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B6.1 Clay Setups

I took a look at two Spencer Rivkin setup sheets for the B6.1D and the B6.1 – they’re both using “carpet car” 3-gear/laydown motor & transmission setup. What does this mean? It means on high-traction clay surfaces, the B6.1 carpet car is just a few parts away from being dirt ready.

Two cars?

I know a lot of people who race both clay and carpet like to keep two separate cars for each. It’s much easier to have a specific car with a specific setup ready to go. That way you can race carpet at MMR on Friday night and hit the Toy Box on Saturday without any setup time in-between.

Why I’m sticking with one car

I’m not interested in getting another buggy for dirt. Mostly because of cost, but there are other reasons. I don’t tear down my cars often to go through them and check everything. Switching my car from carpet to dirt and back forces me to go through all of the hinge pins and shocks to make sure everything is moving smoothly.

I typically only race at one place on a given weekend, so I have all week to switch the setup. Changing the setup, including changing shock oil, only takes about 1-2 hours.

Parts & Tools

For parts, it comes down to these parts

• Tires (and wheels)
• Springs
• Ball Differential

If you’re starting with a race-ready B6.1 set up for carpet racing, it’s about $120 to get everything you need for dirt: https://www.amainhobbies.com/account/wishlist/show/635249

For tools, the only new thing you might need is a hex wrench for the ball diff. You can get a tool like this https://www.amainhobbies.com/team-losi-racing-aluminum-hex-differential-wrench-tlr-22-tlr2950/p203513 or you can just get a 1.5mm hex wrench and cut it short with a dremel:

This allows you to sneak the wrench behind the dog bone while everything is installed in the car so you can adjust the tightness of the ball diff.

Here’s a great video for breaking in a ball differential if you’re installing it for the first time:

It also has tips for setting the tightness of both the diff and the slipper clutch after break-in.

Talk to other racers, and have fun

The best thing you can do before starting to convert your buggy from carpet to dirt is talk to other racers that frequent the dirt track you want to race at. Find out what tires (and compound) they’re using. Then find out what shock setup they’re using (springs and oil). Those two things alone will have the biggest impact on how well your car handles the dirt, and consequently, how much fun you’ll have.

The post B6.1 Carpet to Dirt (Clay) appeared first on Meatball Racing.

This Thanksgiving I decided that my son and I would bring our Slashes to run at Mike’s Gulf Coast Raceway in Porter, TX. I had run my VTA car at their on-road track years before and wanted to check out the dirt this time around.

Everything in Texas is bigger. In Minnesota we race primarily 1/10 scale indoors. In Texas it seems like 1/8 scale outside is the norm. A Slash has roughly the same wheelbase and dimensions as a typical 1/8 scale eBuggy. This would ensure our vehicles are approximately the same size as everyone else on the track.

So we packed up the Slashes and hit the road. We drove to Oklahoma in one day so we could have a shorter drive the second day, and some downtime before racing at 6pm Saturday night.

An aside about RC track websites

To find out if we could get some practice time in before the race, I called the shop while on the road. I was informed that racing had been moved up from 6pm to 3pm because it was getting cold at night. Oh boy, these guys would be floored to know how late in the season the Southern Minnesota RC Club runs outside – their last race was a high of 48°F.

So I went to to the Mike’s Gulf Coast Raceway Facebook Page. Before I go on, let me say:

FACEBOOK Is Not A Website!

At my local track, they don’t have a great website, but they have an actively maintained calendar. At Mike’s, several clubs organize the racing whether it’s for on-road, off-road, or oval racing. There’s a pinned post on the track page, but it’s obviously not up-to-date, as it still said 6pm the day after we raced at 3pm:

Turns out that I needed to join yet another facebook group to get the inside scoop: Mike’s Gulf Coast RC Racer’s Lounge.

Lemons or Lemonade?

Learning that racing was starting 3 hours earlier than planned left me pretty sour, but I like to stay positive, so I tried to turn it into lemonade

We drove straight to the track with no downtime, and arrived at 2:45pm – right before racing started. No time for even some practice laps, just put it on the track and get racing.

We wound up running in the C-Main group of the eBuggy class. I had outfitted our Spec Slash trucks with 13.5T brushless motors and ESCs to hopefully clear the jumps on the big 1/8 scale course.

The run-up on the jumps wasn’t long enough for our 2wd vehicles to get traction and build enough speed. So we treated the two jumps (and their landings) as four humps, and tried to keep all 4 wheels planted the whole way around.

The trucks had plenty of power, but not enough grip to match. Also our suspension setup (dialed for carpet) left much to be desired. Our trucks were bouncing through the rough stuff rather than soaking up the bumps. While we were trying keep our trucks pointed straight with so much power but so little grip, we wound up at the back of the pack.

In the C-Main I did manage a 32-second hot lap, my best of the night. I managed to best some of the laps of all of the other 1/8 buggies in the main except the top C-Main driver. Granted my fast lap was probably only faster when other eBuggy drivers were getting marshaled. However, consistency and not getting marshaled is always a big part of the RC racing game.

Here’s where it gets embarrassing. I had two batteries for my truck so I could charge one and race with the other then swap ’em out. I charged my battery for the main, but forgot to do the swap. So I managed my best lap on a half charged battery

Then I noticed my truck was going much slower. Was it having a mechanical problem? No it just seemed slow. I was running at half-speed. The ESC was telling me it was coming up on low-voltage cut-off. I got a couple laps in at half speed and then had to pull it off the track during the race as it crawled to a stop.

It was a bummer, but I got to watch Jules pass me and finish his race strong. I’d like to come back next year, hopefully with a backslash setup (Slash converted to buggy). For sure I’m bringing my 1/8 scale wheel/tire setup for this track.

Hope to see you out there!

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