Supertec

We did a short shakedown and then stright off to the first outdoor race with the TRF416. Using the same base set up as the TRF team in the ETS race in Netherland we improved the car during the race and in the end it was on the pace. Now we hope to start testing on our test track to get better understanding of the chassis on outdtdoor tracks. It is great running on asphalt again !

Building the most extreme Tamiya TRF 416 to ever have been built. Lots of new Supertec developed experimental parts plus we will examine every single part on the chassis to find out what improvements can be made to cut laptimes. Follow this build process all the way until first shakedown run and test session. 

Lately we have not been doing much testing or racing with the 416. The indoor season got finished early this year as I have decided not to attend many races this winter season. But now as the outdoor racing starts we are speeding up the Supertec 416 programme that will see a lot of new parts for the car during the comming months.

During last weeks test session we tried out the three new upper decks for the first time. As the 416 has a very soft chassis it would be interesting to see what would happen when trying the stiffer top decks on a carpet track. Quite surprisingly we found that the car did not improve when going stiffer on the upper decks even if the grip in the carpet was relatively high. Stiffer top decks made the car more difficult to drive and did generate less grip. We will continue testing the top decks and 5-cell chassis in the coming weeks.

The new main chassis plates and and top decks arrived and have been tested for torsional stiffness. The test was a simple arrangement just to get some information about the stiffness of diffrent carbon fibre materials.  Here are the results: 

Supertec 5 cell 2 mm main chassis - 6 % stiffer than the standard 416 chassis (both new, never run)

Supertec 2 mm CRP top deck - 7,5 % softer than standard 416 top deck

Supertec 2 mm Carbon fibre top deck - 22 % stiffer

Supertec 2,3 mm Carbon fibre top deck - 46 % stiffer

Soon these parts will be track tested.

We continue the 416 testing program with a one day test on a bigger fast flowing track and again the car feels really good. Having rebuilt the car in the week before I started with the standard set up.  I managed to test diffrent motor and speed control setups and batteries. On the chassis I tried, battery position, roll bars and ackerman while monitoring tyre temperatures and laptimes all day. 

Next weekend it is my first race with the TRF416 and I will use basically the same setup as on the test. I only need to figure out what is the best way to take away a bit of corner turn in steering, then the car should be ready for the race. 

We are soon to test new chassis parts for the TRF 416. The new upper deck will be 2,4 mm and assembling this in the car will be a fast and simple way to test the effect of less chassis flex.

The 6 cell main chassis is a direct copy of the standard chassis but made from high grade carbon fiber in 2,0 or 2,4 mm. We have also designed a 5 cell chassis with the battery position optimized. The chassis parts will be made from high grade carbon fiber. The torsional stiffness will be measured and compared with the standard chassis. 

CAD images.

We have done three days of testing with the TRF 416 in January in our attempt to try to find the ideal settings for the new chassis. Having started with similar set ups that worked well on the 415 we have now ended up with setups that are a bit softer and similar to the ones used by the TRF team at DHI cup. This is a good base to work from to gather better understanding of the car.     

But so far it is clear that the 416 is a lot easier to drive than the old one. Also the car responds well to set up changes and it is easy to change the balance of the car. It is even possible to get it to understeer a lot on carpet and that is something that we haven’t experienced in the past.

We completed a two day test with the 416 chassis on carpet. During the two days different set up changes were tested to get a good balance. We tested diffrent ackerman settings, springs and damping, droop and one way vs spool. 

A good number of battery packs were run and it seems that the handling is an improvement over the 415 MR edition. Especially the sometimes too agressive turn in that was typical for the MR edition on carpet seems to to have been corrected with the new steering system geometry.

Generally we found that similar set ups that worked well on the MR also works on the 416 so we have a clear direction in which to go to on the set ups. We also noticed that the chassis never got tweaked, a common problem with the 415. The upper chassis with 8 screws to the bulkheads is a big improvement.

In the upcoming tests we plan to try the short suspension arms and diffrent upper suspension arm positions.

The long awaited Tamiya TRF 416 chassis was assembled during christmas and the end result is impressive.

- long upper chassis for better flex characteristics, mounted with 8 screws to front and rear bulkheads, less prone to tweak the chassis.

- uprights with 5 x 10 bearings for better precision and more reliability.

- more reliable and externally adjustable diff.

- new steering system geometry. The compleate steering assembly can easily be slided out from chassis for easy adjustment of ackerman. 

- symetrical chassis for better flex characteristics.

- improved and more efficient transmission.

The only problems was that the inner suspension arm hinge pins have some slop and need to be ca glued and the central post need to be shimmed to the motor mount for good alignment.