HumboldtEF's RWD Drifter (Kenmari MST RMX 2.0)

[Shinchu]

Toe out helps in front for initial turn in.
Toe in out back helps stability while sideways.
Just be sure not to overdo either.
Same with camber. Most 1:1 drifterss like a bunch of caster, but that's just so the car kinda self steers when you start the slide.
There are some setup pointer vids on youtube I will put links here in a bit.

But I would stick with softer springs up front for better weight transfer. Then again, soft out back is good too for traction during the drift.

Not as easy as lil bowow makes it sound huh? Lol

[Shinchu]

Here is a good vid if you havent seen it...
https://youtu.be/IY8NndcG9fM
Warning: this guy must have had way too much coffee/sugar/crack???
But if youre in the right mood its funny.
Also found in his vids he goes drifting with mod19rc... Yes they guy on the other forums who makes the perfect 3d printed blazer cab parts.
I digress... Blustar4u is a bit... Animated. But his content is solid and helpful.
Enjoy!

[HumboldtEF]

Thanks for the link, I think I watched that back when I was researching which rig to get. I watched a few of his new videos too and I noticed very smooth steering like they dont use a gyro which makes me want to try it without it. Its just like driving with 2 people in control, the gyro can be fine tuned but I've just never found a predictable setup.

Well you spurred me into action Chris! I made a front bumper of sorts, it hides behind the body and follows the contour off the front lip, its just set back a hair behind the body. I made it out of .080 Styrene.





I also toned down the toe out up front



As well as reducing the Front Camber a bit



I also softened the preload in the front a little and a bit more in the rear. I know modern drift cars tend to squat down and be on the softer side to produce grip.

I'm still not feeling in control so next run I will take the Gyro out of the equation to see if I'm more comfortable without it yet.

[Shinchu]

NICE!
great work on the bumper that's awesome.

no gyro? you have a really fast servo? gonna need it! another thing i notice is that people run front tires that are convex contact pach so that way no matter what camber or caster they have, the contact patch doesn't change. also they run skinnier front wheels/tires to clear suspension at full lock. i know that's not easy with the vintage look you are going for, but it seems to help performance.
actually, i have often wondered why people run the hard drift tires up front on a RWD chassis. you would think a standard rubber grip tire would be best? something i want to experiment with when i get mine.

[HumboldtEF]

Thanks!

I have another set of tires that are the modern stretched stance nation looking ones, not my favorite at all looks wise but I figured there was a reason they're standard on all new drift cars. The Vintage HPI tires I'm using might be utter crap for all I know.
I've also wondered what sticky tires (or at least not hard plastic) would be like, maybe a set of VTA tires?

I ran the Kenmari yesterday with the Gyro unhooked and I was pretty crap at driving it but halfway through my run I realized I had set the steering travel a bit short so I wasn't getting crazy angle, somewhere around 45 degrees . So I reset the travel to take advantage of all the angle I could get (which is still being limited by using the wide vintage tires) and all of a sudden I started to catch the big angle drifts that I couldn't before, executing it fully is a different story. Now I'm still driving like utter crap but at least now instead of always spinning out I'm starting to get the hang of catching the slide.

Having some protection up front is also great, I can now drive a lot harder without being as worried about damage.

EDIT: I guess another hurdle I run into is finding a good source for drift parts, I'm all set for good sources of crawler parts but with drift stuff I'm still pretty lost

[Shinchu]

Rcmart is one. I tried starting a drift resources thread it it fell flat.
I think most drifters use ebay?

[troutshark]

I'm trying to get some new friends into drifting after moving so I was researching the new RMX and saw your thread. Finding good drifting info on the internet isn't near as easy as crawlers. Driftmission's forums are fairly helpful. I've spent many years drifting random garage floors and teaching my buddies to drift with MST cars so here is my 2 cents. Hope it helps.

For MST drift car parts, blackstarhobbies is a good US based source. They carry about every MST hop up available.

I've always garage drifted and uneven surfaces can be a bitch to find the right setup for. I'd drift fine over most of the course then spinout for no particular reason in others. Really good tires almost made it worse. For getting the hang of everything at first and to make tuning easier I found a hard all around tire like Raikou tires made everything easier. I use them for teaching others to drift as they seem to always perform the same on pretty much any surface and last forever. They are the TSLs of the drift world. They tend to run a bit big though so the cheap mounting o-rings they sell are handy. The 30 or 45 compounds are my favorites. I can drift my wraith pretty well with a set of s45 raikous on it.

