Which Street Foams?

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StrechM

Hardcore RCTalk User
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RC Driving Style
  1. Bashing
  2. Racing
What foams are you guys using for bashing on asphalt? Rubber does not appear to be an option at these rpms.
My new set up is;
M18
Ball diffs
Mamba 8000
2 and 3 cell lipos
Obviously it's not for racing but we do have a very large perfectly smooth seamless asphalt area to bash on.
It was a purchase from months ago and I've finally found enough time to complete it.
 
did you ever find an answer to this question? I'm interested in this info too..
 
Foams....

This is an interesting question.
I have a M18 with a Mamba 6800, seen below:



This also has Xray ball-diffs front and rear, CF center shaft, full carbon chassis, Xray dogbones and runs UnitedRC Xtreme matched 7.2V NiMh packs.

I put this on an asphalt track where 8th, 10th and 12th scales race, I was using TRC foams - shown in the pic.
The outside temprature was about 31° Celcius, so the track was warm
The car had absoloutely no grip on that asphalt, I tried various compounds front and rear - it didn't help. The car would break loose down the straight, doing donuts galore, in the corners I had to avoid or feather the throttle.
I also tried softer shocks and different shock positions. The rear toe-in was factory setting and I had about 1° toe-in on the front wheels

My son's Micro RS4 with a UnitedRC K3 (370) tuned motor was eating me for lunch with the same type of TRC foams on - hard up front (pink), medium rear (magenta)
Out of sheer desperation I fitted HPI wheels with rubber tires to the M18. Medium fronts and rears. The car was on rails.. so different.
It behaved much better with the HPI (Not XRay - as I have a lot of HPI wheel/tires) rubbers on.

When I got the car home I decided to try it on the asphalt outside my house (BTW: I never bash the road cars on publics roads) as the asphalt is totally different to the track we were on
First I fitted the foams and the outside temprature was about 23° Celcius. The result was similar, but the foams were behaving better than they did on the track. It still handled a lot better with the Micro RS4 rubbers on though..

I don't know if the TRC foams prefer cooler conditions or if it was just the type of asphalt on the track combined with the Mamba's power delivery.
As I said, my son's URC K3 Micro RS4 was on rails with the TRC foams.

The M18 with TRC foams works very well on an indoor carpet track - as you'd expect!

I say take foams and rubbers with when you go bashing and see how it behaves, if possible get some HPI MicroRS4 wheels/tires too, they are cheap and they may just be your saviour if you're battling for traction.

Mamba's have awesome power, the 6800 has the most torque on the entire Mamba motor range, whereas the 8000 has the least, either way they deliver so many revs at the squeeze of the throttle that you need to experiment with tire and controller setups.

I assume you have a MambaLink cable and the latest software on your laptop/PC and firmware in your controller? If not, I suggest you do it, the new "CastleLInk" software interface makes for a much better controller setup.

Please let us know how it works out
 
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does the mamba link let you adjust power curves? I would assume that's the main feature.....what else can you do w/ it? and does that come w/ the moter/esc when you buy em?
 
Well on my M18 I use the Orion Fresh Kicks RS4 Foams.

Tho I have gone thru like a few sets but they are pretty good for bashing for me.

XRAY%20M18%20003.JPG
 
Plaidfish said:
did you ever find an answer to this question? I'm interested in this info too..

Yes I did Plaidfish and thanks for the responses everyone. It appears that most are using TRC or RS4 micro pro foams.

Mondo and Chase023,
Very nice setups and thanks a million for the heads up!
 
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