Jump to content

Ford Rs200 - Tuning


ZeGas

Recommended Posts

Doing this because the forum is a bit quite a.t.m. and it is easier to find records on Auslot than on my computer. More a record for myself so ignore at your leisure.

 

I have followed the WRP for a couple of years and never gotten round to putting my hat in the ring.

This year is different, I heard the cry, I came to the call and thought "what the hey".

Yes I know nothing is finalised yet, but I am sure its a goer.

Anyhoo .... I have never tried my hand at a rally car before and see it as a challenge.

 

Was a big fan of the WRC when I lived in NZ (back when Possum Bourne, the real Bourne Supremacy, was around in Pukekohe) , went to the super stage at Manukau as an annual event till they decided to build a court house there, and one stage ran straight past my house up the Awhitu Peninsula (Google it), always a great BBQ if the wind died down long enough. Unfortunately a WRX is not allowed in this event or I'd have snapped it up.

 

Most of my other cars have been 50's & 60's period cars as that is my passion, I'm a curves man, don't have time for tits (metaphorically speakin').

 

So why not jump into the 80's box cars and see if they ran better than they looked. Sorry to all the 80s'o'philes out there but really they were boring.

 

OR SO I THOUGHT.

 

Looking through the historical WRP posts I thought I'd go with something different ... an RS200.

 

WHAT!!! But every Kalbfellp, Gas41T & Mondeo74 run those, yes I know, but do they have spots like a real rally car, I think not.

 

Once settled on this

 

 

c3305.jpg

 

Because it was the cheapest ... it was game on.

 

OK, so to Armchair Racer ™, t'rah, and one express post later it arrived, today.

 

MY GOD, it is lovely ... "80's box" ... i think not ... who said that?

 

Yes I know too many ........ (dots) but you do pause a bit when you see this car.

 

OK so to the unboxing

 

On the track unboxed untouched, it is driveable, not great but driveable, brakes are shite though.

My track is copper tape so no point removing the magnet, yes it slides on the corners but it is manageable and it doesn't roll, best news ever.

For me a rolling car is harder to fix than a sliding car, so far so good.

the front loves to pop out of the slot when accelerating and it is a bit chattery, as expected with no weight.

 

My track has a bit of a jump in it, not much, but if to don't go just right you'll get airborne, this is the railway crossing. Hopefully I'll get a video sometime, might look good.

 

Weight of body 38gms

Weight of chassis 47gms

Total 85gms

 

So to the times.

The best I could drag out was 8.805

with a median 8.968.

 

Meh.

 

Loosing the body screws

 

So I loosened the body screws, rear 1.5 turns, front 2.5 turns, removed the two middle ones altogether also removed the two tiny lugs that slot into the body (Why did they have them in the first place?).

 

Times

Best 8.449

Median 8.538

 

Still Meh but 0.3 seconds less Meh so at least we are heading in the right direction.

 

Digging Deeper

 

Got rid of the existing wiring, lights, capacitors and DPR plug, plate still in place.

Replaced with one black and one red wire, simple huh.

 

Got rid of Scaley guide and replaced with my goto plug, a Sloting Plus guide, love these things and guess what, it fits perfectly no adjustments or adapters required.

 

The result.

Best 8.079

Median 8.305

 

Now we're cooking, remember, I haven't trued the tyres, opened the body screw holes, sanded the chassis back to get float yet, or any other mods including adding weight.

 

Boy, this car is looking promising.

 

Oh, and weight came down to 81gms

 

Brakes are still k-rap though, shame we can't change the gearing, I have to brake 3/4 of the way down the main straight and it never gets to top speed.

 

Another problem, I don't know what the base is for this class on my track so running blind.

 

More to come.................... (yes more dots)

Edited by ZeGas
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You should read up on the WRP 2017 thread and i did a lot of work on this car and boy was it a lot of work especially to finish round about 12th overall with it last year , thought i did a good job until the first few races and found i had not , but for some stupid reason it went better right at the end of the series , main problem was the sudden deslotting or the hop roll , i beleive weight was the issue as it was to light even at 89gr or so, so this year i,m at 100gr and the motor still stops it quite well we used MJK tyres last year and they actually worked very well but the scaley RS is a bit narrow and tall for my liking and the top weight is dreadful to it when you flick it through esses, but that was last year hoping if this gets going this year the car will be a lot better , think i should have got a Lancia but give this car another go.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi PG,

I did read up a bit of it, seems a lot of peeps putting lead in the DPR cover area.

I'm not keen on lead, use tungsten instead but in a putty form so would sag there, I've got other ideas though.

 

Hey Munter,

I did see the heads when I took the interior out, they reminded me of a news reader for SBS, Lee Lin Chin, strange lady that one.

 

Phil,

The discussion so far seems to indicate same rules as 2017 but for the tyres to be resolved.

 

 

 

I was totally wrong in my theories regarding tuning last night, I don't think it was so much what as much as it was what I drank.

It appears there was a direct relationship between libation to the slot gods and performance, this seemed to peak at about 3 then started going downhill from there.

