Toon

After I ran mine for the first time back in July, it was stripped of the electrics and put back in the box. It hasn't seen the light of day since! Micro buggies are much more fun!

I used the Savox servo in the EMB for a while, but that was held just using one plastic mount and double-sided tape. Then when I got the GTB I put the Savox servo in that, and put the kit servo back in the EMB, so I never got round to trying any other servos in the EMB before I sold the car. Motor diameter or length? The Carisma/Losi motors are 24mm diameter. The LC Racing motor is 28mm diamater, and it will physically fit, but the mounting holes are all for 3mm screws, and the holes in the GTB motor mount are for 2.6mm screws. Also, the LCR motors' mounting holes are too far apart and won't line up with the slots in the GTB motor mount, as I tried it for fit when I still had both cars. Maybe you could modify the motor mount for larger screws/spacing, but I don't have any need to try it.

The Savox servo doesn't fit the standard servo mount I'm afraid, as it's too large. I was originally just holding it down with strong double-sided tape, but I am now using alloy mounts, however the chassis does require an extra hole to be drilled. ----------------------- I actually no longer have the LC Racing EMB-1 buggy as it was sold to another micro racer at my local club, but I still have the GTB. It's gone through quite a few changes since the last post though. It is now also equipped with: Carisma 5700kv motor + alloy heatsink RW Racing heavy duty 66T spur Exotek alloy servo mounts DIME RC alloy chassis DMS Racing carbon top deck and front brace Thumbs Designs carbon shock towers and brass weight kit RPM rod ends Carisma alloy wheel hex's I have also got a Phat bodies 'Optimus' body and 'Gurt' wing, painted by a friend. I am only using this for the micro nationals at the moment though, it's too nice to get bashed about at club races! Nationals are very competitive, but I am doing OK so far: Round 1 - Silverstone - 55th out of 77 Round 2 - Hereford - 45th out of 85

I only got into micro buggies a couple of months ago, and I've already got 2! 1 for indoors, 1 for outdoors, it's the only way! Schumacher/LC Racing EMB-1 Kit version of car so has aluminium chassis/shock towers/shocks & front CVD's Standard steering servo (for now) LC Racing 4500kv motor EZRun 60A ESC Thunder Power 1800mAh LiPo Phat Bodies 'Turbo' bodyshell and 'Bat' wing Losi Mini 8ight springs, battery mounts and carbon strap Rear hub and top deck mods done Carisma GTB Carisma 4500kv motor EZ Run 35A ESC (heatsink modded to fit under top deck) Savox SH-1257MG servo Intellect/IP 1600mAh hardcase LiPo Aluminium motor mount Pro pistons in shocks CVD's in the front Dime RC brass weights in centre and rear And together...

Are you guys buying the SOS carbon parts directly through the website, or contacting them with an order as the main page says to as they have a problem with their PayPal account (although that message is dated April 12th)?

Does the SOS steering drag link remove all of the slop that is present with the standard parts? I have shimmed my standard drag link, but it still has a bit of slop, so I might try the carbon one instead. I like the look of the carbon top deck as it will provide a much less flexible area to fix the ESC to, but I'm not keen on the hole where the spur sticks out without some sort of cover. I race on an astro track that is quite sandy in places, and the sand might get into the spur/pinion area unless it's fully enclosed.

I had a run with my F14 Evo tonight at my local club (indoors on carpet). The setup was a Carisma 4500kv motor, 10T pinion, 2S LiPo, kit tyres, traction additive on the rear tyres. Well, in some ways, it behaves exactly like a real F1 car! With cold tyres, it was very difficult to control, but it did get a little better once the tyres had some heat in them. The steering is very responsive, and it is very easy to spin the car, but by changing the steering servo dualrate and exponential I got it to be less twitchy. I still had to take corners very carefully though, because as the car is quite narrow, it would grip roll if I used too much speed or steering angle through a corner. I had to be gentle on the throttle, as trying to nail it would light up the rear tyres, and when braking, it's easy to lock the rear axle and unsettle the car. So overall, I found it to be a real handful to drive! I am sure that it would be much better with foam tyres, and it is recommended to use Mardave foams mounted onto the optional Carisma rims for the F14. But, as I don't have any equipment for truing foams, or have even seen the Carisma F14 rims anywhere, unless I can buy them pre-mounted I won't be trying any foams on the car. To be honest, unless enough people at my club buy F14's so that there can be a race heat, I don't think I will be using it again anytime soon. And after having seen how tricky the standard car is to drive, the few people that had shown an interest were put off getting one. There is an old (but good) blog about the F14 Evo at http://www.cmldistribution.co.uk/news.php?view=0000001607

