27-Feb-2011 A great Day with the Alcyon II - Is there such thing as a final setup ??

Hmm this is today! It was a good day. My friend  OSA, after months of persuasion, finally showed up at the track with me. he brought his HB Cyclone, from 2006. It wasnt handling well, he was still using one ways. We tried to get it handling well, but the car definitely needs to be weight balanced properly. I thought him how to do it, and he was very interested to try the 4 scales method.
As for me, hmm, these past few month i experimented with various setups, using the original Alcyon II shock towers, with super soft Tamiya Blue springs at the back. The Car had too much grip at the back and was bottoming out easily under acceleration.  And whats more not enough steering. The two guys at the track, a guy driving a Sakura Zero and the other a Yokomo BD5 W were running circles around me. To cut a long story short, i decided to try back the SX-104 and SX-105 high traction front and rear shock stay from the Alcyon II Limited Edition. This time i placed Yokomo Pink Springs in front, about 300g/mm force, and the original Kawada Alcyon front springs 196g/mm for the back (never thought i would ever use this spring again). This time the rear did not bottom out so much, and i had lots of rear traction. Since the springs are so soft (but harder than Tamiya Blue) i installed the thickest antiroll bars at the back, and medium in front.
I also bought A Hobbywing 120A V2.1 ESC and a Taam Powers 10.5T motor in December 2010, so i now have the power and speed to hang with the new cars.

My SV-10 Alcyon II EX Ultimate with IP5200 45C Saddle Packs

I also used Saddle Packs.
Front setup :


The front end

 Front shocks, 2 hole pistons, 1.2mm diameter, 70wt oil,Yokomo Pink 300g/mm(old type),shocks placed on outer most hole to give quick response. Shock length 62.5mm which gives quite some droop. For camber link, i used the upper hole to give paralel links. 5 degree C hub.Antiroll bar medium (since springs are so hard already)

Rear End

At the rear, 3 hole pistions, 1.1mm,60wt shock oil, mounted on uppermost outer hole,shock length 69.5mm, droop is less than front (to prevent rear from lifting too much under hard braking). Inner camber link in lowest hole, outer camber link in lower outer hole. Thickest antiroll bar, and Kawada softest springs 196g/mm. Lower shock mounting on outer hole. If i use inner hole, seems like less grip. rear toe in 2 degrees.



Think the CG is too high ? So what, the motor is in the center !

Miscellaneous settings, front and rear ball diffs, front ball diff tighter than rear.
About the Kawada shocks, i bought them in October before the Acorn race, and i love them so much better than the Tamiyas. I can actually see if there are any bubbles in the shock oil or air pockets trapped in them, then place the cap on. I dont have to guess any more.This saves me a lot time. I bought them from Jimmy Chan of Jinmatic . The part number is DN100A, SP oil shock. It came with the Kawada Sigma. They do not have a lot of rebound and gives my car alot of traction.
Why do i prefer ball diffs when everyone else use a spool? To me spools are not good, they cause a lot of wear and tear at the front tyres, CVDs and extra friction for the motor. I prefer the old school method of ball diff in front. And it works too, i am still able to brake hard and the rear end stays straight. And when going through the corners, i can go through with great speed.

Alcyon II Ultimate VOLT Deck-Front

Alcyon II Ultimate Deck - Rear

The Alcyon II Ultimate VOLT deck, part number SX-102, is like the normal Alcyon II VOLT deck, but its cut at the middle, only holding the front and the rear bulkhead. This frees up a lot space in the middle of the car, and also allows the chassis to flex like other cars, thus giving the car more traction. I can say that the Alcyon II now behaves like other cars, i set much less droop than before and it works, its so much more stable. Thanks to Kawada for experimenting with this car countless time to give the best possible handling.
I also shifted the servo forward, thereby flipping it, becuae of that i had to servo reverse it, and the ESC i had to place more forward, just like in the Alcyon II Ultimate. Also thanks to Kawadas ingenious monocrank desing, there is enough space to move the servo and ESC forward. Now the batteries also can be moved more forward, giving the car 50-50 Front rear balance !
I placed the car in the track with tyres that are only 4 packs away from tearing, and i drove it. It felt like driving a train on rails, it was totally hooked. In fact those 2 guys driving the Yokomo BD-5W and the Sakura Zero, well i caught up to them in the tight infield rather easily, and was hounding them relentlessly ! A car that was released 10 years ago against 2 current cars ! After the session, those 2 guys who usually dont look at my car, came over and looked at it, asking me what car is it. the guy driving the Sakura Zero actually thought i bought a new car, (thats why it cornered so well in his mind). Their cars were sliding at the long straight with a 90 degree turn, but mine was locked on. They blamed their old tryes, but i was using old tyres too. I ran 4 packs today, and the result was the same, consistent traction throughout lap after lap. I am hooked on TC again and the Alcyon II. At the 4th pack, my front tyres tore through, but The Alcyon II handled well until the very last bit of tyre left !

