The maiden voyage...

... at Morecambe of course!



It was a very positive maiden voyage if I say so myself. Car felt a little slippy but that's normal during the first couple of rounds at Morecambe until the grip comes up, especially with new tyres like I had. Really, trying a new car on tyres you've never tried before isn't the brightest idea, but all my other tyres were knackered or recently sold on as used parts.





I qualified pole in the B final and Colin kindly offered to let me try his 28 JBs (which he had also put on new at the start of the evening) to see how they compared to the LRP tyres which I was trying. I should clarify, the reason for trying the LRPs is because they are a lot cheaper than the Sorex 28 JBs and they should last longer than them also, because frankly the build quality of the JBs is shocking.

Anyway, shock-horror, the JBs are quicker 2+ laps quicker even round our little Morecambe track. Interestingly Colin went 2 laps slower with my LRPs on, so there appears to be a consistent and mirrored change in times between the tyres. The LRPs are certainly drive-able though, Colin confirmed that, so might be worth considering if everyone at the club was on them. I'll let you know how they feel at Blackpool, but in summary, on 28 JBs the new car/new radio combo felt truly awesome.

T3 2012 Build Review

As promised here's a pictorial build review of my new T3 2012. I think I'll just let the pictures do the talking but I will comment on a few bits and bobs as they crop up because everything wasn't quite as 'perfect' as I remember last time I was in the XRAY camp...


The gear diff went together beautifully apart from a point in the manual where it tells you to orient the diff a certain way to get the pin and it's 90 degrees off. Small point but not very 'XRAY' if you ask me...






Don't forget the loctite on the spur gear layshaft!










Here lies the source of most my complaints with the build, the instructions on how to assemble the servo saver are wrong. I built it how I thought it should be built (given it's a bit of a Tamiya rip off) then read the instructions saw they said different so I took it apart to build that way instead, but it doesn't work the way described in the manual so I had to take it apart again and built it back the way I thought initially.

Also, the turnbuckle that links the servo to the new rack can't be made short enough, it suggests 58mm in the manual which is just about to do-able but for the servo to be installed as described in the manual it needs to be about 3-4mm shorter still. To do that you need to cut 2mm off each of the plastic ends AND 2mm off each end of the turnbuckle threaded bar itself! Again, not very 'XRAY' at all...