I haven't changed anything on the pistons yet. I have to admit, the EMB-1 shocks have been a disappointment for me. They leak from the cap area with the standard bladders (mine and a friends have done this), I did fix this issue with Tamiya bladders though, but even then they just don't seem very responsive. I am used to Tamiya shocks though, which are very good, so maybe I am being harsh as the EMB ones don't match the standard I am used to. I measured the temperature of the motor and ESC after every 5 minute race, and the motor never went above mid 50's, and the ESC mid/high 30's, so no problems at all in that area. The Kidderminster track only has 2 straights sections when you can go full throttle though, the rest of the track is bumpy and twisty with a fair amount of sand that comes out of the astro making it slippery in places, so I was taking most of the lap at part-throttle. I was only using 750-800mAh out of the battery for each run. I would imagine that running on a larger track with more use of full throttle, or running on grass, would increase the temps. I was impressed by my friends Carisma GTB though, seemed to be a much quieter drivetrain, and rode the bumps well. I am tempted to buy one to see how it compares to the EMB.

I ran my EMB-1 today on the astro track at Kidderminster (club race meeting). http://www.kmcclub.co.uk/ Car details: LCR 4500kv motor Yeah Racing 35A ESC (same as the Hobbywing Ezrun) Savox SH-1257MG servo Intellect 1600mAh hardcase LiPo Phat Bodies 'Turbo' bodyshell + 'Bat' wing 35 front/30 rear oil 3k diff oil front & rear All other settings as per manual Findings from the days racing: Kit tyres give plenty of grip, but also lots of side bite as the sidewalls are very soft, and the car would snap sideways if the landing off any of the (small) jumps wasn't completely straight, and grip roll on the corners was all too easy. Changed to some Fastrax rally block tyres (http://www.cmldistribution.co.uk/cml_product.php?productId=0000006205), and whilst not giving as much forward bite as the kit tyres, they were a lot more forgiving and consistent on the corners and jumps. May get some Schumacher rally blocks to try out next time. Kit springs work well but may be a bit too hard. Carisma soft springs front & rear worked better, as the car took the undulations better. Want to get some Carisma or Losi medium springs to try out too. Got plenty of speed from 17 tooth pinion, kit spur, and medium motor timing on ESC. Tried an 18 pinion, and increasing the ESC motor timing, as whilst quicker down the straight, my laptimes were slower as the car was more difficult to drive consistently. There were only 3 micro's racing including mine (along with another EMB-1 and a Carisma GTB). We were in the same heat as 4 1/10 rally cars, but the racing was clean and good fun as we were all from my local Worcester club. I was the fastest micro in qualifying by 2 laps, and the highest placed micro in the final. I didn't break or bend anything all day, and neither did either of the other micros, they are tough little things!

I ordered mine at the weekend, and it arrived the following Tuesday by courier. Mine will be on the back-burner for a little while, as I've just got some new parts for my 1/14 buggy that I will be racing this weekend. Should get back on to the F1 next week.

I have been having a go at fitting electrics to the F1 this evening, and basically the LiPo that I have (Intellect/IP 1600mah hardcase), just isn't going to work unfortunately. It won't fit under the top deck unless I space the deck up 1.5mm, and it's too wide to use either the chassis' tape slots or plastic retainers properly. I was planning to get a couple of the Gens Ace 1800 mah packs anyway, for my EMB-1 1/14 buggy and the F1, but the only UK supplier of them that I know of, Giant Shark, is out of stock at the moment, so it will probably be a while until I get to run the F1. At least I have more time to try and do a decent semi-realistic F1 style paint job than the plain solid white scheme I was going to do!

