Mid-motor Losi unveiled

[RobHatcliffe]

For those of you that have expressed interest and curiosity in the mid-motor XXX that was spotted running at Bury Metro, I thought you may like to see some pictures. I can't really claim them as Jimmy style "spy-shots" as the creator of the car is my Dad !!

It has been christened the XXX KB, with the KB standing for "Kitchen Built"

My Dad is a retired engineer, and has converted his XXX using readily available parts, a hand-drill, a Dremel and a small hand file.

If anyone wants further info on his conversion, please send me a PM.

This is the Mark II and is still very much in development, although today's track test at Bury Metro was very encouraging with the car behaving much better in the wet. In the dry, it handles very well, sharp in the corners and flat over the jumps.

[darryl]

i like it ,looks a nice tidy job,is your dad going to produce a step by step explanation on how he converted it

[RobHatcliffe]

Whilst the car is still in development I don't think there will be a step by step guide. Maybe when he is totally happy with it we will put something up.

[jimmy]

Looks good!
Are there any plans to reverse the tranny ? so the motor runs forwards i mean.

[DCM]

I got an old BK2 case here I might try reversing.... not going to go to the expense of buying a XXX gearbox though.

[jim76]

looks the same as Kevin Lee's car. His looks good on some tracks, but struggles on others. Interesting way forward though.

[jimmy]

is this running a stick pack across though? I dont think kevins is, is it ? from what I was told, kevins weight wasn't far enough back maybe.
Its good to see some different designs anyway, the current offering isn't really going anywhere if people really think the new XXXCR is something new

[DCM]

I remember what it was like running stick packs across, not the bestest of options, 2wd, as far as I Am concerned, the more the mass is centred the better.

[RobHatcliffe]

A very productive weekend for the development car, with quite a bit of track time. We've made some improvements to the steering, and tried various combinations with springs / oils / pistons on the rear shocks.

Many thanks to all of those who offered help and advice.

[Chrislong]

Hi, I presume this is Allen signed in as Rob? you are welcome for the advice, I just hope the advice/ideas you got off all of us yesterday was useful? The car does feel very good indeed and certainly is nice to drive, once you have the steering working to its full potential then its certain to be a fast car.

[RobHatcliffe]

Hi Chris - it's Rob signed in as Rob

My Dad hasn't got a pc so I stuck the message up on his behalf. He was telling me today about all the interest and suggestions from you and others at Bury, so I though it polite to thank everyone.

We went down to the track again today, I drove the Losi so my dad could watch and try changing different stuff. He also gained some good info from others who were down there testing. By the end of the day the car was really good.

Thanks again

[darryl]

sounds promising then rob???

[RobHatcliffe]

Certainly getting close to a good set-up for the dry Darryl. My Dad really needs to put some time in on a wet track now (not that I'm wishing for rain of course)

[super__dan]

I ran a pack through this too, was really good though the servo lock issue really held me back from pushing hard.

Did you try the rear shocks a piston size up and 2.5wt higher? Does the back end stay more planted over the bumps?

I enjoyed talking with Allen, a really sound bloke trying new things and all from a kitchen.

[RobHatcliffe]

Thanks for the comments Dan, and your interest.

Funnily enough, we made those exact changes on Sunday and yes, it did feel better.

I'm possibly going to use the car for the full meeting at Bury on Sunday so we'll be able to report on progress then.

[RobHatcliffe]

A wet Sunday at Bury highlighted that further work was required on the XXX KB. It went well in the dry, but the rain came early on and slowed everything right down. Although the car still performed reasonably well, it became clear as the day wore on that something was not quite right. It emerged that the aluminium z bracket had bent, thus altering the angle of the rear end to the chassis.

Cue more time in the kitchen, and the Mark III is now ready for testing. Extensive use of 1/16 inch fibre glass has done away with the z bracket and has resulted in a more rigid assembly. More testing planned for this weekend.

[Fiddybux]

Awesome work...I would love to try this sort of thing with a step by step guide.

I'm also wondering if the gear box cover suffers from heat damage
at all?

Keep it up.

[nudge]

I have almost completed this complete conversion to give it a run here in Australia.

I will let you all know how it goes

[annie_himself]

Nice, its sorta like my truck. How does it handle comapred to a CR? Does it have more steering due to a lighter rear end?

[nudge]

I have completed the conversion which included converting the gearbox so that the motor can still run the correct way as i run 27T stock class and running backwards wouldn't work at all.