2007 Post Season Test Race Recap
Fresh off of the completion
of our 14th season of racing, we at Classic Thunder set out to do a
little R&D at Coulon Park. We held a test race to stage further testing
that began earlier this year. We needed to gather more information before
making important decisions on possible additions to the rulebook for
specifications in both divisions of racing.
We had several ready and willing boats on hand from both classes, which
set the groundwork for what turned out to be a good test day. Battery Dave was on hand with a data logger
and laptop and Bill McGraw provided some numbers from his radar gun too. With all of that and a handy stopwatch, we
were able to collect some meaningful data.
Our first line of business
was to continue testing the Quannum 36-55 brushless
motor in Division 1. We began this
testing in Lacey earlier in the year in a post-race test heat and some solo
runs done by Jeff Howard with his two time champion 64 Budweiser. We put the motor in that boat because he had
driven it in competition for more years than most of the other boats and we
knew its performance to be top notch with the Astro
25. We had been testing other brushed
motors with it last year for the same reason.
Our other test bed was Mark Beatty’s Miss Timex, which began the season
running the Astro 25 and finished the season running
a Plettenberg motor.
Mark had run some solo testing on the Quannum
with his Checkerboard Bardahl over the last couple of
weeks and decided to put it in his main boat for this test. It helps to see boats we’ve been racing
against all year for a good comparison and the Timex was one of our top
performers. It’s good to do this while the performances are still fresh in our
minds from the season. Jeff ran an Octura 447 and Mark opted for a Graupner
45 for the day. The motor performed well
using both.
We purposely separated the
two test boats from each other in the heats but had everyone on the
stopwatch. We saw consistent times of
between 1:23 and 1:25 from both boats over 5 laps in two different heats. Comparably, we saw times from other top notch
boats running Astro 25’s included former champion
Miss Seattle (who ran a 1:22 and a 1:23) and current champion Slo-Mo IV (who ran 1:24 and a 1:23) over 5 laps. Mike Krone’s Miss
Seattle Too had elapsed times that were right in that range too. The results were consistent with what we saw
during the season for the most part too.
Basically we were able to further confirm what we already
suspected. With regards to performances
related to speed, the Quannum 36-55 is everything we
could have hoped for as a brushless addition to the brushed motors currently
allowed for Division 1. An added bonus was the information derived from using
the data logger in several of the brushed and brushless boats during the
day. As anticipated, the more efficient
brushless motor was drawing about 10 fewer amps to produce the same performance
as the Astro 25’s.
All other things remaining constant, you could feasibly put less strain
on your batteries using that setup and and possibly
extend their useful life. You certainly
would see longer run times across the board.
The other continued
experiment dealt with the power sources in Division 2. For months we’ve been reading about, studying
and asking questions about Lipo packs for boat racing
and what folks thought to be comparable to what we run now. Many clubs all over the country are dealing
with this dilemma in trying to accommodate those who want to run Nimh and those who want to bring Lipo
power into their rulebooks. We’ve seen
pros and cons to both options. It’s now
gotten to a point where more is known about Lipos,
their care and capabilities and the safety precautions you need to take in
order to use them wisely. We decided to
investigate the use of a 4s Lipo pack for Division 2
and compare it in performance to the 14 cells Nimh or
Nicad that are currently allowed. I spent a lot of time talking with many
racers at Nationals earlier this year and joined in the competition partially
to help showcase 1/10th scale racing, but also to see how my Nimh powered Trendwest would
perform head to head in competition against other boats running 4s Lipo packs. I also
spent a long time talking to some very technical guys from Puget Sound Fast
Electrics, who have dealt with the same issue in planning for their classes of
racing for the last couple of years. We
all agreed that there is no comparison between the performance of a boat using Lipo 4s power and the same boat using 12 cells of any sub-c
power source. Competition in the vintage
class of racing, which also allowed 4s Lipo for
Nationals confirmed that very soundly. A
12 cell pack obviously couldn’t compete, giving less voltage and more weight
than the 4s Lipo.
The consensus was that 14 cells would definitely be a better comparison
hands down. Competition in the Modern
class confirmed that too. That being
said, Pete Schille’s Boss Marine and my Trendwest ran 14 cells (mainly 3600’s and 4200’s) for part
of the day against some very fast 14 cell boats which included Mark’s Lite All-Star and a brand new Miss Exide 2-wing boat from
Mike Schultz among others. Visually you
couldn’t see any significant performance differences overall. Basically, the Trendwest
performed like it did during the 2007 season.
The only thing that I did notice while running the Lipo
4s pack was that it may have been slightly down on top end in the straights,
but it certainly made up for it getting in and out of the corners. Overall, the difference was subtle, if not
just my imagination. Those who witnessed
it, agreed that the performance change was
negligible.
I appreciate the guys coming
out to run their boats because it really gave us a good look. It’s important that we do our best to offer
comparable choices of motors and power sources.
The nominal voltage and the weight (not to mention chemistry) of the Lipo packs are very different than the 14 cell Nimh that we are used to, but they seem to match up very
well. The Quannum motor looks great for what we’re
trying to maintain in Division 1.
Immediately after the
conclusion of the Seahawks game and a good meal at Kidd Valley, the 5 executive
committee members met to go over ideas and issues including the test results
and what was learned during 2007. We’re
trying to get things settled and get information out to the club as soon as
possible for those planning and building for the 2008 season. Based on what we have learned, it was decided that the Quannum 36-55 brushless motor will also be allowed in
Division 1 along with any brushed motors for 2008. It was also decided that the 4s Lipo will be allowed to run in Division 2 along with 14
cell sub-c’s in 2008. We feel like these changes will provide
members with some good options to choose from without inherently gaining or
losing a significant advantage. I
imagine it will make things easier for new members and current members to plan
for the upcoming seasons. Undoubtedly we
will have to revisit the issue of power sources in years to come, but we think
this is a step in a good direction.
Thanks for everyone who helped in gathering information and aided in the
testing processes.
We’ll be having at least a
couple of sit down club meetings during the off-season to discuss annual club
elections, other rule changes, issues and ideas. The Execs will need input from the membership
on various things that have been brought up during the 2007 season and to get
new suggestions for consideration. That
will all start to happen after we’ve had our season banquet in October. We’ll talk some more then. Again, thanks for all of the cooperation and
help during the season and with the test race and everything else. This was a really fun season. We’ll be announcing the date and time for the
banquet very soon. I hope most if not
all of you will be able to be there.
It’ll be fun. Hope to see you
there.
Sincerely,
Mitch Dillard
Classic Thunder Commissioner