V12-CE SETUP MANUAL
CHASSIS BALANCE:
The V12 chassis was first designed
to go around an oval rather than
a circuit, so it will turn right better
than it turns left. To counteract this,
mount your motor on the right hand
side of the pod (but space it away
from the pod by 3-4mm by adding
washers between the motor and
the pod), locate your cells slightly
offset to the left of the chassis and
mount your servo on the left of the
chassis too. Check for left/right
balance by placing the fully built up
chassis on drawing pins and seeing
if it falls off to one side. Add lead
weights as needed.
For front/rear balance, a 40/60
front/rear weight split is good (the
chassis should balance at a point
roughly 81mm forward of the rear
axle line, but this point may change
in position depending on hardness
of the tyres, width of tyres and how
much additive you are using etc).
Finding the ‘Grip Balance Point’
instead can me more useful.
To find this, put the car on a
smooth, flat surface (like a setup
board) with tyres that have just
been used in a race. Use a
screwdriver blade on the edge
of the chassis plate to push the
chassis sideways. If the front end
slides sideways before the back
slides you are pushing at a point
on the chassis that is too far for-
wards; if the rear slides sideways
first you are pushing too far back-
wards. Change your push point
until both front and rear slide at
the same time – this is your ‘Grip
Balance Point’. Once you have
this point, mark it on the chassis
and then measure from here to
the rear wheel axle line. Move
any ballast weight about to get the
46/60 split.
Motor is spaced away from the rear
pod – in this case, about 4mm
Use the 1.5mm holes in the front &
rear of chassis to test for balance.
MOTOR GEARING:
Brushless motors are more com-
plex to gear then brushed ones.
The temptation is to gear up be-
cause they have a wider torque
band than the G2 motors. Howev-
er, while this might give a good top
speed, you’ll start to lose accelera-
tion out of the corners. The best
gearing will give you top speed just
before the end of the straight, but
only just. Next, after each race,
check your motor temperature, ide-
ally it should be less than 60’C. If
it is, advance the motor’s timing a
bit (and gear down a tooth on the
pinion at the same time); if your
motor is finishing the race with a
temperature in the high 50s then
stick where you are.
Unfortunately, as rear tires wear,
our overall gearing changes.
Hence why we cannot say that a
23t pinion on a 70t spur is perfect
for a given track– it will also de-
pend on tire size. The best way to
compare gearing is to calculate
your ‘mm/rev’ figure (how far the
car travels for each single revolu-
tion of the motor):
mm/rev = (3.142 x pinion x tire
diameter) / spur
A figure around 56-58mm/rev is
a good starter for a 12x20m track
with a HPI Flux motor on its full
timing advance. Go up to 63mm/
rev on 20x30m tracks.
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