Finally made it back out to Arai..

That's right, and it was a good trip. It was good seeing everyone there. Plus my CS Driftmaster with the 10/40 gears worked really well. I was happy with the countersteer and grip. I think I finally found a pretty good base set-up. Now I just need to more practice to drive it right. Below is a quick iPhone video of Katsumi driving my car. I know he was still getting use to it, but I got the Thumbs-up, so I know I am on the right track now.



I also got to try out the new Yok tires. I would have to say they are a really good advanced tire, they have good slide, but are still pretty fast. But since I am still kind of learning how to drive the CS set-up, I found the old Med Kawadas much easier for me to drive, there was more grip but still decent slide. But more experiaced driver's like Katsumi and Rob were killing it on the Yoks. So I think with a little less gearing, or a little more skill the Yoks will work out good. But for now I still need more practice...

Yokomo Zero-1 R2 FCD Drift tires, Installed!

Happy to say I just got the new Yokomo Zero-1 R2 drift tires to add to my CS Tire collection. Katsumi at Arai just got in his 1st shippment and I bet they'll go fast.

After looking a the directions, I was kind of scared it might be tough to install, but on Yokomo wheels, it went on very easy. (much easier then the orginal Yoks or Type Ts) The instructions tell you to lube the inner rubber spacer with a little grease to side the plastic tire on, but instead I just used a little water. I figure it will have less tendency to spin on the rim later on.


TIP: Make sure to seat the rubber spacer well, and then be carful to slide the ring on square. I used my two thumbs on the face of the rim and my other fingers on the back side of the ring. Sliding evenly, this seemed to work better then trying to push on it on a flat surface. I guess the for notches on the rubber ring help air escape and makes for a tight fit.)


check out the front wheel contact patch with my crazy camber and caster...








My first impression is it has a little more slide, but very good grip, then the Med Kawada's , I bet it would be really good with my old set up and either the Yok 1.5 FCD or Dlike 11T. But with my 10/40, the transistion is a little fast again. But I think maybe some rear toe adjustment might solve that.

The tires also seem a little faster then the Kawadas. And if you know me, that is what I really like FAST DRIFTING!

Hella ill S14

Just got back from this year's Formula D action. Big thanks to Andy at HPI for dropping off some new decals. I think they match my S14 pretty good. You like!

D-Like 10/40T CS Gear Set for project CS Driftmaster

On my last Arai session back in late Jan, I got project CS Driftmaster to handle pretty well with the D-Like 7deg. Caster blocks & 11T Gear and billet ring gear spacer. The way I calculate it, it works out to a Front to Back Gear 1.55 ratio. (see set up at CSJunkies.com) Grip was very good, but CS could be better.

This being said, I finally decided to try out the new D-Like billet Alum. 10/40 CS gear set. This thing is massive! The thick ring gear seems like it will be like a heavy flywheel for the front 1-way. With this set up it works out to be a 1.70 (which I am guessing 1.6-1.7 is ideal for CS)
I am hoping to really improve the drift angle with this.

Here is it installed...

So far it seems pretty good. For sure the back is looser, but just driving it around the garage it seems like it could be very good when tuned up. I can't wait to try it out at Arai, but well have to see when I can make it overthere again. (since I now live about 1.5hr away)

Here is the previous gear set and what the gears look like before they are installed.

For are you realistic RC CS Drifters, don't forget to check out our new forum:

www.CSJunkies.com

CS Driftmaster Shakedown at Arai Jan 23

It's a little late coming, but I finally got a chance to take a short Flip Video of my CS Driftmaster.
Thanks Katsumi for giving it a test drive for me, while I video'd it.



For all the vehicle specs and set-up check it out on CSjunkies.com

CS DriftMaster Steering, Full Lock

I just put a update on www.csJunkies.com for my finished steering mod for the LCG / Driftmaster:

Check it out here. http://csjunkies.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=102

Check out the new Home for Counter Steer Drifting...

For those of you looking for more Counter Steer Drifing info. Check out Team Arai's new super forum. "CSjunkies.com" It's just starting out, so help us fill out the info.

Check it out....

www.CSjunkies.com

Out of hibernation

I just pulled my car out of hibernation for an upcoming track event on the 20th...
So I decided to bring out an old S14 shell out of hibernation as well. This body with all the lights, seems to work a lot better then my smoke chaser body. I think it's because it a lot more weight up front...


Can't wait to do a little more driving with them both!

She is back... CS Driftmaster LE

We'll she is back... My Yokomo CS Driftmaster LE has been striped, cleaned and reassembled with some new and improved parts. During the rebuild I add new 2mm CVDs in the front and back. I also added the new 1.5 rear CS gears from Yokomo.
But in addition to the new parts I have decided to try some new shock oil and springs, as well as moving some of the electronics more forward in the chassis. I am hoping these small changes help.
I guess well just have to see...

Another cool thing is I just recieved a set of D-Like 11T Real Drift Setting Gears! Whoo-hoo!. I figure, even though the gear ratio front to rear is about the same as the Yok 1.5, I give them a try next. I think this set-up might be easier to gear anyways....

Super light aluminum, very clean CNC... cool!

Time for a Full Rebuild of the CS DM

I haven't gotten a chance to play in quite a while, so I thought I might as will do a full rebuild. I have been waiting for a while and now that I have the new Yok 1.5 CS gear set and the new Yok 2mm CVDs, I might as well redo everything.

