My return to racing- GT12 Class- Schumacher Atom 2

[Stormbringer]

Good luck mate im rooting for you 

[PraetoR]

Thanks, man!

[lorrylemming]

Looks great, everyone knows racing stripes bring more speed.

[PraetoR]

4 hours ago, lorrylemming said:

Looks great, everyone knows racing stripes bring more speed.

That and the colour red...

 

ah, dammit!

[PraetoR]

I only just went and won my first ever A Final!! 

 

(Ignore the date. It's wrong).

 

 

Yeah, I didn't have the fastest lap, nor the fastest ten-lap average... but they crashed and I didn't! 

 

 

As a result, I've beaten Steve to 2nd in the Championship...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By a solitary point!

 

 

 

Absolutely over the moon. It's a shame this club doesn't actually celebrate, or do any fanfare for the Championship. My old club would have had a trophy night.

Ah, well.

 

Incidentally, going in, I thought the pressure was on Steve. I was one point ahead. I thought he HAD to beat me.

Turns out, his lowest points score was a 90 and mine was a 92, so he automatically gained two points on me if we both beat our lowest scores (due to the drop-score system). This meant, if we finished next to each other, then I had to beat him both in qualifying for the Final (which I did) AND beat him in the Final! Otherwise, he would have won.

 

I'm glad I didn't know that. Pretty sure I would have folded! 

Edited February 11, 2023 by PraetoR

[Stormbringer]

Congrats mate and really pleased for you well done 🏁

[PraetoR]

On 11/02/2023 at 11:58, Stormbringer said:

Congrats mate and really pleased for you well done 🏁

 

Thanks a lot! 

[totlxtc]

How i missed this I have no idea!

 

What an awesome thread read. Really enjoyed it with my morning brew. Having those issues and problems to overcome are part and parcel of the hobby and you overcame them, solved the issue and bounced to the top. Nice one!

[PraetoR]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!

[PraetoR]

Got myself 7 wins out of 7, including the C-Final win, at the Scottish GT 12 Regionals Round 2. 

 

Stuck my car under the barrier in the final qualifying race and therefore missed the B Final by 3 seconds! 

 

 

 

[totlxtc]

Nice one @PraetoR

Share the chocs out then!

[Stormbringer]

well done mate proud of ya 

[ReggieC]

Congrats buddy!

[PraetoR]

On 17/03/2023 at 16:13, totlxtc said:

Nice one @PraetoR

Share the chocs out then!

 

I'm afraid they're long gone... the woman got her hands on them. Typical!

 

 

On 17/03/2023 at 23:36, Stormbringer said:

well done mate proud of ya 

 

Thanks, man!

 

 

On 18/03/2023 at 12:18, ReggieC said:

Congrats buddy!

 

Thank you!

[PraetoR]

Long-overdue update!

 

Still enjoying the racing! Winter Championship for this year is well underway. I'm currently first in the standings, but only because every one of the very fastest guys have missed at least one round, each.

My average score is currently 95.88, out of 100. That checks out, the computer ranks me at a skill level of 96/100.

 

Again, Steve and I are swapping paint!

 

I've decided to build my brother-in-law a GT12 race car. He has never raced, but I know he quite fancies trying it.  He doesn't have a lot of money, so would never buy his own.

 

I wanted to get hold of an Atom 2, like mine. I figured a used one would be affordable, but they hold their resale value (because the Atom 3 is barely any better and a lot of people haven't bothered upgrading). As a result, Atom 2s were simply out of budget. Decided on a second-hand Atom 1.

It's still a lot of money, so not only will it be a joint present between Rachel and I and my mum and dad, but also a joint birthday and Christmas present, since his birthday is only a week before Christmas.

 

Managed to get an Atom CC (the carbon version of the Atom 1), with ESC, servo and 1 battery, for a good price...

From Steve, funnily enough! 

 

It was pretty dirty, needed a refresh and smelled of cigarettes, so I decided to strip it down, clean every single part, nut and bolt, then reassemble and set it up.

 

It's now looking pretty good!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Had an issue with the included KO Propo servo. The right steering link hits the servo body, on left turns. As a result, maximum steering throw was very poor. It's not really the correct servo, even though it fits.

I tried many mounting solutions, but the standard one is the best, so I decided to keep the servo and servo saver as is, then just trim the edge of the servo body.

It's not an elegant solution, but it has provided a much better steering throw. Not full, but that's not necessary. It's now got almost the same amount of steering throw as my Atom 2.

