Test Run: 1

I learned alot! here's a list:

· STEERING SYSTEM: The steering system worked very well. The low attack on the servo horn combined with the reduction of the Ackerman difference proved to be very effective! It would be very helpful to lengthen the wheelbase even more and make the front differential tighter still. The car did not under-steer at all. This would be a nice feature, considering I know all of this just from trying to go in a straight line! On gas, off gas, or neutral, no under-steer, just a ~100Mph rolling cannon ball. This is a surprisingly bad trait for a 1/10 scale touring car that weighs nearly 3 times as much as its competitors! Also, because of the “4 wheel drive-Drive Shaft” design of the car, the two motors (to the left and right of the spur gear on the drive shaft) created a slight phenomenon at high speeds. The motors themselves turned in the same direction (counter-clockwise from rear of car), making the car veer to the left at super high speeds. On the next build I might try to place a centrifugal weight on the drive shaft to counter this problem. Needless to say, after testing (5 minutes), the car ended up in shambles. Although this was a very educational first test, it was still more like watching a drunken torpedo. As far as steering goes, all that needs to be replaced is the servo, whose circuit board shattered in the crash.

· DRIVETRAIN: I don't know how fast this car could be! Anything over half throttle and the tires turned to carbon, while the car was sent tumbling. The motors will need even larger pinion gears, as they are already a quarter the diameter of the spur gear now. The dual-motor mount I had milled worked better then expected, and all of the power-transmission gears held up fine (with the exception of the differential balls, which look more like dice now). Major kudos to MRC for a rock solid car at a super price! The motors held up better then I expected. The comms were scorched but the winds still have all of their insulation, so they will need to be machined. Also, the tabs were ripped on the left motor. This could have been worse, but the transponder mount I left on for some reason saved it! As for the cans, my neo-mags never dislodged or cracked from the heat. All of this new information tells me I can afford to step up my measly 14.4 volts per motor up +-2.4 volts, since I only get one run at a time anyway. The tires were destroyed. I tested the car on a partially built portion of my city's beltway, and the high-bite, corrugated concrete was probably the best traction I will ever get with the distances I need. At 120mph, a ¼ mile goes by in 7 seconds. Plus, I need more room simply to get the car up to speed. This test was performed on less than a quarter of a mile, and the ALX-1 definitely will need MUCH more space.

· SUSPENSION: Hard in the front, hard in the back. I needed the quickest recovery time possible in the rear and as much under-steer as possible in the front. As far as spring tension goes, I needed very firm springs all around just to keep the car 4mm off of the ground. This ultimately led to a partially broken CVD and a shattered rear shock tower.

· ELECTRONICS: I've had a bad history of wiring techniques. Some years ago, I grounded a Basic-Stamp (www.parallaxinc.com) to the motor of an RC-car, in an attempt to make a self-navigating vehicle. The device worked fine until it was time to go backwards (reversed polarity) and my motherboard caught fire. This time, there was much more at stake and at a higher voltage. So, there was no room for any “Duh!” mistakes. I could not have been more satisfied with the electronics. There was the initial fear that sharing a ground (the duel motor-mount) would either run reverse current through one of the speed controllers, or just screw-up the pulse timing to the motors all together (remember there are two speed-controllers). This was not the case at all! Both motors were just as smooth as they could possibly be. The communication to the ALX-1 was OK. I had a few jitters but, for the most part, it did well. Forget anything except FM or PCM and I believe that the 5-volt regulator I installed helped in some small amount. During testing, the antenna was torn and my splitter/regulator device's heat sink was bent. These will have to be tended to also. For the full damage report, I lost 12 batteries. Any “less then perfect soldering job” was melted due to heat from the increased resistance. Any thing that was taped, as opposed to fixed with nylon-wire ties, was lost and some of the silicone wires lost some insulation.

· CHASSIS: Lots of road rash! I needed to make the car as low to the ground as possible because of its “already too high” center of gravity. At 4mm off the ground, the car caught lots of rocks. This ended up being a carbon fiber massacre! Nothing broke, but there was a lot of unweaving going on. I will need to machine and glue all of the edges before the next test.

· BODY/FARING: Lexan is unbelievable stuff! Marred and scuffed but no tears. I would like more downforce for the next test to improve traction. If this cannot be accomplished with the current body, I'll end up riveting another body of the same style underneath the car for stability, and then add a larger rear wing.

· NEXT TEST RUN: At the end of the day, there is no way to control a 120MPH+ car. So, the next test will be with 1500+ feet of small steel cable run through a copper pipe that I will bind to the car somehow. Switches will measure the speed at different intervals along the cable. The cable will keep the car in a straight line, while giving me an average speed at the same time. The radar I used did not like the motors. I don't believe it gave me accurate numbers, though the car had to be going over 100. Because the runs are so short, I think I'm going to use 2000mah batteries as opposed to 2400mah. The cell walls are thicker and I don't like buying expensive batteries every time I drive the car.