Now I am really wondering if I should go for a front engine conversion???

In this image I striped the chassis pretty much clean.

Here was my progress from this morning.

And this is what it looked like before I started.

Driftspeed outdoor session this past weekend.

It was good to get out to Driftspeed this weekend for another Arai open session. It was a bit of a change to the indoor Arai tuning I was use to. The Type T tires definately don't have the same slide as the Kawada indoor. But it was still fun. I got to see a bunch of the guys we don't normally get to drift with and it was good seeing every have fun.

Here's a pic of our indoor pits and the return of the my Smoke Chaser...














Thanks again Katsumi, Minako and Driftspeed for another fun session!

OEM Yokomo Counter-Steer Gears for SD coming soon!

Wow. Just found this on Katsumi's blog. Very interesting. Sounds exciting!!!

Looks like the ratios work out to be a 1.48:1 front to rear ratio for the Standard and a crazy 2.0:1 ratio for the high grip. Hummm. So far from my experience a 1.6 ratio seems ideal. ???

Check it out...

Upsidedown CS car cam

A friend at work had a small (Epic) digital lipstick camera. So I tried strapping it to my CS Driftmaster to see what it would look like. I originally planned to edit the video by flipping the image, but then, I noticed I don't know how to do that. Oh well, I will try again later with the camera mounted right-side up, but anyways here the 1st test...

Driftmaster Counter Steer Vid. (Gil)

Here's a video of one of my custom 40/10 front gear ratios on a fellow Team Arai member's Car, (Gil's DriftMaster.)
With only a few tuning sessions, the car is looking pretty good. Probably better then mine...(now only if I can find some time for some real Arai tuning too?)



Yay for the Team Arai Counter Steer Team...LOL!

Hot off the press, RC World Magazine feature on Countersteer

Check out what I just found on the Web, an update on countersteer gears in Japan. Printed in RC World, is some of the new upcoming gears on there way for shaft drives...

Gears, Gears, and more gears...

I guess there are alot of ideas regarding CS gearing for SD cars.

Check our a few I was informed about....

http://green.ap.teacup.com/babango/172.html

[img]http://green.ap.teacup.com/babango/timg/middle_1247068927.jpg[/img]

http://green.ap.teacup.com/babango/177.html

and

http://ameblo.jp/kazama2026/entry-10284756896.html#main

[img]http://stat.ameba.jp/user_images/20090621/15/kazama2026/a0/69/j/o0480085410200493793.jpg[/img]

cool stuff...but I am still holding out for my idols at D-Like...

http://www.d-like.jp/driftstage/

Exciting CS info!!!

Increased gear ratio part 1 for the Driftmaster...

Well, I still haven't gotten a chance to modify the new 35/20T rear diff gears I got last week, but after looking them over some more, looks like it will take a bit of customizing to get it to work in my LCG. I guess that will be part 2.

But what I was able to do is install the new 44T gear with my custom 10T. The mess is not as good as with my stock 40, but I think if I shim it a little more it should be good. Right now its really noisy, but seems to work pretty well. New gearing is now 1.87:1 and it has required me to pretty much start over with the suspension tuning. Now tuning is more like the Cyclone, where I need to maximize rear grip and minimize the quick transition speed.
Lucky I have a better idea how to tune for this now. Tuning the front weight, rear toe, rear ride height and rear swaybars have helped a lot.

More Gear Options!

As I mentioned before, in addition to my new custom 10T gear, I was able to get a hold of some custom gears from a new friend I meet in Taiwan, through the Groovydrift forums. Thanks to him, I now have even more CS options for my shaft drive.

Check out (professionally made by his friend) custom 20/35T gear combo for the rear I have. I haven't installed them yet, but the quality looks very nice, as nice as the original gears I think.
I was also able to source from him, some more 44T gears, which are handy to have, cause they work well with the 13T or 10T I have. (thanks

Before I was limited to a 1.56 ratio, but now I can mix and match up to 2.285, if I want. Not sure if that is too much, but should be fun to try.

Now all I need is some Arai track time... (too bad, I am not sure when that will be, probably not this weekend, but maybe next!!!)

Custom CS Gear Ver.2...

From what learned from the first one, I applied a few different techniques to this 2nd one.

Ouch, my fingers hurt now from cutting and grinding. Hopefully this one will mesh a little better?

If you can't buy it, make it yourself...My Custom Gear

There are a lot of new gear sets people are making for Countersteer transformations. I even ordered a couple of them to try. I in fact am about to get one more version now. But I have recently been really intrigued by one I found in Japan. I contacted them to see if I could buy them, but they are not ready yet. So I finally decided to make one myself. I know it proalbally wont be the best. Infact I have just installed it and it's loud and probally won't last too long, but I figure it will good enough to test with.

So after a lot of thinking and a lot of cutting and grinding, this is my custom CS- SD gear. Below is a little step by step of what I did. But now that I have done it once, I have some good idea how I can make it better. But I guess that will have to be version 2. Anyways check it out....

I'll have to see how it drifts now.

Please don't contact me about making another one for someone else, it's too much work, but if you want to give it a try yourself.... GO FOR IT and let me know how yours comes out!