Wreck it Sideways

European Championship 2012…….Months of preparation…….Checking everything for the third, fourth and fifth time and doing it all over again….Buying enough spares to cover my worst fear.

read more after the jump

The event started, entering the arena, unpacked and drove the Eagle around for a couple of laps. It felt solid, little minor adjustments to the damper setup and I was sure it could only be my own nerves..

There came that  moment, that one particular moment you’ve been living up to the past few months. That one moment you need to give it all and hope for the best. The BATTLES

My whole family came by to watch, and even some friends. Little Ryan sitting in his buggy watching his dad in action…

Everything looked fine but then suddenly my car acts weird. It seems to have a problem with a pulley, cannot drive straight anymore….Pulled the car over and checked it. Center one way broke down. Rushed towards the pit to try sort things out but in the back of my mind I know five minutes of penalty time wouldn’t be enough… Trying to relax but my fingers can’t. Friends try to help but it all has no use…..Game OVER……………

It was very quiet in my hobby corner for a few weeks. Normally I sit there every evening.

Instead I was watching television, thinking it over, reliving the moment again. WHY??

Decided to let go of the Eagle I liked so much, and search for a new solid chassis. A few brands crossed my mind. Yokomo DRB/ DIB, ARD CERD, even a new TA06. But I decided to NOT go with the flow this time and go for something completly new. I bought me an Enroute. D-Expert convinced me into buying the Red Limited edition since it is a newer edition and on top of all a limited edition!

In this review I like to give you a full report about this chassis and it’s con”s and pro’s

Well enough talk, lets get to the facts!

First of all, it was delivered nicely in a box that also includes a carrying bag, Sort of a dust protector I presume. The chassis was partly build. I reassembled the whole thing and started to glue the carbon sides right away. Also I sticked a  protector to the bottom of the underdeck.

 

All aluminium parts fit thightly to each other, something I didn’t notice for a long time on my former chassis. The differentials are build in the exact width of the distance of the bulkheads so there is  minimum play. Also the details on the parts are very nice as you can see in the picture below.

 

The dampers that are included were rebuild with thinner oil and Vertex progressive springs. I used the softest springs in the back and the medium soft springs in the front. the oil in the back is a little bit thicker than the front. This because the rear has to compensate the weight of the battery. All springs are mounted in the same way. Cause these are just minor adjustments when you are testing on track.

The chassis comes standard with 60% overdrive. The red aluminium pulleys look really nice. Unfortunatley I wanted to start with a lower overdrive. I stopped at 40% with the Eagle and I wanted to pick that up again with this one. Not a good choice because when using a 40Tfront diff pulley and a 16T centerpulley you need a 80T belt. After spending a few moments on the internet I came to find that only Tetsujin sells these particular belts. Ordered one right away though, and these came within 4 days.

The total build took me two days, I didn’t want to rush anything.

Further on with electronics. I started to rewire the Hobbywing Extremestock first. My zippy batteries couldn’t cope with the turbo and boost anymore, so they had to leave for a brand new set of Nano tech Lipo’s. Offcourse, to make things easier, Hobbyking changed the + and – on their batteries……so I needed to resolder my esc also.

And at last I was ready for testing this chassis!

Having the Enroute tested on a day on ERCE Eindhoven it seemed pretty solid, some minor adjustments to the dampersetup and ride height made me look like I could handle  things again. Some extra droop made me handle high speed transitions like it was the easiest thing to do.

At the end of the practiceday I had to lock some bolts though, but with the right thread locker this problem was fixed in a sec.

Service at D-Expert is high, so give those guys a change, they won’t let you down!

Finally my current setup:
Make: Enroute
Model: JXR V2

Date: 13-10-12
Track surface: concrete
Tire: R2 Hobbies Fake T-drifts
Motor & ESC: Speedpassion 10.5T MMM & HW Xtremestock 60A
Servo: Savox 1251mg

Front
Camber: -5 dgr.
Toe: out 0 dgr.
Kick up: 0mm
Caster hubs: 8 dgr.
Ride height: 9 mm
Droop: 5 mm
Springs: Vertex Progressive
Bumper weight: none
Sway-Bar: no sway-bar
Shock Oil: Yokomo #150
Rear
Camber: -2 dgr.
Toe: in 3.5 dgr.
Kick-up: 0 mm
Ride height: 9 mm
Droop: 10 mm
Springs: Vertex Progressive
Sway-Bar: no sway-bar
Shock Oil: Yokomo #250

Drive Train
Gearing: front 37T x 16T / rear 30T x 21T (60%)
Front: Front one way
Center: Solid
Rear: Spool
Spur: 80T 48 DP
Pinion: 23T 48DP

Wheel Offset
Front: 6mm
Rear: 6mm