Stock racing

Stock racing is all about driving. There is me, and then there is Luke. Our cars are identical speed on the straight. So therefore it proves the fact that in controlled racing, like stock, you have to have a good car setup to win. Now, my setup, as you have previously seen, allows me to competitively compete. So what’s the problem? Its not speed, its not setup, well it might be setup, but more on that later. It’s driving skill. I have only been racing in the stock class for 6 or so months. Luke has been for 2 years. It’s all about driving, if you went to the nationals, and the top guy, who had qualified 1st for the finals had to give you his setup, and you had the best motor in your car out there, you most likely would still finish below him. Why? Because these are the people who have been driving for 5 or 10 years and have the accumulated skill.

You may ask, Why bother going to a national or regional event, if you’re only going to be fighting for 14th or 15th place. Well, accept it. Go, have the experience and gain the track time. Who knows, you might even have some one there that is about the same skill level as you and you can have a great battle with them for 5th or 6th place. At the 2008 HD/RL International, held at NHRCCC, I was racing TT01, and I was evenly matched with Barry. It was the last final, and we were on the second to last lap. As I had been unable to complete the prior race, I had a little bit more grip left on my tires. I passed him on the chicane, and the pressure was on to keep infront of him for the last lap. Knowing that I would need it, I had skimmed my motor earlier on in the day and it gave me slightly more acceleration which, by the end of the straight, equaled about 2 metres. Having slightly more grip allowed me to get round the tight bits a little faster. But then, disaster struck, at the top of the chicane, I hit the curb. Fortunately for me, Barry, was still a couple of corners away. And with his worn tires, he wasn’t able to catch enough time to pass me. I maneuvered through the chicane and around the last corner and nailed it. Full Noise under the transponder loop and with Barry about 20cm behind. This is one of the reasons that I keep going back to these meetings.

Also, it could be that your setup is causing your car to be slightly slower through the corners. If this is the case, talk to the guys that keep winning, find out what caster and toe in settings they are using and change the car to these. If it improves the cornering, keep it. If it decreases the handling, go back to your old setting. Remember, change one thing at a time, and always write down what the car was set up to before.

Cyclone S Stock Setup

For my setup, I am running a gear ratio of 4.206 or 4.254, equaling a 88t Spur to 51t pinion or a 89t spur to a 51t pinion. I am going to try the latter gear ratio at club next weekend to see if it is competitive, and hoping so, it will give slightly more run time, as even with the use of the SSS Racing Motor Cooler, (site to be online soon), It is still a little to hot at the end of the race.

The Camber is set to 1 degree all round, and the toe in is set to 0 on the front and 1 at the back. Front shocks: Top, third hole in, Bottom, 2nd hole in. Back Shocks: Top: 3rd hole in, Bottom: Middle Hole.

Shock Oil. All Shocks are filled with the standard shock oil supplied with the car. If I can find out the weight of this, I may go down slightly to get better cornering.

Tires: These are currently HB Standard slicks, but probably going to get some 26 degree slicks.

Weight. My weight, all 58 grams of it, is all positioned at the front of the car.

Motor: Johnson RS540, with a 3 racing fan Heatsink

Speed controller: Mtroniks Tempo11. Soon to be upgraded to a IP6 Sport as the Tempo11 is going into my F1.

Radio gear: 27 MHZ with Futaba 2PL hand piece and HPI micro receiver.

Servo: Futaba S3003, Possibly being upgraded to Tower pro MG995 metal geared.

Well thats about it for the stock setup, Batteries are the same as they always have been, Sanyo 1300 SCR's and if I need another pack I have a Panasonic 1400 SCR side by side.

Computer PSU Conversion

A computer power supply is a dedicated power supply. It may be for running a computer, but you can harness this and modify it to run your chargers and other items that need a 12v source to run. Also, because it has a 5v rail, you can use it to test out radio gear such as servos and receivers and use the 3.3v to run your motors in. (do not do this if you are not confident in the voltage produced by the psu/power supply. If unsure DO NOT ATTEMPT. This Blog is intended to help. Any damage to your equipment/self will be solely your fault and will not be the responsibility of this blog.)

Parts List:
Equal or Bigger than 300w Power Supply
1x Green Led
1x Red Led
5x 10ohm 5w resistor
SPST toggle Switch
1x 1/4w 510 ohm resistor
1x 1/4w 100 ohm resistor
3x Black Binding Post
3x Red Binding Post
Super Glue


Step One: Find a suitable p.s.u. It should have 10 amps or above on the 12v rail. Depending on the charger that you use, you might need more than this.