 

 

 

Another issue with the servo is that it CANNOT be centred, with the servo saver perfectly straight and in the middle. One spline is too far to the left and the next spline is too far to the right.

There isn't enough trim adjustment on the transmitter, to compensate. Really frustrating.

 

So, I've had to accept that to have arrow-straight tracking and equal left-right steering throw (with same-length steering links), not only does the servo saver have to be off-centre, but the servo has to be mounted slightly to one side.

It looks a bit rubbish. Especially since my Atom 2 servo is bang in the middle, as is the servo saver.

 

The KO Propo is a 23t servo, rather than the usual 25t. Therefore, the gaps between splines are slightly bigger. I think if he eventually buys the standard Core RC 25t servo and servo-saver, these issues would be sorted.

 

 

 

Moving on, the Atom came with a Hobbywing XR10 Stock Spec ESC. Which is a fine, little ESC. I've updated the firmware and set everything up. Works great.

It also came with an Intellect 8200mah lipo. I've added my Reedy 6600mah  lipo, so he'll be getting two very good quality batteries. 

 

I bought an Absima SR2S radio system, because my brother-in-law prefers stick radios, as do I. The Futaba I'm using would be great, but they no longer cost £60... now they are up at £100! The Absima is only £40 and the receiver has an extra channel, over the Futaba!

 

For the motor, I've given him the SkyRC Ares Pro v2, which I first had in my Atom 2. It hasn't had a lot of use. I had forgotten how pretty this motor is! 

 

 

When I was using the Ares, it went pretty well, but found it lacked a little bit of top-end. However, I couldn't risk gearing it up, too much, as I had no cooling fan. Now, with the big 40mm fan mounted right behind it, we should be able to gear it 1, or 2, teeth higher.

That'll make a bit of a difference. It won't be the fastest car at the club, but it'll be much faster than the other cars in the bottom heats and probably hang with the B-Finalists, without too much trouble.

 

 

His Atom CC and my Atom 2 look good, together. The 2 looks more substantial, owing to the "top deck conversion" (side strengthening beams), top servo mount, thicker camber strap (steering brace thing), larger trailing arms and the fact that my Hobbywing HD ESC is much larger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, I want to be clear... the Atom 2 is MUCH better than the Atom 1!!

However,  this particular Atom has had many upgrades... so much so, that not only is it basically as good as my Atom 2, but also the Atom 1 instruction manual that I bought was next to useless!

 

Most importantly, it has ditched the utterly woeful, standard Atom 1 frontend (lifted straight off the archaic, original Schumacher Supastox) and sports the expensive, low-profile front end kit. This frontend is so good, that the Atom 3 frontend is loosely based on it. It's arguably better than the Atom 2 frontend!

This completely transforms the car.

 

Other upgrades include an adjustable roll centre, for the rear pod (something that that the Atom 2 has). And a proper battery hold-down (another thing that the Atom 2 has).

The dampers are the same, the springs are the same, the axle and diffs are the same (albeit, mine is running the optional geared diff), so there really is very little to split them.

 

Finally, I've been painting the bodyshell, a Phat Bodies GTM. Unfortunately, the first can of paint reacted with the bodyshell and it made a real mess of it!  

I think I've managed to rescue it, as best I can. It should turn out OK, but we'll see. Stay tuned.

 

I won't go into any more detail, but I'm planning to make a video on this car and release it after his birthday (in-case he sees it!) I'm not worried about the forum, as he doesn't use it! 

If you're interested, I'll have the video out probably next weekend.

 

Cheers. 

 

Edited December 10, 2023 by PraetoR

[Stormbringer]

very nice mate and cool on your rankings as well 

[PraetoR]

Managed to save the shell. Mixed-up black & white acrylic paints, until I got the right shade, then backed the entire thing with it (to fill-in the gaps and act as a barrier, so the blue wouldn't bleed through), left it to dry, then painted the blue.

It has come out great! You honestly can't tell. I'm so relieved and even more surprised, because it really was a mess!

 

Unfortunately, I made a bit of a booboo! This shell doesn't come with lights and grills, but you can get them from rcdecals.co.uk.

I ordered them, without paying too much attention. I ended up buying the ones that you put on the inside, before painting. Didn't realise until after it was painted!

I've ordered the correct ones, but we'll see if they arrive in-time.

 

In the meantime, ignore the lights (or lack of)!

 

It looks good. The paints are amazing! Although, my liquid-masking skills could be better! 

