Joe’s TLR 22 – July 2011 Update

 

After racing at the Eden Park Raceway round of the UK Short Course Nationals, I really started to get the itch for a 2WD buggy. With all the hype around the TLR 22 and having some good friends also racing this new buggy, I decided that I would jump on the band wagon. I made some phone calls and sent a couple of e-mails and before long, a new kit was sitting on my desk and I could then start to build the buggy. The norm for the UK buggy scene is to have the motor in mid configuration and this is where the 22 comes into its own as it allows you to set the car up with either rear motor or mid motor.

Equipment

Next up it was time to decide on the motive power for the 22 and Logic RC had recently sent me one of their 6.5T combo systems to use in my SC, but as I am unable to make many more of UK SC Nats, I decided to use this system in the 22. Another reason for this was that the speed controller is devoid of a fan and quite a shallow depth which is ideal for the set-up I am running.
Akula Racing fixed me up with a set of SMC 5200mAh saddle packs rated at 60C so have lots of power available when I need that extra oomph. They also sorted me out a set of carbon fibre front shock towers too.

The controls are all done through my existing Spektrum DX3S radio and along with a matching micro receiver, more room is saved in the very narrow chassis. Steering is taken care of via a Savox low-profile servo – thanks to Simon at RC Lazy for sorting this out –  and it offers a good mix of speed and power.
The standard body was then daubed in my own colour scheme that I am running for the 2011 season, which is a mix of my old cow-themed colours.
My first race was at Moto Arena and this has a mix of carpet and Tarmac so the tyres of choice are Schumacher Mini Pins on the rear and Schumacher Stagger Ribs on the front.
The Stagger Ribs can be fitted to the standard front rims, but can be a little hard to get them to seat correctly, so I removed the outer locating ridge and with a Dremel smoothed cut the inner lip away to make a thinner set of front wheels and this allows the tyres to sit a lot nicer upon the rims.

Race

I used to race 2WD when I was 16 so would the skills still be there? Quite simply no! Since I last raced a buggy, motors and batteries have come on ten fold so it was time to re-educate myself. It took a good few laps before I started setting consistent times, but in the races I had forgotten how hard it is to overtake with open wheels having run touring cars for so long. I did manage to get into a few tangles and only broke the car once on a jump, but a few friends soon had me back up and running. I have now invested in some spares to keep me going and I am actually starting to enjoy my racing once again.
I have a few things I need to do to the car to make it more driveable including adding a bit of weight to the buggy to aid traction, and I am also toying with a ‘Marmite’ cab-forward body shell….

JB