February 21, 2014

Chassis Focus – Mike Truhe

TruheCF

Chassis: Serpent Cobra-T 2.0
Engine: Top Plus 7C
Tires: Proline
Radio/Servos: Futaba
Remarks – New Serpent signing Mike Truhe is making his big race debut running his new sponsor’s gas cars and having focussed on the company’s mid motor car in the passed weeks he is playing catch up. Compared to his standard setup he has been playing around with the rear shock angles, as well as the front, laying them down more to help make the car less reactive. Running some already available option parts he is also using a lot of weight in the back of the car to bring the standard truggy up to legal weight, all of which is mounted near the rear of the car.

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February 20, 2014

Chassis Focus – Adam Drake

DrakeCF

Chassis: TLR 8ight 3.0
Engine: Novarossi Keep Off 21-4
Tires: Pro-Line
Radio/Servos: Spektrum/Hitec
Remarks – TLR factory driver Adam Drake is running a pretty stock version of the latest 8ight here at the DNC. New for this race is the bodyshell, expected to be released in the coming days, sporting new sides that according to the Drake drastically change the airflow over the car. The cab has also been modified, now a bit wider and more vertical, and which has been moved further towards the front of the buggy. Finally to finish off the body there is the option of running a rear fin mounted behind the engine which doubles as a body clip washer. Satisfied with the behaviour of his 8ight, the current ROAR national champion told us he has decided to stick with his standard setup allowing him to better read the track changes and proceed with small adjustments from one run to next.

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February 20, 2014

Chassis Focus – Ty Tessmann

TessmannCF

Chassis: Hot Bodies D8T “Ty Tessmann edition”
Engine: OS Speed
Tires: ProLine
Radio/Servos: Airtronics/Savox
Remarks: Hot Bodies factory driver Ty Tessmann is running the near final version of the soon to be released Ty edition D8T truggy, something he and his father have been developing over the past year. Featuring many new parts, the rear end of the car has had the most attention, now sporting longer shocks with a dedicated new tower, new hubs and A-arms with inserts to easily adjust the geometry and longer dogbones to allow them to run more droop. The front end will sport new c-hubs and steering knuckles, but the final versions were not finished in time for this event and so they are running the prototype versions at this year’s DNC. Another interesting feature are the custom Avid carbon arms stiffeners, that make the car more precise when the track is high bite and very technical.

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February 9, 2014

Chassis Focus – Brent Thielke

Sun-BTB5-14

Car: Team Associated RC10 B5
Motor: Reedy Sonic Mach2 8.0
ESC: Reedy prototype
Batteries: Reedy 5800 65C SQ
Radio/Servo: Airtronics

Associated team manager Brent Thielke is running the all new B5 in rear motor configuration here in St Louis. Having only run the car for a limited time before coming to the JConcepts Winter Indoor Nationals he is still learning how to get the most from this all new platform but compared to his B4 he says it feels more solid on track with the car more responsive to the drivers input. BT is also running a number of soon to be released Factory Team option parts on his car including blue anodised aluminium rear hubs which are more durable and offer finer roll centre adjustment through the use of a vertical ball stud. Other optional parts include an aluminium steering set, aluminium rear arm mounts, aluminium front pin brace and graphite battery strap.

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February 9, 2014

Chassis Focus – Kinwald RC10 Classic & B5

Brian Kinwald

With the Team Associated B5 making its race debut here in at the JConcepts Winter Indoor Nationals in St Louis we took a look at Associated’s latest offering alongside a replica of its 1994 offering to see how the cars have progressed over the past 20 years. What better person to do this with than 2-time World Champion Brian Kinwald who is running both cars this weekend. Talking with the Dirtinator, who managed to turn the same fastest lap with both cars, he says the biggest difference over the two decades have been electronics but in terms of chassis the main change has been suspension with the modern cars better able to cope with bumps. With the on track performance not noticeably different between both cars on this small tight smooth track, putting them together on a larger track with bigger jumps would greater expose the Classic’s weaknesses with its modern counterpart able to jump, land and corner at high speeds better, all incremental improvements that would add up to a faster lap time. But in general however the fundamentals of both cars are the same with 20 years of evolution, as well as better materials and electronics, giving us a lower, lighter faster machine that can better cope with today’s more challenging tracks which have also evolved into the well groomed & sculpted facilities that we run on today.

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January 26, 2014

Chassis Focus – Ty Tessmann

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Car: Hot Bodies D413
Motor: Orion 5.5
ESC: Orion
Batteries: Orion
Radio/Servo: Airtronics/Savox

Hot Bodies sole representative here at OCRC Raceway, Ty Tessmann is running a car that sports a couple of interesting items over the car that Ty used at the Worlds back in November, such as one piece machined shock caps to help with the ease of building the buggy’s suspension and a prototype rear inner-link plate both made by Pro-Line with latter possibly becoming an option part from HB when the car is finally released. According to the Canadian, with the track being very demanding in terms of steering due to the abundance of 180° corners and sharp turns, he has changed the wheelbase on his D413 making it shorter, and played with the camber link to create more steering.

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