One cool car or what ? Notice how balanced it is left to right, i only have to add 15g of weight to the servo to balance out the ESC and wires weight. With the 415 type of cars, you need to rebalance everytime you change a diffrent weight battery.

2008, going brushless

The Yuntong Lipo Stick Pack, Notice i couldnt use the original stick pack holders, cause they wouldnt fit, so i used double sided tape.

After a year hiatus in 2007, i decided to come back into TC with my Alcyon II, becuase the BL technology kind of stabilised and came down in price. At the time most people were using the Speed Passion GT1.1 with the SP 11.5T motor. The 11.5T was the only accepted motor at the time in MNC, versus the stock 23T. Keep in mind at the time, there was no boost or timing nonsense for BL. I bought the combo set, costs me Rm1000, so did my friend OSA, bought the same thing. I also bought a Yuntong 5000mah 20C lipo, and 2 Lipo stick packs from HK, the Yeah Racing 25C 3200mah lipos, and a hot power lipo charger. The price was wuite ok for these stuff. I was completely amazed at how much longer runtime i got out of a pack. 22 minutes with the YR 3200, and 27minutes with the Yuntong 5000mah ! That is like 300% runtime than i ever got with my Ni Mh and brushed motors, and whats best, no need to change brushes and true motor comms. It saved a lot of my time, and i could spend more time setting up my car. It was also at the time, i decided to buy TRF shock Absorbers becuase they were threaded bodies, and would save me time and effort to set ride height and tweak. It was kind of a mistake buying the TRF shocks , and i only found out in 2010, when i decided to sell it off to Ezme. The TRF shocks use black rubber diaphgrams, and you cant see through them, that means when you build the shocks, you have to build by feel. Also it uses a little sponge urethane in the top cap to keep the thin diapghram from going up when you compress the shocks. This resulted in shocks that had a great amount of rebound in them. Suffice to say, i struggled every now and then with the cars handling with these shocks, there were times when i didnt have any traction at all! For a while i went back to the Kawada clip on shocks. At the time also i was still using double one ways , and everyone switched to front spools a year earlier.  I tried and tried with the one way , yes it did work, but only with the stick packs, cause eventhough the lipos were lighter, the overhung weights through the sides kept the hard springs i used from my NiMh days still useful.
I had my spirits up high, and wanted to join MNC race in 2008, i placed myself in the race, a day before the race, i went for a practice session at titiwangsa, everyone was there, unfortunately my Alcyon II handled horribly, i was using the TRF shocks again. The car didnt have any traction, and it pitched side to side and front to back too easily. I tried and tried but couldnt get the car to handle, even with the front ball diff, thats when i decide to pull out of the race.  A newbie friend of mine was there with his Yokomo BD, which i help him set up. It was planted, and i was thinking to myself is this then end of the line for the Alcyon II ?  Again after a few months later, i quit TC again, and left my car laying around somewhere. At the time, the LRP ESC had more puch and top speed, and everyone was getting rid of their SP 1.1, again sensing being outclassed equipment wise, now owning a worthless ESC, i decided to call it quits. My friend OSA stayed on, and bought a new ORCA Vitra ESC which had new upgradable firmware, it was even faster than the LRP. That was the beginning of the software boost and turbo wars between ESCs, and i was sick of it, every few months a new ESC would come out in the market rendering your old one useless, as the new one has more punch and top speed.
I embarrased myself at rctech forums. I was trying to suggest to keep the cost of racing down, but instead got lambasted by the go all out racers who want to be world class. Being world class is ok, but you gotta spen world class money too. I really put aside my Alcyon II and was pissed at everything, and couldnt get my car to handle well.

The Acorn race RCC glenmarie, 24th October 2010 - a complete disaster.

