Vega-Elite 201 at Stotfold Winter Series
 

Thanks to Lewis for bringing along the first ever Vega-Elite 201 for me to run at the Stotfold Winter Series today.

After installing the electrics and setting up the transmitter I had around 3 minutes of practice left to put the car down on the track and make sure all was well. Happily the car ran straight and bearing in mind that the shocks and all parts 201 came straight off a donor car that I had not run and so I had no idea what oils/pistons etc were on the car I was very happy with the initial few laps.

Between the quick practice and the first round of qualifying I changed the oil in the rear of the car to 20wt Losi with the number 4 piston and put on the 1 degree alloy rear hubs, this gave the car 4 degrees total toe in at the rear. Also changing the front shocks to the outer hole on the wishbone.

My first round started and I was making steady progress until lap 4 when the car stopped with no drive. Quick inspection and the cause was a rear pin coming out of the driveshaft where the wheel locates (201 part). Sorting this out and then changing the rear camber link to the outside on the tower and outside on the hub and ready for round 2.

Round two and i'm away last, making steady progress again and i'm up to 5th when the car loses drive on the same wheel. The same pin being the cause and on inspection I find the wheel nuts on the 201 donor car to be faulty. This now fixed with serrated nuts and a 36 gram brass weight under the speedo/receiver and i'm ready for round 3.

Round 3 starts and with the car handling much better and again starting from last place I make steady progress and finish 4th in round (more like it).

20 grams more weight added to the front and i'm away for round 4. Going off 5th should be a much better position but a very slow car holding me up for the first 4 laps until I can get clear. This clearly costs me a lot of time and with the times being close this puts me 7th in round.

Taking the 20 grams back out and cutting the rear wing a little lower and i'm away 9th on the grid in the A main. Starting the final i'm up straight into 6th after the first corner and very quickly into 4th. A couple more laps and up to second and clear of the chasing pack. An error on the "fingers" section of the track and i'm marshalled quickly but the chasing pack are right behind. A gentle tap from the (nameless) car behind and in the slippy conditions i'm up on the hose and stuck firm, this drops me down to 5th . A couple more laps and i'm back up to 3rd but too far behind to catch Tony Evdoka who inherited second (this is why they call him "Lucky Tony" ;):wub). Being chased hard all the way by Matt I managed to hang on to 3rd at the end.

I am extremely pleased with 3rd overall considering I hadn't seen the car before this morning and with only a very limited amount of running on the very tricky Stotfold track.

I will be running the car again at the Moto Arena on Tuesday for some final testing before the Off-Road Wars at Maritime next Saturday. Thanks again to Lewis for the drive for 2011 and also to Kev Lee of Insideline Racing for some very valuable and much appreciated set up tips.

This car is truly awesome and anyone considering converting their 201's should seriously consider one of these very well engineered pieces of kit.

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Great result mate! considering it was the first time out the car looked really good by the end of the day and the result proves it.

It's another masterpiece from Vega!

Yep - it certainly went well Alec.
You must be so happy to be third behind me!! LOL
My car was the nuts.....

Pics would be awesome on the chassi.

Great result for a first time out with the car :thumbsup:

Well done Vega, seems like its going to be another hit conversion! :)

I'm sure Lewis will post some pictures soon of the final product :thumbsup:

Now Lewis has officially launched the Vega-Elite 201x here's a couple of pictures of mine that I used last week at Stotfold :thumbsup:

Ouch! That shell... :cry::wtf: It looks like a cobra that has just swallowed a rabbit...

Nice paint job though!

Topless pics please! :thumbsup:

I'm sure the car is very good but that shell is ...:yawn:

On the oople News page:)

Pity the shell isn't BRCA legal ;)

Looks nice though.

G

How come?

Only reason I can think is cause of the spinning smooth nut on the slipper
But if that's not allowed all the xx4s results should be revoked lol:woot:

Thats all i could think of aswell....

Working on a gromit ;)
Cheers northy!

There's no need for a grommet, it's not illegal for that reason. I'm curious to know what the reason is though.

This one is a "marmite" shell, you either love it or you hate it but that's nothing new, every car shell has it's lovers or haters, the good thing about this one is it has a fantastic piece of engineering underneath :thumbsup:

As for it being not BRCA legal, please enlighten us all Graham

Do the windows need to be a certain dimension? I asked Blitz if he could smoke the windows out and he said that its not BRCA Legal?? Maybe that??

There's nothing illegal about the shell, I think there is a rule about tinted/painted windows though so that's what Graham Blitz would have told you.

I have a feeling that Northy was referring to the slipper shaft but that is definitely not in the rule book so there's nothing to worry about there!

If it was illegal, then say bye bye to the xx4 which as we all know has the same issue.

I don't know what all the fuss is about, and who cares what the shell looks like it's what's underneath that counts!!

I do actually care how the shells looks like and this shell was not nice i think. It seems like i need to do my own shell for this chassi so i can enter a race without being laughed at because i always disses the bulldogbodies and this is far more ugly, a nice body will help sell kits....

