C-S Cyclone, run 3... HPI@Dyanmic this Sat.

Round 3... Today at lunch I continued work on my C/S Cyclone tuning. It's getting close. I added a little more weight to the front and increased the front track slightly. It seems to keep the angle a little better.

I would love to try to change the rear toe from a 3.0deg to maybe a 2.5 or 2.0 Hopefully I can get my hands on some of those soon. I also need to start working on the front steering . I need more steering angle!

(Let me also say, it's really tough to take a picture and drive at the same time...LOL!)

I am really looking forward to going to the 1st big session of 2009. It will be a HPI Racing event at Dynamic Autosports in Lake Forest. Hope to see you there...

C-S Cyclone, 2nd run...

Today I gave the car another try. On a hunch, I stood the front and rear shocks up a little more and started adding weight to the front end. The car seems to responding to this. I can almost keep a constant counter in a large 4-6ft circle now. I am also getting use to the rear kicking out more when I'm off throttle. The transitions are quick, but I am getting better at predicting it now.

At first I thought I wasn't that close, but after letting a few friends try, I noticed they couldn't even drive the car straight. And that is exactly how it felt when I drove Katsumi's CS-BD. I think I just got use to the way it feels. This really is getting exciting now. I think I am getting close.

I have a few more ideas to try, so well see how that goes...

(p.s. the picture doen't really have anything to do with my RC car, but you got to love the CS look)

C-S Cyclone, 1st run with the right gears

Today I finally got a chance to try out the new gear ratios. The car handled pretty good and there definitely was some counter steer, especially when you first initiate or switch directions, but it seems to still have a little too much rear grip under throttle. I think I need it to make some adjustments to get the rear to kick out more as you input more throttle. The funny thing is, I remember when I first got my cyclone it had that exact tendency. I spent a lot of time tuning the suspension to get rid of that. Now I need to get that set-up back... This might be tough.

I have some questions out to some experienced Counter Steer tuners, so well see what they think?

C-S Cyclone, with misc parts.

So like I said before the gear ratio between the front an rear need to be pretty large. From the feedback of people who have sucucssfully built Counter-steer cars, it should be about 1.0 difference. Usually around 2.6 vs. 1.6 With this in mind I asked around to see what other parts I could find to work this out. Since Katusmi from Arai has a great inventory of Yokomo parts, I was able to score a 20T metal and a 33T pulley as well as a 40T for the front.

The only problem is the 40 for the front didn't quite fit, but the good thing is I stole the 32T off the rear of my old PRO2 for the rear. So the ratios I will try are right at 2.6 vs. 1.6 I think the toughest part is just figureing out what to do with all that extra belt...

Here are the tensioners I came up with, since my car didn't have any...










I used left over parts, like a old servo mount, susp king pin and some bearings. I use washers to shim the tension. I know the rear seems kind of weird with the bearings on the tooth side of the belt, but it seems to still be very smooth, so I think I go with it.

Now it's time for some testing...

Late start. Project C-S Cyclone

Even though I haven't posted any updates to my Counter-steer Cyclone project, doen't mean I haven't been working on it. I have just be very busy with other stuff right now. But finally I have a change to go over what I started with and my 1st tuning attempt.

To start with I am working with my Hot Bodies Cyclone S. It always drifted pretty well out of the box with only a few changes, but now it is really good. The speed is med-fast and transitions are really easy to control. There is only a slight off throttle understeer depending on the track. The major upgrades where the new style solid rear diff, HPI pro shocks (super nice shocks!!!), 150wt oil, and Yokomo titanium "Soft" springs all around. The other helpful mod was about 20g of weight to the front end and laying down the shocks more. (power is 8.5 Novak Brushless with a GTB ESC)

With it running so good now, I was a little hesitent to modify it, but after see Katsumi's car and all the videos from D-Like, Japan, I am totally inspired to give it a try.

My 1st attempt was just adding a few off the selve HPI/HB upgrades. A pro front 1-way and a 18T rear small pulley. The result was for sure less understeer, but still too stable for any noticable counter-steer. The set-up was easy to drive, because it was still too stable. My next plan was to then change to a Pro diff for the rear, but since I figure the Front to Rear Gear Ratios are still to close, I will hold off on that untill I get some more parts to have a bigger difference in ratios.

I just got the other parts in and plan to give them a try soon...

Drift Package Light... I got it!!!

Today I was pleasantly surprised by a package in the mail. It was the Takara/Tomy - Yokomo Drift Package Light, I ordered on eBay last month. It took forever to get here, but it was pretty cheep. 30 for the car but unfortunately 20 for shipping. Good part though there was an ebay discount coupon.

Anyways the car looks really cool. The quality of the body is Yokomo all the way. Detailed, almost a good as the Kyosho Mini Zs. There is some simple building you have to do. But it's pretty easy. All in all looking at the instructions pictures, it took literally 10 minutes to do.

I don't have any batteries for it yet, but from the videos of it I found on Youtube, it should drift pretty good.

