Winter break and winter breakage...

Well, I couldn't resist. It was cold, it was dry - I took the firestorm out for a raz.

Proline Edge on the front and Goosebumps on the rear - it gripped like crazy...

I broke it :/ :



After 20 mins looking for the driveshaft; I got it back on the workbench (new!!!) :



that's the new work area in the cellar. It's great :)

More telemetry

Well, I finally got that last part of the telemetry fitted - the rpm sensor. You can see that the sensor fits just fine inside the spur/pinion cover - and once I found the right place for it with double-sided sticky, it was held in place by a little screw. The wires route out via the cover that's used to adjust the slipper. Quite neat, and I'm altogether pretty pleased.



For completeness, here's a shot of the aluminium mount I made for the lap-timing trigger..



.. and the new receiver (which is a lot bigger and heavier than the more modern one that the telemetry system doesn't work with :(( ) and the telemetry box itself :



Wires, wires everywhere. I'll tidy them up a bit now I'm happy it's all working, but some of them really are only just long enough, so getting them tidier may be tricky.

Back up to a 15T pinion too today, and broke my lap record for the farming (now stands at 24.8 secs - should be able to get a sub 20 sec in good conditions and once I've l2drive). Mostly because the conditions were much better (less sticky).

The temp sensor is great, the voltage sensor is pretty useful and the rpm sensor is, well, fun. It measures spur speed, but of course, you only need to tweak the throttle whilst you're airborn and you get a crazy high max speed reading :/ It'd be useful if you have a pit guy to keep an eye on the telemetry real time, but apart from that, it's not the most useful bit of the kit. There were many reviews of the Spektrum telemetry stuff which slated it - but it is actually quite a good setup - you can get them on the internet for far less than the Novek Data sentry stuff, and the voltage and temp are really quite useful. The rpm sensor could be a pain to mount (I guess it depends a lot on the car) but on the e-firestorm it's really quite straightforward if you can drill a hole straight and are willing to spend 15 mins or so getting the stuff in exactly the right position.

Farmring Action!

Just a few photos to give you a taste.

Getting some air - even though the jumps need re-shaping after the 'gate', you can still get airborn if you've got enough... :)

You can also get it wrong :


Throttle control is important - some bits have more dust than grip. I'd changed down to a 13T pinion, and vmax is still pretty hard to hit

And to end with, here's one of the e-firestorm with a big grin on its face at the end of the session. The new Edit stickers have improved overall performance ;)

Farmring Walkthrough

Well, I know lots of you have been waiting for some snaps of the Farmring, so here's a walkthrough of the track. Bear in mind that the gate ruined most of the jumps and banking, and that hasn't been fixed yet. (If that sentence makes no sense, I suggest you read a few previous posts :) )

Let's get started on the front straight :

Nothing much to say, other than some difficulties will be added later (a rough zone, for example). There was a big mound that was to be a tabletop, but that got flattened. The soil is still there, but it need making back into a pile in the right place.

The straight leads into a left hander (the course is anti-clockwise, in fact, though for the moment it can be used either way since all the jumps are gone.

The turn is up a hill (the photos don't show it too well, but it's a decent gradient) and tightens progressively :

This then leads into what should have been a banked 'S', but again the gate got the better of it :



And then onto the back straight - same remarks apply as to the front straight, there was (and will be) some jumps on here :

This part then starts to swing left into what was (and will be...) a sort of banked hairpin. I must admit, I've been struggling to get this bit right. It may just remain a tight corner :)

After the hairpin comes Frankenstein's Corner - its a hard to describe crossover between a jump and a banked 'S' - the photo doesn't do it justice, and the gate calmed it down somewhat - it's a fun thing though, that it's quite hard to get right.

And after Frankenstein's - it's back onto the front straight :


Overall - the track has so far been quite a learning experience. I'm following a scraper blade for the tractor on eBay, because I think that's the best way of getting a good finish on it. The jumps and final finishing needs to be completed by hand. The track is not as wide as I would have liked it - but a) for the moment, there's only ever one car on it anyway :) and b) I was limited by the size of the heavy objects I used to drag round there. The scraper might change that :).

I'll try and convince my dear wife to take a few action shots (wish me luck!), and I think now that I'll gear down to 13 or 14T pinions, as the 16 that's cool for bashing is really too long for the track. Lots of fun to be had - shame that winter is now closing in...

Elvis fully approves of the track, btw :))

The Farmring - Part 1

Knowing that the weather wasn't going to be kind enough to let me make a real start on the big track, I cobbled together (using thin logs and laid down fence-posts) a "short-track" Farmring in the yard. And I'm really glad I did. For a bit of a n00b like me - it was a great way to find out what kind of shape I think the Farmring should be.

The Farmring (Short course) evolved a lot over the laps (and not just because I kept hitting the logs :) but the final version had a hairpin at one end, a long (well, relative to the rest) "straight" that, in actual fact swung left slightly with a wider, faster turn at the end, leading into the back straight with an "S" that could be taken flat out if you got the exit right of the fast turn at the end of the straight (and, of course, your b4lls are big enough :) )

There were some nice terrain bits too - where there were choices to be made between what was in theory the best line round and a slightly "slower line" but that offered better grip.

All round, lots of fun. The car now needs quite a clean :/

Photos of the firestorm

Here's a few snaps of the e-firestorm as it currently stands. Only hop-up left is the radio, which should be here tomorrow :)

Front alloy hub carriers :



Rear alloy hub carriers :



There's also the titanium turnbuckles, and of course those magnificent shocks, of which you can see a small part :)

Here's what the whole lot looks like now without its clothes on :)

Mamba'ed E-firestorm

Here's a couple of photos of the mamba'ed e-firestorm that got all this started. No action pics yet, as I can't drive and take photos at the same time. I can hardly drive :)