350Z Donuts
 

Hey guys, I just got the 350Z and a booster 4 ch. controller, a 2.6 motor, and #2 strut. Man, the thing is fast the problem is I just keep doing donuts..... I tried the soft tires ( the knobby grey bit-racer ones)...still donuts....any suggestions...or do I just try to work with it?

You just need practice. Also, what kind of surface are you running on?

Hey thanks for the reply, i'm just running on the kitchen floor

First, the knobby gray bit racer tires aren't too soft. Get the real bit char-g tire set if you want softer tires. You can also gently scuff the gray ones, which will help a little. Make sure to clean the tires every so often.. dust and debris sticking to them will decrease traction.

Second, your problem is not always solved by more traction. When the car is going really fast you don't want it trying to turn at the same radius as when it's going slow or it'll spin or even flip. This is where proportional steering would come in handy. I use the really soft and squishy black tires that came with my Microsizer on the back, and knobby gray tires on the front.. but mine is going slower than yours (2.2 motor). Experiment with different combinations of tires on the front; you want them to have some traction, but enough "slip" to let the front end slide a little and make a wider turn at high speeds. The back end needs enough traction to stay firmly in place unless you're trying to do drifting. You just have to figure out if you're needing more or less traction on the front.

That's all the advice I can offer :) BTW I always run on a kitchen floor too, but I bet the same concepts would work on other surfaces with different tire combos.

Hey thanks for the reply......would using different gearing give me better control?what about suspension? i've got the #2 strut on right now.

softer stablizers mean less tration for stearing which=less donuts.:bss: :bss:

i guess i was wrong, i thought the softer stabilizers gave more traction......i guess i'll play around with the suspension too...anyone use the springs from QFM?

thanks for the reply Cowfish

springs seem like a good idea and they look neat but i dont think they really improve anything.

They totally improve the performance. They give it independant sus. Which makes the car faster. Without the springs, it's just a teeter totter effect


silla

You might want to try and dust the kitchen floor off. My Castrol Supra Booster Bit with a b38 bc12m :bs: bg986 Handles like crap when the floor is dusty. When the floor is clean however the car handles great. Hope this helps ;)

try running on particle board or some kind of wood that's not laminated. I get excellent grip on particle board, it is litterally impossible for my car to donut unless i use a drift axle or take off the tires. the car hardly slips on particle board so i recommend that if you plan on using a racing track or surface.

wow guys thanks for all the info......i think i'll try all of them.......I had a question, how is the acceleration with the b30 and bg12 , compaed to b26 and bg986?

If you divide 12 by 30000 you get: .0004 If you divide 9.6 by 26000, you get: .0003. This number is how many times the axle will rotate for every revolution of the motor. The higher the number, the faster the acceleration. Gearing down a motor, higher gear ratio, will give you longer run times, better acceleration, but at a slower top speed.

wow, hey thanks for the formula and the reply......do you have any resolutions for donuts? using springs? harder front softer rear tires? cleaning kitchen floor? running on particle board?

I just re-read my post. The formula I gave earlier was not correct. The formula should read 30000 divided by 12=2500, this number is how many times the axle will spin per minute. If you divide 26000 by 9.6, you get 2708. So if you went with the 2.6 motor, your car will actually have slower acceleration but a higher top speed. Sorry for the earlier confusion, it was late last night.

cleaning kitchen floor and the particle board go hand in hand. It's all about racing surface. A clean kicthen floor will have excellent grip but eventually it will get dusty. Particle board isn't affected much by dust unless you have huge amounts of it. You can also try clean glass and clean tires too, excellent grip until you get specs of dust on it, but it's fun either way.

hey guys I figured out what helps, soft struts, with softer tires in front and harder tires in back....i get a more controlled "skid".....i was wondering if soft springs in addition to the soft struts (or w/out the struts) would help?

it also might be driving style - it's easy to have a "lead foot" with micro r/c. my car is super slippery, so when doing turns i instantly lay off the gas then floor it again. this helps me do a "crab walk" instead of ending up in a donut.

Putting a softer suspension up front will increase front grip. You are having an oversteer problem. Using this setup will make it worse. Perhaps you just got used to driving the car properly. Also, if you have the wheels turned, and go forward, the front wheels will grab and the rear end will kick out. Make sure that the front wheels are pointed straight ahead before you accelerate. I knew Gran Tourismo would be useful one of these days. :D

ok...now i'm a little confused....don't i want grip up front?..if both tires have "less" grip, won't the turns be wide? when i used the stiffer struts all i did was donuts, when ever i turned it would instantly donut...even if i released the forward button...........

Ok, here comes NASCAR wisdom. I verified it from 1/10 dirt oval racing though. If the car is loose, ie. spins out, you need to reduce grip in the front. If the car is tight, ie. making really wide turns, you need to increase grip in the front. It's really a balance between front and rear grip. Since there is no suspension in the rear, most mods need to be done in the front. A softer bar in the front will give more front traction in the turns, as will softer front tires. Look at it this way, it would be hard for the rear end to slide past the front end if the rear tires had more grip than the front. It's a case of which end is going to "give it up" first. Using stock rear tires on my 350Z, and stock on the front, would cause the car to make violent turns. The front had so much grip that it would just whip it around. I didn't change the suspension bar, but I did put harder tires in the front. The front slides just enough now to stop the back end from swinging around. I hope this helps, its made mine much easier to drive. BTW, I'm running on an oval with 9" radius turns. I still have plenty of steering to make the turns.b2spd

Hey keith, all you did was use harder tires in front?......do you have a b22 ? i got a b26 ...what is your whole set up?

usagi20,
I have a 2.2 that came with the car. I've also tried the NOS and TURBO motors from the ZZ's. I've had the best luck running the standard 1.6 from the ZZ's. Great balance between speed and torque. For all out running with the 2 speed, I love the NOS motor. It also gets better runtime. The ZZ motors require less ampreage to run, giving better battery life. And yes, all I did was change the front tires. The ones I'm using came off the front of a Nakamichi N Racer. I think they're made out of vinyl, they're so slick. Hope that helps:D

go to my thread about rear suspension...
 

hey. i just noticed that you mentioned that the back end has no suspension, not any more. go to my thread about 'independant rear swivel suspension' this solved any dounut making. just a thought. later