Test Report 1

Pre-Production Car Testing

  

The Finnish spring weather has been kind to me, and after receiving a bunch of pre-production cars, and building one, I have now been testing here in Finland for 11 of the last 13 days. That's pretty good for Finland in April. Now, I always knew that making a 1:8 th Buggy isn't easy, eventhough it may seem so, based on the 30 plus and ever-growing number of vehicles out there. One may think it has to be easy since everyone is making one, but I can tell you it isn't, and specially if you don't just copy something already on the market. Even if you do, it's still hard to get the production quality right, and make everything work as well as the product you copied. But it doesn't compare to trying to figure out something new, like materials, or part size, thickness and strength, or suspension geometry. That's exactly my headache at the moment!

When I decided to start this project, I was well aware of the financial risk I was taking, so I thought long and hard if it was worth taking it. I came to the conclusion that it is, as long as I manage to bring something new to the table. If I make something that looks different, but shares all the geometry with other cars, it can only be AS good as the others, not better. Maybe it will look different, but it won't work better and be faster. I felt like I needed something that gives THE Car the potential to be faster and better than the other cars. 

Pistons pistons pistons....Thank You GHEA

 

 

 

 

 

We have a pretty cool laptiming system at my home track. All laptimes visible, even from home on the internet, and graphs of the laptimes in realtime. NICE!

Of course doing things differently is difficult and takes time and patience. It's easy to make something different and worse, (believe me I have done that many times when testing stuff) and not too hard to make something different, but perform the same. But it's a lot harder than I thought to make it different AND better! I can make THE Car better and faster for me, but what I am working on now, is to make it faster and easier to drive for everyone, and on all tracks! Every time I go testing, I let somebody different drive it, just to see how they like it and what they have to say, and to see what the car does on the track when they drive it. Finding something that works well for everyone and everywhere is of course impossible, but the best possible balance should be reached, and this takes time.


The thing is, the set up options are infinite. It's not like I have this shock tower or hub, and need to make the best of it. I am the designer, I can put the holes for the shocks or links where ever I want to! Just think of all the possibilities! And shocks? Don't even ask, I probably have 30 different pistons right now to test. It's RIDICULOUS!!!! There is just so much to test. But definitely a lot of fun, and well worth it.

 

 

 A great test track. Deceivingly bumpy, with awkward sharp edged bumps and inconsistent traction.

 

 

I have to say I have a lot of respect for Jukka Steenari and Gil Losi Jr who managed to create something different that changed the whole 1:8 th scale racing scene! Even the 8ight had its issues with a loose rear end for beginners, and it didn't really suit most European driving styles and tracks, but it was still a lot faster than all other cars in the right hands, when it was first released! And that was because it was different in the right ways! The 8ight introduced the first true big bore shocks, 6 hole pistons, XX-4 front end, engine centered etc, and it kicked ass specially in America. So being different in the right ways is good. However, there are far more examples of vehicles which were different in the wrong ways and failed! For a new brand, this is very risky business! If a brand is strong, being different is less risky, as some problems are normally excused, but try releasing your first car with problems? = Epic Fail!

 

Starting areaunder the drivers stand is usually crowded.

 

Anyway, back to THE Testing! Steering has been the best part, this car turns and has cornerspeed. This is no surprise since that was my number one goal when designing it! Other good things are that it's really light, the car I am driving now weighs 3241g, with all steel screws, turnbuckles and balls, and no lightened parts. I'm pretty stoked about that! Also the drivetrain and most metal parts have been good from the start! And the shocks, I love them. And the problems? Plastic parts! What a headache, I tell you. What makes it hard is something most people don't know about. To put it really simply, when a plastic part is moulded, the plastic is ofcourse hot, and in liquid form, after it's moulded, the part is still hot, and needs to cool down. When the part cools down, it shrinks. This has to be taken into account when producing the mould, so that the cooled down part is the right size, and exactly like the design. Sounds easy, since the mould producer needs to worry about that. Well, the problem is that different plastics shrink different amounts! So one kind of needs to know what plastic works before making all the moulds :-D OH HELL! Of course some changes can be made in the material, but you get the point. Luckily I wasn't way left field with this one, although it did feel like the gamble of the century at the time when the materials were set. But truthfully I just needed to rely on people with more experience in the field! Right now I would say we are pretty close to what will work well! But it has been abit scary I tell you, but now I am confident everything will be ok.

 

 Scared confused and the wrong set up.

 

What other problems? Bump handling and consistent rear traction. Those are probably the most important things for beginners and average drivers, and I have to admit I struggled abit with that at first. The reason was I was running set ups that work on other cars. And they didn't work too well on THE Car. The shocks play the biggest part but also the upper links, and I am yet to find the MAGIC set up. Sometimes I think I may have nailed it, only to go to a different track, or hand the transmitter to someone else, and realise that it actually kind of sucks! But the good news is its getting better. Softer springs and bigger holes in the pistons than normal has been the name of the game. And as for upper links, well I am still all over the place with them :-)

But man does it turn good :-D

 

 

 

 

Until next time.