TLR 22 Buggy Build - Finished

Monday, January 30th, 2012

Well, its been a long week of waiting, but my TLR 22 Buggy is now in its finishing stages.  My 22 will be making it debut race this Friday night at Warehouse 3 in Phoenix.

The build went very well for being my first time ever building a complete RC vehicle from a kit.  I had a blast, and learned a lot with building each component.  I would like to thank my friends Dean from Wolfpak Racing and Ed for helping me mount the electronics into the buggy, that is still my weak spot, I suck at soldering.

So here is the final result of the build:

Motor:       Novak Ballistic 13.5
ESC:         GTB 2 Sportsman
Receiver:    Spektrum SR3520
Servo:       Spektrum S6040
Transmitter: Spektrum DX3C


The reason I went with the GTB 2 sportsman for my ESC was that I run in stock 13.5 classes, which most all the tracks in the Phoenix area run with no boost/timing in the speed control.  This system will be a great way for me to start in these classes and not worry about not making tech.  Once I get more comfortable with my driving skills, and want to switch to a mod class, I will upgrade then at that time.  Until then, I am still on the learning curve.

Here are some more photos I took when finishing up the buggy:

Our cat Sassy decided to try and lend a paw.

Motor and trans in, ESC all connected to the motor thanks to Dean

Body all trimmed, rest of electronics placed and shocks and tires done.

Body painted, decals will come tomorrow.

Friday night racing at Warehouse 3

Friday, January 27, 2012

Got in a great night of fun racing at Warehouse 3 in Phoenix.  Last week they started their point series for both Wednesday and Friday nights.  I can not race on Wednesday nights, so I am racing in their Friday night point series  This is a 7 round race series with 2 throw out rounds.  I already missed round 1, so that will obviously be my first throw-out.  I was hoping to get my TLR 22 Buggy finished for I could start racing that night, but my motor and ESC came in on Friday, and I did not have time to finish the build.  I am really looking forward to getting my 22 on the track.

All setup in the pits ready to race.

On to the racing, tonight I decided to switch and run in the novice class with my friend Dragi from Wolfpak Racing.  He just recently started racing in the short course class, and will be running novice for the point series, so I decided to go ahead and run the point series with him.

Qualifying Round 1 (5 min):

Heat 1 placed Dragi and myself in the same heat together, and although I did not place were I wanted too, Dragi edged me out and I place 4th in the heat, with a personal best of 20 laps.

Heat 1:                  Heat 2:
Name:      Laps  Time    Name:      Laps  Time
Carlos      20   5:05    Frank D.    22   5:25
Jeremy M.   20   5:06    Chauncy     21   5:18
Schreck     20   5:13    Dragi       20   5:16
Dee         18   5:01    Frank L.    20   5:20
Al          18   5:11    Buzz Kill    6   1:36

Qualifying Round 2 (5 min):

For the second heat, both myself and Dean did not get a chance to take a picture of finishing order for heat two the Dragi and myself were in, so we are not sure of the finishing order for round 2/heat 2, sigh.

Heat 1:                  Heat 2:
Name:      Laps  Time    Name:      Laps  Time
Dee         23   5:24    Frank D.    xx   x:xx
Carlos      22   5:26    Chauncy     xx   x:xx
Al          19   5:14    Dragi       xx   x:xx
Schreck     11   3:12    Frank L.    xx   x:xx
Jeremy M.   10   2:38    Buzz Kill   xx   x:xx

Novice B-Main (5 min):

Dragi did amazing in the B-Main leading most of the main, but a late mishap dropped him back, and he ended up placing 3rd in the main.  As for me, I must have decided to close my eyes for part of this race because I could not get the truck to hook up right, and I finished with only 18 laps.

        B-Main
Name:      Laps  Time
Schreck     20   5:07
Buzz Kill   19   5:00
Dragi       19   5:01
Al          19   5:04
Jeremy      19   5:11
Frank L.    18   5:10


Novice A-Main (5 min):

        A-Main
Name:      Laps  Time
Dee         20   5:00
Frank D.    20   5:01
Chauncy     20   5:04
Carlos      19   5:00
Schreck     19   5:02
Buzz Kill   19   5:08

This was a fun night of racing and I am looking forward to racing next week, with the debut of my TLR 22, which I will be racing with Dean and Ernest in the 13.5 Buggy class.

TLR 22 Buggy Build

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

I started my build for my TLR 22 Buggy, and so far it has been fun.  This is the first kit that I have assembled, my other RC's have all been RTR's.

So far for this build I have ordered the servo, which is a Spektrum S6040, and I have also ordered and received the Spektrum SR3520 3-Channel Receiver.  Friday I should be getting my my motor and ESC, and I will post pics of that update when they come in.  In building my first kit, so far I have not hit any snags, and the build has gone pretty smooth.  For the setup I am building it stock per the instruction manual, and will make setup changes after i get this on the track.  I have only raced 1/10th scale trucks so far in my short RC career, so transferring into the buggy will be a blast.

