Vega-Elite 201 at Stotfold Winter Series

[Smartalec]

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" ). 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.