[bdebde]

After trying bigger pinion on the lehner 1930/8, I got higher temps on the motor while doing some hard street running. Between work and the crappy weather filling my bashing spots with puddles and the local track being closed the last two weeks for new layout, I only tried it on the road. At the last minute I decided to try a Tekno Neu 1509 2.5Y (1450kv). So, i got new track and new car (only checked rotation on new motor) for the first race. The track is very tight so speeds are pretty low, and no insane jumps as in past layouts. They have a tricky "drive up the wall" corner; a couple sheets of plywood leaned against one wall with a divider so you have to get up high enough to go over the divider but not so high you shoot up the wall. So, after several practice runs I am getting the hang of the new track and the new car. The car handles quite well, a big step up from my old sportwerks buggy. It is the first qualifier, and I am still a bit slower than most people due to my driving, but finding my "groove". Near the end of the 7min qualifier, I land a jump on the rear end and hear a "crack", but managed to make another lap and finish. Grab the car off the track... rear skid plate is broken... crap. Starting to think the plastic chassis was a mistake. There were actually 3 Ve8's out of 15 cars running in the 1/8th electric class. Last year they could hardly get 3 cars to even make the class, so electric is really catching on, also evident in the fact there were like 11 or 12 cars in nitro class! SO, out of the 3 Ve8's, two of them broke the rear skid in the first qualifier (one mine) and in exactly the same place! I did not stick around the rest of the day to see if the third Ve8 made it all day, I was bummed out. My car also cracked the main chassis along with the broken skid plate, so a new chassis is needed now as well (F***)! I will give HB the benefit of the doubt and try the aluminum skid plates out with a new chassis, but I have a feeling that a stock D8 or Tekno D8 chassis is in the not too distant future! This also means a new body and a few other parts, so even more $. I may be selling a couple of my favorite nice cars soon to pay for all this, not to mention my balancer just took a crap and I will likely replace it with a balancer built into a new charger.

SOOO, long story short, stick with a D8 and convert it. Several guys in the nitro class running them since they came out with little to no breakage. The car seems to drive nice, and jump well, but I guess the plastic chassis isn't enough for 1/8th scale abuse, and we will see if the aluminum skid plates help any.

BTW, I loved the change to the neu 1509 motor, it ran great on 6s geared for 35mph, plenty of power (got full throttle maybe once on the "long" 50-60ft straight, lol), and temps were; 60 degree day, motor 120, MMM 110, batt 90...PERFECT.