last updated:Saturday, 12-Jun-2004 18:18:13 EDT
In the fall of 2003, I got back into racing with a vengence. I grabbed a Lost XXX-S G+ from Venture and jumped back into RC with both feet. The advances in technology in the 10 years I was gone are amazing, and the suspension on my XXX acts and tunes just like a real car, which is both cool and frustrating, since there are all of these interdependencies and stuff. Yeah.
I love it tho, and recommend it to everyone. RTR XXX-S sedans are available for about $270 plus tax as I write this , and are relatively competative out of the box.
In terms of my gear, right now I'm running my car with a JR XS3, Novak Cyclone TC2, a JR metal gear steering servo, and Team Fukuyama cells, charged with a Novak Millennium Pro.
Just to prove that I really am as geeky about racing overrated toy cars as you think, here are some pictures of my setup:
This is my ride. The paint on the body is fugly right now, but you get the general idea of how it's going to look when I get around to painting a '"show" body. For the uninitiated, that's a Losi XXX-S G+ and a JR XS3.
I buy my batteries from Fukuyama Racing, because Jimmy and Daniel are really cool guys and their packs are frickin' awesome.
One of the very nicest things about the XS3 is that there are no crystals. The frequencies are digially synthesized, which means that all I have to do is turn some dials and I go from 63 to 89, avoiding all of those guys with crystal sets. Yeah!
When I'm not on the drivers stand, which is most of the time I'm at the track, I'm in my pit, working on my car. These are a few of the things that I use. Eventually I'll have a key for all of them so you can tell what the smaller stuff is, but notice the setup sheets, calculator, and caliper. I'm serious about precision, even if I suck at driving, because if I'm bad, I at least want to be bad consistently.
This is what my car looks like whilst in the pit, more or less. I'm pretty careful to keep things neat and organized, since I have a tendency to lose parts if I don't.
I'm looking at 1/12 scale with envy again. I wanted on-road when I was younger, because of how insanely fast the cars were, and fater driving an RC12L, appreciated the speed, but totally hated the maintaince and inconsistency of the t-bar rear ends and the friction plate dampeners. I've been looking hard recently at the Speedmerchant RoadKill 12 and the CRC SixPack, but haven't made a decision to even go 1/12, let alone buy another car. And if I do go back to 1/12, I may just end up with a beater 12L for a while, until I decide whether or not to race or just have fun with it.
