ORIGINAL: Sixtysixdeuce

Well, as anticipated, clutch problems. The engine actually moves the car pretty well off the line, but I never had a chance to dial it in and get it on radar. The aluminum clutch shoes started depositing material on the inside of the bell, and with the slightly smaller ID of the Tamiya bell, the end of the shoes where the pins go through ended up seized to the hub. Once it cooled, I was able to break it free, remove everything and laboriously remove the aluminum from the inside of the clutch bell. Funny thing is, it didn't really get all that hot; bearings weren't discolored, even the bell itself was only slightly tinged. I guess the aluminum shoes weren't as good an idea as I thought. We will give it another go with the carbon shoes, and running lighter springs to hopefully make the solid mechanical connection sooner. My thought process had been that the gear ratio would necessitate higher revving before engagement, but I don't really need to build that much RPM to get it moving, and this only served to increase temperatures as the clutch slipped more easily.

Brakes worked OK, not great. I'm going to make longer cam arms, as I don't think these tiny cables can take it if I increase leverage on the servo end. I did end up making aluminum cable sheaths; the plastic ones crumpled under the strain of a full size servo.

Hopefully I'll have another update after the weekend.

Happy Independence Day!