep some crud out, simple front diffuser that slides under the foam bumper and a basic rear diffuser.

 

If you snap a body post, it might be saveable with some heatshrink tubing, this one snapped at the base superglue and heatshrink, fixed body post.

 

 

Trying to reduce the amount of lift generated from pressure inside the body by covering the main offenders.

 

 

 

 

Will move to foam and might take it to ROSSA if its open this year to get some real data and see some real cars in action but till then the experiments will continue on rubber and roads.

No more power system changes till speedo arrives to get a base figure of what the stock gearing can do. Got a 4s motor im keen to try come the summer but need to cut the chassis for it to fit, also got a sensored system that if doesnt sell i might run in this.
 

What speed do you think it will hit, what speed do you think its currently getting in the videos 50ish mph?
I'm in a competition with myself to at least hit 70mph like JackR is trying with his Maverik Strada chassis. If it hits 100 i'd be amazed.

 

Hi

My banzai has been under extensive work, been trying to perfect her as an all rounder.

Finally got her going for speed runs and got 71mph at half throttle!!

Running a max 6 esc and 3674 2200kv surpass motor.

 

[RC-Complex]

2 minutes ago, RC-Complex said:

Hi

My banzai has been under extensive work, been trying to perfect her as an all rounder.

Finally got her going for speed runs and got 71mph at half throttle!!

Running a max 6 esc and 3674 2200kv surpass motor.