Here are some of the pictures I took during my build:

As you can see, building my buggy at work in the conference room.

The Aluminum chassis is very sweet.  

Front end done, minus the servo.

Rear almost complete, waiting on motor and ESC to come in to complete the rest.

Once the motor and ESC arrive, i will complete the build.  I was hoping to get the buggy complete for racing on Friday night, but it depends on how late the shipment arrives.  I will post a followup when its complete, and hopefully a video of me testing my buggy for the first time.

TLR 22 1/10th Scale 2wd Racing Buggy

Monday, January 23, 2011

Today my TLR 22 Buggy came in, and man am I excited.  I can't wait to get started on this kit.  I plan on running the rear motor configuration, and will be replacing the stock body with the JConcepts Illuzion - Finnisher body.

This will be a fun build and I am hoping to get it done for a debut at Warehouse 3 this Friday, praying that my electronics arrive in time.


Below is a video from HorizonHobby.com they did on the Team Losi Racing 22:

Father and Son practice at HobbyTown SRS

Sunday, January 22, 2011

Sunday was a great day to be outside, the weather was nice, and me and my son Frank Jr. were itching to get out lay down some laps with my short course truck.  So we decided to head on down to HobbyTown SRS in Scottsdale.  My older brother Raymond has just got into the sport, and we decided to all head down together to get in some practice.


My brother bought himself an ECX Torment for his first RC vehicle, which I feel is a good starter Short Course truck for someone just entering the RC Racing scene.  My son and I practiced with my HPI Blitz SCT.

This was my sons first time out at any track, and he did amazingly good for his first time out at this track.  He even hit the big jump in front of the drivers stand once.  Hopefully soon I can get him down to one of the tracks and enter him into the novice or kids class.

My son Frank Jr, and his Uncle Raymond on the right working on his torment.

Friday Night Racing down at Warehouse 3

Friday, January 6th 2011

Got in another great night of racing at Warehouse 3.  This time my daughter Laura made the trek with me, and got in some practice with my HPI Blitz.  She was going to run in the kids class that night, but decided she wanted to practice some more before trying her hand a racing for the real thing.

Laura ready in the pits to help out.

Video of me racing in the Pro-Lite B-Main

 

RC Racing down at Warehouse 3

Friday, December 30th, 2011

Got in another great night of racing over at Warehouse 3 in Phoenix.  It was a packed house, and the night looked to be full of great racing.  My friends from over at Wolfpak Garage made the trek, and Dean decided to race his truck tonight in pro-lite with me.  After getting setup in the pits, I was ready for some action, and the truck was feeling great in practice.

Setup in the pits.

Pro-Lite - Round 1 Qualifier (5 min.):
The truck really felt good, at with  this new layout I managed to pull off my fastest time so far, but I still crashed more then I liked too.

Heat 1:                  Heat 2:
Brent: 23 Laps - 5:06    Cheeseburger: 22 Laps - 5:21
Ryan:  22 Laps - 5:10    Cory:         22 Laps - 5:24
Dean:  21 Laps - 5:02    Brent(G-Man): 17 Laps - 5:18
Cody:  20 Laps - 5:08    Jim:          17 Laps - 5:22
Brian: 20 Laps - 5:09    Jeremy:       12 Laps - 3:24
Frank: 18 Laps - 5:00

Pro-Lite - Round 2 Qualifier (5 min.):
Round 2 showed an improvement with my driving and I hit a personal best on this track with 19 laps, coming close to pulling off 20, but I got in a last lap tangle with lost me about 10-15 seconds.


Heat 1:                  Heat 2:
Brent: 22 Laps - 5:02    Jim:          23 Laps - 5:25
Ryan:  22 Laps - 5:12    Cheeseburger: 22 Laps - 5:21
Dean:  21 Laps - 5:11    Cory:         20 Laps - 5:26
Brian: 20 Laps - 5:01    Brent(G-Man): 18 Laps - 5:26
Cody:  20 Laps - 5:10    Jeremy:        8 Laps - 2:07
Frank: 19 Laps - 5:06


Pro-Lite - B-Main (5 min.):
With my performance in the heats, I was starting 5th out of 7 drivers in the B-Main.  The top 2 drivers would advance onto the A-Main, and my friend Dean from Wolfpak Garage was starting 2nd in this main.  With a good start I was able to hold out and start off with being in third and was able to hold onto this until about the mid-way point of the race.  I felt I was driving a good race, but about half-way through a few miss-timed crashes put me back a bit, but I managed to race my way back to a 5th place finish.  Once again I missed my 20 lap goal for the night by a narrow margin.  But my friend Dean was able to finish 2ns able got bumped into the A-Main.


B-Main:
Cory:    22 Laps - 5:12
Dean:    22 Laps - 5:15
Cody:    20 Laps - 5:06
Brian:   20 Laps - 5:15
Frank:   19 Laps - 5:09
Anthony: 18 Laps - 5:08
Jeremy:  17 Laps - 5:07


Below is a video that my friend Dragi took of the B-Main: