The velodrome of life….

The velodrome is one of the most fun R/C track experiences you can have.

Today was no exception, the sun was out there was a cool breeze and it was a public holiday, bonus.

The CAR

Inferno GT 1/8th scale nitro on-road car converted to electric for usability and speed.

Today it was running:

• Kyosho Motor Mount from RC-Monster.com
• 13 tooth Mod 1 pinion from RC-Monster.com
• Desire Power 3200mah 5S1P Lipo pack
• Castle Creation Mamba Monster Speedy
• KD36 6L (4000kv) motor
• Spektrum radio

On the TRACK

Initially things were going well put the car on the track and did a couple of sighting laps to make sure the trim, car and new tyres were all working ok, everything was looking good even the new rubber tyres which I had never used before were proving to have great grip on the concrete track.

After the initial tests, it was time for some speed. Starting off and building up speed slowly to get confidence that the car and driver were working, got to half throttle everything was looking good, building up more speed and as it reached 3/4 throttle one of the rear tyre inserts desided to make a break for it just as the car was getting around turn 1.

The blowout caused the car to do 720 degree spin through turn 2 and thankfully stayed in the middle of the track without major incedent, bringing the car back showed the blowout as well as another tyre coming unglued.

The fall back plan was to go back to the foam tyres which I had use in previous outings but didn’t really like the feel of them on the track.

Once the foam tyres were on the car it was time for another outing, the foams made the car understeer into the corners so backing off the power was definitely the way to get around.

After a couple of laps getting up to speed it was time for full throttle the speed difference was incredible coming off the corners onto the straight the car would launch then backing off to keep the car off the fence was awesome, everything was just working as expected after a few laps decided to go for gold and held full throttle going into turn one as it drifted up towards the fence I backed off the throttle but the inevitable had to happen and the car rode up to the fence.

The AFTERMATH

Unfortunately the fence posts were a rather sturdy and the car went from full speed to 0kph in about 0.1seconds, that sort of energy transfer can only end in tears.

The fence post seems to have made a bit of an impact on the front of the shell, going to have to get some race tape to fix that.

Looks like the bumper took most of the impact, the rest of the chassis looks fairly straight.

Inside the chassis everything looks pretty good, the pack has moved forward and torn some of the heat shrink.

Well after a huge hit like that to come out with only a couple of plastic pieces bent and a cracked shell is pretty good.

Next on the agenda is to find rubber tyres that can survive attached to the rims at over 100kph. This might be a little harder to find as the rubber is much heavier then foam and will require some really good glue to hold it in place even the Loctite 406 seemed to struggle today.

Bring on the next velodrome.