Although it started life as an RPS SE I had returned it to stock 834B specs for the event with the twin-monoshock suspension setup too.
I had a blast with the car but it was far from competitive. The stock wheels/tires combined with the monoshock suspension just couldn't handle the rutted track very well. For the upcoming event in December I wanted to go back to a dual-shock rear setup. So here's the car back in RPS trim.
Basher shell
With the rear independent suspension and the larger, more "modern" 2-inch wheels and tires the car was certainly transformed! It's still no TRF511, but it did much much better. Rough track handling was improved and the car was a lot more settled. There were some wierd steering characteristics but I attribute that to the limited steering throw (leading to a lack of steering) and the front one-way-bearing design (leading to the occasional breaking of rear traction resulting in too much "steering").
I did have problems with the king-pins though. The design of the car uses grub screws in the knuckles to hold the kingpins but because the kingpins are totally cylindrical there really isn't much for the grub screws to hold onto. Coupled with the soft plastic the knuckles are made of, this resulted in the kingpins coming undone easily.
Solution? I machined new kingpins with notches on the surface for a firmer hold. This way, the grub screw doesn't need to tighten all the way down to secure the kingpin, the notch will hold it in... that's the idea anyway.
Here's a pic of the new kingpins (I know... not much to see till I take pics of the pins removed) but they should work well and will be tested soon.
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