CATS @ Bury?
 

So how did the Cats go at Bury this weekend? Any results? Is Chris' Setup still the one to have?

Hey Jack,
Yeh the Cat SX won. Andy Jones drove really well and he was using my setup, but I think with a diff rather than a one way.

Whereas I qualified 7th, then broke it off the line. One of those things, I was actually really quick and suprised I was down in 7th, really enjoyed the car and the track - unfortunate clip of a car off the line and cracked wishbone where there ballstud mounts..... oh well....

I was also playing with my setup, and Jonesy proved I would have been quicker not changing it. So its going back... :lol:

I know also that Graham North did well, and so did Ste Pierce. An unfortunate start saw G-mag and Ste collide, and I collected G (Days of Thunder / Days of BLUNDER) and that how I was out, G was out at that point too.

There was also Vernon, Coates, lil Ben and me in the A main with SX's :D

G

Wow, domination. I was there and didn't spot 6 Cat SX's in the A! :lol:

So having not been to a meeting in, oh 22 years (last one was an indoor in Davenport in Stockport that my Grandad took me too), does everyone normally openly discuss set-ups and things? Or is all cloak'n'dagger, nay tell the man next ta ya, type thing?

If I wanted to attend a meeting like Bury (it is local for me) where do you think the best place to go and practice would be so I don't make a complete arse of myself the first time I get there?

I have so many questions, hope you don't all mind.

turn up and ask anyone, pretty sure everyone will be willing to help you out and share setups and stuff...

its not touring car racing :P

Come on Jack, get over to the club. Bring pen and paper too as your bound to forget some answers. ha ha.

Off-road is probably the most open and friendly meeting you'll come too, anybody will tell you anything, there is no hidden secrets or voodoo to discover. But just don't be afraid to ask atall as we don't know just what you know and what you need help with at a risk of sounding patronising.

As for practice, if you can co-ordinate your left and right, your reaction speed and learn that giving it more throttle means you will crash more until your co-ordination improves, then you'll already be quicker than probably the bottom final.... so I recomend using 2 or 3 cones, go to a park, and zig zag through them. As you get better then bring them tighter, and start to go faster. Your aim while doing this is to stay on the racing line rather than just avoiding the cones..... you'll soon learn that too much throttle makes it impossible to stay on line.

I resisted saying that.... pmsl :lol:

Speed is your friend......:lol:
Plus tell Hanz solo, that slower is better.

Well to a point, but through a corner it isn't until you have control over it.

I can vouch for this, when i had plucked up enough courage to step away from the dark side, i bought a BJ4, i hadn't driven off road in 12 years or more (since i was 11 ish) At my first meeting i was absolute Gash. I was fast through the corners but as soon as i came to a bump or jump it all went tits up.

Chris and Dan (Xfactory brother) had both been watching me and saw how crap i was and gave me pointers, as to how to jump. They didnt know me from Adam. Thats just how friendly off road is.

They taught me to crash on the corners as well as the jumps :lol:

:lol:

Bit late.. but anyways... here's my little story :eh?:

My Cat was dialled right the way through qualifying... had some bad luck in round 3 where i came into contact with another car at the end of the straight... thanks for the calling you were there anyway..;) :bored:
Round 4, had yet more electric problems, thought i had solved them for the final...

From 10th on the grid i managed to miss the carnage off the start.. passed about 3 cars on the grid then managed to somehow miss some more carnage on the first few corners to put myself up to 4th.. then my electric problems came back and the day ended with me ploughing into the end of the straight at full chat :cry:

Im not sure how my setup compares to chris'.. it's very consistent and easy to drive!! ¬_¬ ... let's compare notes chris:D:eh?:

Ben

It could have been worse Ben, you could have been using the 24hr car, that is a 2 lap special :lol:

Did vermin touch it? :woot:

AH! but everyone is forgetting 4 minutes and 50 seconds of Tamiya perfection!

Even though the driver had a splitting headache and could'nt actually see half the track!

That's my excuse anyway!!

You drove well, Andy got his balls out on the jump - it could have been so different so easily.

No wonder you crashed :lol:

Thanks for all the help. Will definitely do the cones. Might actually make up a course in the carpark at work and see how I get on. How does tarmac compare to the indoor surface?

What do actually need apart from a car and a transmitter and some tools? How many crystal sets do I need to buy? I have a mains charger for a Lipo, will that do? What is a charging sleeve for a Lipo? And do I need one? How many Lipos do I need for a meet?

Sorry again for the questions, but you guys seem nice enough to answer them, so tell me when you're bored. Or just stop posting replies :P

crystal sets wtf this isn't 1876. SPREAD SPECTRUM MY SON, SPREAD SPECTRUM ;) :D

p.s. its a bit scarey that we've bought very competitive cars. I for one shall just be crashing and breaking it I suspect!

p.p.s. charging sleeve is to put battery in when charging. For the paranoid or those who bought shite Chinese chargers on the cheap!

p.p.p.s. been told one pack is enough, but you need to be able to charge between races. Not a great time to buy more packs as the standards don't appear to have been finalised yet so you may end up with illegal packs. From discussions here it seems trakpower may fall foul of the rules due to not being tamper proof :(

I'm using a very hi-tech Futaba Attack 2ER I'll have you know!! It has Bioengineered design and every'fin'..........

So how many crystal sets then ;)

3 sets of crystals should be fine :eh?:

Thanks Ben.

Are there any other "Must Haves" for a first meeting?

Jack I'm impressed, you are taking this very seriously. If I go to a meeting the car will be in a tesco carrier bag with my lunch :D

Oh yea, it will be a Booths carrier bag, of course. But just wanted to make sure I didn't turn up without the Flugelspar Seperating Conch Block that I MUST have in order to race :)

It was more like 4 mins 55 secs I think Damo!!! :p :p



And what balls there were, I'd been pulling that move on a Yellow car all day in my heat!!!




On a serious note though - I did have the same set-up as Chris' except as he mentioned I was running a diff not a one way, I think the one-way would have only helped me round one part of the track so I don't think I lost out on much.

Then again I've only ever ran a one way for 5 minutes so can't be too sure!!

A) This is off-road fella, practice on any surface and you'll be fine. Tracks can vary from high grip carpet, to medium grip sportshall floor, to low grip plastic sheeting..... all in 1 lap! its ace!

B) Money to book in, table, chair, means of charging and extension lead... or 12v/Generator if outdoors.

C) More than 1 set. 3 sets or more ideally.

D) If it charges your lipo in the CC/CV method up to 8.4v, and if it does it quickly (40 minutes or so), so can be done between heats.

E) Its a Lipo sack, Lipo is new technology and the safety of them is unknown. Rumour has it when they go pop, they do it big, but I haven't seen any do it. But as a precaution, when one does, charging in a sack stops them injuring you or damaging anything around.

F) 1 will do, 2 is what I use but isn't neccessary.

And as for the BRCA rules and availability. Don't worry too much, you won't be doing nationals for a while, for club racing then none-legal cells will be fine. If you decide to do regionals then you will need to look into legal cells though.

Thanks again for the advice. Much appreciated.

I need my own table and chair? Ok

My charger takes over an hour, but I think that is because it is 5300mah pack and the charger only charges at 5A, or something. Maybe another battery is in order.

Chris, how come the set-ups that have been posted today are so far away from your set-up? Is it because they like their car a different way? or because the Petit track was all carpet?

Thanks

5A is about the max you will get on a mains powered charger. If you want more you are going to need a charger and separate power supply. Starts to get expensive and from what I can tell is unnecessary.