F1 any good?

[samd]

Anyone got a f1?are they any good as im tempted with a F109 and would put my 10.5 in.
I had a look at them on sunday at don valley sheffield and they looked shite to be honest, kind of put me off, no grip, but otherwise they look good on videos. Is grip a problem with these? I would have thought they would have loads of grip like a pan/touring car. The cars at don valley ran rubber tyres by the way, no additive.

[Chequered Flag Racing]

from racechat

3 f1's turned out yesterday to Don Valley 2 f109's and a Hpi

we tried rubber tyres and foams , the foams seemed better than rubber but there was still no grip and the cars were virtually undriveable , anything more than 1/4 throttle with 27 turn brushed motor was useless as they just changed ends

we all had the same problems , I tried a softer main spring and less front camber but it made absolutely no difference

just to add we are not allowed to use any sort of addative's at don valley

you just need the right tyres for were you race

from a meeting at Tamworth 02/01/10

there were 3 heats of F1

they work on carpet


& Tarmac wet or dry

[DCM]

Originally Posted by samd

Anyone got a f1?are they any good as im tempted with a F109 and would put my 10.5 in.
I had a look at them on sunday at don valley sheffield and they looked shite to be honest, kind of put me off, no grip, but otherwise they look good on videos. Is grip a problem with these? I would have thought they would have loads of grip like a pan/touring car. The cars at don valley ran rubber tyres by the way, no additive.

10.5 would be a little hairy, unless you run 4cell or 1s.... I got an F109 coming, very cheap!!

[samd]

Wheres your f109 from dcm?, best ive found is £75 posted.
Going to get one ordered tonight - does anyone currently using a f109 have any recommendations on spares/tyres to get, i assume its kit foams on carpet, rubber on tarmac? (both with additive?)

[samd]

Oh and thanks for putting the vids up CFRacing!

[Chequered Flag Racing]

post on rcracechat complied by Dez Chand, editor of RRCI magazine

Tamworth F1 Feedback
Thanks to all 30 drivers who returned the forms asking for feedback on F1 Racing, here are some collated highlights!

Overall 98% wanted an F1 class with no motor limit, only one that thought a restriction on tyre compound choice was worth investigating, while quite a few thought wheel diameter and track width should be limited, particularly to exclude GT based cars. Oh and I had these forms back prompt, before Qualifying had kicked off in most cases.

One guy (Jason Petch - F104 Tamiya) tried rubber tyres to overcome the grip roll in the high grip conditions, they took three laps to warm up then started grip rolling even worse.

There were :-
2 HPI F10 both on foams,
6 Tamiya F104 on foams,
2 custom Hybrids based on GT wheels and/or suspension components.
Over half the entry was running a 3Racing F109.
It was an F109 that set Pole Position on kit tyres, kit chassis, everything.
Well Done Craig Nutting! Running a 10.5 motor on 2S LiPo and driving very carefully with most of the settings turned right down!

Brushless motors being used ranged from :-
17.5, 15.5, 13.5 (10 of them!) 10.5 (3 of them) and even a 6.5 (but only on 4 cell NiMh)
Brushed motors (12 of them,) ranged from a G2 Mardave (that made the A Final!), to 27T 19T and 13T.

All F1 cars were on 2S LiPo or 6 cell NiMh apart from one, Leigh Burton running his 4 cell 6.5 brushless in a custom Corally/HPI/Associated/Fibre-lite hybrid on GT10 wheels. It was the fastest thing there by far, and probably the only car I didn't see grip roll once!!

Bearing in mind three full heats had sifted the best 10 cars into the A Final, if you take the A Final as an example of the spread, it had:-
2 Tamiya F104's (2nd and 9th)
2 Customs (1st and 5th)
6 F109's filling all other places.

In ascending order there were brushless motors:-
17.5 (Finished 3rd),
15.5 (Finished 4th),
13.5 (Finished 2nd),
10.5 (3 of, highest in 5th place)
and the 6.5 (Finished 1st, on 4 cell)

plus brushed motors 23T,19T and a Mardave G2.

The mix of equipment was stunning, what a mishmash! What did become apparent was that avoiding accidents was the key to success, and having the speed to overtake on the straight meant taking less risks in the infield.

