List of modifications and hop ups on my SV-10 Alcyon II

Ok, you may be curious on the total list of hop ups and modifications thus far to transform my Kawada SV-10 II EX into the SV-10 III.
Here is the complete list.

1. Kawada Sigma Arms SY-08. Same dimensions as Alcyon II arms, but with extra shock mounting hole for rear arm, and arms has holes for droop screws.
2. Kawada Sigma shocks , threaded shock bodies.
3. Tamiya TRF417 Geardiff unit II. Front filled with ride putty, rear with #900 oil. O rings are orange 5mm from o ring shop to prevent leaking.
4. Front Tamiya 44mm DCJ shafts.
5. Rear Tamiya 44mm CVDs.
6. 3racing 17T top pulleys. One pulley has been machined to shorten the hub and add a slot for 2mm pin.
7. Custom machined top layshaft from ASSAB 705. Has one pin hole for 2mm standard pin for the new pulley, and one more area with flats to tighten one 17T pulley grub screws.
8. Custom lower graphite chassis plate 2.4mm cut by fibrelyte. This chassis is designed with the narrowest possible width of 70mm , wider area at arms so that droop screws can be used, and also VBC floating servo mount holes for symmetric flex.
9. VBC D05 floating servo mount.
10. Kawada SX-52 anti roll bar kit, used medium roll bars.
11. Custom designed rear shock tower with 30 mounting positions.
12. Blue alloy china drift car front body posts mounted on bumper.
13. TRF 416 rear belt. S3M 174
14. Bando front belt S3M 519
15. Complete set of TRF416 roche ceramic bearings.
16. Titanium screws for 90% of screws.

If you need any drawings for the custom parts I designed I am willing to send it to you.

Driving the SV-10 Alcyon 3...a second opinion

My friend bryan tan was with me last night among osa and nenas. Bryan was having some handling problems with his vbc wildfire. I tried it out and found his car understeered . I asked bryan to drive my kawada. He exclaimed how much steering it had while still being rear end stable. He kept exclaiming that it was so easy to drive. At the pits he gave me his report of how my kawada handled. He said you can have as much steering as you want. The choice is given to the driver unlike his vbc. If you want more steering just turn the wheel on the transmiter. The car drives the way the driver wants it to..not the way the car wants to drive. He says the feeling of a lot if steering occurs at 70% wheel travel. I was really happy at his opinion.

Kawada SV10 Alcyon III vs Yokomo BD-7!

Since January, there is this guy at the track with a Yok BD7 who kept beating the heck out of me and OSA. He used the latest 7200mah batteries while ours were shorties. Week after week he left us eating dust. Then since march i stopped tc because i snapped my layshaft. While getting the layshaft done i concentrated on my optima mid.
when i got back my layshaft i bought a vbc floating servo mount and modified my ver 1 chassis to fit it. I couldnt drill the holes straight so i kind of tweaked the chassis while tightening the mount. The car did not handle well. It was frustrating..is my kawada headed for retirement ? So i took another 2 months rest and then had are look at the car. I noticed the rear diff was noisy. I was  using ta06 steel bevel gears. I decided to take it apart and change the side gears to plastic and kept the 4 middle gears steel. The diff was then super smooth ! Then i installed my new chassis designed for the vbc floating mount. I tried the car last night with old tyres and the car was twitchy. Mr bd7 again was quicker. The next round i installed a set of new rides re32s. My god what a diffrrence it made. The car worked the way it should. It was on rails ! Mr bd7 didnt know what hit him. I hounded his bd7 then overtook it then proceed to leave it eating dust..eventhough he had far better equipment.
suffice to say he wasnt happy and he kept gluing his tyres thinking there was something wrong with them. The irony was everytime he saw us he would keep implying that we were slow because we drove such old cars. After i beat him he just kept silent and he seemed to think there was something wrong with his car. He kept regluing his tyres. What he did not realize was there was nothing wrong with his car. Its just that finally there is nothing wrong with my kawada anymore..thats why i beat him good. The way the car handled was superb. It neither understeered nor oversteered. The balance was just right it had nuetral steering and drove on rails. Mr bd7 said his battery failed. Well lets see nexy week if he can beat me back.

