A day at the races,,,
With my Hot Shot rebuilt and ready to go I asked around the hobby shops what would be a good track to visit. There were a lot of Off-Road tracks popping up everywhere. There were outdoors tracks on private property, many times associated with an adjacent hobby shop. Some cities had even allowed R/C off-road courses to be set up in their parks! The track I heard about the most was located in Costa Mesa. It was an indoor track with a drivers stand, work tables with electrical power for charging and even had a parts shop on site. That sounded good! I grabbed my car, transmitter, battery pack and charger and headed for Costa Mesa.
The track was in an old warehouse. There might have been two separate tracks available to race on, I really don't remember. I think there was a two dollar fee to get in. I do remember that it was big. The track(s) had straightaways and lots of turns and jumps. This was going to be fun! I put my car on the track and took a place on the drivers stand. I was there during practice time so many different cars were using the track. This would be the first time I had actually driven my car other than that short test at my house. That park trip didn't count. I squeezed hard on the throttle trigger and my Hot Shot took off.
Those original Hot Shots didn't have an ESC (Electronic Speed Control) or brakes. They used a mechanical speed controller. It had 3 speeds forward and 2 in reverse. It did this by varying how much voltage got to the motor. A servo moved an arm across a board that would make contact on five different places on the board. Each of those locations would vary the the voltage by the use of resistors. It was very inefficient but that was what was available. Novak did come out during this time frame (1985) with the first ESC but they were expensive and had a heat sink built in that needed air movement to stay cool. The Hot Shot speed controller was inside that sealed radio tub. Some racers did use a Novak ESC, they would often mount it in the drivers position on the car and drill holes into the tub to connect it to the radio. But I didn't know about that yet. What I did learn quickly is that those resistors got very hot. The Hot Shots resistors (2) were unique in that they were mounted on the frame/roll bars inside finned aluminum canisters. They looked really cool but would burn your skin in a instant. Your transmitters throttle trigger was spring loaded to a center middle position. That was neutral or off. When you pulled it back a little the servo for the control board would move to the first contact on the board and your car would start moving ahead. The second position you go little faster, all the way to the back and you were at full throttle. If you let go of the throttle trigger it would return to the middle position cutting power and you would slow down. Pushing the throttle trigger forward a small amount and you would go in reverse at a slow rate, if you pushed it all the way forward you would be getting full reverse. Trying to drive at low speed was almost impossible as those first two forward positions were difficult to find and maintain. In reality you used full throttle most of the time and used reverse to brake. You would blip the throttle (quickly squeeze and let go of the throttle) to keep the speed down in turns. I didn't know about all that but was soon to learn.
Approaching that first turn at full speed I tried to slow down using the throttle. I entered that turn pretty fast and tried to brake by going into reverse. BIG MISTAKE!!! The car was starting to turn, then sliding sideways, then it started to flip over sideways. It must have flipped over 4 or 5 times. Tracks always had kids hanging around and the track let them work the corners. They would retrieve cars that went off the track or got stuck and put them back on the track. One of these kids got my Hot Shot, gave it a look, held it up and waved at the drivers stand. DAMN. He would have put it back on the track if it was drivable. Thoughts of my first solo airplane flight ran through my head. I waved and he started walking over to me.
When he got close he flipped the car over on its back and pointed to the front steering knuckle. He handed the car to me and I could see that the knuckle was broken apart. The dogbones that connect the differential to both front knuckles were in his hand. The were bent bad up near the ball head. Those dogbones were a weak link and I would in the future make sure to always have many replacements on hand. Since they had a parts shop I went in and showed the counter guy what was broke. He said he had just what I needed and pulled out a pair of aluminum front steering knuckles. He said these were brand new on the market and much stronger than the OEM knuckles. He said he had the stock Tamiya replacement knuckles also but they would just break again. Those aluminum knuckles weren't cheap but I remembered what "Mike" the guy that bought my KOMANDER had said "Quality Costs" so I bit the bullet and bought them and a pair of dogbones. My day at the track was over as I had not brought any tools to do repairs. That would not happen again! I packed up and headed home.