Overall, the effect is good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He may not be an MSUK Forum member... but he's still representing! 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, I had to remove the 40mm fan, because it was so big, it was fouling on the roof of the shell. Had to replace it with a 30mm one.

Obviously, the smaller fan covers less area over the motor. However, it runs at a far higher RPM and seems to move a lot more air! Overall, I think it'll do a better job, thankfully.

 

 

 

Also had to add some foam to the front bumper, because it was too short and couldn't reach the front of the shell. In other words, it didn't offer any protection.

These have been added using double-sided tape. I could have glued them on, but there is a bit of a beater bodyshell that came with the car. The bumper was already correct for that shell, so this way, he can add/remove the extra bits and run whatever shell he wants.

Maybe he'll choose to get some practice in, before running the nicer shell.

 

 

Anyway, just the lights to go and then it's done. 

 

 

Edited December 12, 2023 by PraetoR

[Stormbringer]

looking really smart mate 

[PraetoR]

Cheers. I'm hoping he really likes it.

[ReggieC]

I picked up an Atom 1 with the same upgrades recently too for a bit of extra racing. With the weather being so wet, I've not been outdoors for months. Do you tend to run the Contact Controls all the time?  Everyone seems to be on T-foams where I've gone to but the controls seem to work really well and last ages too (4 meetings with minimal truing which is apparently unheard of otherwise!)

[PraetoR]

Yeah, we use only Contact Controls. That's club rules.

 

Never bothered truing tyres, in my life! 

[ReggieC]

14 hours ago, PraetoR said:

Yeah, we use only Contact Controls. That's club rules.

 

Never bothered truing tyres, in my life! 

 

I've only done some once to get them 'square' again! Amazing how 'coned' they can get.

 

There's so much more going on with these cars than say TC. Checking tweak, changing ride-height with inserts/shims through the night, additive timings, roll-out. Haven't quite got into cycling lipos yet, seems a bit of a dark art for minimal gain.

 

I picked up my atom 1 for very cheap to 'give it a go' and am finding myself in that grey area of wanting to push on but reluctant to spend! The chassis is a bit battered, almost definitely has some permanent tweak and has lived a hard life before me. Seems to always want to track in a different direction depending on accelerating or braking and takes ages to compose itself after any contact. I race it on the typical tiny village hall track, so I think I get away with a lot of it's inadequacies by driving pretty clean. It's annoying the Atom 2 is holding it's value so well as it's a decent cost to get a significant upgrade. 

 

It's an enjoyable class but not sure if I'll stick with it much longer, plan was to get it as another class to run when racing TC on a Tuesday night, but I can't make that one now so GT12 is a dedicated night sandwiched between 2 nights of rugby training!

 

Think I said it before, but I really enjoy checking in on this thread with someone going through their racing life. I find myself much more on RCTech nowadays to find racing content. Hopefully the updates with your BiL start flowing soon!

[PraetoR]

5 hours ago, ReggieC said:

 

I've only done some once to get them 'square' again! Amazing how 'coned' they can get.

 

There's so much more going on with these cars than say TC. Checking tweak, changing ride-height with inserts/shims through the night, additive timings, roll-out. Haven't quite got into cycling lipos yet, seems a bit of a dark art for minimal gain.

 

I picked up my atom 1 for very cheap to 'give it a go' and am finding myself in that grey area of wanting to push on but reluctant to spend! The chassis is a bit battered, almost definitely has some permanent tweak and has lived a hard life before me. Seems to always want to track in a different direction depending on accelerating or braking and takes ages to compose itself after any contact. I race it on the typical tiny village hall track, so I think I get away with a lot of it's inadequacies by driving pretty clean. It's annoying the Atom 2 is holding it's value so well as it's a decent cost to get a significant upgrade. 

 

It's an enjoyable class but not sure if I'll stick with it much longer, plan was to get it as another class to run when racing TC on a Tuesday night, but I can't make that one now so GT12 is a dedicated night sandwiched between 2 nights of rugby training!

 

Think I said it before, but I really enjoy checking in on this thread with someone going through their racing life. I find myself much more on RCTech nowadays to find racing content. Hopefully the updates with your BiL start flowing soon!

 

Ah, yes, that's a fair point! Although, mine generally get "chunked", before "coned". 

 

There is, but it's weird. They seem more involved, while having less adjustability. They are just more awkward, really!

Rollout, I've never bothered with. So many folk at my club are like "...but rollout says this would be faster!" I just gear it by feel. Perhaps using rollout would be more accurate, but I've never had an issue. I'm old school!