Lates update for the SV-10 II

I have gone back to the original plastic suspension blocks instead of aluminium because after a while, the suspension pins will stick with the aluminium pieces and will be almost impossible to remove them, so its back to short camber links. I also re designed a version 2 chassis to fix the problems the first version had.
I also reduced the chassis width from 90mm to 70mm, increased thickness from 2.1mm to 2.4mm, and changed the battery mounting. The result is a narrower, stiffer chassis, with VBC modern floating servo mount, to allow the chassis to flex evenly both ways. I also finally figured out what was wrong with my rear TRF 417 gear diff with steel gears. The steel gears were beginning to grind each other, so I tried putting plastic gears for the outdrives and using steel for the small gears, it worked like a charm, the diff is now super smooth. Tested the car yesterday, and with all this new innovations added, the car handled like a dream yet again.
Probably the biggest difference was the flex characteristics. So how does it drive really?
The front ride height is 5.5, and the rear at 6, with the rear having more droop than front. Front springs harder than rears. I found that the car is very stable and transitions very quickly in sudden turns, sometimes it feels unstable in one particular turn, but however my worries are unfounded as the car still held its line well even with the old tyres. At certain corners the car understeered off power but this is probably the track surface which gave a lot of traction at that area. In a nutshell, the faster I nailed the throttle, the more it understeered, the slower I went the more the steering. This is how I like my car to handle, stable and easy to drive. The flex is now even on the left and the right, and this design has really paid off. I studied this layout against some other centralized designs by ds24, daleburr and a german guy who centralized his HB TCX , and found that they made fundamental mistake in the motor mount. In order to centralize the motor, they mounted the motor mount on the right side. This limits the flex on the right side, and also the middle belt would tweak the chassis under acceleration and braking, that's why most of these designs dont work so well.


Top view

The VBC floating servo mount, notice it overhanging from the narrow chassis.

The belts and diff had to be flipped because the servo and esc had to change sides.

at the track before testing

Just before I scratched the chassis. Look at all the screws position, notice they are completely symmetrical. This ensures the flex of the chassis is symmetrical and even.

Its always satisfying to get a great result out of one's own design. This car drives like a dream.








 

New Lipo Chassis for The Alcyon II

I decided for about a year back to have a new shorty lipo chassis designed for the Ultimate, but just only recently got off my lazy butt to design one. It was completed 2 weeks ago and i asked fibre lyte to make one for me. The design intent is to :
1. Make the chassis narrower, so that it will scrape less in hard corners. I managed to shave 9mm from each side compared to the original Alcyon II chassis, saving a total of 18mm. The chassis is 90mm at its widest part, previously it was 108mm.
2. Remove the saddle pack holes, add openings under the diffs to let accumulated dirt drop off, and add mountings for the shorty lipos with graphite bars to reduce strapping tape usage.
3.  To reduce the weight even more. On this point , i have failed, seems like this new chassis is slightly heavier than the old one. It could be becuase of the material density.

Chassis in its original packing

Chassis itself

Superimpose of new chassis over old one, notice the difference

With battery bar installed and with shorty pack in

Completed car top view

Close Up

Another close up

Under View

Front close up

Middle close up

Rear close up

The Return of the SV-10 Alcyon

Allright, i know i have been neglecting old faithful these past few years since discovering the awesomeness of the Alcyon II Ultimate. My friend OSA has resurrected his Old X Ray T1 Evo2 with a EZrun 9T brushless combo, and my friend EK is using that same combo in his standard SV-10 II. So now i joined the club with a EZrun 9T sensorless combo. Its dirt cheap, reliable and respectably fast for little money. It also is very light and balances my old Sv-10 perfectly left to right.
Did some in house testing and the drive train is super smooth as always. I can't wait to get this SV-10 in a battle against the T1. This was the car that netted me four no1. wins in cost controlled racing in 2001, and in late 2004 a first place finish in a 23T race on the rooftop of the now demolished Atria, against a field of T1 FK, barracuda R2's TB Evo II's and yokomo SD's.
tested the car a week ago, Jan 13, and found the car to be very quick and efficient, and also corners very well without losing control. It is faster and more nimble than my friends Xray T1 with front gear diff.

Clear View of the EZrun 9T sensorless ESC + Motor Combo

Rear suspension with Alcyon II limited shock tower, and Alcyon II rear hub

Front suspension with Alcyon II limited shock tower, and 5 degree alloy C hub, and Alcyon II arm.

Spur side, somehow i always like the look of the pulleys on the layshaft above the motor.

Overall View

 

Alcyon II New Layshaft pulleys

I have now installed new 17T pulleys as opposed to the original 16T pulleys. This is to bring the internal ratio down closer to today's cars. The original ratio was 36/16 = 2.25.
Now its 37/17 = 2.1764. Next time after the belts and small pulleys wear out, i will change to 18T pulleys to give a ratio of 37/18=2.0555.
For now the front and rear belt remains at S3M 519 and S3M174 respectively. Both belts are a little tighter than before especially the rear, so i removed the rear belt tensioner.
The ratio now can go lower which is better for 10.5T and higher turn motors.
I surmise i will have to add 1 tooth to the front and rear belts if i were to change to 18T layshaft pulleys.
Tested the car, and the ratio works great, no durability issues. The SV-10 II handled well again.

Rear belt, 17T Eagle Racing alloy pulley for the StreetJam OTA-R31, and front belt, 17T generic 3racing pulley with grub screw.  I had to machine step on the shaft to fit the 3racing pulleys for tightening the grub screw.