Dee's Newbie Tips

Hey fellow Mini-Z enthusiasts!  This is the first part of a new blog series that I'm starting for all the newbies (noobs) out there.  I'm not the fastest racer out there, nor am I the most technical -- but I've moved up from absolute beginner to taking first in the B main's in about a months time!  It may be a little luck, but its a lot of practice too.  Here I will post what I have learned through both personal experience, and through the teachings of the expert racers here at Fast Pace Racing. 

This week's noob tip is car control.  When I first started, I accelerated and deccelerated too fast.  My turning was also a problem.  Going into a turn was no problem, but coming out I would simply release the wheel, causing it to jerk back to neutral.  If you turn your car upside down, and turn and release the wheel suddenly (like I did) you'll find that the wheel actually over corrects the opposite direction due to the force of the spring in the steering wheel.  This causes your car to go off line while driving, and will cost you time (especially if you hit walls!). 

So practice turning your wheel smoothly.  Smooth left, smooth right -- never actually letting go of the wheel to return to neutral.  You should be consciously turning the wheel back to neutral. The same philosophy should be applied to your throttle and deceleration.  Depress the trigger smoothly to get up to speed, and let go smoothly to take a turn.  When you first practice this, you'll notice that your lap times will suffer since you are essentially breaking what you're use to, and practicing something completely new.  A couple days of practice though, and you'll see those seconds QUICKLY shave off your lap times.  Control the springs in your remote control, and you begin to actually control your car.  Speed and fast motors without control (which leads to consistency) will never yield fast times lap after lap -- which is what puts you in the winners stand. 

Once you get the smoothness down pat, you can then move to general remote tuning to take advantage of your new skills.  We'll cover that next time, so stay tuned! 

Dee