Would everyone still be laughing if you beat them all by a mile?

its not *that* bad. i dont like the light bits at the front, but other than that its all good!

OMG that actually makes the X-6 look atractive, good work Vega.

What's under the shell looks amazing, credit where it is due.

My advice would be to get on the blower to Phat Bodies and ask him to make you a shell that doesn't look like a frog in a sock :D

I really like my vega shell
the lumps in the front accomodate massive speedos with fan, with weight under them for a low cg+ the holes can be reamed out for cooling
it covers the car well
creates even downforce at the rear as well as covering the spur
and is 1mm thick for crashers like me
Looked at making it more conventional but there really isnt many more options that suits all the important areas
but i do understand its different!

I am puzzled why you would make the above comment Graham, and then not reply to everyones questions!
Why do YOU think the shell is not BRCA legal?
Surely not because Alec didn't trim the front nose off??!!
I personally I think as a BRCA official that you are, you should at least give your views on your comments

Yeah - c'mon Graham.
I've wracked my brains and even read the rules on the BRCA website but still not any clearer.

Are you querying the fact that it may not be commercially available (section 22.4) or that it isn't a reasonable representation of full size cars generally accepted as being suitable for Rallycross, Rallying, Trail and Desert races (22.1)

Or is it that you don't like Alec's paint job - in which case rule 22.8 could be invoked :lol:

I did wonder about the tinted windows - but I don't think that is a requirement within BRCA - but maybe for EFRA?

Or is it, as Tony suggests, the fact that Alec has not cut his body short enough at the front so technically, you consider the body to be the most forward protruding part of the car and is thus the bumper, in which case rule 23.2 may be contentious since it does not have rounded edges and corners?

I don't mind a puzzle but shed some more light please...

Why thank you for the kind words Tony :wub

Not sure if you'd realised but I've not been on here too much recently and there are more than a few personal and work reasons for that. I friend has alerted me of your questions. You could have contacted me if you wanted.

The reason I have not replied yet is that I don't want to rush a reply, and have simply been too busy, sorry for that.

Yes I am a BRCA official, but I am also a Volunteer BRCA official, other stuff sometimes has to come first.

I will reply, don't worry.

G

OK, maybe I should have put "I think the shell might not be BRCA legal" and to be honest I think I really need to see one to make a proper decision.

I'm not interested in forum arguments about how silly rules are or aren't.

G

Graham, sorry if you took my words wrong, not meant to sound like they do when re-read - sorry.
Saying that though, you still haven't told us why 'you think it may not be BRCA legal' LOL

Graham,

this has little to do with me but!!! i will say my piece.
People talk rubbish on forums and say things that are not true!!

As a BRCA official (which all BRCA commitee members are) you have to be careful what you say as people take you literaly.

When you make a plain comment "Pity its not BRCA legal"
You can imagine how the people feel who have spent hundreds of pounds on a kit to race with who suddenly believe that their car cannot be used, Not to mention the damage you can cause to the business that is selling these cars!

I think you need to explain yourself better please as to why you made the comment in the first place and whether the people with vested interests need to be doing things to protect their Finances.

To me i can only draw my own conclusion as you have not clarfied things yet. Maybe you had a gut feeling that they where not legal because of a feature you dont like? or you just wanted to cause some confusion as this is a team car you are racing against?? Make your response quick for your own benifit as well as the owners of the car!

OK, I will, and have. I have said I can not make a judgement until I have seen one in the flesh or some REALLY good pictures.


Are you serious? :confused:

DOUBLE CHECK ON THE TINTED WINDOWS THING.. CAN ANYBODY TELL ME IF THEY ARE LEGAL OR NOT PLEASE?

Northy, you just said you can't make a judgement until you've seen the car in the flesh, but from your original comment it seemed like you had already made that judgement. You obviously had a reason in the first place to make the comment so please tell us what it was. The suspense is killing me!

I know you are Volunteer (and I commend you for that), but you've chosen to be a representative of the BRCA and you should be factual when you make statements like this. Perhaps you should have said nothing on a forum until you had made a judgement, you could always have contacted one of us before..

Agreed Kev, a genuine human mistake, and I apologise, I've clarified above that: "I think the shell might not be BRCA legal".

Unfortunately I will soon loose internet access until late Friday night.

Could you send me some good close up pictures of the shell Kev?

G

Graham i dont have the pleasure of knowing you, And i have absolutely no idea why you said what you said so i have to make some assumptions, if you a have another reason please share as i cant think of any.

I would hope you are a nice guy and just said something stupid but as i say i dont know you so i cant be sure.

No problem, if you PM me your email address i'll send them tonight. You'll have to let me know what area in particular though.

We still love you Graham - Just - LOL :thumbsup:

On another note _ I DO NOT THINK THE SHELL IS ILLEGAL AT ALL and if it is then PW will have to throw out about 30-40 Vegas out........

I really do not know what to reply to that.

if you dont know somebody maybe you shouldnt make assumptions