There's only one reason I dug out my old nimh cells and started to restore their health - to cut down on dremeling! :thumbsup:

Aaron, nimh sit in chassis locators so are not 23mm higher than the chassis. They are also round so are not 23mm high at the front edge!! There is loads of room under the top deck, not the bulkhead though!!

On my way home now do will take pics!

Maybe lipos should HAVE to be made out of 6 little round cells so they can be built up into a pack with little bits of copper used to Solder them together. Then we could solder wire and connectors to the end of them too......

:woot::woot::woot::woot::woot:

G

Ha ha too right G!! Nah seriously I'm not having a go at battery sizes/rules etc, just saying it's not as simple as "it's the same size as nimh so must fit". Think it's a miscomm with Aaron!

Wouldn't want to dremel the bulkhead, there's already less stiffening than the 501!

Guess I'm just surprised Tamiya didn't consider Lipo at all really? Are they legal in Japan?

Anyone know the answer to the piston question by the way??

I don't like the idea of Dremel-ing aluminum to make things fit, but I honestly don't see a stiffness/weakness issue with removing 2 of the 4 mounting holes. It is possible that the entire hole would have NOT to be hacked off, maybe just angled and use a much shorter screw to secure the top deck to the bulkhead.

And, yes, Dremel-ing a Lipo case probably isn't so smart. This 511 is getting me excited, ok?! :woot::wub

Dave, get that camera in your hand and take those pics! :D

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/9831/demonadd.jpg

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/921/demon2f.jpg

What lipo packs are those Dave? They sure look like the Intellect 30C 4200s.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Intellect-lipo-b...QQcmdZViewItem

Also, are the jumper wire outlets blocked by the top deck? Will that be an issue?

Those are the Demon cells, wouldn't be surprised if they are actually the same though!!

As long as you put the terminals to the rear there's no problem with the wires and topdecks!

I have the intellects and they fit fine in my 501x. Pleanty of room....

Could you make some pics of the parts list?

Thanks for the pics Dave! Those must be the same sized cases as the Intellect 30C 4200s (somehow your Demon packs are 35C). Anyway, not much aluminum will need to be removed from that center bulkhead for these packs to fit. :)

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/3...9photo6.th.jpg


here is the car with the new shell / wing

You racing the car tomorrow Dave?
I have the chassis / suspension built but won't have it done in time for this weekend. Might consider running it at the Players tho.

Finished wiring up about an hour ago, but still need to cut/fit shell and wing, setup duffs/slipper and get some tires glued, plus install electrics in my 2wd! I'll be running it, just might be falling asleep on the rostrum!

Chris, I can scan in the manual etc but will take a while, may not get chance till Wednesday (when I'm off work!)

Aaron, looking again your right, dremelling the bulkhead is probably doable, be careful not to make it a tight fit though, or when it flex's could crunch the cells!!

I tried my trakpowers with the heatshrink cut off (not to try pass them off as new BRCA legal ones you understand) - and they slid under the bulkhead with about 1mm to spare.

So did you guys race them? whadduya think?

They must be so happy with the car,:p that they are still out racing it.

Yep ran mine at Worksop on Sunday! Thoughts on it, well first the good stuff:

1. Did practice, 4 rounds and final without a single breakage. Didn't have any huge impacts but enough to see the new arms aren't too weak, so will try them on the 501 too!

2. Qualified B5, which I think is about the best result I've had this winter there. Hard to compare when different people are at different rounds but it seemed quick!

Other stuff to note:

1. Adding anti roll bars made a big difference when running kit springs (kit springs are med front and soft rear), without them there was lots of body roll!

2. Felt like it had less front grip, but hard to tell as I was also running new cells/ESC and servo!! It was an absolute rocket on the straights which may have affected turn in. May try a centre one way this weekend though to see how it feels!

3. Use loctite, I had about 6 or 7 screws come loose or fall out completely during the day!

Not sure if Jimmy saw it going round at all to get his views??

Any setup tips anyone can give me would be much appreciated by the way, I'm running kit which is:

Front:
Medium springs
40wt oil
Medium length camber link
Shock bottom hole middle, top (shock tower) 3rd in out of 4

Rear:
Springs soft
40wt oil
Camber links on inner
Same shock positions as front

General: lipo weighing 230g, no lead! Anti roll bars stiff front and rear.

Specifically is 40wt oil with soft springs sensible? Especially with low weight lipo? What would be the next step to increase turn in?

I would say your springs are fine... I too run kit springs (yellow front, red rear) with 40 or sometimes 37.5 wt oil in front and 32.5 or sometimes 30 wt oil in rear (Losi shock oil). This is on high-traction indoor dirt surface (we run near slick Losi Pink Taper Pin tires).

I think a shorter front link would increase turn-in correct? Also, try the 2nd hole in on the front shock tower (stand the shock up by one hole).