When i just came back to TC in August 2010, i came back with all my old equipment, My Kawada Alcyon II, my Sp GT1.1 ESC (no turbo) and my SP 11.5R motor. i did buy some new 3E 4200mah 30C saddle packs. I was still using a one way, and at one time at titiwangsa track, i got my rear end to really stick by raising the rear wing. I then tried it al glenmarie, the car was hooked ! Eventhough my ESC didnt have any boost or turbo, but i was able to outcorner almost every car at the track during practice. I did manage to turn some heads in the process. I also was able to use the tyres until they tore, never losing traction. Of course with a one way, i couldnt brake, so i just had to let go throttle earlier then just turn in like hell. Even at a dual rate of only 50%, i had more than enough steering.
I used Yokomo white springs at the rear, which is second softest, and yokomo orange in front, the hardest. I practiced like this for a few weeks, and soon a race sponsored by Acorn batteries was coming to this track. Since i love this track so much, i decided to enter this race. My confidence in this car and my driving was on the rise becuase of its great cornering prowess. A day before the race, i practiced at the track with Hafiz, who was a former Yokomo sponsored driver, he quit rc in 2007 and just came back with a new yokomo BD5. He is a very nice guy, and helped me out a lot with advice, also a very laid back guy. I was there with him that day and with another guy, a newcomer, Mike Lim who drove a Team Magic E4RS. I easily overtook Mike with my car, in the corners, but in the straight line i was slow. Then i went up against Hafiz and his BD5, i was left behind in the straight because he had turbo, but in the corners, i was very close to him. It was difficult catching Hafiz, but i was close in the infield. In fact he himself was amazed that my car could keep up with his eventhough with such a handicap equipment wise. Hearing him say that, my confidence increased some more, and decided to try out for the race, eventhough the entry fee was expensive, and there was no tyre limits.
We were also talking about IFMAR body rules, and hafiz warned me about the wing rules. But i misunderstood the rules, just as he did too. That was the cause of my downfall the next day.
You see, i as many other people, misunderstood the rule which said the "wing must not exceed the roof height." Since my wing was inliner, i thought everything was ok.
In the morning i came to the track, all the old faces were there, and they were suprised than i am back into Rc, and they welcomed me. The body jig was made available, and i placed my car in it. To my horror the wing didnt clear the jig, by a LOT ! So i removed the spacers under the wing, thniking thats enough.It wanst.
I had to cut the wing, 3 times before it went under the jig, and whats more, i did what i saw everyone else was doing, lowrring the whole body itself, so that the roof and the wing was under the jig upper limit ! i found it odd, but since other racers were doing that too, i thought they must have known what they were doing. I had to slam the body lowest that i could, until the wheel arches were touching the tyres ! So were some other drivers too. This really affected the friction and handling of the car, cause the wheels were rubbing, and in the corners, could cause the outer wheel to slow down and lose traction. And that it did !, the car couldnt take the corners as fast as it could in practice anymore, i had to slow down drastically and it showed in the laptimes. In the sweltering heat, everything that could go wrong that day, went wrong. I ended up qualifying in the C main, about 4th. The 7th position was the last position that day. I only used 1 set of tyres that day, while other drivers used 6 to 7 sets, thats how poor i am. but i seriously doubt changing tyres would solve my problem that day. it was namely 2 things, the body rubbing against the tyres, and the low rear wing, singanlling a loss of rear traction. My car slid evertime i punched the gas out of the corners and had to feather it. In the finals, i dropped 1 position to 5th. its lucky i did not get last position !
After the race i was dejected, did the car let me down, or did i let myself down? Is it time for a new car?
I did some searching about IFMAR body rules, and went to rctech forums to ask around. Finally i found out that we used the jig wrongly that day, and we were even in violation of the rules!
You see, the roofline of the car, must touch the jig upper limit, that means the roof must be 115mm or more from the floor! And the wing must be 115mm or less ! On that day, both our roofs and wing were below 115mm ! And the stupid race officials didnt even know that ! If they explained it properly, could have saved me a lot of grief !
After that i knew what i had to do. i bought a new Protofrom MAzda 6 body, painted int white, and made it ifmar legal, the wing is now very low and at 115mm, while my body rest at comfortable ride height. i gave up on the one way and tried a ball diff in front. I still struggled to find traction at the rear with the low wing, and i found out why. The white yokomo springs which were the second softest, which i used for the rear, wasnt soft enough with the lightweight lipos i was using, in the old NiMh days, it was soft enough. my Answer came when i changed to Tamiya M chassis blue springs at the rear, i got the traction i wanted at the rear, but the spring was too soft, even with the thickest antiroll bar at the rear, the rear was bottmoing out too easily under acceleration and i didnt have enough steering. I looked thourhg my toolbox to find something a little harder.
It was the Kawada Alcyons original front springs rated at 196g/mm, it was harder than the Tamiya Blue, but still very much softer than the yokomo whites. This ended up as the final setup for my car as of february 2010. The car now is VERY stable at the rear eventhough the wing is so low. I even have traction to very last bit of tyre ! I am waiting for a chance to race it in the 10.5T superstock class now...

