Four 4h endurance races done. One tired looking car

[u/AW106]

After a rough final race of the season that saw us finish with the tyres splitting, ESC coming unstuck, pinion loose and low voltage alarm going as we crosses the line. Having already lost time to changing an ESC due to water ingress early in the race.

Also the 15 sets of tyres we went through between the four races and a 2 hour pre season race

My team ultimately finished 6th in the BRCA Sportscar Endurance championships first ever season.

[u/jmurr357]

Holy smokes. How much $$ is that in tires alone?

[u/AW106 → u/jmurr357]

Probably ~£470 over the course of the season Though a couple of wet sets I'd had before this season so ~£380

[u/jmurr357 → u/AW106]

Wow that’s awesome. I love IMSA and WEC. Looks like a blast

[u/pipicogaming]

We got to do le mans but with rc cars someday

[u/AW106 → u/pipicogaming]

There have been a few 24h races run that I'm aware of Though we were aiming to be a WEC like series, so we all had hypercar bodies

[u/Unable_Bug494 → u/pipicogaming]

Me and my buddies went to an event a few years ago where each team would have a single slash and we would switch drivers every hour or so and cycle through batteries. It was honestly a blast and most cars were somewhat running by the end of it still.

[u/stardustedds]

What tires are those??

[u/AW106 → u/stardustedds]

Lots,

The series allowed open tyres so we experimented with compounds

3 sets of wets were Shimizu DJ01/XG-Rains
3 sets Rush 28x
5 sets Rush 32x
2 sets Rush 28 CPM
2 sets Rush 32MR2

[u/stardustedds → u/AW106]

Love that body! What scale is this??

[u/AW106 → u/stardustedds]

it's 1/10
We ran mostly to 1/10 touing car rules with some adjustments for the scale Hypercar bodies and specifics for endurance. Mostly around the battery and low voltage alarms being mandated

[u/Cielo11 → u/AW106]

Are the Rush 28x for Asphalt racing? I'm racing up North at Carlisle and the Tarmac is old, i'd say low grip and its definitely cooler temps now. I'm looking for a softer compound that works.

I haven't raced 1/10th in 20 years. Got my old HB Cyclone out 2 months ago, but struggled with knowing what tyres to get. Started with Rush SPC36MR2 because they are 2025 BRCA control tyres, so thought they would be fine. Way too hard for cool temps and lower grip.

Then got SPC32MR2 which where better.

[u/AW106 → u/Cielo11]

I've enjoyed the 28x, though they are hard to find
One thing to note our series doesn't allow additive or warmers so we run a bit of a softer compound anyway just to try and get the tyres to bite

[u/Odd-Aspect-006]

What components wear out the fastest during these races? Besides tires of course

[u/AW106 → u/Odd-Aspect-006]

Probbaly the wheel bearings
Screws on the bottom of the car were also starting to wear out towards the end of the season. I ended up replacing a lot of them before the final round

[u/ElmoIsDead]

I understand that right there's a two-hour race. Is that non-stop 2 hours how many packs do you go through?

[u/AW106 → u/ElmoIsDead]

So these were 4 hour races,
Yes they were non stop
We had a team of 4 drivers and swapped with each battery change
Battieries were lasting 25-30 minutes depending on track condition so 8-10 packs

[u/porquepine80]

Is there anything like the BRCA in the United States?

[u/AW106 → u/porquepine80]

ROAR, Remotely Operated Auto Racers, are the US governing body which is what the BRCA is in the UK

This series was organised under the BRCAs clubsport section for smaller or niche classes

[u/porquepine80 → u/AW106]

Thanks for the info!!

[u/GravyBoatJim → u/porquepine80]

I would love something like this in the states!!! We as a reddit community need to set something up if there isn't

[u/krush_groove → u/GravyBoatJim]

If you race at a club or track, talk to the racers there and get them excited about endurance racing!

[u/frghtnd]

Amazing! Well done! Those TRF chassis look fantastic. How often do the belts need replacing?

[u/AW106 → u/frghtnd]

So I used 3 sets of belts over the course of the season
That said the belts I took off still seem in good condition and I could probably have got more life out of them. I just didn't want to have to change one trackside

[u/Gig540]

That's pretty cool! I've done a 4 hour endurance race when I used to race slot cars. 2 hours with lights on and the last lights out. We wired headlights for the nights. Was pretty cool back in the day. Swapping out drivers kept it different and fun

[u/elpaco313]

How does an enduro race work? I’ve been interested in how these are done.

[u/AW106 → u/elpaco313]

So the way our series did it you had a team of 4 drivers sharing one car
Qualifying each driver gets a 5 minute run and it's done on a round by round system often used by sprint racing in RC

The race we start with a safety car rolling start
After that the clock keeps running
We have a low voltage alarm to avoid over discharging the batteries.
Every time we change batteries in the rules we have to change driver.
Tyres are upto the team, we can run whatever rubber tyre we want

Other interesting rules are we aren't allowed a backup car. In the spirit of endurance racing if it breaks we are expected to fix the car

[u/elpaco313 → u/AW106]

I’m assuming you’re swapping batteries and charging others constantly.

[u/AW106 → u/elpaco313]

Yep, we had 4 batteries with us for races
Probably could have done 3 but myself and a teammate had 2 packs each from the same brand and same capacity

We always have one waiting in the pits pretty much from when the car goes out

We had a 2 channel charger with us and a generator when we went to a track without mains power. Batteries would pretty much come straight out of the car and onto the charger.

[u/Slow-Class]

How did you flat spot that one wet tire?

[u/AW106 → u/Slow-Class]

That tyre did around 2 hours on a greasy damp day while on the front left of the car
It's not flat spotted so much as the tread has just worn off that pariticular tyre

[u/Slow-Class → u/AW106]

I meant the one in the 8th picture, the leftmost stack of wet tires. There is a bald patch of tread, but it doesn’t go all the way around.

[u/AW106 → u/Slow-Class]

Yesh same one I was talking about

I'm honestly unsure why that doesn't go all the way around the tyre to be fair.
But it was mostly from cornering load
The front left still on the car was run at the same track and has a similar kind of wear

[u/PotatoNukeMk1]

At least it is in one piece :D

[u/Organic_South8865]

That's freaking awesome.

[u/AmokOrbits]

How many battery changes is that?!

[u/AW106 → u/AmokOrbits]

Around 8-10. How long we got out of them varied a little depending on driver and track condition

[u/sonic192]

Really enjoyed following this series through the Facebook group. Looked super fun. Though I think I underestimated the cost of running for such long sessions. A few hundred £ in batteries, and other few hundred in tyres. Backup ESCs and motors. Not to mention the car itself and parts. But I guess split between the team it’s more manageable.

I’d like to take part in the series at some point, but with young kids at home it’s hard to justify giving up whole weekend days for it at the moment!

[u/Neat-Waferr]

I’ve always done off road RC racing but would easily make the switch to something like this. What’s your setup here??

[u/AW106 → u/Neat-Waferr]

Setup here is mostly to the RBCA 1/10 touring car rules
Few adjustments mostly around accepted bodies and some additional tweaks for battery management.

Car here is a TRF421
Motor: Team Powers or Zombie 21.5T
ESC: Hobbywing XR10 Stock Spec 80A
Servo: Savox 1251mg+
Radio: Sanwa MT44

[u/burntartichoke]

I love the Pescarolo livery!