Share your bad luck stories

[Leet TC3]

Well, I have had a kinda bummer week at the races, and I want to feel better! :)

Last week, I was leading the A Mains with some very good drivers, and halfway thru the race a huge bug falls right on my head. Ya know, you can't really take your had off the remote to smack it off, so... I braved it out, but I lost my concentration about 30 secs later and T-boned a turn. Dang...

Today, I made the A mains again. The track was open for a practice run before they started, and I took advantage. After a few minutes, strange things started happening. ANYTIME I applied a little throttle coming out of a turn I would spin 360's.

Took the TC3 back to the pit and frantically tried to find out *** was wrong. Drive train seemed fine, diff seemed fine, all CVD's in place. I noticed my engine cam had worked loose, maybe that was it. Or maybe all I needed was to replace my tires. Did as much work as I could, but the race started and I couldn't make turns without spinning out. REALLY frustrating, the guy who won was somebody I had beaten in the heats...

Race being over, take my car back to the pits to see if I could pinpoint the problem. Took the rear wheels off, removed shocks, pulled out CVD's to check the diff. All looked ok, started to put rear suspension back, and I noticed my right rear A arm would not go all the way down. A freakin' pebble had lodged itself between the A arm and the chassis! Think of the odds! I essentially had no suspension in my rear right wheel, kinda like having a droop of about 15.

Dang...

Let's hear your stories. Make me feel better. :) :D

[Obi112]

Two weeks ago, in the second qualifier, I ran into the pipes and stripped my servo. I didn't have a spare, but luckily someone lent me one.

Last week, in the A-main, I clipped a wooden board that supports a jump and it knocked off my front wheel, both of the bearings, of the locknut. One lap in. So I was sidelined for a few days while ordering parts.

Those are my only track woes. Dirt must be a lot more forgiving than a concrete parking lot, because I'd break something every time out in the lot. Four times to the track and I only stripped a gear and lost a bearing and locknut.

PS: I just jinxed myself there. Next time at the track I'll probably break everything imaginable.

[tc3guy]

Just today I was soldering my battery discharger and I stopped paying attention to what I was doing for about a 1/2 second and heard this sizzling and a peircing pain it was my finger being burned by my soldering iron! That hurt so badly :mad: . Right now I have about a half inch in diameter white circle of burned skin on my finger. Also today I was taking apart one of my shocks and all of the sudden the plastic E clip flew somewhere that was un-known to me at the time. I spent at least a 1/2 an hour on the floor looking for it :mad: .

[ 07-15-2001: Message edited by: tc3guy ]

[Leet TC3]

I feel your pain. I soldered my thumb about a month ago, and it only just now has completely healed.

And you were lucky with your e clip. The law of the universe states that the chance of a part vanishing when hitting the ground(as in, sucked into the earth and/or vaporized) is a direct function of the rarity and critical need of the part.

[TeamSin]

There's nothin funny about money.... except maybe this.

One of my LHS's have a weekly race with the Tamiya TL01 chassis. I'm pretty much an off-road racer but I've had an itch for a little on-road racing. I thought; "Cool I can pick up a kit for $100 and I wont have to buy anything but a couple of stock servos to race the stock class. So I save my money and I got a kit and some servos. Im thinkin "This is great I only spent $130 and Im ready to race, just have to put it together. I get home and start to put the car together and my JR XR3 takes a crap on me. So the next day I go and buy a KO Propo EX-1. Im like "cool Im ready now". I put it together and gave it a test run and it runs better than I thought it would with a MSC and a 540 motor. So Im happy right? :D Wrong :mad: I get inside mask off my body (Ive always wanted to paint a trick sedan body) I breack out the airbrush, start painting the first color and BAM :mad: My airbrush takes a crap on me so I had to go out and get new one.

So all in all I ended up spending $500 more than I thought I would on this "cheap" idea. The good news is that I have brand new equipment thats a whole lot better and Im having a blast with my new car. :)

[XXXER]

I once broke my car in half, well, I have twice, but I will only tell you about the front end collision.

My friend came to visit me that lived about 6 hours away, and just recently got into RC, wanted nothing else, but to race at the RC track. He has a prettys sweet modified, and seeing as how I have not had a mod for a looong time, I wanted to get in on that action. So, i was just practicing, and my car was set-up for stock, and more low speed steering, and that motor wanted the back end to go all over the place, and especially in the back straight... I figured i was in no mood to tune, only to change it back when racing started, so i dealt with it. Well, feeling confident, I strapped it in the back straight, and turned, the rear would have definately hit the wall, so I counter-steered, only to have my tires grab, and hit, square on into the brick wall. I saw the front end of my buggy shoot up into the air. A broken chassis, and body.

Few cuss words later, I went to see what they had in stock, only Graphite chassis', that cost, oh, you know, 50 bucks. I called my pop's, and told him what happened, he came out, and saved me, but I have to pay him back. I missed the first qualifier, and got my car together for the second qual.

My car is noticably now lighter, and stiffer. I can tell the difference, and it is a better kind of different.

[evictus]

How about this one?

I went to my L.H.S. weekly race with my buddy because he wanted to race his t-maxx om the t-maxx only class(keep in mind that this is a parking lot track.) So just for fun i brought my rs4 rally. I put on some proline v-rage tires but forgot to put the foam bumper on all it had was the stock kick up. Well anyways in the pratice i was going down the finall strait and i gunned it the only trouble was that the 1700 didn't have enouph power and my esc gave the engine all the battery had left and nothing for the servo's so my car flew into the boards i woud estimate that the right front tire went at least 5 feet in the air and rolled back to me at the drivers stand every body there who witnessed the carnage couldn't help but laugh :D

When i arrived on the seen i couldn't believe my eyes the chassis had litterally broke in half rigt befor the front drive assembly i have broken the shock shaft. both of the a-arms and the dog bone was bent beond all recognition and the wheel assembly had given(letting my wheel go flying). :eek:

Oh well that is what i get for wanting to race in the modified touring class and not even take the time to install a foam bumper LOL.

I still had fun watching the other racers but i was sidelined because i hadn't brought enouph of the spare parts needed to fix my car.

[1 Krazy Foo]

Wow your stories make mine look like a fun day at the races. ;)

On July 1st of this year we had a race at a park. There was hardly anybody that showed up so we just messed around with all sorts of different cars on the track. I had my legend and it decided to be a little snot. The front left tire just kept rollin' on past my car.... several times. I couldnt get the nut to stay even with locktite. Then the motor decided to quite on me, it over heated to the point of both wires coming off. :mad: I was so mad

I also kept bending axels there for awhile. That was weird, I never really hit anything or crashed and I bent 2 axels while a guy I race with hits the cement curb, lets other people drive and crash and the only thing wrong with his car is the body is beat up

[tadium54]

That really hurts when your car bails on you. Try having a servo's mounting hole brak in half. That is really annoying. Another thing that is anoying is one of my balls on my stering servo keep coming loose every time i drive it. I literally used a bolt to put it in though, and now it is very strong!

[clancy]

tc3guy that was a suberb description, you should be a writer, I cant get that thought of you soldering yourself out of my mind. Well done. (and sorry about the bad luck).
:p

[Artur]

I was second in B-main at HPI challange in Englishtown NJ. I cracked the arm on the turn and that cost me 3rd place. Then my car lost a wheel and I finished 7th. I was close. I am still proud of myself couse it was the first time I attended a real race. :)

[combones]

I didn't get a TC3 for my birthday. http://www.plauder-smilies.com/party/drinka.gif