[rocketrob]

Originally Posted by Mad-Wolfie

well isn't that nice... as i said in my post, i've not been doing 12th for very long (about 6 months) so a bit of advice from newbie to newbie will probably be just as helpful as your 35 years in the sport.

However i'm sorry but i strongly disagree on one point, the best 12th set-up for any newcomer to 12th scale racing in my opinion would be to use a T-bar car, simply as they are a lot easier to drive. I was told this by people who race in the 12th nationals, the Chesterfield summer series & numerous other people that race at my local clubs who i've spoken to. I have driven a link car a couple of times & found it too "twitchy", so i have to agree with the advice i was initially given, advice which i'm now passing on myself.

A person who has done 12th for years has probably learned how to overcome this "twithy" characteristic but a relative newcomer to me won't have the knowhow yet.. in time i know i'll be able to overcome it so it's a case of running before they are able to walk. a T-bar car is a lot easier to learn with & easier to drive, granted "old pro's" will not notice so much the twitcy behaviour of the car, but a newcomer can & this thread is called "12th newbie questions" so as i say i'm answering based from my newly gained experiences.

Granted i know a link car is the way forward & once a driver has a link car dialed in it will be insanely quick compared to any t-bar car. Even so there is a T-bar conversion available for an R5 so it may be an idea to try at least until you get used to running 12th & have a few seasons of driving experience behind you & there must be some good reason why they have released a conversion kit to convert what is essentially a new technology car & reverse engineer it to run with the old technology.

As i also said though, if going LiPo the only option is to go for a link car. I know that sounds like a contradiction, but a T-bar car has been designed & engineered to run on cells so fitting LiPo is probably going to be a bit like putting pram wheels onto a ferrari & the reason a lot of drivers are going for link cars is simply because they can run 1S LiPo's & not upset the car too much.. again not my words, simply advice i'm passing on from some of the top drivers who i've spoken to.

Also saying "run 10.5 & LiPo" to a newbie is probably not the best advice. When i started out running what is a 2nd hand T-bar car, i decided i was going to go mad so decided to start by running this with a 21t brushed motor & 3300 NiMh's which i'd stripped from a couple of old 6-cell packs that had been left in a drawer & stuck with these at least until i got used to the quick handling of the car - even so i was still capable of running mid table at club meetings, i then felt i'd reached the limits of the 21t & switched to a 19t Checkpoint & 4500 cells, i wasn't lapping any quicker or finishing much higher up the table but i was crashing a lot quicker, i've now switched to Brushless (still on 4500 cells) & to be honest it's quite frightening, i think if i'd stuck a brushless & the 4500's into the car on Day one, on Day 2 the car would of probably been on eBay & i would washed my hands with 12th & stuck to racing tourers which kind of defeated the reason why i wanted to go 12th which was to try to improve my touring car driving skills & to be able to do some race series over the winter.

well said

As I also suggested earlier, if link cars were "IT" and there was no argument then the industry would have made the change over enmass 20 years ago when the first link car hit the market... (maybe the earlier poster with 35 years of experience was asleep back then, I dunno)