Want it fast? Almost uncontrollable? Get yourself a 1/12 car!
Oct 10th, 2006
 

This is the Associated RC12L3 1/12 car. The body is from ProtoForm airbrushed with Tamyia colors. It looks cool. It runs HOT! Simplicity at it's best! This car looks like a board of carbon when compared with the much more sophisticated 1/10 cars. However it runs much faster and the maneuverability is tremendous. The reaction time needed to drive this sort of little board with wheels is so short that often you bump into everything. Concentration is a must! And what about 8 minute races? And what abut doing two races (at least) with one 1700 pack? If this is your dream (speed and duration) get one. The price tough, can a be a little discouraging. Prepare to pay the same price that you pay for a good 1/10. Advantages? You can play indoors if outside is raining :-) And you can play for very looong periods of time. I always put my personal touch! Even if I'm running last of the pack, this "bumper sticker" makes a statement.

A new body for the car. The Hot Bodies Toyota GT1 makes it look even better.

Building

Very straight forward car to build. I just don't like "standard" screws and nuts. Why do they call them standard? The front and rear suspensions are very simple to build with just a couple of details needing some attention. It was my first Associated shock absorber with that foam inside.

The only issue with the building of the car was the servo installation. I wanted a powerful servo with lots of torque and this is somewhat incompatible with a mini servo for a reasonable price. So I had to grind the posts in order to accommodate an HITEC 525MG servo on the car.

Later I changed the front axles with C clips with titanium axles from Hamad Ghuman. The are threaded and have a nylon nut, making it virtually impossible to loose a wheel like happened to me once or twice.

Running

This is an incredible car. I ran it for the first time on 21 April 2000, and with a 19 turn Speed Gems Quartz with a 20 pinion I was able to lap very fast on the indoor track that we have access to.
I first thought that tire addictive was somewhat unnecessary, but what I found was that it is in fact crucial to lap fast.

I have 0 toe in the front and 0 camber in the front. The rear is the only way it can be - Stock.

I changed to a Orion Orbital 2 BB with a 19 pinion, but my packs (1700) were dumping too soon.

Today (22 April 2000) I reinstalled the 19T with no advance and I'm able to do 12 minutes with a 1700 pack and around 18 minutes with a 2000 matched pack. The matched pack dumps suddenly and the 1700 (loose cells) slows down to a stop. I can do my last lap with the pack, on the same time as all the others, and then dump abruptly.

The rear tires are gone. The chassis is rubbing the carpet causing the rear to drift like crazy. 

One of the things I discovered with this car is the fact that I'm not bad at all. Duratrax Realrace Thank You! I can keep up with the rhythm of the best and even pass them. What a car. And what a rhythm! 

I'm using low wear tires from Jaco. The difference in wear is more than 4 times the duration of the normal tires. The more expensive tires pay for themselves easily. The grip is the same or better than the normal tires.

However I have to buy them in the US because our LHS doesn't carry them. They think that they are too expensive, making it difficult to convince the 1/12 racers around here. In spite of the evidence that I have (more duration and less spending in the long run), they just don't care. Instead, they proposed to sell me the hubs with 2 screws (the car has 3 hole hubs), because they have lots of 2 hole rims and tires. Not that they would sell me those tires cheaper. It's just because they have no way of selling that stock without this move (???). Do you see any advantage for me? I just can't see it.

I can get Jaco and Trinity tires and wheels for my car for less money at Tower Hobbies.

This car has been responsible for my rapid learning of driving techniques. It's very difficult for the other drivers to go faster than me. I guess I have some natural talent for this class. After a session of 1/12, driving the 4WD touring car seems like a easy task. It's just so easy to drive around that WIDE track. That's why the top drivers are so good. Many of them started in this class when they were kids. They win 1/12 races and championships. Spashett, Cyrul, are very good with these cars, and you can see them at the top with the 1/10 and touring classes.

The perfect driving school.

Racing

4/11/2000

I never raced this car in the middle of "traffic". Only a few duels with similar cars. Every time I won, but I was attributing this to luck or even a more suited motor for the track. I just could not believe that I was "the best" driver of all the guys that race on that track.

The opportunity came to enter a race. A real one. On the 4th November we gathered on the track to play a little.
There were 3 RC12L3 just like mine with P2K motors (all of them) a Trinity 1/12 also with a 27 turn motor and a Mardave, also with a stock motor.

