Stu Wood is member of 'teamOOPLE' and along side the review Tamiya 501X which he is piloting in the UK National series, Stu has also taken on the new Ultima RB5 review car, and will be piloting it alongside the 501X as his chosen 2WD buggy.
For those who don't know, Stu is one of the top drivers in the UK, having previously won a National and is a regular National A-Finalist. Stu loves to push cars to the limits and is willing to spend the time to make a car work. For this reason it was always clear that Stu would be the ideal driver for the review - and working together we hope to produce a long term review of the Ultima RB5, Setups and any tips we learn through the season. - Jimmy
Stu:
RB5 First test at Tiverton National.
We received the car only on the Thursday afternoon and since we were setting off for the National the following day me and Jimmy stayed up till 2am to finish the build. 
I got up early on Friday so I could at least put a pack of batteries through the car before racing it for the first time. |
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I went to my local track (Bury Metro) and it was a fine dry day. I didn’t even have the body shell yet (still being painted!) so I was running without it or the wing. It felt very fast out of the corners and had a lot of grip on the astro turf. It wasn’t going over our new jumps very well without the body shell & wing so I decided to stop before it broke - remebering I had no spares what so ever and a UK National race the next day. So I went home and started packing to set off.
Saturday morning we got there a little late and my batteries had not charged so I had to practice with John Price's B4 and stick transmitter (I usually use an Airtronics M8 steerwheel) - but at least it was useful to learn the track.
For second practice I finally managed to get a run with the RB5, it was NOT set up very well.
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I set the car up during the build how I thought it might be best for Tiverton - obviously I had no previous experience with this car. The suspension was too hard for the conditions and the pistons / oil I'd used were just not right. The car didn't want to turn-in, and the rear end would not roll.
Round 1, got to the start line and my car with the Brand new brushless system in would not work, so I missed round 1.
Round 2, I only changed the ESC and motor back to brushed and I did change the shock angles to try and get it to roll a little more. I also had changed the springs to softer ones as I am using AE springs as I have no spares as yet. I went to (AE) brown on the front and green on the rear. Which I hoped would make the car roll a little more, giving more grip.
27th in Round -
10/ 330.94
Round 3, I changed wheel base to a longer setting (medium - from the short I had started with) so the rear end would come round a little better, changed the inner rear camber ball stud to a higher setting which should also make the rear pivot more but this was still not quick. I got 13th in round, 7 seconds behind TQ.
13th in round - 10/ 320.73
Round 4, I changed wheel base to long, the outer ball stud to a higher setting which does the same as lowering the inner ball stud and stood the front shocks right up to try and get more grip from the front but this still was not on the pace. 25th
25th in round - 10/ 326.55
At this time I was not in a great mood as I had high expectations for this first outing.
I tend not to look at the results all day so I can keep focused on driving smooth and not worrying about having to make 2 good rounds (best two to count in round by round). When I went to find out what final I had ended up in I was quite surprised as I'd ended up 3rd in the C main. I was not expecting that, as I thought it was going worse!
  
C Main: I changed the pistons in the rear to the biggest holes to try and make the rear suspension move going round corners. Lowered the inner rear ball stud on the camber link which is meant to give more grip. I also trimmed the rear wing down to try and give more steering under power and this was the best the car was all day. I won the final and I was very pleased with how it drove. If the day was on FTD and not round by round the time in the final would of put me middle of the A’main.
All in all, it was NOT like the B4 I have driven for a good 3 or 4 years now but I think with time it will keep up with it / if not beat it sometimes. I did find it has a lot of rear end grip and it does take the bumps well. It jumps nice and flat and it is  easy to work on. The quality is also very good and just to let you all know there is not a positive screw in sight. They are all hex screws (a lot nicer to wrench on in the pits).
RB5 at Southport 29th April 2007.
It was a very nice sunny and dry day from the word go. I started practice with half-worn Schumacher yellow mini spikes (THE choice on so many UK tracks) on just to try. I had AE blue springs on with 2b pistons and 25 wt oil in the front. I had Kyosho silvers and 2a pistons with 25wt oil in the rear.
I had the front camber link on the inner point of the outer position and the middle on the inner position. I had no washers under the inner ball stud at the front. The rear was on the inner of the outer position and the middle on the inner with 1 washer under the ball stud. I had it on long wheel base and the rear wing with 2 segments on.
The RB5 was not so good in practice, but I had all day to try things out at least. |
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Round 1.
For this round I changed the shock position on the front from middle at the top to outer and this is meant to give a little more front end but it wasn’t much better. I did manage to get the car air borne and come down on the rear shock tower on a concrete corner and it obviously broke(find pic in report ).
Thanks to Colin Evan who had just bought an RB5 the day before but was not racing it, we managed to borrow his rear shock tower and carry on. The break wasn’t really anything to do with the car, it was just a very hard crash onto concrete - a bad mistake.
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Round 2.
For this round I changed the front shock position again from the outer hole at the bottom to the inner hole - I was still trying to get the front end steering under power. This was still not good enough but I did manage to finish.
Round 3.
I put a new set of yellow mini spike on, changed the front top shock position to the middle, went up 5 wt in oil and this was starting to make the car a little more responsive, but still not on pace. |
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Round 4.
For this one I did something I don’t normally do and it was to change a lot of things at once. I went up to 40wt oil in the front and changed the front camber link to long on the outer position which is meant give the tyre more weight on the wheel - so more grip. I also went to a shorter link on the rear to try and get rid of some of the MEGA grip from the rear. I also wound down the rear shock ball end to give a little more droop, changed the front springs to Losi greens (which u do have to cut down 2 coils to fit ), and Losi reds on the rear.
I have been struggling with trying to get the car to pivot round the corners and in this round it was like a different car. Yes it was still slightly on-power under-steering but not as much as it was previously. This put me in 4th place on the grid for the A main behind Tricky (home track), Danny Magoo ( spent a lot of time down here ) and Stu Mahon ( very quick round here ). I was very happy being behind these guys as they are 2 Losi A’Team drivers and a best friend to 1.
A Main.
For the final all I did was add an extra washer under the rear inner ball stud on the camber link which is meant to take grip off the back. It didn’t start off very well due to some drivers cutting corners at there home track and then kindle took me out. I was then trying to keep it smooth because anything can happen in 5 minutes and it did. The car was almost some where there. It was the best its been so far. It was still slightly power under-steering but it was on the pace at last. In the end everybody else kept crashing and I kept it on its wheels and finished up second behind Tricky. I'm very happy with the result and really happy with the car now it's heading in the right direction and we have got a good base to start from. |
 
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