gooseter

OK, for starters, I'm a real newbie, I have been playing around with my old "Wild Pony" for years, but when that finally died, I decided that it was time to fork out the $$$ for a 'real' RC. SO I headed on down to my nearest Toyworld (I'm in rural(ish) Australia, and there is stuff all in the way of hobby shops out here). I'm ended up getting myself a nitro powered on-road beast. I'm not sure on many things, but I will try to outline what I got

It's a GV Models "BV 1/10 Gas Powered Engine Car" (thats copied exactly from the cover of the manual) has a HRT (Holden Racing Team) VY Commodore body, OS 15 size engine and 4WD.

I have attached some pics, and also a link to a site I found that sells them.

[link]http://www.modelflight.com.au/rc_model_cars/rc_cars_hsv_hst_vy_commodore.htm[/link]

What I want to know is, is this a good chassis? motor? setup? I will be using it mainly to hack around car parks and netball/tennis courts.

I have run it in as per the instructions provided, and am up to full throttle using 10% fuel. I shredded the set of tires that came with it within 24hrs, but Toyworld didn't have any inserts (mine went up in a cloud of grey fuzz), So I am using foam tires that came already mounted, and they are lasting longer, although there a heaps of chunks out of them. What tires and inserts would you suggest for someone who drives hard?

Any info and/or hints would be greatly appreciated.

Oh, and the main reasons for getting a petty one over an electric were I get jack of recharging batteries all the time (filling up with fuel and restarting is so much easier), I'm a petrol head and am quite mechanically minded (i could easily re-build the thing if/when I break it), and I LOVE the smell of burnt Methanol!

Thanks

gooseter

Also, what is the difference between a gas engine and a glow engine?

snowbl!nd

That is quite a nice car you've got there, and if you are happy with it no-one can tell you it's a piece of junk.

Looks like a nice chassis lay-out, the centrally mounted servos are quite unique - usually only 1/8 nitro cars have their servos in such locations. If the engine is OS, it's a quality engine which should last ages. The setup isn't that improtant at present, you can easily adjust it when you become more used to driving the car - then it's up to you what you want to do - different springs, shock oil, diff oil, shock mounting positionas, camber, caster, toe etc, etc.

For tyres i reccomend HPI x-patterns. They are a decent tyre which offer good traction AND decent life. Use with a medium moulded insert for best performance.

Gas engines use a spark plug and are basically scaled-down petrol engines. They run on regular petrol and are usually found in the larger RC's. The "glow" part of glow engines refer to the source of ignition - they use a glow-plug instead of a spark plug. (so your car is powered by a glow-engine NOT a gas engine)

gooseter

thanks snowbl!nd,

the body is definitely looking second hand, althought he pics don't show it, but I didn't expect it to look brand new for long, it's got quite a bit more power then I am used to, SO I expected to crash it and scratch it up a bit, I'm going to look into getting a new shell the same as this one to keep for when I get a bit more used to the dynamics of the car, and can control it better. I have had it for about 2 days, and I have gone throught about 3L of fuel... I'M HOOKED! I will see if the local shop can get the tires and inserts you mentioned, as the serfaces I run on aren't very smooth (for some reason people round here don't like to see RCs running on their nice expensive sealed playing courts...hmmmmm...)

I am using 10% fuel at the moment, but would like to try a 15% or 20% mix to see what difference it makes (once I'm used to the current boot it has) what sort of tuning changes would need to be made? just the reed valve? or the idle mix as well? I am used to tuning 4-stroke in-line 6 and V8 car engines, and I'm not too familiar with the tuning side of things on a 2-stroke nitro engine.

Thanks again

snowbl!nd

The x-patterns are good all-round tyres. I'm using those at the moment on smooth 'ish surfaces and they hold up well. Nearly every time someone asks about tyre choices, they get mentioned. I believe there are two compounds of the same tyre - standard and pro compound. The pro compound is slightly softer - offering more traction but with increased wear. I'd stick to the standard compound unless you're going to be running on prepared or smooth surfaces (if you're tempted to drive on the courts).

You can switch nitro percentges, but you will most likely need to retune both the main needle and the low-speed needle to compensate for the different fuel mix. Only small adjustments need to be made, so it shouldn't be difficult. If switching up to 20% you may also require a slighlty cooler plug - an OS LC3 or OS8 would be ideal. You may be able to use the plug you are using at the moment, but performance would probably improve if you used a slighltly cooler plug.

gooseter

okay, couldn't resist, it is freezing outside i'd put it at about 5 or 6 degrees C (or 39 or 41 degrees F) and it was about 8AM on a sunday morning, and I couldn't resist taking it for a hack up and down the street, bloody hell this thing is quick in the cold! I know that cooler air is more dense, and for a real car, ambient temp can make a small difference, but I didn't think it would make such a marked improvement on an RC! Roll on winter! (We are at the tail end of summer now)

snowbl!nd

Yeah, these engines thrive on cold air! They run so much better it's sometimes like it's a different engine altogether.

You do understand that cold temperature requires a richer needle setting to compensate for the higher air pressure?
(and if it's really cold wrap part of a sock or tim foil around the cooling head to keep the temps up!)

gooseter

it was still blowing plenty of blue smoke, not AS much, but still plainly visible, but no, I hadn't thought about that. It was a ******* to start, I had to leave the glow plug warmer on for about 30 sec before it went. (it usually goes first time every time)

snowbl!nd

In cold weather warm the engine with a hair dryer or heat gun (or just leave in a warm place), it will start much more easily than when cold.