On the warm-ups I was fast enough to pass everyone now and then, but again I was expecting this to change during the race. And we started to race. On the first one I just started behind and I lost one lap really quick (a lap on this track is around 9 secs) but following my very elaborate strategy I assumed that I would get them.
I started to drive as good as I could and all of of sudden I was in 1st. We had agreed in 10 minute races, so I had plenty of time. I just drove those 10 minutes very calmly with very few crashes to finish with a 6 lap advantage over the 2nd.

I was startled! The race director was really surprised because he had never seen me drive and assumed that I was a regular newbie. Well, it seems I'm not.

With all this responsibility hanging over my head I had to do a very good 2nd race.
I just jumped to the front on the start and never left it. I finished with a 3 lap advantage over the 2nd and I made 2 more laps than the previous race. The guy with the Trinity was also lapping very fast, and he took the best lap, only to see me do an even faster lap on the next one. I was amazed. The soft driving that we need to do with these cars really pays off. No sudden acceleration and a lot of tire addictive are crucial to make good races.

Costs? Very small. I'm using a set of low wear tires from Jaco that last 4 or 5 days of racing. The only thing that you'll spend is tire addictive and a set of brushes for the motor every 5 or 6 days of racing.

Now I am to man to beat...

11/11/2000 My First Official Victory

After my first success with this car (see above) I was determined to a good race. The competition was bigger and tougher this time.

The guy that had lost the victory the weekend before was determined to put a fight on the track. His face said it all. He was there to win.

My car had the wonderful P2K Pro installed and Jaco White tires in the back and Gray in the front (if you ask me, I'll tell you that everything seems to work on this track - Green, Gray and White).

Before the race I applied some Trinity comm drops on the motor and off we go. I started very well and I was 2nd with a very conservative rhythm. I know that if I can keep the pace of the guy in the front, when he makes an error then it's too late for him.

After a few laps everybody started to say that there was a burnt smell on the track, and in fact my car was sparking a lot. I had to stop, to inspect the comm just to find that the carpet threads in the comm were causing this fire and smell.

Even with the stop I made 37 Laps with 1 lap behind the winner of the 1st leg.

Only the 2 best results of 3 legs are counted and I could just spare this one. 

For the 2nd leg I installed my SpeedGems Quartz and on the start I avoided going fisrt the first turn (where everybody piles up) to gain the 1st position with 1/2 lap advantage. There was no history on this leg. My closest contender has a problem with the servo when another contestant touched him and sent him to the wall. I was "alone" the rest of the race and finished with 41 laps. The driving was very careful and consistent and, as usual, I only have 1 or 2 crashes every race. The second driver was 7 laps away from me.
In this type of there are always those guys that don't like to loose laps to the leader and just act as if they are in the first place. Luckily, I never lost those fights. My car just passes and the other car looses the balance and crashes (cool, I have a crash proof car).

The 3rd leg was a no brainer. The only thing is to avoid the first pile of cars, and drive carefully. This technique gave the victory with 42 laps and the 1st place.

I won the race with a total of 83 laps (very high for that track) using just common sense and consistency. I guess that age gives you that extra patience that you need to have a strategy and act accordingly. The young guys get very nervous with everything and just loose for stupid reasons.

Now, even more than before, I am the one to beat....

13/01/2001 Timing System Test

Our races on carpet sometimes arise some doubts about the way laps are counted. The race director counts the laps on a portable computer and he has a helper that calls the number of the car finishing a lap.

There is no way to know what's the best lap and some drivers have doubts about their number of laps. I never did, but the time issue exists.

I found a personal timing system sold 5 or 6 years ago - The Kyosho LapBoy. It's price was very high and that was probably the reason why we don't see them at all. But, one Dutch shop started to sell them like peanuts because the price is incredibly low.

I got one and a lot of my fellow drivers also got their own system. I installed it on my RC12L3 like you see on the picture. It has an infrared sensor that counts a lap when it goes by a reflector tape on the floor and the data is stored on that yellow unit.

Then you just plug an external unit and download all the timing data to the small LCD central unit. You can see al the data and for printing the last 10 laps, the best lap, the average lap and the total time, the unit is plugged into a thermal printer and you press a button to upload the data to the printer.

It's accurate up to the hundredth of a second and it's perfect to have a perfect grasp of what your setup is capable of.

Drawbacks? It only shows the last 10 laps, but counts 99 laps.

The onboard units were originally intended to be powered by a 9V battery, but the current is regulated to 5V. So I thought that I could just get those 5V from the ESC BEC and I plugged the power cable to the spare socket on the receiver. A very clean installation and I don't have a big 9V battery inside the car.

Price? Originally in 1995 it was $200-$250 and now, all the guys that got one paid around $32!! Where can you get yours? e-mail me...

Setup

Specs

Related Information

Associated