Review - 1/10 SR10 RTR Dirt Oval Car - Part Two - Hitting the Track

Okay let's head to the track!

Funny enough our track the “Silver Dollar R/C Raceway” is located just a few hundred feet away from a proper full-size dirt oval track. Oval racing is a popular sport in our area, so it's only fitting that our R/C track has one of the nicest bank dirt oval tracks around.

The Challenge...

When we got to the track, it was hot, dry, dusty, and windy, and the track surface was far from ideal.

A crew of guys maintains the track during race days by blowing off the dust and keeping it wet, but that is not today. That's not going to stop us, and we still put down some laps, which proved highly challenging.

I made the bonehead move of using a 3-cell LiPo which is just way too much power. However, when we put some water down on the track, the car handled a little better.

The Solution???

I want to take out the 3S battery and put in a slower 2S.
I want to turn off the DVC gyro to see how much that's helping us.

After those changes, we got back on the track, and it was obvious the DVC helped more than I want to admit, and the car was even more challenging to drive because we didn't have the traction levels we needed.

We could turn the DVC back on and even turn it up higher, but we're not going to. Instead, we want to set up the car better. Thankfully we ran into the guy to help us out.

The Guy!

Brett and Kevin

So, we're out here at the Silver Dollar R/C raceway with Kevin, who manages and maintains our facilities. He puts on all the races and is super knowledgeable with all things racing and oval cars.

BRETT: Thank you for joining us.

KEVIN: Yeah, glad to be a part of it.

BRETT: What do you think of the SR10?

KEVIN: I think it's awesome - it's a neat concept. It's something that oval tracks can adopt and bring into their program as a spec-type mobile class. It keeps the cost down and what's really good about it is you can pop a bank and trade paint without tying up wheels on each other. You get out there with sprint cars; they got open wheels they don't touch or trade paint very well. This one, you can bump someone from the back, you can get bumped from the back, you can go from the side without tying up wheels. I think it will be a really good intro spec stock or street stock class for oval tracks.

BRETT: So, we've put this on the track in its box stock form, and it was a bit of a handful to drive. You just mentioned that we have quite a bit of rubbing here on our outside.

KEVIN: That will pinch the wheel down, but I'm sure that's just a body adjustment.

BRETT: It's stopping the tire, though.

KEVIN: Yeah, because the track is bumpy, the tire's going to bottom out, hit that wheel well, pinch it, and make it bind, and possibly do weird things. The nice thing about the car is it comes with the ability to adjust the ride height on the front. So we'll space it up one, and it'll probably do good. It looks like it has just a touch of rub here, nothing bad, nothing that horrible. Another thing we could play a little with is the camber. The car is really nice. It's got adjustable turnbuckles so you can lean the tire in certain directions to help preset the tire for the banking angle because we have banking in all of our tracks here.

BRETT: So, is there a general shock or diff setup? I'm primarily interested in the diff because it is really loose. It's just got grease in it, so I want to put something in there that's proper. I'm not sure about the shocks, though.

KEVIN: I think it's a gear diff. I'm pretty sure it is. That's going to make it twitchy and hard to drive off-center with that frame and diff. For the diff fluid, I would do anything from 7,000 to 15,000. You can try that; it would be a good thing to do. You can play with spring tensions on the front and the left rear and offset a little weight in the car to help. You can add more control through certain parts of the car by extending the shock shafts or something like that. With minor adjustments, you can make the car handle and get around the track a lot better.

BRETT: So, what do you recommended for tires? What should we try out here?

KEVIN: I've got a set of tires you can try. I think these are 12mm hex tires. I've got a set of JConcepts Sprinter’s. We could put a set on, and I guarantee the car will get along on the track a lot better.

BRETT: Yeah, let's try it.

KEVIN: We can play with the spring tensions and raise this, so the tire doesn't rub. Maybe the new tires will just clear in the body a little bit better, but let's do all that.

BRETT: Thanks for the great SR10 tips, Kevin!

We are getting the right parts for our SR10!

Okay, we bought some parts to get us better prepared to race the SR10. We have tires; we have the two front JConcepts Sprinter's in blue compound and the green rear Sprinter's, we have B6 wheels to match, and lastly, we're going to change the diff fluid. This fluid is 10k—we didn't buy this. It's a loaner that we got from somebody else.

JConcepts Sprinter 2.2" 2WD Front Dirt Oval Tires JCO3134-01

JConcepts Sprinter 2.2 2WD Rear Dirt Oval Tires 3133-r2

JConcepts Sprinter 2.2" 2WD Rear Dirt Oval Tires JCO3133-R2

Team Associated 12mm Hex 2.2 Front Buggy Wheels 9690

Team Associated 12mm Hex 2.2" Front Buggy Wheels ASC9790

Team Associated 12mm Hex 2.2 Rear Buggy Wheels 9695

Team Associated 12mm Hex 2.2" Rear Buggy Wheels ASC9795

Race Day Saturday!!!

Now it's the next day and we have completely reworked our car with new tires, 10k diff fluid, the body has been raised one hole on the mounts, and we geared up four teeth larger on the pinion for a 22 tooth to use on 2S.

Sadly, today has a few issues: I have no camera operator to get cool shots, and I'm only using this GoPro on my head. Second, the winds out here are almost 30 miles an hour, and that's a serious issue. The winds are blowing dust in our eyes and most cars are parachuting off the track after they jump.

We had the wind direction cause us to understeer in corners one and two but caused oversteer in corners three and four. So, on one half of the oval, the car was very stable and easy to push hard, and on the other half, the car was a little sketchy. We tried to compensate on the steering wheel, and that made for some very spirited driving.

Summary

Overall, vehicle performance improved by our upgrades. Even in these winds, we could confidently push the SR10 through the turns. We even had a bunch of guys demo the SR10 to get their thoughts, and no one seemed disappointed, except for the fact that the wind caused us to cancel the race—which is rare.

It was a great time, though, and that dirt oval is fun and challenging. Even though it looks easy when you've never done it—I'm guilty of thinking that.

We can see the SR10 being a great platform to start with and a great spec class for racetracks to keep an even playing field. I think the SR10 could be awesome on the pavement too, just swap out these tires, and we'll be ready to do some good old parking lot oval racing. It doesn't get much simpler than that.

Silver Dollar Raceway

Watch Brett's Review

Review SR10 Dirt Oval Car Review

Watch the SR10 Street Stock Dirt Oval R/C Car from Team Associated review on our YouTube channel, and while you're there, be sure to check out more new product review videos.