Driving The SV-10 Alcyon II Ultimate

 I managed to test the Ultimate on friday night at titwangsa track in Kuala lumpur. it rained a few hours earlier so the track was cold, but mostly dry. Traction wasnt very high as there was very very little amount of tyre dust in the body after 3 packs.
With the new suspension, the car feels like it has a little more steering than before. It was very stable, but can slide at certain sections of the track, i beleive this is becuase i was using 40R tyres and the traction wasnt very high. But overall the car was very easy to drive, and braking was very stable once the tyres warmed up.
I did face a few problems though, at one time on the long straight the car suddenly went straight and wasnt controllable, it flew right into the middle grass barrier.
When i picked it up, i found that the rear shock tower came off from the bulkhead, it seemed like, since the turnbuckles are now very high, and the antiroll bars hard, the force of the suspension compressing tranfers it to the shock tower.
So now i used 14mm long screws instead of the original 10mm long to secure the shock tower to the bulkhead. Also the front kingpin loosened a few times, need to use threadlock here.

I then brought the car home, and re set the suspension with a thinner anti roll bar for the back, leaving the droop alone. For the front, i reduced the droop by shortening front shock by 0.5mm, previously 64.5mm, now 64mm.
then i rebalanced the cars wheel weights.
Tried it at glenmarie track on sunday, which is high traction tighter track. Once the tyres warmed up, the car handled very well, as well as before the upgrade, it was tough to tell if there is an improvement, but it felt like it worked well with the reduced droop, something the older suspension was not capable off. I also did notice  a little more steering at lower speeds.
Overall was really happy with the car, and i ran an impromptu test against a Yokomo BD5-E at the track. My Alcyon II Ultimate proved to be a formidable contender eventhough equipment wise i was overmatched.
Here is the list of equipment the other driver was using
Yokomo BD-5E (2010)
Sanwa M11X radio
Savox servo
Orca 6000mah 55C batteries
Orca ESC with turbo and Orca 10.5T motor

My equipment
Kawada Alcyon II Ultimate (2002)
Sanwa MX-3 radio
Sanwa ERG VR sevo
IP 5200mah 45C saddle pack
HW Ezrun V2.1 & Team Powers 10.5T motor

As  you can see, my equipment is mid range, and his was much higher range than mine, but i still manage to put up a very good fight and even over taking him a few times, with his car losing control a few times, but mine never lost control, eventhough my tyres were already showing therads by the last lap, and his wasnt.
Just look at this video and see for yourself
My kawada is the white Protoform Mazda 6.
http://youtu.be/DqT-zoy4_ak

Keeping an old car running

Ok , for all you guys who want to keep an old faithful running, its possible, you need to make some parts, or get some from other cars to fit. Here are some interesting facts.
1. Did you know the TOP photon 46mm bones can be used in the Kawada? Thanks to mr Joe O Connor who told me that, unfortunately i had to design my own diff cups because the 46mm bones werent long enough. i had to extend the diff cups by 2mm each side, and i also enlarged the slot from 2.1mm to 4mm to accept the wear yokes, to prevent wear on the diff cups.

2. DID you know that Tamiya and TOP CVD parts are completely interchangable ? Yes its true, i tried Tamiya 46mm aluminium bones on the rest of the pieces of the TOP CVD and it fits ! i bought 4 Tamiya aluminium bones to use only for racing to lighten up the drive.

3. Did you know that you can loop your own belts and they work just as well as the originals? For Kawada rear belt, ask the belt shop to loop a S3M 171mm belt, 3mm wide. For the front, its S3M 516mm, 3 mm wide.

4. For the layshaft pulleys, its possible to use other brands of 16T pulleys, but you need to machine the pin slot to go all the way through, i havent tried these yet cause i got enough pulleys.

Creating The Alcyon II Ultimate

If you have read my blog about the Ultimate, you would know that it was the last version of the Alcyon, and it had the most advanced suspension of the whole series. I always wondered how the improved suspension would work, so i bought the 5 componenents that i needed to upgrade this car. I have everything except the main chassis, but i prefer the original Alcyon II chassis that uses saddle packs, and i prefer the more centralized and inward weight distribution of this chassis. Since i already have part SX-102 bolt frame set, i bought these parts.
1 . SX-204 Front Shock Stay Ultimate
2. SX-205 Rear shock stay Ultimate
3. SX-59 rear Hub ultimate
4. SX-158 Front C Hub Ultimate
The parts came, and i installed them, but unfortunately the plastic knuckle couldnt go into the C hub, i compared the c hub against a normal Alcyon II c hub, and saw that the Ultimates was lower, so i had to buy SX-57 aluminium knuckle with adjustable roll center. had to wait another week for it to come.
Here are some close ups.






Overall view of the Alcyon II Ultimate. Notice the new C hubs, new shocks towers, rear hubs and camber links that are much longer than ever before on this car, as long as a modern car, and Kawada already thought of this in 2002 !

Excuse my toe !Notice the longer upper link, thanks to the new lower C hub that places the outer link directly on the kingpin vertically like today's cars, giving the longest possible camber links. Notice my own custom design aluminium diff cup and The TOP photom 46mm steel dogbone.



Close up of the shocks and the new shock towers

New rear shock tower, and new rear hub, notice the odd design, that extends the camber link over the tire, and the hole on the shock tower for the inner camber link is placed inside the bulkhead area, to have the longest possible camber links, in fact, previously i was using 20mm turnbuckls, now i have to use 32mm long !

rear shock tower view, notice the shock tower is not so high and uses less material, becuase there is no space to mount the camber links at the old postiion, now they are mounted above the bulkhead.



close up of the new rear hubs shock mounted as straight as possible.Notice the TOP photon bones and also my custom designed diff cups that is longer than the original Kawada diff cup so that i could use the TOP 46mm bones.



another close up of the front upper link and alloy knuckle

Now the question is, what will be the improvement on the handling with these new parts? Keep in mind i already got this car to handle formidabbly with the old suspension pieces, horizontal ball studs and short camber links, the car had a lot of traction and enough steering already. With these new improvements, i expect the car to have even more traction, with the need for less droop, also the car will roll less, and the roll center will change less.  Lets see how it goes this weekend. I still use the same shock oil, pistons, springs and anti roll bars as the last time before the conversion. I am pretty sure it will be an improvement over the old suspension, MNC round 2 here i come !!!