No, the title of this post doesn’t want to refer to that difficult time in life that some of us are in; it sadly hints at the recent Lap Times of Team Vebra.

A more suitable title could have been “Injury List” and this is why:

• The M03L flew off the last straight’s rumble strip and landed casually near the pit lane; after some further checks, the Servo had gotten stuck – Result = Dead Servo.
• The T3R had a bad encounter with the pit lane wall and broke a front universal joint – still waiting on new parts to arrive from Hong Kong –  Result = Undriveable 2wd touring car made only slightly better once turned into a 2Fwd (as opposed to a 2Rwd)
• The upper desk of the T3R underwent some major “workshop-mishap” and ended up having one of its “rear-tails” snapped off. Result = unbalanced Flex; and the Xray 301190 upper deck doesn’t seem to be stocked by anybody (anymore)
• The TL01 has been a constant under/over-steering machine ever since last season; recent attempts based on tips gathered from fellow drivers at the LMCC have seen us trying to block the front differential but limited improvements were seen. Result =  a touring car that feels and looks more like a part time drifter.
• The M03s which until recently was our entry level pride and joy has mysteriously decided to join the over-steering club. Result = a nervous little devil whose 15T brushed motor has quite frankly seen better days, slow in the straights and no longer predictable in the slower sections.

The sum of the above “results” has seen us “stuck” around the 29.8 or 31.2 seconds per lap; not quite what we’d gotten used after installing our MyLaps RC4 transponders but ….. folks …… the season has only just begun and our Bold (very very Bold) predictions want to be:

1. the T3R will do a lap under 23″
2. the TL01 will do a lap under 25″
3. the M03L will go under 28″
4. the M03s (brushed) will once again happily cruise around the track with an average lap time per session of under 31″

so, stay tuned and be ready to make fun of us come October time when the season will be over and we won’t have achieved anything apart from having had some fun.

Thanks for reading us !

Astoria

 Editor’s note on April 23rd 2014, Goals 1 and 2 have already been achieved ! :) 

But last week Team Vebra took quite a deep “turn” when not only it acquired one, but actually two more cars, that aren’t Tamiya.

Team Vebra got hold of a very nice XRay M18, from our favourite local dealer, Kit. See it below in all its beauty.

Everything is still stock, except for the receiver which has been replaced with an OrangeRx DSM compatible receiver. Not only 2/3 cheaper but also smaller and fits better on the M18 board.

The car comes with a 5cells Nimh battery rated at 6v for 1600Mah, but I’m waiting on an online retailer to re-stock on these. Also ordered the following kit. This will replace both the stock ESC and brushed motor with  a TrackStar 1/18th Scale 7.5T Brushless power System (6100kv), which you can see here below in all its glory.

(image courtesy of HobbyKing.com)

Also planned is an upgrade to the M18Pro chassis, a nice silver graphite board to replace the stock M18 chassis. This is not the Lipo version but a Lipo can be used anyway. Whatchout if you plan on doing the same type of upgrade. There are little things to bear in mind:

Although most mounting points are the same between the M18 and M18Pro chassis boards, motor, antenna mount and esc mount are placed in a different way. For the motor you have no way around buying the optional alu motor mount that costs around 25Euro just for that little mettalic mount.

A Lipo battery shouldn’t exceed the following dimensions: 98mm x 34mm x 15mm, otherwise you’ll need to buy the M18Pro Lipo chassis which has a different battery lodging.

When switching to brushless 360 or 370 motors, instead of the stock 180 motor, the spur gear needs to be replaced with a 42.

Remember that using too powerful motors may require other parts to be changed (e.g. differentials) or there is a risk of breaking some very important and expensive parts.

Another nice upgrade to perform to this little car is replacing the “hop-on” wheels for some proper screw-on hex hub tyre shafts. They cost 25Euro a pair though.

The M18 really looks like a nice little pack of fun and we’re eager to try it on the track!

Same for her bigger sister who also joined Team Vebra… A T3R! But this will be occasion for another post.

Once again, thanks for reading this.

Ka.

kV work the other way around. It’s a calculated value based on RPM / Volts, or how many spins the motor does with just one Volt. The higher the value, the faster the motor.

A little table shows a comparison between Turns and kV

For example, as posted before, our Micro-T now sports a 10250kV… Well, that would read (nearly) 3.5T! Scary, isn’t it?

Hope this could be helpful, in case you’re still learning as I am.

Thanks for reading,

Ka.

This little bad-boy may not be the classic on-road race car, and not only due to its “Lilliput” size, but mainly because of its original purpose, a road-type-buggy shall we say. Nevertheless, after a few little changes, upgrades, it turns into even more fun than expected or hoped.

We first did a “massive” upgrade, as posted last year when we replaced the brushed motor for a 8750Kv brushless one, put a Lipo battery and Spektrum receiver. But that wasn’t enough for our little micro car.
Those “funny” (read “awful”) tyre clips were replaced with some proper threaded axle ones… And last time I worked on it, I (this time I say “I” ’cause it’s only my fault) tried to fit 4 oil dampers and broke one of them.