 

To be honest, if your car also has the adjustable roll centre and the low-profile frontend, then your car is already as good as an Atom 2. There's a guy at my club, one of the best drivers, who's ALWAYS in the A Final, and he runs his old Atom CC, with these upgrades.

For the tracking, I found my Atom 2 did that, until I changed to very light oil in the diff. The car found it easier to spin one wheel than to "diff" properly. I'm now running 1000wt oil in my geared diff and it hasn't done it, since. With trying to slacken your diff and seeing if it helps. It was also not allowing the pod time to return to centre, out of a corner, throwing the lateral weight distribution off. Are you running 12k in your side dampers? If not, try it. Although, for what it's worth, the quick Atom CC guy uses only 7k in his dampers.

 

Ahh, TC... how I envy your ability to run in that class! I miss it! I'd also LOVE to try TT-02 truck racing!

 

I'm really glad you're enjoying it. I'm honoured! I'll definitely update it.

The video on the car is done, but I want to record his reaction and add it to the video, so perhaps Saturday.

[ReggieC]

1 hour ago, PraetoR said:

 

Ah, yes, that's a fair point! Although, mine generally get "chunked", before "coned". 

 

There is, but it's weird. They seem more involved, while having less adjustability. They are just more awkward, really!

Rollout, I've never bothered with. So many folk at my club are like "...but rollout says this would be faster!" I just gear it by feel. Perhaps using rollout would be more accurate, but I've never had an issue. I'm old school!

 

To be honest, if your car also has the adjustable roll centre and the low-profile frontend, then your car is already as good as an Atom 2. There's a guy at my club, one of the best drivers, who's ALWAYS in the A Final, and he runs his old Atom CC, with these upgrades.

For the tracking, I found my Atom 2 did that, until I changed to very light oil in the diff. The car found it easier to spin one wheel than to "diff" properly. I'm now running 1000wt oil in my geared diff and it hasn't done it, since. With trying to slacken your diff and seeing if it helps. It was also not allowing the pod time to return to centre, out of a corner, throwing the lateral weight distribution off. Are you running 12k in your side dampers? If not, try it. Although, for what it's worth, the quick Atom CC guy uses only 7k in his dampers.

 

Ahh, TC... how I envy your ability to run in that class! I miss it! I'd also LOVE to try TT-02 truck racing!

 

I'm really glad you're enjoying it. I'm honoured! I'll definitely update it.

The video on the car is done, but I want to record his reaction and add it to the video, so perhaps Saturday.

 

I'm not sure what I'm doing compared to everyone else as chunking has generally not been a problem for me so far!

 

Running the ball diff in mine, which is about as smooth as I can get it, could try loosening a little more. To be honest, it could be weight distribution related too as I've never checked that. Running 12k all the dampers currently, Black front springs, silver side and a green rear spring (no sure on the origin of this, heard people refer to a schumacher green spring but can't find any reference to it, but it's significantly harder than the nickel spring). Car is generally really nice/quick to drive, apart from the occasional time when it shoots off to the left under power. I'm not sure how quick it is in comparison to others as there's some quick guys who run LMPGT with us which really blows your mind how much more rear traction they have until you clock why 😂

 

Surprisingly, class options are plentiful near me. Norfolk/East Anglia in general is usually a bit of a hobby blackspot but i've got clubs racing on 3 nights midweek and a couple of weekend clubs covering Mod and stock TC, silvercan TC, GT12, LMP, Minis, Fronties, Indoor 1/10 buggies, outdoor 1/10 buggies, 1/8 buggies and trucks all within a 30 minute drive. Push that up to an hour and you've got 2 1/10 buggy regional astro tracks and some outdoor tc and probably more clubs I've missed out! Think some outdoor TC would be fun at some point, but would need a car I care very little about to be able to put myself through the destruction of running on tarmac!

 

[PraetoR]

Do you glue your tyre sidewalls? I'm in two minds over this. Yes, it seems to offer better protection, but when they do go, they get much worse and the entire sidewall gets crispy and brittle.

 

Hmmm, sounds like it probably isn't the diff and/or dampening. Ah, well... worth a try! The Atom CC I built had silver springs all-round. I hope they are the same, because I treated them as such and don't know if the sides are different to the front!

Yeah, LMP12s are amazing to watch! Absolutely rapid!

 

My goodness, you're spoiled!  Amazing selection of classes. I wish I had the same!

 

I agree about the outdoor TC. I'd even be tempted to run a heavily modified TT-02, just because wrecking a nice TC feels wrong!