So you might think, "faster motors are better, lets all rush into a power war", But that wouldn't work if everyone was on a fast motor! You'd all be fast on the straights, so there would be no advantage.

I refused to be drawn into a power war, I had a 13.5 and 10.5 motor with me, but stuck to my guns with the 17.5 and qualified 4th and finished 3rd in the A Final, what does that tell you?

“Ultimate Power Corrupts” Perhaps. It certainly makes you crash faster, and harder, and more often.

[telboy]

F1's are ACE!!!

I ran at Tamworth with a 10.5 and 2s lipo, it was fine.

Don Valley is a completely different ball game. Not raced F1 there, but the surface is like a rubber running surface, hence the 'no addative' rule, and it is very dusty and cold so grip takes a while to come up...even with a touring car. So with an F1 weighing only 1.1kg, it will be difficult to get any grip.

But carpet and outdoors, they are fantastic.

Well worth £75!!!!!!

[samd]

Im ordering one!
What tyres are people using indoors/outdoors/wet , compounds?
Ive had a look and im guessing the kit foams are the 3racing soft rears and medium fronts available separately???
Thanks for all the info guys

[samd]

What gearing were you using with the 10,5 telboy?

[qatmix]

yup, F1's are ace. They look good, are fun to drive and its not costly. The F109 is a top car for the cash. If you check my blog (in my sig) there is a build thread for the F109. And some tips etc

[terry.sc]

Originally Posted by samd

I had a look at them on sunday at don valley sheffield and they looked shite to be honest, kind of put me off, no grip,

it would put you off. Tyre choice was purely experimental, and none of the usual tyres used on normal race surfaces worked. At Tamworths carpet we had the opposite problem, keeping them from grip rolling, and at Bedworth they get just as much grip in the wet!

As long as you race on what everyone else runs on (carpet or asphalt!) and avoids Don Valley until someone works out what tyres work there.

Originally Posted by samd

Im ordering one!
What tyres are people using indoors/outdoors/wet , compounds?
Ive had a look and im guessing the kit foams are the 3racing soft rears and medium fronts available separately???
Thanks for all the info guys

Most people are using the kit tyres for indoor/outdoor dry conditions with their favourite choice of tyre additive - mine is CS-Grip. I struggled all day at Tamworth with the kit tyres that others were using happily, handling on mine was sorted for the final by changing to Zen 30 shore rears and 38 shore front foams. For wet weather the Superion tyres (sold by Cross and TRG) are really grippy, but you need to keep them clean - between races they are washed and wrapped in cling film until the next rainy meeting.

Gearing is still a bit of a guess, Dez Chand was running a 17.5 and at the start he was relatively slow down the straight at Tamworth, and kept on fitting bigger and bigger pinions with more speed but no less acceleration. I was running a 13T brushless in mine with a gear ratio of 3.94:1 with 56mm diameter tyres. The TX throttle was limited to 70% with plenty of expo to make it controllable and it's still as fast as the others in a straight line - speed isn't a problem with the F1s.

[DCM]

is the F109 .4module or 64dp? Also, what sizes would you recomend?

[telboy]

F109 is 64dp.

I ran the 10.5 on 48mmpr and it was coming off luke warm and the speedo cold.

Used kit tyres on Duo carpet at Tamworth withfull addative rear, and about 4mm on the inside front.
Grip roll was a problem after 3 rounds, if I was only running on carpet, I would have run some superglue round the wall of the front tyres. But seeing as I'm running them outdoors too, I decided to just try and drive round it.

I also ran the rear side damper a lot thicker than most. others we using 100wt oil in it with 1 hole piston, but I felt that it was still too loose, so I put 5000 diff oil in, and it felt more like a t-bar rear end.

Apparently the Tamiya type A rubber tyres work at DV.

[boultspeed]

mine was one of the cars at don valley , we had no practice time and only 3 heats so didnt really get to try much but they were awfull

started on trg superion tyres , tamiya 104 tyres and kit foams the foams were best bust still like driving on ice

very cold all day though we were struggling with tc tyres not holding temperature so this didnt help

Robin from Hpi tried their soft rubber and foam and he came up with the same conclusions as anything more than 1/4 throttle even on the straight the car swapped ends

gonna try and go on friday night to club night and try some other set ups