Going all in,,,
With my Hot Shot rebuilt and ready to go I asked around the hobby shops what would be a good track to visit. There were a lot of Off-Road tracks popping up everywhere. There were outdoors tracks on private property, many times associated with an adjacent hobby shop. Some cities had even allowed R/C off-road courses to be set up in their parks! The track I heard about the most was located in Costa Mesa. It was an indoor track with a drivers stand, work tables with electrical power for charging and even had a parts shop on site. That sounded good! I grabbed my car, transmitter, battery pack and charger and headed for Costa Mesa.
The track was in an old warehouse. There might have been two separate tracks available to race on, I really don't remember. I think there was a two dollar fee to get in. I do remember that it was big. The track(s) had straightaways and lots of turns and jumps. This was going to be fun! I put my car on the track and took a place on the drivers stand. I was there during practice time so many different cars were using the track. This would be the first time I had actually driven my car other than that short test at my house. That park trip didn't count. I squeezed hard on the throttle trigger and my Hot Shot took off.
Those original Hot Shots didn't have an ESC (Electronic Speed Control) or brakes. They used a mechanical speed controller. It had 3 speeds forward and 2 in reverse. It did this by varying how much voltage got to the motor. A servo moved an arm across a board that would make contact on five different places on the board. Each of those locations would vary the the voltage by the use of resistors. It was very inefficient but that was what was available. Novak did come out during this time frame (1985) with the first ESC but they were expensive and had a heat sink built in that needed air movement to stay cool. The Hot Shot speed controller was inside that sealed radio tub. Some racers did use a Novak ESC, they would often mount it in the drivers position on the car and drill holes into the tub to connect it to the radio. But I didn't know about that yet. What I did learn quickly is that those resistors got very hot. The Hot Shots resistors (2) were unique in that they were mounted on the frame/roll bars inside finned aluminum canisters. They looked really cool but would burn your skin in a instant. Your transmitters throttle trigger was spring loaded to a center middle position. That was neutral or off. When you pulled it back a little the servo for the control board would move to the first contact on the board and your car would start moving ahead. The second position you go little faster, all the way to the back and you were at full throttle. If you let go of the throttle trigger it would return to the middle position cutting power and you would slow down. Pushing the throttle trigger forward a small amount and you would go in reverse at a slow rate, if you pushed it all the way forward you would be getting full reverse. Trying to drive at low speed was almost impossible as those first two forward positions were difficult to find and maintain. In reality you used full throttle most of the time and used reverse to brake. You would blip the throttle (quickly squeeze and let go of the throttle) to keep the speed down in turns. I didn't know about all that but was soon to learn.
Approaching that first turn at full speed I tried to slow down using the throttle. I entered that turn pretty fast and tried to brake by going into reverse. BIG MISTAKE!!! The car was starting to turn, then sliding sideways, then it started to flip over sideways. It must have flipped over 4 or 5 times. Tracks always had kids hanging around and the track let them work the corners. They would retrieve cars that went off the track or got stuck and put them back on the track. One of these kids got my Hot Shot, gave it a look, held it up and waved at the drivers stand. DAMN. He would have put it back on the track if it was drivable. Thoughts of my first solo airplane flight ran through my head. I waved and he started walking over to me.
When he got close he flipped the car over on its back and pointed to the front steering knuckle. He handed the car to me and I could see that the knuckle was broken apart. The dogbones that connect the differential to both front knuckles were in his hand. The were bent bad up near the ball head. Those dogbones were a weak link and I would in the future make sure to always have many replacements on hand. Since they had a parts shop I went in and showed the counter guy what was broke. He said he had just what I needed and pulled out a pair of aluminum front steering knuckles. He said these were brand new on the market and much stronger than the OEM knuckles. He said he had the stock Tamiya replacement knuckles also but they would just break again. Those aluminum knuckles weren't cheap but I remembered what "Mike" the guy that bought my KOMANDER had said "Quality Costs" so I bit the bullet and bought them and a pair of dogbones. My day at the track was over as I had not brought any tools to do repairs. That would not happen again! I packed up and headed home.
Going all in,,,
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