Well, it's been over a week now since I finished painting the body and took the car out for its maiden voyage. Initially, I thought that the tires had too much grip, but now that I've run a few battery packs through, I've decided that they're actually pretty nice. I can get it going sideways pretty easily from a standstill or if I slow down before turning, but I can't get it to drift if I'm doing a high speed pass. I think the latter may be more of a function of having a virtually locked diff up front rather than a one-way unit.
Why a one-way? The virtually locked up diff causes both front wheels to be driven together, which is good for quick launches. However, they are also driven together in reverse, which isn't so good for braking, because it essentially locks up all four wheels causing the car to simply skid on all four wheels. A one-way unit up front still drives the wheels going forward for quick launches, but it free-wheels in brake/reverse. This means that when you brake, the front wheels continue to turn in the direction of forward travel while the rear wheels brake, giving you the same effect as cranking up on the emergency brake, or e-brake as it seems to be referred to in the drift world. So what does this mean? Probably more upgrades to be ordered!
In the evenings after coming home, I've been putting a pack through the car out in front of the house to get a feel for drifting. My figure eights still suck, and I'm primarily just driving it willy-nilly on the street having fun with no real direction. But now that the stock tires are scuffed up, they seem to slide pretty well. It will be interesting to see how the ABS tires perform. Speaking of which...
New hop-ups have arrived! The first and foremost are the HPI 12-spoke Corsa wheels with 3mm offset, which is 1mm more than stock, but will probably not be noticable at all. I've test-fitted the Streamline ABS tires to them already, but I need to run to Home Depot to pick up some foam weather stripping and electrical tape. Basically, the foam weather stripping and the electrical tape will be wound around the wheel to provide a good friction fit for the ABS tires on the wheel. I've read that if this is done properly, there's no need to actually glue the tires to the wheels. If I find that slippage is a problem, I'll just spot glue the tires to the wheels with some thin CA that I use for regular tires.
Next on the menu is the Tamiya TLU-01 LED light unit. Yessiree, Bob! Lights! Unfortunately, the description said the unit came with two sets of white lights (2 pairs), but it came with one white and one red. I had purchased two additional red in anticipation of having two white sets, so now I have one set of white and three sets of red. Guess I'll be ordering some more light sets with the one-way. On the bright side, the light controller can handle eight sets, so I have plenty of room for expansion!
I'll post pics later. My camera battery is recharging right now.
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