Racing brushless 1/8 scale

I just finished a brushless conversion on my Sportwerks Turmoil buggy. I went with a MM esc, a Feigao 7XL, and 3S and 4S Lipo.

I didn't have my 4S lipo in yet, so I ran the setup on 3S 4Ah lipo packs with a 14T pinion. I was getting 10-15 minutes of runtime. It was fairly cold last night and the battery was dead in my temp gun, so I didn't get any readings. I can say that my motor was hotter than the esc, so I'm going to assume that on 3S lipo, the 14T pinion left the motor a bit under geared.

Even still, I went out to the track to work on getting the kinks out of my setup. First thing I noticed was that the buggy had a tendency to nose dive when coming off of jumps. I was running the same suspension that I ran on the nitro rig. Attempts at mid air correction with the throttle were unsuccessful. I figured that the back was just oversprung, so I switched to the stock springs and it got better. I think that I'm going to have to go even lighter on the springs. I'm also running 40 weight shock oil. Perhaps a which to 30 weight will be in order for the colder weather we are having right now.

All in all is was a successful run. My lexan battery tray didn't survive and one of my packs got chewed by the spur. Thank goodness it didn't get all the way through the cell casing. I guess I'm going to have to go with my original plan for an aluminum battery tray. Other than that, I think that my setup is race worthy.

I'd also like to make some observations about the transition from nitro to electric. The first one was that I should have done this a LONG time ago. It was much smoother and controllable. Rather than having to blip the throttle to stay in the power band, it was more like using the gas pedal in a car. When I wanted the buggy to do something, I just issued the command. The torque is UNBELIEVABLE. There is one particular set of whoops that immediately follows a turn. It is a set of five and when the nitro guys usually run the track, they have to hit the turn just right to be able to clear the whoops. If you screw up sliding through the turn, you just have to suffer the whoops. With the brushless, all I had to do was take my time through the turn and just before the whoops, I hit the throttle and the buggy cleared them. We also have a jump that is about 3' high that is about 6 feet before a table top that is about 5' long right after an inclined 180 degree turn. Again it is critical for the nitro guys to drift the turn just right to have the momentum to make the jump to the table top. I was able to literally setup to right around 8' before the jump and hit it. Not only does it make the table top, but it clears it, landing on the opposite down slope.

At this point, I'm almost considering just getting a 16T pinion and running the setup on 3S. Or maybe going with an 8 or 9XL on 4S. The 7XL may be too much motor for our track.

All in all, I'm excited, my buddies are excited and I'm getting mixed opinions from the nitro guys. I'm already being told that the pit stop is mandatory. LOL. I'm figuring that if they say I have to pit, I'm going to do it on the end of the first lap, just to get it out of the way, then all I'll have to worry about is running the race. The owner of my LHS is bringing me his Turmoil for a conversion.

I'm hoping that my 8L will get here today, along with my plastic spur and pinions. If it does, I'm getting ready to do some parking lot racing this Thursday. That should be a hoot.

[neweuser]

hey, double post! hehehe

I have no idea how that happened.

[glassdoctor]

Sounds good AA... kinda what I have seen too. :)

I suggest you go to 4s no matter what.... you can get the same speed and power with less amps pumping through system. A lower kv motor to match of course if the 7XL is overkill on 4s.

Heat of summer and a tall geared 3s setup may not work as well....

good job.... get a few guys converted and you won't have to be the lone ranger.

I have to do the fake pit stop too... about a 3-5 second stop and go. In our last trophy race I probably would have won had I not stopped. I finished 2nd, just a couple seconds back. I was a couple seconds behind the leader near the end of the race when I "pitted" and two turns later he wrecked and thought I was going to pass him.

I think it's the fair thing to do.