Another thing I do is add a pretty decent amount of weight on all four corners of the car. Cheap stick on weights work well and help with keeping the car predictable. Shoot for a 50/50 weight balance at first. It helps a lot with the frustrating random spinouts on rough surfaces.

[troutshark]

Dang I got to talking about drifting garage floors and forgot the point to my earlier post. Old age I guess.

For a classic vintage tire look that drifts well, the scale dynamic wheels are pretty cool if you can find them. They emulate a smaller 16" wheel size by adding a ring that blends in with the tire. Makes a fat tire look even fatter too. Would look awesome on that sweet skyline body. A quick google search shows them available on ebay and rcworld. Plus they show them on the skyline.
On my RWD setup I used those with Raikou DP30s or MST FR-F mediums on the front and a softer wide style tire like MST CS-Rs or Raikou S30s on the rear. Looked great and was easy to drive.

[Shinchu]

I was literally looking at scale dynamics wheel last night with my son to see what he wants on his drifter... Eventually.
Those wheels are sick!!!

*
Just checked out that blackstar site. Nice!
I started a drifter resources thread in here (non crawler)
I think its on page 2 or 3 now if you would like to contribute ;)

[HumboldtEF]

Thanks a ton for the info troutshark!

I really like the look of the Raikou DP30's but I'm left a little confused as they call it a steering tire, is there another 30 series meant for the back or what? I'd like the tires profiles to match front and rear. Maybe its ok to run them in back too?

And the Scale Dynamics wheels are perfect with their extra sidewall illusion. I'll probably pick up a set of Watanabe's (again)

[Shinchu]

i kept clicking the like button a bunch of times but its a toggle not amplifier lol

[troutshark]

Originally Posted by HumboldtEF

Thanks a ton for the info troutshark!

I really like the look of the Raikou DP30's but I'm left a little confused as they call it a steering tire, is there another 30 series meant for the back or what? I'd like the tires profiles to match front and rear. Maybe its ok to run them in back too?

And the Scale Dynamics wheels are perfect with their extra sidewall illusion. I'll probably pick up a set of Watanabe's (again)

DP30s are a front tire. I mean you could run them on the rear for looks potentially but a wider footprint in the back is usually the best option. The round profile in the front provides a more consistent contact patch under extreme angles. The S30 tires would work for the rear if you want to match the compound and have a similar look. The S30 is the steeper cut sidewall so slightly narrower footprint than the S45. I think most all of the Raikous are the same hardness actually just different sidewall profiles.

The Watanabe's would look sweet. I went with the Scale Dynamics V16D 6 Spoke Wheels on a Dodge Challenger body for that classic muscle car style.

[troutshark]

The Scale Dynamics V16D 6 Spoke Wheels. I haven't seen them in stock in a long time though.

[Shinchu]

https://www.asiatees.com/display?Mis...d=138992&pid=1

These would like awesome on old school Japanese cars too.

[troutshark]

I do like those wata's! Looks like superdrift has all of the styles in stock. Might have to get a set...

[Shinchu]

they would work on a vintage trans-am ponycar too. ;)

[HumboldtEF]

Originally Posted by Shinchu

https://www.asiatees.com/display?Mis...d=138992&pid=1

These would like awesome on old school Japanese cars too.

MMMMMmm love me some 4 lugs

[Shinchu]

well Casey, got mine running and... well im in the EXACT same boat as you LOL all i do is SPIN. going to make adjustemnts and keep trying. i was doing some reading here
RE-Xtreme RC: RC Drift Bible - RC Driving Skills - throttle
and it seems a LOT of it has to do with your trigger finger. i am guilty of yanking the throttle and trying to steer out of a spin. not gonna happen... this is all about throttle control and practice. also i need tires with way more grip (slick polished concrete in my garage and my huge covered patio that is begging for a track layout).
i'll let you know if i figure anything out ;)

[Inspector86]

Guys, I don't want to hi-jack HumboldtEF's thread but the topic fits here and maybe we can get a support group started. Got my FXX-D S up and running but dammed if I can drive it at all. All I seem to do is spin out. Very frustrated at this point. Are you guys running 2S or 3S? I started playing with it in my drive which is a broom brushed concrete and I can start a drift but always ends in a spin out. I have no idea how or if I need to adjust the gyro. I'm very overwhelmed at this point. This thing drives nothing like I had imagined and I don't know if the gyro is helping or hurting. I will take some pics tomorrow.

[soze]

I'm definitely getting a drifter for my next R/C now... Time to do some research.