Reversed the rear shock setup last night to put them at the back, and the back now sits much lower despite the settings theoretically being the same. Does anyone know if this is a usual effect on cars, I'm thinking it's had the effect of "softening" the rear, the springs are much more compressed at rest??

Haven't been able to actually try running it, will sort a wing today to try at Worksop Friday!

Is it possible to only have a glimp of the parts list?
I think my 511 is still stuck at customs.

Has anyone got their 511x assembled and/or running yet? I would be very curious to get some initial impressions on the build and any track time you might have had. From what we could see, it looked like a lot of the changes were for ease of bulkhead access for diffs and the motor. I was wondering if any of the 501x bulkheads would line up on the new chassis.

Dave had his running at the players. It looked very impressive:thumbsup:

I did indeed have it running, never really got to grips with the track though and think it's possible I've tweaked something somewhere. Ran the 501 at times in practice and in one heat too and would say the 511 definitely has more grip and bite! I struggled for balance on it though and on jumps, but last week felt the balance/jumps were better, hence confused!!:confused:

Don't think bulkheads crossfit as the 511 bulkheads have more chassis locators!

If the car has some antisquat, the shocks need to be longer when in rear position. Otherwise you loose much droop...:thumbdown::lol:

Yeah but the effect I mentioned last week felt much more than that. The car wasn't just lower at the back, it felt softer too, the springs were more compressed at rest. I figured it could handle less droop anyway while running indoor, a few times with the old car I had put the shorter shock shafts back on indoors as it sometimes felt better, mixed and matched front and rear too at times (long rear, short front and vice versa).

Then again, I didn't measure anything exactly, and am only ever working to find an overall balance so it could well be a mix of effects, especially given as far as I can tell the 511 does have more antisquat on the standard settings to the 501 (different rear mounting position).

It wasn't lack of droop affecting the jumping at the players either, it still felt fine till I smacked the back end up at the end of practice being an idiot!:mad:

At a guess I'd say that it's because the arms are swept forward, which means the distance from the lower shock mounting hole to the centre of the car is less when measured at the front of the arm compared to when measured at the back of the arm - therefore effecting the droop.

Hope that made some sense :confused:

Hi Dave,

Do the 511 arms appear to have less carbon compared to the 501 arms?

Cheers,

Vincent

Hi,

Yeah it's a shinier more plastic look/feel as well as less material!

Setup wise at the moment I'm at the following:

Low grip/bumpy:

Front:
40wt oil
Med spring
Hard roll bar
Shock middle hole bottom, top 3rd in
12 degree castor

Rear:
Shocks behind wishbone
40wt oil
Soft spring
Hard roll bar
Standard hubs


Smoother/higher grip:

Front:
As above but 10 degree castor

Rear:
Shocks in front of wishbone
Otherwise as above

The bit confusing me is needing the extra castor to keep it in line, really wouldn't expect that with the shocks to the rear, maybe droop is the issue meaning it's losing traction in bumps?

Hard roll bar helps when using the soft springs for me. For outdoor I guess maybe 30wt oil instead?

Why do you use roll bars on a low grip track? What positive effects do you get?

Well I could be being stupid, but a side effect of running soft springs at the back is that if I go into a corner under power I'm getting very little turn in due to the body roll to the outside and also weight transfer and dive at the back. I use the anti roll bar to try to reduce the body roll and bring a bit more sharpness back to the turn in. I believe it generally also allows more grip to be had from the inside front wheel as part of this too so overall corner grip also helped. Without the roll bar and with soft springs it becomes very sluggish to manouver! Ideally I'd use stiffer rear springs but with Lipo it just kills the traction for me to do so!

I use hard roll bar as I struggle to get any effect out of soft/medium tamiya roll bars at all!

Can anyone help by the way, am I going to get away with 40wt oil on outdoor bumpy tracks, or should I drop to 30??

Have heard contradictory advice on what to do at the rear especially when running lighter with Lipo!!

There are many other oil weights to play with between 30 and 40 (Losi 30, 32.5, 35, 37.5). This past weekend I used Losi 37.5 front and Losi 32.5 rear for fairly high traction indoor clay at Tamiya Championship Series.

Dave, can you take some photos of your 511 for all of us to drool over? :woot::drool:

Will try to get some sorted!

Yeah sorry didn't really explain my oils post, in the past I've used 30wt as a base for outdoor setups, was wondering if 40 is obviously too high? I've got some Losi oils, at the mo just 35wt and then others below 30.

I'll probably update mine sometime this year.
Let see I'll need 2 belts, 4 front A-arms and 4 rear A-arms.
I'll probably have to order directly from tamiya.

I wonder how much different it will drive with the new parts on.
It already handles really good as it is now.

does anybody know were you can buy a 511 in the uk

Couple of pics at last!

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/3712/trf5111.jpg

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/1435/trf5112u.jpg

Parts list at last:

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/1706/trf511parts.jpg

Do the three motor wires need to go between the upper and lower path of the rear belt like you have it or is there room to go below the lower path of the belt? Not a big deal, just curious.