Has anyone here got any experience with the Carisma F14 Evo 1/14 F1 car? http://www.cmldistribution.co.uk/cml_product.php?productId=0000005217 I've just bought one to try out, as they are currently available for only

The differences between the kit & RTR versions of the EMB-1 (that I know of) are: Kit has alloy chassis, shock towers, shock bodies - RTR has plastic/composite versions Kit has CVD's in the front, dogbones in rear - RTR has dogbones front and rear I think that is it. Those GPM Red alloy hexes look really good as they match the car AJ! I've got the mini8 gunmetal alloy ones on my EMB-1, and they are a real pain as the pin is held in by an o-ring, which is very fiddly to remove. That Phat Bodies 'Turbo' shell is great, gave me loads more room to fit the ESC on the top deck. Also, have you had any problems with leaky shocks AJ? Mine had been nothing but trouble, constanly leaking oil from the hole in the cap despite several rebuilds. I think the main problem with mine is that the bladder just doesn't seat/seal properly on the top of the shock body, letting oil out. I have now changed the bladders for ones from a Tamiya M-05 mini shock set, and they seat much better. The cap won't screw down quite as far as before, but they don't leak anymore!

And my 417X... I hate messy wiring!

You could try having a look at the club index on the CentralBooking website - http://www.centralbooking.org/cbs/index.php?option=com_cbs&task=cbs2clubs&Itemid=212 Ardent Raceway used to be the home of Derby Model Car Club, but I'm not where they moved the club to when the Ardent facility closed down last summer.

You should be able to gear a blinky 13.5T setup at around 5.0:1 without causing any motor heat issues. I think that the Hobbywing motor has low or zero internal timing as well, so that will help in keeping the temps down. I run my Reedy Sonic 13.5T with a HW Xtreme Stock in blinky mode at 5.0:1, and even with a good dose of endbell timing on it (30-40 degrees), my motor temp never goes above 60*C (it does have a fan blowing on it though, which will reduce the temp a bit). That's on a 14m x 22m carpet track, with a 9 second laptime.

What bodyshells are you guys running on carpet, and have you observed any distict differences in handling between different shells? At my last club night, I ran a Mazda Speed 6 and an LTCR in back-to-back heats, and for me, I preferred the way that the car handled with the LTCR. It just seemed more 'planted' around the track than with the Mazda, which seem to make the car looser and slide around more. I have read that the Mazda is usually the preferred option for carpet, and the LTCR for asphalt, but I guess everyone is going to have different opinions based on their own experience. And then you've got the standard or lightweight choice as well...

I noticed that too, but only when I was setting the car up after installing the electrics and taking the photos! The cause was the fact that I had a little 'incident' whilst racing last Friday, involving the car, a track marker, and a not inconsiderable amount of speed! The result was a broken left rear wishbone, bent suspension shaft, and a bent alloy suspension mount. In my haste to get the car ready for the final, I got a bit mixed up on which hole to use for the ball connector for the left rear lower shock mount. The rear antiroll bar mount is also in the wrong hole. No wonder the car was a bit loose on the rear in the final! Well done for spotting it though, I didn't think that anyone would notice...

The Smokem chassis only took about 10 days total from purchase to delivery. It cost

My 417X again, but now with a Smokem 417MX lower deck! And with a new PF Mazda Speed 6 bodyshell, custom painted by http://www.rcsgraphicworx.com, which looks so good, I'm almost afraid to race it and mess it up! Almost...

Does anyone here use a Hobbywing ESC with a 13.5 motor (and boost)? I am currently using a HW Xtreme Stock v2 ESC (in blinky mode), with a Reedy Sonic 13.5 motor (35 endbell timing) in my 417X @ 5.0:1 FDR. I am doing quite well with it, but most of the racers at my club are now running with boost. Even with a clean race, I just can't keep up, as even losing only a couple of tenths per lap, adds up to a whole lap over a 5 minute race (7.5-8 second laps). So, I want to give boost a try. The trouble is, there are so many different settings for boost/turbo on the ESC, without factoring a gearing and endbell timing change. Any ballpark figures that I should be looking at for FDR, endbell timing, boost settings? The track is indoor carpet, med/high grip, 14m x 22m.

My Tamiya TRF417X: And with my current race shell on:

I always mark the inside of the rims with FL/FR/RL/RR before I use a new set of tyres, so I know which tyre to use on which corner of the car for the first race of a meeting. After the first race, I swap them left/right, but keep them the same axle front/rear. Then alternate them left/right after each race. So, for my normal 3 heat/1 final club schedule, each tyre will do 2 races on the left side of the car, and 2 on the right, so as to even the wear rate side to side.

Is there a significant performance drop between new tyres and those that have done a few meetings? The fast guys at my club reckon that a set of Sorex 28JB's are 'past their best' after 4 meetings use, and then need replacing if you want the best tyre performance. I have always used them for about 8-10 meetings, then replace them as I figure that I am losing time just because of running on older tyres.