4 or 6 cells?

[Scimdarren]

St Austell, primarily a touring car club are launching there 10 week 1/12th oval series in 2 weeks.

The club, in order to accommodate as many people as possible are allowing ESC's and 6 cells.

My question is, on a conventional oval, how beneficial will 6 cells be, will I have to jump on the band wagon to compete, or can a 'well set up 4 cells' hold its own?

[Mark Stiles]

Depends how big the oval is. If its no more than 10m long, then 4 cells is often better, as the car will be easier to set up, and will carry more corner speed (you are going round corners 50% of the time on a short oval!

At thames valley stockcar club, I can do the same number of laps with a 4 cell mardave hot-rod as I can do with a 6 cell stockcar (100!). At my local club (high wycombe), which is a big oval compared to most 1/12th oval tracks, I can actually do more laps (I did 61 once!) with my hot-rod than I can with a stockcar (my best is 59)!

[Scimdarren]

Wow, I entered the 1st St Austell meeting with 4 cells, expecting to get my butt kicked. In fact, the opposite was true. I won primarily because of 4 cells. The 6 cell v12's got a few lightning quick laps in, but trying to maintain that consistency over 5 mins proved difficult.

I would say it is a learning curve for all of us with set up and it should be interesting to see if those who perservere with 6 cells eventually win!?

Darren

[Mark Stiles]

At the 1/12th oval nationals, the 4 cell V12 cars (hot-rods) do more laps than the 6 cell saloon cars. This is, as you say, due to the fact that its difficult to lap consistently with a heavier car thats entering the corners at higher speeds. I'd stick with 4 cells if I were you. (plus you'll get less tyre wear than everyone else (less weight!))

[lewist]

6 cell hotrods can be a bit of a pig to drive!, if the oval is massive a 6 cell may have a slight advantage, but if it anyting other than HUGE then i think 4 cells are the way to go!

what motors are you running?? the mabbuchis don't really like 6 cells that much, at the first saloon national at meday the other week i think 3 or 4 saloon stox drivers had thier motors go up in smoke because they get sooo hot with 6 cells.. you have to reduce the geering quite a lot!

[Scimdarren]

We are all running the kit mabuchi.

I will be keeping with 4 cells, and I am sure a number of last weeks entrants will be converting from 6 to 4 for next week- the performance difference was obvious, and similar speeds will make for closer racing.

I was also quite impressed by the grip levels of the kit tyres, which means I am looking forward to trying the UFRAS even more!

Darren

[Merciless]

I like 6 but it seems very hard on the motor !! Has anyone got any tips on keeping them cooler ??

[Mark Stiles]

run a heatsink.

They do get hot, even on 4 cells, and I find the car becomes noticeably slower towards the end of the race.

[Merciless]

Using a heatsink already.......Although i may try making up something from some of my PC bits a little more extreme for between rounds.......

I was thinking along the lines of somehow mounting a Peltier to some sort of adptor to get it on the motor and then using a P4 heatsink and delta fan to cool it all.If it all goes well i could well be looking at a sub zero motor forthe start of each race.

It's just the adptor i need to get sorted..................and that'll need to be machined up for me by a mate if he's interested in the experiment!

Sure it's been done before so if anyone got any good idea's to make it easier for me please just post away :D :confused:

[Scimdarren]

The St Austell series was won with 5 cells being the most common choice, these could hold there own with a well set up 6 cells, and I hate to say, easily out perform 4 cells- that is not to say that you nationals guys wouldn't come down and leave us for dead!

A fantastic series,

Darren

[Merciless]

The St Austell series was won with 5 cells being the most common choice, these could hold there own with a well set up 6 cells, and I hate to say, easily out perform 4 cells- that is not to say that you nationals guys wouldn't come down and leave us for dead!

A fantastic series,

Darren

Darren,

I agree with they could hold there own,but in all honesty a 6cell car was always "faster" the last week i raced i set a new lap record and that was with 2/3 crashes that had rob saying i could have done another 2 laps :eek:

Some thing i would like to add tho, is now weve decieded to go to 4 cells on moving to the other hall i hope 6 cells mini racing never happens again as I for one feel it would have been a better, more fun series raced to the rulz they were designed for !! (motors burning out and needing fan etc. to cool them was not alot of fun really)

On a side note i think the out come of the 5cell/6cell battle might have been different if i had attended more than a handfull of races ??

And finially Congrats on a desirved WIN ;) :D :cool:

[Scimdarren]

Rod

Agreed, 6 cells were faster and I would have gone that way if I needed to. ie. your more regular attendance!

4 cells ain't slow, when running together. It just got frustrating being passed on the outside by 5 or 6 cells. I think it will be loads more fun when 4 cells are mandatory.

Cheers

Scimdarren

PS I also managed 68 laps last Friday!

[Merciless]

Rod

Agreed, 6 cells were faster and I would have gone that way if I needed to. ie. your more regular attendance!

4 cells ain't slow, when running together. It just got frustrating being passed on the outside by 5 or 6 cells. I think it will be loads more fun when 4 cells are mandatory.

Cheers

Scimdarren

PS I also managed 68 laps last Friday!

WELL DONE ON THE 68 :cool:

Sorry i wasn't saying 4cells were slow!! just uncompetitive when raced against 6cell car's which i also think was unfair.

Anyway best of luck for the new series !! :) :) !!

[Mark Stiles]

I raced at the march (near cambidge) national last week. I raced a hot-rod (4 cell) and a saloon stox (6-cell). My saloon was basically a 6 cell hot-rod with bumpers. On the short (ish) oval track I managed 89 with the saloon and 84 with the hot-rod. However, I qualified 6th with the hot-rod (with pole being about 86 laps), and pole with the saloon (by 6 laps!). So on the whole, the hot-rods were the quickest class on the day.

The lap score that the hot-rod a final winner did would probably have been enough for 2nd behind me in the saloon final.

I have to say though, my saloon was really hooked up that day. It handled almost as well as my hot-rod, and it screamed along the straights! :D

[Mark Stiles]

You should run 4 cells, because the racing is much closer, and you don't get through a motor every other meeting.

5 cells is a good idea, and I know someone who's tried it. He said it gave the car that little bit extra over 4 cells, but it didn't over power the car.

However, using 5 cell packs is awkward, as you'll always have a cell left when building new packs. (At least with 4 cells you can split 2 6-cell pack into 3 4's).

[Scimdarren]

Mark

If your oval was remotely like ours then we obviously have a lot to learn, to get 80 odd laps!

I think everyone who is continuing with V12's are keen to go 4 cell full BRCA rules. The only reason we had an open class was to get the series going by making it as easy as possible for the touring car fraternity to transfer equipment, I am confident that we have done enough to enable the 1/12th section to survive in in its own right.

As you say 5 cell gave us an edge without stripping spur gears and cooking motors! I had a 3:2 stagger saddle arrangement.

Cheers

Scimdarren