ASK Cub Reporter, 11.22.2012, Version: Happy Thanksgiving To All You Bash-A-Holics

MaxAmps 100C Super Sport 2S Lipo Released
Hi, I’m using a team Orion 160a brushless sensored esc, with a redline 11900kv brushless motor, in a 1/10th scale car.
What speeds can I expect to get with this battery?
Eron L.

Cubby– What’s up Eron? Sounds like you have a spaceship fast 10th scale car, you running a Tekin 2.5 turn 11,900 kv motor in it and all. On a MaxAmps 2S you can expect your car to hit Warp 3 (approximately 39 times the speed of light, meaning it would only take .03 seconds to reach our moon). This is assuming your warp core is at full capacity of course.

But seriously… you didn’t give me what type of “10th scale” car you have, nor any other pertinent information, so I’m just gonna throw a random number right back at ya. How does 28 sound?

But super seriously, your top speed depends on several factors. The drag guys have hit 100+ on 2S, and one of our in-house guys has hit 87 mph on 2S with an Associated T4 truck. So… with enough work, tuning, and practice, speeds on 2S can get pretty burly. Here are some tips for ya Eron if you are looking to go fast on 2S regardless of what type of car you have…

Gearing is super important, especially when using an ultra high kv motor. GearChart.com should become your new best friend. Seriously, do not gear your car for 150 mph on 2S, stuff is only going to catch fire. Gear it for 30 and slowly work your way up.

Tires, tires, tires! Running high speed is all about the tires. You want enough traction to be drivable, but hard enough to not explode or turn into pizza cutters. Driving on ballooned tires at high speeds results in some very ugly things happening to your car. Total’ing out your car on every pass is not fun or cheap.

Monitor temps. You REALLY don’t want any fires or ruined electronics by making pass after pass when geared to the moon. Buy a temp gun and use it. When geared for high speeds you might only make 1 or two passes before you start to overheat your gear.

Is the new Traxxas helicopter and quadcopter really a good thing for our hobby? Why would they put those things out on the market when they don’t know anything about the air?

Aaron G.

Cubby- Yo what’s up Aaron G? Thanks for the email and a Happy Thankgiving to you and your family.

Are the new Traxxas air products “good” for our hobby? I am going to define “our hobby” as being surface rc, and it could be good for us. If they sell a zillion of’em that should pad their coffers enough to actually rework their older, tired, surface platforms. But… I’ll tell you a little story here. I was talking with one of my local hobby shop owners, a truly hardcore surface guy that has been running a hobby shop since the very beginning, and when I asked him basically this exact same question he simply rolled his eyes. He’s tired of Traxxas putting out new model after new model taking up more and more of his sales floor. He related to me that at this rate Traxxas product would push every other brand out of his store in just a few years. But he also related that he is sick and tired of it, and with Traxxas releasing air product, that was a type of “final straw” to him, and he doesn’t plan on stocking it. I wonder how many other LHS owners have elected to sit this one out? If it is not on the shelves it can’t be sold.

So can their air gear be good for the surface hobby, certainly it could be if the sold enough of them, but only if LHS owners chose to support them.

And why would Traxxas even put out air product? Only Traxxas would know the actual answer to that one. I can only wildly speculate that the reason was very simple, $$$$$$$.

That’s it for this week ya’ll. If your letter didn’t make it to the bigtime this week, check back again next Thursday. Feel free to shoot me anything and everything to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com. We give you free stickers if your letter makes the front page, and a free t-shirt for the “letter of the month”.

YOUR Cub Reporter