Today Team Vebra challenged the rain and went to the LMCC track for a quick spin. The “practice session” actually lasted much more than expected, we were lucky, it didn’t rain, despite the forecast.

We only had three batteries fully charged, didn’t have much time since yesterday’s session to recharge them all, so we focused on what we actually wanted to test.

But the first to step tyre on the track was our brand new M18. As a reminder, for people that might not now what a M18 is, this model name identifies a 1/18 scale car made by XRay. The little sister of one of their 1/10 cars, like the T3, T3R or T4. Although they have pretty nothing in common, this is the way I like to see it.

Our M18, as previously posted, is all stock. Brushed 180 motor, ESC and Nimh battery. Yet, putting it on the track gave us some little, tiny pleasant surprises.

We weren’t surprised though by the lack of punch. Blame it on the stock brushed motor, the Nimh battery, or both, the M18 drove like an “half-charged-battery 23T bushed motor”, or even less. Yet, the car is pleasant to drive. Why? The handling. By driving this little wee car you realise that XRay packed their knowledge in a very small sized car. The car feels stable, balanced, well designed. Not one of those cars you fear that by putting a more powerful motor, the car’s gonna fly, literally.

As also previously posted, we’re waiting on some upgrades for this little 4WD car. Replacement ESC and motor, of course the lipo too. Once this upgrades will be in, I’m pretty sure the M18 will show us it’s full potential. If not to conquer the 1/10 world, to show how a smaller scale car can still be competitive.

Hopefully soon a video, once the upgrades are there.

Take care,

Ka.

 

Hello All from this very sunny July !

The Team went to the track again today. Let’s just say that the pre-track-homework could have been better. The M03s were willing to do their best but their tyres were really rather tired and grip was a real issue.  The spare Shimizu were comfortably sitting at home. The remote control batteries went flat and we could only change 2 out of 4. (they lasted long enough) and… more importantly… our borrowed Kyosho 1/10 combustion engine was not quite RACE-READY… The list of reasons is probably too long for this post; what matters is that it DID start and it did go WROOM WROOM WROOM … As upcoming youtube videos will testify.

Some issues in uploading the pics today so the others will follow later.

Astoria

Hello everybody, yes, we’re back !

 

This May bank holiday has given us a sunny morning (just about) and the chance to dust off our M03s for a quick spin .

 

Very pleased with both cars’ performance once the tyres had a chance to warm up (and get rid of the sand/dust that they’d gathered during winter)

No Lap times this ‘time’ but more to come as the weather hopefully keeps improving.

god speed

astoria.

Well, what a glorious third day of sunshine we’ve had today again. The LMCC track was dry, hot and pretty empty !

We had another few laps this morning with the ‘Old Giulia’ under the new Fiat 500 shell (M03m) She drove like a thing of beauty!

Here are some pics of the chassis in the sunshine.

                           

It’s starting to look a little more bling with all the blue aluminium parts on it. Don’t you think? Despite the rear tyres looking pretty worn down the grip was impeccable

We did need to keep the Temp. in check though. Unsure of what a safe operating temperature would be for the Brushless; we took a break whenever the Spektrum started beeping at us.

   

Hello All !

This sunny May weekend has proven to be an excellent opportunity to spend more time at the track. The Giulia and Minikast were both out in force… Nice dry track, LOTS of grip and hardly anyone else to share the track with (we guess people took advantage of the 3 day weekend and travelled places… well… TeamVebra took advantage of that.)

MINIKAST – Small Summary   

The MiniKast is now in her “perfect” condition. It’s a brushed setup, 15T HPI Firebolt, a reliable and lightweight ESC (Viper 12R) and Lipo Power. She’s a real pleasure to drive. With a dry track and her new Shimizu (Med Front / Soft Rear) she’s probably doing her best lap times ever.

our GIULIA – ‘Medium  Summary’                

Well, the Giulia has kept us busy this weekend. At first the handling was “ok”. Not great. She then started behaving in a rather funny way; whenever a small “*ock-up” would occur, she would suddenly behave as though we’d set the trim +25 Right or +25 left. So much so that even finishing the lap was difficult. After some investigation and with some input from fellow LMCC members we realised that it was the servo-saver playing tricks. Not sure how to describe this but, basically, it would lose the 0 position (after some collision) and remain at an incorrect +15 or +20 position. THE SOLUTION… as per suggestion heard at the track, we super-glued the Tamiya Servo Saver together. It’s now one big block of plastic and won’t shift around anymore. Success…. The second session with the Giulia saw some major improvements.

• The 3Racing Shocks were fitted with the Tamiya Blue (Medium) springs. The 3racing springs are too soft.
• The ride was raised (by a fair bit) with great results.

We were left with some understeer but we know we should expect that from this layout. Otherwise, the Shimizu and the warm track improved the grip a great deal and it proved to be a fun little M03 !

Thanks for reading us and stay tuned for more TeamVebra updates!

Astoria