 

So to do well all I have to do is offer 3 drinks to each host, job done, time saved.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This evening I trimmed down the side, front & rear of the chassis, opened the body screw holes, replaced original screws with ones with a smaller head. Got rid on unnecessary lugs on the chassis and the body, took out the magnet.

 

Checked body v chassis rub to make sure there was adequate float. Damn thing stuck solid, found out it was down to the body posts on the chassis, what was happening was the body posts on the body sat inside a recess in the chassis body posts, so sand those down and all is good.

 

Replaced the magnet cavity with 5gms of tungsten.

 

So weight down to 83gms and here we go.

 

Times

Run 1

Best 7.689

Median 8.149

 

Run 2

Best 7.628

Median 8.149

 

And just when you thought it was getting there.

 

Oh dear.

 

Put a bit of threadlock on two of the posts and it reacted badly with the plastic, pretty much dissolved it.

Oops.

 

I'll have to rebuild the posts now, bummer.

 

Was getting better too.

 

Well that's for next week.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Grud Damn it, looks like I got old stock, guess that's why it was cheap.

Now the motor bracket has broken off, time to glue the motor in I guess.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Probably just luck of the draw, glued motor in but still struggling to get a decent run.

What is the usual weight to get these running good, I'm up to 91gms and it is getting better but still quite unstable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't forget Rosko yours was pulled apart, the first time to remove the magnet from it.

Yes that was my fault !!!

 

Exactly, a mistake is leaving it in its original position, not a mistake is gluing it to the side of the motor in the hope of getting better downforce from the motor case or increasing the effect on the armature.

Quickly read this post before it is deleted or i turn grey again

Gary

http://www.facebook.com/Rallyproxy2017

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So anyhoooo .......

Ideal weight for rally cars is around 90gms then huh.

Or a bit more?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unstable is the name of the game with a scaley RS 200 last year mine had a tendancy to front end roll out not all the time which is a right B to try to work out why and resolve it, which i think is just the type of car it is bit tall bit narrow and better suited to a inline layout , ok it,s better now but still does it on occasions and i,m at 100.6 gr in all up weight which is like driving a brick but it still stops ok so swings and rounderbouts i suppose you make one thing better which makes something else worse, truing up all the tyres does help a lot Ze Gas of course perfectly round wheels are also a help chuckle.

Hahaahah like the idea of gluing the magnet to the motor to improve down force , umm does that work then Rossko didn't when we tried it in the 70,s :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good to know I'm not alone there then, I got the spotlight version hoping to hold the front end down a bit, I think I'm just going to keep adding weight in a 60/40ish ratio till I get something workable.

 

PG you'd know, what sort of time differences between these and the IPS cars, I've never run a rally car before so was going to get a benchmark of sorts.

At the mo this car, albeit not fully tuned yet, is running about 0.4-0.6 sec down on IPS cars but is unstable whereas the IPS cars are smooth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Weight wise better to ask one of the top three from last years WRP when you look at the weight chart seems the Aussies are a lot heavier than us lot from up here , something Snurfen mentioned when we were on his track in Wales, comparison with IPS cars is rather misleading as not in the same league really , but i alwys try for smooth easier with a IPS car but harder with a WRP car differant set ups 60/40 is a good point to start though for chassis balance , main problem with the rally cars and the scaley ones in particular is the top weight so i,ve tried to balance that out with making the chassis as stiff as possible .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks guys, guessing this year will be a watch and learn.

I'll keep playing to see what I can get out of it.

Just wish the brakes were better, that's the biggest issue I have found.

Edited by ZeGas
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Zegas, what voltage are you testing at, my 35mtr track runs at 10 and a half volts and is more than enough, just be aware that the slot it controlers don't like anything aground the 10 volt mark, upsets some of the fine tuning, can't see if you've changed tyres yet in your testing, also just remove the digital flap at the front and replace it with lead (or whatever) and fill in the old magnet housing and mabee a bit under the rear axle and that should be it for weight.

Quickly read this post before it is deleted or i turn grey again

Gary

http://www.facebook.com/Rallyproxy2017

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Gazza,

 

Track running at 12v, I run at 9v for slot.it cars and for the kids but usually 12v is OK for 18k motors.

The car isn't bad bad just not getting the times down as I want. I did get down to 7.6s at 86gms but car was a bit unstable, so thinking of proxy drivers and the different tracks I added some weight to 91gms. The times are back up to around 8.0s but it is a bit more stable.

 

I haven't done anything with the tyres yet as I'm waiting for MJK control supply but as you can see the scaley tyres have pretty much trued themselves they are pretty soft and got good grip, not glued though.

 

As with weight so far I have this

20180222081430-ed975656-me.jpg

 

weight each side of guide, magnet housing filled & a bit under the rear axle.

I haven't looked at the DPR cover as I don't use lead, I use tungsten putty so that would sag, I'll think about how I might do that maybe glue toothpick rafters or something.

 

Don't think this is a tuning subject any more, more like a rebuild of a brand new car, so many things going wrong.

Motor bracket broke, so motor glued in.

rear body supports broke so had to make new ones. adds to the body weight though.

screw head snapped off in one of rebuilt supports (don't ask) so had to cut off and rebuild support again.

Good fun though and learning a lot about rally cars.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...