As the oil dampers are only sold in packs of 4, I was forced to buy a full set to replace the broken one.
My fav online store was out of stock so had to rely on another one, who didn’t have the official-original Losi oil dampers, but the 3Racing version.

I must admit to be quite impressed by the 3Racing Losi Micro-T oil dampers. They really look “the part” and come with various accessories, including a little plastic eye-dropper containing oil. They come pre-filled and ready to “run”.

We shall never order an item alone… Isn’t it? So, took the plunge and ordered also a Losi 10250Kv brushless motor!

Wanna see how it looks after fitting these parts? Well, there it is, our little Mascot in all its beauty!

You can’t really see the new motor, but believe me, it’s there. And you’ll believe me as soon as I’ll post a video of it running, hopefully soon.

Once again, thanks for reading!

Ka.

Team’s friend Afrika kindly lent us his car and we took the plunge. Bear in mind that we only ever drove electric cars so this was accepted as some kind of challenge.

Here are some pics of the little beast:

will it roar?

The answer is “YES”. After some fiddling with the receiver, glow starter and 6 dead batteries later, this little “drinker” finally did “vroum”. It’s actually really nice listening to that little engine pretending to be a big one

Here’s a short video of it.

The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.

This was just a preliminary test, only to see it moving. Now it’s time for the body to be painted, little tuning and then it’s track time!

We’ll keep you posted, as always, thanks for reading us!

Ka.

This does mean that our mightly TeamVebra TL-01 is back in business and, consequently, once our next modelsport.co.uk basket graces the shores of lux, we shall have some 4×4 updates for you all!

thanks for reading, watching, downloading, spamming… whatever !

A.

It arrived in three separate parts (not something we’re used to being Tamiya fans) and the latter were not pre-drilled (another challenge for us)

As the pictures show, although there are three shell parts to cut out, the front and rear bumpers are actually molded onto the same piece of plastic.

We got a good pair of scissors and a shell-hole puncher (we think there is a more technical term for it but it escapes us right now)

Next came the tricky task of positioning the unfinished shell (in two parts) over the body of the car and deciding where to drill the body-posts holes. Astoria and Ka worked on this bit together as it proved “fiddly” to say the least.

Then it was time to place some standard Window masks followed by some “ad-hoc” masking tape. The truth is that the Parma PSE shell is actually the much more popular 1957 Chevrolet BelAir but we wanted to replicate – as much as possible –  the look of the two door 1955 Chevy 210. So in order to get the same colour split down the sides we had to improvise a little bit.

We then graced Micia with a few decals (that came with the Parma PSE kit) and she was ready for a pair of HPI offset shiny rims (offset by 6mm because the shell is a larger 200mm body compared to the Tamiya 186mm TL-01)

And here she  is, in all her CLASSIC beauty :) 

She’s not been raced yet, and she possibly never will be we like her a bit too much to see her landing on her back and scraping across the tarmac of the LMCC track

Thanks for watching!

A.

Today we had about 90 minutes of sunshine and of course, we took advantage of them by reaching the LMCC track with our brand new Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA (AKA ‘Our Giulia’)

Just some pictures for now, no LapTimes nor particular observations can be made for the moment as, ultimately, it’s the same brushless M03s that was under the MiniCoop shell. Yes, with the same handling problems!

Pictures were taken prior to the 15 or 20 laps that we got her to do. Unfortunately, despite our best intentions we had two minor “FAILS” and, oh boy, do scratches show up well on that Mustard Yellow!

Stay tuned for more pics and info on our Giulia.

A.

The Ka500 (Medium Wheelbase) has been extended to the Long Wheelbase and is proudly “wearing” our veteran MiniKast shell !

Current Specs of this M03L:

• HPI Firebolt 15T
• Viper 12R (Lipo)
• Kyosho 2.4ghz
• CVA Oil Shocks (yellow springs) FRONT
• Aluminium Oil Shocks (white springs) REAR <– we’re weary of the possible results!
• Tamiya MiniCooper Radial Tyres (50568)

And our MiniCoop shell (short Wheelbase) is going to have a little rest because, with the Medium-Extension parts taken from the Ka500, this M03s has become an M03m and will be “wearing” (proudly) our rather neat Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA (in groovy mustard yellow)

For our Giulia we also fitted a Front Bumper to try and protect its muzzle that does stick out somewhat (compared to a Mini) we’ve also finally drilled holes in the body-posts (at the rear) so that the shell is held at the right height.

Giulia’s Specs are:

• Etronix Photon Brushless 10T (+esc)
• Spektrum SR3300T – Temp Sensor on Motor (highest reading to date 40degrees)
• CVA Oil Suspensions (Blue at Front, Red at Rear)
• Shimizu Tyres – Medium all Round (Mid Inserts at Front, Soft Inserts at Rear)

         

We’re secretly confident that the Giulia’s slightly more aerodynamic shape (compared to our faithful MiniCoop) will translate into a new record lap… stay tuned to find out if it’s true !

 Thanks for reading us

A.