RE-Xtreme FD3s Spirit R

95% complete, but good enough for a photoshoot.

All the rotary labels in effect on this machine.

RE-Amemiya, Fujita Engineering Feed, R-Magic, Knight Sports, Sexy Style, Pan-Speed, C-West, Satoru, Veilside, Bomex, and some extra sponsors for good measure.

Yokomo and Tamiya feature with Kazama, Sanwa, Keyence, RC926, Top line, Spice and other brands I support.

A few of my own brands of course RE-Xtreme, RE-AU, .RSG. and a few shared stickers along the way.

it's all very busy but that keeps life interesting.

I have 3 tasks that remain.

LED install,
Brake ducts to replace the fake fog light sticker.
Rear Wing (rear support)

and I'll be happy.

I can't wait to get this thing into some tandem sliding.

Interior, there's a custom dash and rear parcel shelf with tower bar and a full 6 point cage. 
My driver is based on a Tamiya Wheelie body and 4wd driver's head with custom sunglasses.

he likes to look out the side, but the head position is fixed. Rear wing is a Yokomo "Cusco" item with Custom Kunnyz style end plates. I need to make a small wedge to mount the lower section more securely and increase angle slightly.

HPI details like exhaust, intercooler and mirrors add to the realism, while the street jam diffuser is a great complement to FD3s styling. Very similar to RE-Amemiya or Craft Company's rear diffuser.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the result.

Return to the chase.

Re-painting the chaser was a strange exercise. The original chrome lifted off except the absolute thinnest layer. Re-painted in PS Silver it remains bright.

Re-mounted on new magnets for a stronger solution.
 

I also tested the alternate body for the rear wheel drive platform. 

Problem. Diffuser doesn't fit with the low BN sports rear.  To cut or not to cut.

Perhaps it shall remain for the DRB.

RE-DP Typhoon Spec R - Test Prep.

Almost ready for another test.

Today I mounted all the weights except for those on the hub. 

I can actually get a bit more angle than this with the servo switched on.

Next test.

1. Weight evaluation.
2. Short 4200 battery vs Long 4.0 Pack.
3. Final spring selection.

RE-DP Spirit "R" - Testing Video

https://vimeo.com/67494270

Check the second test of the rear wheel drive only Drift Package.

Should be up soon.

Weighing up options.

Today I tried a little experiment.

 I decided to make my own weight set for my Drift package.

I needed

1. 80g side weight to balance the motor/battery
2. 150g rear diffuser weights
3. 2x 20g rear hub weights.
4. 20 g front gearcase insert weight
5. 80g general weight.  Maybe extra for the rear.

This is what I cast.

Almost correct. 

 hub and diffuser locations have now been trimmed to fit.

Front gear case will house a small weight.

This is the unwighted machine ready for install in a few days.

I also started re-fitting the Chaser.

DIB Upgrade.

My DIB has received a minor upgrade.
 

I swapped the Team Bomber SSG bumper stay on here from my SSG drift package which now has a street Jam version. Subtle but cool.

RC926  Hybrid springs have also been upgraded.
Hard/Super Soft on the front.
Soft/Med on the rear.

Still running CS 2.3 and steering linked to Willy's head.

The chaser has been repainted. Chrome remnants with translucent silver / white / black.

Just need to re-install the lights and it's back in action.

RE-DP Spirit "R" - Testing

Today was productive. I have a clear setting direction for the DP-RWD

I started out testing on concrete with varying success. But it was good to determine weight balance.

I ended up with 100 grams on one side to balance the motor vs battery. Heavier 4000 battery was of course better and required 60 gram ballast compared to the 3300.

Funny thing was ... I kept spinning out a lot until I remembered to increase the steering EPA.
Then I was getting some response.

The main issues I had was traction vs grip. I used a lot of different damper settings and eventually went quite hard on the front with soft/medium and super soft/ultra-soft  at the rear. but I will probably go hard on the front as I needed a lot of preload.

The rear is also supporting 220grams of temporary weight placed centrally on the diffuser.

Here you can see a gyro installed on a nice ally plate. but...

1. no instructions. But how hard is it? just plug it in.
2. after plugged in there was no response on any level with the Sanwa. no function = useless.
3. It then broke a wire straight off it's circuit board when I unplugged it. Unrepairable ... so

I crushed it in the vice.

I guess I won't be using a gyro. hahahaha. It was useless. R2 hobbies. I actually expected more for $12

I guess I shouldn't expect anything.

With asphalt proving very difficult to get the tyre balance right I moved to carpet where I have a greater range of tyre choices. I was still chasing rear traction.

My regular Spice tyres were good on the front but with all 4 tyres the same I couldn't get the traction I needed.

Front is 7 deg camber,  and about 10 castor.

Rear is 7 camber, but it rises to about 3 deg under squat.

 I have these En Route tyres. They have always had a bit more grip than the spice tyres in 4wd mode, being a bit faster!

As soon as I put them on... Success.

The balance was right.

To me, Rear Wheel Drive seems to need that solid, planted soft rear end and a bit more grip in the back.

1. for propulsion and 2. for weighted braking.

Without the weight on the rear it would simply slide too much with the front gripping under dive and the rear simply unweighted so it would spin.

I may run some more anti-dive to aid off throttle transitions.

I was now able to adjust my dampers with 1/4 turns for good reaction and adjustment of slide much like my other chassis do.

So I went back into the workshop and started to clean up the chassis. Re-shimmed all the loose bits, adjusted the body to the right position and prepared a second set of tyres on these Weds SA-55M

I'm going to have to make my own purpose designed chassis weights.

I can see why the FR-D guys in Japan run weights on the rear hubs. I'll be designing some to install on the diffuser and rear hubs also.

But I have a much better grasp on the needs of Rear Wheel Drive now.

I can see how a gyro would help, but the steering on my car is so quick I can catch it most of the time.
you have to concentrate a lot, but once you get the hang of it, you are soon able to relax a bit and place the car better. I did take a small video but I doubt I'll show it. I'll wait until I get somewhere larger.

I just need a big flat area to test now.