Driving The Alcyon II, a comparison against the Alcyon I

In late 2004, after i learnt about tweak for the Xray T1 setup book, i suddenly remembered i had an Alcyon II that handled poorly before, i suddenly got the bright idea to try it now and set the tweak. So i took all my electronics out from my old car and placed it in the Alcyon II Ex. Then i set the tweak. Used a HPI stratus body with a big rear wing. The car was totally PLANTED, it behaved totally differently than months before, when it was spinning out at every corner, into and out of corners.
It felt like it had more traction especially at the rear, and also just enough steering to get through the tightest sections. At the time everyone used double one ways. The Alcyon II also felt very locked on, very much precise. My Alcyon had a tendency to wander a little at the straights, requiring minor corrections during driving, especially at higher speeds. But the Alcyon II tracked very straight, and responded to mid corner corrections very well, if i was going to slam into a barrier, i could turn in the other direction without upsetting the rear end. If i tried that with the Alcyon, the rear would spin out.

It was easy to see why i was beginning to love this car. I went up against my friends Brian's Yokomo CGM , OSAs X ray T1 Evo2, and Edwin Lee's TRF415, all with positive results. Edwin was amazed i zipped past him in a chicane at Kota Raja track, when the space was very little,i took the risk and punched my throttle and overtook his TRF415 in the corner ! You dont do that with an ill handling car.
There also was a sparring session in early 2005, with many of the top guns at KR track, and in the group was Leonard Kee, the guy who sold me the Alcyon II. He was driving a TB Evo III at the time. When i overtook him in the sweeping corners and left him behind, he exclaimed "Shit, i am beaten by the car i sold !"
I chuckled, that was definitely a compliment !

My Alcyon II after MNC race 2006

Being the stubborn guy i am, i still tried to make my old Alcyon handle well and entered it into races. The last straw was MNC 2006. i Entered the Alcyon in the open modified class, and it was a disastser. the car wandered a little and hit one of the barriers, and the chassis was tweaked, it was impossible to drive well. That was heat 1. So i decided i couldnt continue like this, i took off all my electronics and quickly placed it the Alcyon II that i brought as a back up. Set the tweak, and raced in the second heat. It was totally planted ! I did way way better and clocked better time, i also felt a lot more confident with it, it went exactly where i wanted it to, like it was keyed directly to my brain ! That was when i took the final decision to retire my trusty Alcyon from high level competition. I qualified fifth and in the final i did pretty well, i was giving zahari a run for his money, he was driving the new Yokomo BD, and he was fast, he was on my tail and i let him pass, but after that i was on his tail hounding him. Not bad for a car that was obsolete in 2003. I DNF the race due to a failed spur, but i was kinda happy cause it showed the potential the Alcyon II had. I also found a terrible weakness of the Alcyon II, it was too heavy, with 3800mah Ni Mh cells, it was 1650g ! After the race i changed all the screws and turnbuckls to titanium, luckily i got the tunrbuckles from another brand new Alcyon II i bought that year very cheaply, RM350 + shipping, which is now my parts car.

In 2007, i met a retired racer , Brian's cousin,Raymond, he was our new addition to the gang. But also at the time, i kind of burned out on RC, after every run, i had to clean the diffs, bearings, shocks, reset the suspension, tweak, truing motor comms, change brushes, discharge batteries...so much work and so much  time involved, so i quit for a year. At the time brushless ESC and motors just came into the market, but we were waiting for it to come down in price before we bought them....

End of 2004, learning new things, thanks to X Ray !

In mid 2004 a new track opened in Klang town, the Stadium Kota Raja track.

Since it was so new, traction was very high as you can see the tar is very black. it also was a high speed track. By this time, my SV-10 Alcyon is already 4 years old and pretty long in the tooth. Just simple placing of shock clips, wasnt enough anymore, but i only found out later. My friend Ong Sun Aun with his Xray T1 Evo2 was there most of the time with me, and i found my car spun out quite easily when puching throttle out of the corners. I ran the car like that thinking its time for a new car. Then one day at OSAs house, i chanced upon his Xray Manual. Now i do admire the Xray too, and i bumped upon this little X ray T1 setup book, i asked him to lend it to me, being the curious guy i am, and took it home to read, everything about shock springs, oils camber, i knew well, but one thing in the book shocked me, something i never heard before until i set eyes on that book, TWEAK. It described a way to check if your suspension is tweaked. So i read intently and understood what needed to be done. Basically the book described the knife method of setting tweak. So i did it, and the next day tested the car at the track. This time i was a fromidable contender, it was like my SV-10 Alcyon had a new lease of life, it was totally planted, and carried a lot more speed into the corners without losing rear traction !In fact my friend Brian Tan who drove a brand new MR4TC CGM was totally amazed at the transformation, coming in every corner, i almost rear ended him, not only that, in the switchback turns, i was neck to neck with him, he couldnt lose me !

