Friday March 5th 2010

Worked on mounting some new X pattern tires today for tomorrow enduro race... looking like 70% chance of rain
but Charlie insists that in the 15 years he has been racing only 3 rain days... we will see... just have to be ready...
Also I think I figured out the 12th scale problem... it's the servo... it must have fried somehow ???? very strange...
it felt like the thing was under strain and then a puff of smoke... $30 down the drain.... pics I took to send to Dave Berger
and Calvin....

I also worked on the TRU SPEC chassis... I went with 8 droop up front and 5 in the rear... I then went more vertical with the front shocks, this should all give me
a little more push and hopefully eliminate that oversteer off power... also dropped the ride height from 5 mm to 4 mm..., then I dropped the body one more hole all
around and added a 4 mm lip on the rear spoiler... this should hold the back down under high speed turns... This body needs all the help it can get because it sits so
high...

Tuesday March 9th 2010

So this past weekend was interesting and fun... Saturday Mark, Doug and I all met at the i-Hop for breakfast before the Enduro race... Matt did not show
because he was sure it was going to get rained out... we are all pissed off with him... when you say your going to be part of a team, you show up...
anyway... he's the only one who hasn't paid me, doesn't look like he's going to pay me, and at this point I hope he doesn't... fuck him... the race did get
rained out and rescheduled for three weeks from now... The RCGT practice race at WCRC was a lot of fun... I qualified 1st in the B main and easily
won the race... in fact I was able to get 21 laps, which would have placed me in the 6th position of the A main... missed getting into the A main by less
then 1 second...

The following day was back to Huntington Beach... this time it did not rain and we had 16 TRU SPEC cars... I found out early that my carbon chassis
was not in the rules... Tim found out his body was not in the rules... I qualified 3rd in the A main... we had some very close racing and I finished 2nd...
not sure if they are going to count Tim or my points... he finished 3rd... regardless, it was really fun... Looks like I'm going to miss a few Camarillo
days next few months to attend Charlie Series :) Guess it's nice to have many options... Florida had no on-road options... Off road oval was big... Oh my...

Thursday March 11th 2010

Worked on transferring all the TRU SPEC electronics over from my TC to the S model... luckily they did count my TRU SPEC Series points, I received 99 points
for 2nd place... The car was not turning as far left as it was right... had to keep digging deep to find that the KO servo was a little larger the the Futaba
and it was getting in the way... I was able to dermal off a couple mm from the corner and all good... I went with 2 degrees camber all around, ride height
is 5 mm all around because Speedtech track is a little more bumpier ... droop is 7 mm up front and 6 mm in the rear... I also transfered over the dog-bones
over from the TC as well as shocks, also the front spool and the rear diff... car should be bullet proof... It will be curious how it drives differently then the TC...

Also worked on the 12th scale... this time made sure my controller setting was on normal and not high speed... everything seems fine... had to re adjust the turn-
buckle lengths... the car would lift few mm when turning one direction and not the other... the ball cup was rubbing front part of the chassis... I raised the
servo mount and shaved off some chassis, all is smooth... I still need to work on the diff tomorrow...

Tuesday March 16th 2010

Had a great weekend of racing... The first race of the 2010 RCGT series was Saturday... The two qualifying races had some amazing battles... Dave Berger
and I were inches apart lap after lap... both of us closely following this other dude who was actually .5 sec a lap slower then us, but more consistent...
I qualified 3rd in the A main out of 16... beginning of the race I got into a accident and got pushed back to the back of the pack... I slowly worked my
way back into 4th place and thought thats where it's going to end, but Dave got into a accident about one min from the end and I passed him into 3rd place,
he was never able to catch me...

Last night I worked on my 12th scale body... it took about 5 hours even though it was a one color paint job ( white ) the stickers took forever but the final result
turned out pretty good... I still have a couple more things to do and then take pic on Friday... with any luck we will have a 12th scale race at WCRC Saturday...

Saturday March 20th 2010

Finally finished the 12th scale body yesterday.... I was able to find a aluminum o ring that I painted red for the front of the car... also drilled 3 holes in each
side of the windows... also built an interior dash with a Porsche sticker that looks sweet... all the wiring for the lights are tied to the front bumper... I'll take
some close up pics later on but this was the shot I took last night... took 3 images to get this shot... first image was with a light box over the car, I pushed the box
back slightly to let the front of the car fall into some shade... F22 1/3 @ 8 seconds .. The car is on a semi reflective dark silver board that I sprayed with water...
the second image was also F22 @ 8 seconds but no strobe, I had a flash light standing behind the car that I refection the wet board to create the warm refection...
The third image was F22 @ 8 seconds, no strobe and I has moving the christmas lights in the background to make the areal shape... so the front head lights received
a total of 24 seconds @ F22... put it all together in photoshop and added the bluish effects of the sky lights to play off the bluish headlights...