After studying it for a while, I think the car is cooler then I thought it would be. There are two motors. One drives a solid driveshaft to the front and rear wheels. The key here however is it is overdriven! That's right!!! Just like a counter steer setup, the front and rear wheels spin at different rates to be able to keep the rear kicked out. The other cool part is the rear is a solid diff and the front is a soild diff with a built in 1-way. This makes the front handle like a solid with a 1-way shaft. Pretty cool! I am excited to give it a try. (Standard all plastic tires, but angle so they tires have camber for the right look)

On the other hand the transmitter is less then what I expected. It seems pretty small and I thought the steering would be analog, but actually it's almost like a 4-button controller. If you turn the wheel left, you can feel it press a button for left (so full left) This works because there is a built in mechanism which returns it the straight position once you let go. The throttle is the same way full throttle or off. So I am guessing you drive it with a pumping throttle style like some people do with the 10th scale cars. (I don't usually drive it like that, but shouldn't be too bad I think.)

Anyways, I let you guys know how it drifts, after I get 6 AAAs (3 for the car and 3 for the remote) and some time...
I am guessing this is a good way to get more people hooked on RC drifting for not too much money. It's cheep enough to teach your girlfriend or kids with, while still getting the real feel of it.

Old School Pro 2

After searching for misc parts to upgrade my Cyclone, I found my original HPI PRO2 touring car I bought back in 2000. I actually started (or tried to start) RC Drifting with this car back in '04 I think. I couldn't really get it at all. I believe it was the grip set-up I had on it. Now that I see it, I am so curious to see if I would be able to drift it now? This might be a good little project to try as I wait for some important parts for the Counter-Steer Cyclone project.

Here's my old Pro2, with the dust still on it...

I have learned alot about tuning and driving since then, so I guess now well see if it was the car or the driver that was the problem.

Project Counter Steer Cyclone Drifter

Now that my JZX100 shell is done. It's time to take up a new project. This time my goal is to build myself a counter-steer chassis for drifting. This seems to be getting more popular in Japan. And after watching some cool videos from Japan and seeing fellow Team Arai member Katsumi set up his Yokomo BD and getting some tips from Jhon form D-Style, I am now inspired. As you can see in Katsumi's video, his speed and consistency is getting very good. The speed of his BD now is very close my Driftmasters' speed. I tried some experiments with my shaft driven Driftmaster, but I think it might be easier with a belt drivetrain.



So here we go with the build up and set-up of my new Project Counter-Steer Hot Bodies Cyclone S!

Project Chaser Ver.2, J Crew Smoke Chaser

Thanks to my great JDM connection Masa (of Team Arai,) I scored mini Japanese RC Drift Crew decals. These are the real thing straight from the team members them selves (with a few fillers from standard decal sheets) We traded our mini "Fire Arai" decals for theirs. I there are any other serious RC Drift Crews from around the world who what to trade, please hit me up at sil40sx@hotmail.com. Maybe we can make a trade and I can rep your team too on my Smoke Chaser...

Check it out...

A big Thanks to Masa, Gil and the Japanese RC Drifters for the cool decals!!!

Smoke Chaser (revisions 3)

Well the Red LEDs for the hood are now in place of the Blue. I think it matches a lot better with the rest of the car. I also have it hooked up to a control unit for a key chain I had. So now I can make it dim or strobe as well.











The Diffuser is also complete and mounted. It is less then half the weight of the original Hot Works one and I think I like the more aggressive look of this one too. I found this strong vinyl/platstic glue, which works pretty good on lexan. I ended up glueing the diffueser straight to the edge of the bumper cut-out. I hope it doen't get ripped off when scraping the walls in drift. But I guess I'll have to see about that one...












I think you can also get a good idea how bright the new tail-lights are now too! =)

Smoke Chaser (revisions 2)

The revisions are going great. Opening up the holes for the custom Vertex-style tail lights really got a light brighter. I also filled the holes with a little shoegoo for extra glow. Plus the custom rear buckets and new flat leds really make it look a lot brighter.


I still need to finish up the mounting for the diffuser, but it looks good so far.
The Red LED hood lights are almost ready too.

p.s. Thanks Masa for the JDM plug http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/chevrolet1128 Sorry it was so dusty. I didn't even notice after the session ' )

Smoke Chaser (revisions 1)

Like I said, I have a couple of ideas to improve my Chaser.

For one, I ditched the heavy Hotworks rear diffuser and started making a light weight lexan diffuser with some left over pieces from Ulys. As soon as I saw the parts, I figured it would work perfect for me.I also revised the LEDs in the hood scoop. Just got some Red Yok LEDs for that. And while I was at it I decided to customize my carbon look with some greddy logos. The next thing I started was opening up the LED holes for my rear Vertex-style light buckets. I am hoping the larger holes will allow more light though and make it brighter. I am also planning to change the rear LEDs to the flat Yok ones as well to get a closer beam to shine though. But first I have to make up some new lighter weight holder/reflectors for the buckets.

Looks are great, but it has to drift well too!

Chaser test run

This past Saturday was a pretty good session. (with great food...thanks Eric!) Plus, I finally got to test out the new Smoke Chaser body. I was kind of worried at first cause it seemed a lot heavier them my usual bodies (because of the inner cover). I was right, it was too back heavy and I felt a lot of understeer. But removing the pre-fab rear defuser helped out a lot. I also noticed the rear tail lights were pretty dim, so I guess there is some more work for me to do on the body. Overall I was really happy witht he new shell though. It looks great drifting and with a few tweeks it was drifting pretty well by the end of the night. The fade looked awesome and you can't beat the look of a couple of Chasers tandeming (IMO)!



So back to the drawing board on building a new lighter weight rear diffuser and rear light buckets... updates soon, I have some more ideas....