To shorty or not to shorty?
 

I'm looking at getting some new Lipo's for my RB6 and was just wanting to see what people's opinions are on the shorty option? How does the car feel when using these over saddles for example.

I'm sure the shortys would give a more nimble feeling in high grip but wouldn't the car still benefit from the extra weight of the saddles in low grip and bumpy conditions?

As always all help would be appriciated.



Chris

I run shorties in low grip and I find that adding extra weight just makes the car feel more sluggish. I run the rudebits brass tray as standard. I've only added extra weight for higher grip levels and felt it stopped the car feeling edgy.

I totally agree with your theory. I ran the RB6 last year with shorty and rudebits weight kit and it was awesome on high grip astro/carpet.

We run on grass up here a lot and i found the rear end got loose as the grass started to go. I then switched to saddles and it was better but found it a bit lazy up front.

If you are running high grip i would go shorty all day long.

+1 for shorties. You can always add weight if you feel that it is the way to go, but I like the handling of a lighter car. TBH it also looks much nicer with a shorty :)

Thanks guys,

The main reason I'm considering shorties is that I may pick up a Tm2 to run in high grip and leave the RB6 for medium to low grip. This seems to be the problem though as it appears the shorties in the RB6 are far more suited to higher grip where I would most likely be running my other car. It's looking as if for best performance I will need a couple of packs of both saddle and shorty to get the best out of the RB6.

I'm happy with the performance of my RB6 in high grip but my low grip setup is a work in progress so if the shorty is going to be a disadvantage over the saddles in these conditions it may be better to give them a miss.

I'm open to be convinced the other way of course though...


Chris

I only have shorty cells now so I run them everywhere all of the time.

All I do is change the weight under the lipos and / or add/move the side weights on the RudeBits tray.

When I first got the RudeBits shortie tray the feedback I gave Tony was "feels like cheating", enough said.

You have a RB6 so why not get a DB2 instead of the TM2, i know the DB2 is more money but straight away you are sharing front end parts and setups.
it will keep your spares cost down and the Rudebits DB range is brilliant.

I ran shorties most of winter, and have went back to saddles and find the car is much more consistent and easier to drive, which is what were all after at the end of the day.

In an ideal world Id love the Db2 but at pushing £600 for the parts needed to build one its well out my price range. I've decided against the shorties for now and will persevere with my RB6 for high and low grip for this years nationals and regionals so I'm going to stick with the saddles for now.

Interesting what you say Paul? I tend to run my RB6 with no weight and quite an aggressive setup but for the first time in months I added weight on a greasy Broxtowe track at weekend and it definitely kept the car more predictable.


Chris

Shorty batteries will result in lower vehicle weight and a more rear located center of gravity of the vehicle (due to less weight in front of the rear axle). That will result in better traction in low grip conditions.

Shorty all the way Chris - much faster - saddles is very safe - probably too safe