Step Two: Check the wiring on it. It should have a 20 Pin Connector that usually goes to the motherboard. Now check whether or not it has a brown wire connected to an orange. If it does remember which wire it is. If not, continue on to the next step.

Step Three: Make sure the 240v lead is unplugged and power supply has been sitting for a while Open the case up. Locate the PS On wire, usually green or grey. Cut this off at approx 5cm from pcb. Remove all unneeded
wires, except for the Standby power, usually Purple, 2x Red +5v wire, 4x Black/Gnd wires. Cutoff -12v (dark blue) -5v (white) All except one Yellow/+12v and all all except one +Orange/3.3v (if there was a brown wire connecting to a 3.3v wire before removing the 20pin plug, leave 3cm of another 3.3v wire connected and connect this to the brown wire.)

Step Four: Put heatshrink on to the green wire and solder one side of switch attach a black wire to the other side.


Step Five: Solder the Orange and Brown wires together if present.
Solder the 5w Resistors together in Parallel, and put heatshrink on One of the Red wires and One of the black wires. Attach wires to the the resistors and shrink heat shrink.

Step Six: Drill Holes for binding posts, the switch and LED's and bolt in binding posts and switch.

Step Seven: Solder remaining wires to the binding posts, black to black, yellow to red, red to red and orange to red. Slide in LED's and apply a drop of super glue to the base to hold it in. Leave for ten minutes to dry throughly. Also if you want you could put some epoxy around the base of the led to anchor it better. Solder the 510 ohm resistor to the negative leg of the Red LED and attach to one of the ground binding posts. Attach positive to the 12v binding post. Attach 100 ohm resistor to the negative leg of the green led. Attach to one of the ground binding posts. Attach the Purple wire to the positive leg.

Step Eight: Put it all back together. Make sure that the case is closed before trying to test as you can easily brush something and get a nasty zap. Switch it on, and if the secondary switch is off, the green led should only light, but if it is on, the red and green should both light and the fans should go. Test that you have got the correct voltages with a multimeter.

Cyclone S Stock Setup

Here is a setup sheet detailing the basic stock setup for a Cyclone S at WRCCC. This setup is what suits my driving style and also what I think makes the car handle well. On the handpiece, the EPA is set to 100% out of a possible 120% and the Dual Rate is set to 58% of a possible 120%. Throttle is set to Maximum. There is also a heatsink and fan on the motor to keep it cool.

Regular Maintenance

In order to keep your car in top racing order, you need to regularly clean the motor and clean the diffs after ever 10 runs. The Cyclone S needs these regular diff rebuilds because of where the diffs are located and the fact that they have no cover on them at all.

Fortunately the diffs are easy to get to and rebuild and it should take only about 15 minutes per diff to get it out of the car, rebuild it and reinsert it. The Cyclone S suffers from the problem that the plastic outdrives are known to melt, and also for the middle shaft that makes the diff spin snapping, leaving you with a 2wd drive car.

The other reason for regular diff rebuilds is the fact that once the grease evaporates out of the diff, or is absorbed into the plastic, it tends to get dirt inside it. This leads to worn diff pulleys and the your diff balls being flat spotted.

Therefore when rebuilding differentials you need to make sure that they are completely clean and are free of any grit.

Whangarei Winter 200

The Whangarei Winter 200 was a very successful event. We had 8 Teams show up to race for 3 hours and 20 minutes. The winners were Craig Pullar, Kelvin Chapman and Colin Storey.

The race itself was held indoors at the Whangarei Indoor Cricket pavilion on Astro-Turf or Artificial Grass. It was run successfully using Dargaville RCCC's Infrared Transponder system.

The Race was very close with only a margin of 10 laps separating the race leaders and the second place getters who were: Stuart Cooper, Dave Blowers and Cody.

And when you are racing in an enduro, the difference between a Win and a 2nd can be a bad pit-stop.

The Race ran without a hitch, with every competitor getting a competitive stock motor, and being competitive.

Race on!

Driver Etiquette

Driver Etiquette is something which is often talked about.

If you have good driver etiquette then,
If you take somebody out, you say sorry and wait for them to be turned over.
You don't purposely take somebody out to get around them.
You pull over, or hold your line when somebody is lapping you.

Basically drive cleanly and have fun. And remember, transponder systems will catch you if you jump the track.