At the first ROSSA event of 2022 held in June at the
Llabender Airport in Wales, UK, Nick Sperduto ran a Maverick
Quantum Flux R which became a member of the 100mph club and ran to
101mph and believe it to be the world’s fastest Maverick
RC.
You can check out the achievement here!
Great turn out and car lineup!
Now for ROSSA round 2, Nick was stepping up the mark with the
HPI Vorza S to run in the 1/8 open wheel 6s class.
90 Cars entered the event from 33 drivers with over 300 successful
runs made across the 3-day event.
Nick was kind enough to send over his report of the event and let
us know how the Vorza got on!
Setup:
After receiving the Vorza and only a
short time to prepare before the Rossa event approx. 2 weeks I got
to work. The first thing to address was the suspension as it's an
off-road car it's too soft to run as a speed car as the rear will
squat and cause the chassis to touch the floor and potentially flip
the car at speed. I fit tube to the shock shafts to act like a bump
stop and used thicker shock oil and springs. I then added droop
screws so I could effectively adjust the ride height, the stock car
has holes for them but doesn't come with them.
Then onto the front, I couldn't use droop screw because once wound down they slip off the lip of the chassis so won't allow you to adjust the car low enough. I made the decision to remove the shocks completely and use some turnbuckles instead.
Stock Vorza on the left and
the initial modifications on the right
Next thing to setup was the transmission, the stock ratio is too
high for a speed car at 4.3 so I opted to change this to the HPI
Trophy crown and pinion to reduce it 3.3, I thickened up the oil
too. After this I realised the output on the pinion is 8mm and 6mm
stock so I had to use Trophy centre diff output cups
also.
Transmission sorted, now onto
the power. To be able to achieve speed I wanted the stock ESC
wouldn't cope with the amp draw and also, I wanted data logging so
I went for the Castle MMX8.
Nicks initial setup ready for the journey
to wales.
I thought I was ready to go but after a last-minute decision I decided to go with the higher amp rated ESC the Castle XLX2. Due to lack of space I had to remove the fan and make an ESC plate for it to mount on the centre spool housing. The stock motor has been kept and used throughout the build and testing.
Last on the agenda was batteries. I'd used Onyx Power Solutions batteries in my other cars so I wanted to use them in this, I went for 2 x 3s 8000mah 2P packs. Due to the small battery tray I had to cut this and redrill the chassis holes and used another battery tray to protect the side of the battery. The shell also required cutting for the batteries to fit.
Wheels and tyres were changed to Arrma Hoons 42/100.
Nicks changes to the
chassis to add the huge XLX2!
Running:
Once at the ROSSA event in Llanbeder Aerodrome Wales I went
out for a test run, the car felt twitchy on the Arrma Hoons so I
changed them out for Contact RC Foams instead. This is what all my
other cars were running too. I had a range issue so had to change
to a twin antenna receiver which I thought I would have.
First base run getting it through the traps ran 116mph
which I was happy with. Then 118mph on the next.
I geared
up 2 teeth on the pinion and ran a 120mph pass which was good and a
few around that mark.
I had cut the back of the wing to allow for better airflow but it
made it too flexible and could see it moving about a lot, so I
drilled a carbon wing I had spare and mounted this and was ready to
run again.
I went out again and hit 122mph then 124mph. The heat was
approx. 35C and 50C on the ground which was taking its toll on the
cars and making it for challenging running conditions.
I geared up again and ran
another 124mph and realised it was 82% throttle on the transmitter.
I ran again and got 126.38mph which was the fastest I achieved on
the day, and I felt that the stock motor was nearly maxed at that
on 6s. It may have been over geared slightly and could have pushed
just over 130mph but not much more. I believe this is the UK
fastest Vorza on 6s currently which I'm happy with.
Next time I'm going for the 144mph record.
All in all, it was a great event which I enjoyed a lot and
learnt more each day. A big thanks to ROSSA UK for organising the
amazing event for us UK speed runners to go to. Please check them
out on fb and the website. I would like to thank HPI Racing,
Modelsport UK, for the car and parts and Onyx Power Solutions, RC
Mann, Big Beard RC for the help and advice.
Check out the full kit web page here:
#160179 Vorza S Buggy Flux