Insane speed, lots of adrenaline and low cost
Dez 28, 2006
 

I remember saying that I would never have a Pro 10 car. They were "just a board with batteries", I said.

But after acting as turn marshall in one race I was amazed with the speed and grip of those cars. These guys gain 2 to 3 seconds to a good touring car. I was at the end of a long straight and I could almost bet that they would not turn. But they did...

I had tried one Associated RC10L (very old) with a hybrid front  suspension, and the car was a nightmare to drive. After that experience I thought that those cars were very difficult to drive.

Until I tried the National Champion car...

I was impressed, to say the least. The car was so easy to drive, with the front planted on the track, that after one or two minutes of very conservative driving the owner told me that it was a waste that I was not running in Pro 10. From where he was he could see that I did perfect lines and had a good feeling of the car. Maybe my 1/12 school.

From that point on, it was just a blink of an eye. Things started to move.

He found a 2nd hand Trinity Switchblade 10 (his old car, now in someone's hands) for a very good price, in pristine condition.

This is the simplest car you can have. Also the fastest car you can have. Compared to a TC this thing has no point of failure. But it's freaking fast. And a real hand full to drive. However, if you do it well it's probably the most rewarding RC car to have.

I could not write this page without referring to the incredible help provided by António Gato. He built the car, prepared the tires and did all sorts of efforts to have t ready for the Saturday race. When we talk about helping the others racers, this is the top of the tops. I could not ask for more. (in fact I couldn't even ask for this kind of help...).

His details go to a level I thought it was impossible. All the little adjustments are made in order to have a perfect car. The car felt so good that it was almost certain that it would perform well on the right hands. That was the only doubt I had. Were my hands the right ones? After the recent mishaps with the TC Championship I doubted that, of course.

But things were a little different. Read on...

He added his little and precious details to the setup, in a way that allowed me to have a INCREDIBLE race day. Nothing like the frustrating races I did with my Yokomo. It was fast, it was fun, and I WANT MORE!!!

Building

The original shock was not up to the task. It was replaced by this beautiful HPI aluminium unit. So smooth and well built that the time between rebuilds is very very long. On that position the dust just does not get there. Reliability forever?
The battery mounting system was very awkward. It was replaced by this very simple battery strap on each side. This allows my packs to slide in under the shock. Nice and neat.

I bought a few parts, namely a Irrgang Axle, one BB set, some UFRA tires (more on that later) and a pair of HPI shocks.

He took several days building the car to his standards (I have to say that his standards are the absolute perfection). The rear shock is now a HPI unit, and that is probably one of the reasons of the excellent behavior of the car.

The battery mounting system was changed to a pair of carbon battery straps and all the gluing and mounting of tires was done by him. I got the car the day before a race. For the first time in my life I was forced to have the motor hard wired (man, I hate that) because the connectors I use made it impossible to put the motor in place. One of the things that made the car so good has to do with the lateral shocks, but that trick I wont tell anyone. The truth is that that little puny trick makes the car an absolute dream on the turns.

The tires are normally used by 1/10 on road nitro racers and they need to be glued and rectified to the correct size. When the car was handed over to me it was just perfect.

The motor choice was a lucky one. I just decided that the Aurora would do the job. For no special reason, but during the race it proved to be my best choice. Sometimes we have no way of doing it wrong (LOL). I would approach the other cars on the straight just like that. And I had more than 5 minutes duration. A couple of guys came asking what motor did I have. It reminded me of 1/12 afternoons on carpet. My car is the reference for all the other cars.

Racing

7/7/2001

It seems that I adapt very fast to this type of cars. The 1/12 was a success from the start. On the first race I won. I don't know why , but it seems that my smooth driving pays off big time. I use the incredible freewheel on these cars to my advantage.

With this Pro 10 it was exactly the same. On the second qualifier I made the 3rd best lap. On a field of veteran Pro 10 drivers it means something. In spite of being very conservative (the speed of the car on the long straight is SCARY!) I managed to drive on the second 22 and that's quite an achievement.

As usual I had some minor radio glitches that caused a few mishaps, and in one of them I lost the transponder. I was going very fast and catching a few other drivers, but on that qualifier I had no luck.

On another qualifier I forgot to put tire addictive (that's me all right) but even with the car with low rear grip I could lap on the second 23. The track record is 21.03 (António Gato) and the best 3 drivers were doing around 22.60 on during the day.

António Gato was impressed to say the least (when he built the car he knew that the car would do good, but he couldn't tell about the driver). He said that I would be driving on the second 21 before the day was over. He was close to the truth.

On the first final I did  well, but I ended on the 5th position. Things were about to change. On the second one I was driving better (I almost knew the car completely) and I pulled 3rd place on front of António Gato and a mere .16 cents of a second in front of him.

On the last round I started on the 6th position and quickly started to pass other drivers. The car was BALLISTIC and I made a few turns at full throttle, a thing that seemed impossible to me at the beginning of the day. Driver after driver I passed all except one of them - António Gato.

I only perceived how fast I was, when one of the fastest drivers opened his trajectory to let me through (!!!). I was so fast that I wasn't even noticing how close to the 1st I was.

One of the contestants (Pedro Dias) told me after the race that he was trying to catch us, but could only see the distance increasing. The round finished something like this. António Gato 13 laps in 5:01, me 13 - 5:02, Carlos Borges 13 - 5:03 and Pedro Dias 13 - 5:05.

That's a very close race. I managed to do the best lap time with 22.45 and the car was going very strong on the last laps. Credit goes to my Peak Aurora 10x2 and the excellent new Panasonic cells from Reedy (what marketing people call Stock Metal Hydride).

Several guys came to congratulate me after the race, because they said I was driving like a pro. Incredible laps and precise trajectories.

I did several laps on the second 22 with a few on the second 23. The average was 23.30!!! It's mad all right, the TC's did a best lap of 23 something, and that's higher than my average lap!!

I finished 4th, 1 point away from the 2nd and 3rd (they were tied in number of points) but it was an achievement. The fact that I was able to record a fastest lap on a race (my first one in Pro 10) pays for it all. Is as good as it gets (maybe a victory is even better).

One of the things I do well is not to crash. I just don't. Don't ask me why, because I don't know how I trained that way of driving. It's probably because I was too scared to destroy my neat little toys. I just prefer to drive slow than to risk a hard crash, that's all...

The tires were awesome. They work even with out addictive. But when you put it, they grip like nothing I ever saw. And the best thing is the fact that they are very durable. We can do a couple of races with one set. I just wanted my TC tires to be like that. And you want to know the best part? They work perfectly on every track we race on. Isn't that cool?

Setup

Specs

Related Information

Trinity
Peak