Reflex Racing RX505 + GL Racing GLR-GT at the Brooklyn Hobbies NYC Mini-Z Track

Recently I got to visit a Mini-Z track to practice driving and test my cars again. In this video I'll share my experience of my visit and look at how my cars performed this time. That yellow Jomurema on the track was my GLR-GT.

I decided to take public transportation to get to the track this time. Of course, I picked a rainy day to do so. It took about 70 minutes to arrive at Brooklyn Hobbies, the top Mini-Z destination in NYC.

Last year I shared a video about my first visit here. In the basement of the hobby store is this ultra high grip RCP track. Please note this was not my car or my driving! On this particular track day, my main objective was testing my GLR-GT with the RX505 tri-damper upgrade. Because I'm still a novice driver, my goal has been about making my cars easier to drive.

I brought two cars with me. On the left was a GLR under a McLaren 12C body. The other was the GLR-GT with a yellow blob of a body. The GLR-GT was now equipped with the RX505 tri-damper setup with stock springs. Front was using GLA's long shock tubes with short purple springs. Front knuckles were -1 degree camber with a slight toe out. Front tires were PN KS medium, and in the back were Marka V1R05. The car used A06CLS servo, GL 1.2 ESC and Surpass 3500kv motor.

The GLR was closer to stock. It's running -1 front camber with purple springs. Stock springs in the rear with heavily greased side dampers with metal pistons. Tires were PN KSM soft front, and KS super soft radial rear.

This was the first run of the day for the GLR-GT. It started with a different tire setup. It was running PN KSM soft front and 14mm PN KSM super soft radial. This was the setup I had last year too. I was by no means a fast driver, but I could certainly say on this day I did my best driving ever. Pretty much immediately I felt the effect of RX505 on the handling of the car. It was much more stable compared to stock.

As I gained confidence and pushed the car a bit harder, it became apparent there was a serious traction rolling problem. I would do a fair bit of consistent driving. The car stayed out of the walls and out of the way for other drivers. I learned from observing other drivers what lines to take, when to ease off on throttle, etc. But due to a combination of driver error and tuning issues, the end of the straight was a real challenge. The car wasn't going fast enough to experience this kind of traction rolling, so there's definitely room for improvement.

This became a durability test. The Jomu body held up 100%.

With some research and also chatting with Eugene, there are several ways to alleviate traction rolling. First, I need to practice more and improve throttle control. I need to learn to enter corners better. Front tires should be cut down more and trued. CA glue should be applied to the tire walls to stiffen them. It might be worthwhile to try flanged rims as well. Lowering CG further could help too, such as by lowering the ride height and perhaps replacing the plastic windows on the body. Decreasing tire traction might be necessary too, at least for my current skill level anyway.

This was my walk of shame here.

All in all I had a ton of fun! I met new people and learned more about setting up my cars for the track. I also set my personal best lap time today (6.279s)!

So let's summarize what I learned from the track day. The tri-damper suspension setup on the GLR-GT, using the Reflex Racing's RX505 conversion kit, made a huge positive difference. If you have a GLR-GT but don't plan to buy the new GTR chassis, RX505 or the upcoming MWX's shock relocation kit is worthwhile. The car was powering out of corners aggressively that it hadn't been able to do safely in the past. The car also accelerated at the straight reliably. I was able to increase my throttle endpoint as the day went by.

On this track for this car, PN KS medium narrow worked great at the front. Marka's 11mm V1R05 slick tires provided plenty of traction from the back. I learned that unless I'm running with way more power, lexan bodies, or on a larger track, 14mm rear tires are not necessary. I switched to these 11mm tires during the day and never went back to 14mm. 14mm tires are still great for messing around at home though.

And yes as mentioned earlier, there's no doubt about the performance of the Jomurema GT-01 body. It was clear the car was easier to drive with this body compared to the edgier and lighter McLaren 12C autoscale body.

I hope you found this video useful! This is part of my 1:28 RC journey. I'm looking forward to improving my driving more and also setting up the car better for next time. Reducing traction roll tendency is clearly the new focus.

This is Sammy and thanks for watching! The channel reached 1000 subscribers recently. Thank you everyone for subscribing!

Music: "Journey to the Stars", Savfk (   • Journey to the Stars by Savfk [CC-BY royal...  )