I even went up against the really good drivers and rich guys of the time, like Azhar, Leonark Kee, Azam, who came there to practice, they were using Yokomo CGMs and the new TRF415. Again, i could hang with them easily and the corner entry speed was amazing ! Azhar even came to my pit area after the bashing session, he didnt say anything about my car but he was looking at it, an obsolete car than can carry great corner speed ! But unfortunaetly, it was years later that i found out i was somewhat cheating. You see those guys race in international races, and they follow IFMAR rules, and for IFMAR rules. the rear wing must be very low, me i didnt cut my wing, thats why i could rail through the corners , as i only race occasionaly. Also, the Malaysian National Championship or MNC was very lenient on those IFMAR body rules back then until 2007, so i could get away with it. At that time, they just wanted people to race. But thats not to say the tweak setting didnt help, it helped a lot ! I actively raced my Alcyon until 2006 with its new lease of life. I did notice the limitations of this car, by 2004, all the other cars were using vertical ball studs upper links, that means their camber links can be as long as possible, and shocks could be stood more upright for better response, there were times when i feel the rear end wasnt as planted as it should be, and i had to slow down more. Maybe its just the car getting old.

one of the last races i entered the Alcyon in was the Tamiya Invitational race in this track in 2005, here is the video, i won the B main, i was only 3 seconds shy of the A main, Micheal Quek beat me with his Alex Racing Barracuda R3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe4-_b5qKbQ

Notice that Acang with his Xray T1 FK05 was catching up on me, becuase my rear end was swinging a bit, i couldnt take the corners too fast..showing the limitations of the suspension. Notice also that his car lost control at the straights and i managed to lead after that.

SV-10 Alcyon II Ultimate

This is the last production model of the Alcyon II called the Alcyon II Ultimate, it was first released in december 2001 as a conversion kit, called the ALcyon II Conversion, as you can see in the first photo. The Alcyon II Ultimate is a complete kit released in late 2002, it only ran for a few months before being superseded by the SV-10 Sigma.

I dare say its the best version of the Alcyon II to date. Here are some of the improvements done on this car over the standard Alcyon II.

1. New stick pack only chassis, more narrow than before. To me this isnt a complete improvement, i always beleive saddle packs are better, but becuase at the time, Japanese rules specify stick pack, Kawada had to go this way. I still use the original saddle pack chassis. But anyway, the new chasssis places the servo in a flipped direction, and the ESC can be placed more forward, as well as the battery. Now the car has 50-50 Front Rear balance !

2. New VOLT decks, that are not joined all the way from front to back, instead, they are seperate front and rear pieces, the rear is to hold the rear bulkhead to the upper deck, and the front is to prevent the steering bridge from rotating. This now gives the car more flex and more traction. It also helps to drastically reduce the chassis tendency to tweak in a crash, and i can swear to that !

3. New Shock towers and rear hub carriers. The rear shock towers places the inner camberlink close to center and very high up, while the rear hub carriers are lengthened upwards and the ball stud placed vertically, this is to get the longest possible camber links for the rear, to give more traction. becuase of this, the shocks can now be placed almost vertically, or horizantally, depending on the owner.

4. New front shock towers and new 5 degree c hubs. The new shock tower allows the owner to set the shocks very straight or very horizontal or anyhting in between. The new hub carrier doesnt have the little nub on it to screw the camber link horizontally, it now places the camber link directly over the kingpin, ensuring the longest possible front camber link, giving more grip and steering.

5. The front body post is mounted on the bumper and no longer on the shock towers, also the body post   is made of aluminium.

Thats all the new features, but still no threaded shock bodies? still no droop screws in the arms? Nope..

 

The SV-10 Alcyon II ONO Version

February 2001, Kawada experimented with this protoype called the SV-10 II ONO version, as you can see, it used the front arms from the RS-4 pro2, and rear buklhead from Alex Racing design CE-4. Looking at the car, i think the goal is top make the car 50-50 front rear balance, as i said earlier, the Alcyon II was 53% rear heavy with lipos, with Ni Mhs it could be as high as 57%. In this protoype, the moved the motor and batteries more forward. As you can see the two protoypes qualified 4th and 10th in the Amain in JMRCA race at the time !