Sitting here in the Portland airport waiting to go home.
Thank you all for the good words. Guido was well received at NWSC and I was just overwhelmed with compliments. I thank everyone for taking the time to look at him and talk to me. I really enjoyed meeting some new people at this event and Lucia Falls is a beautiful place to crawl with some great terrain. Tim, John, Norm, and everyone else that put on this event did a great job.
I was really nervous about the Concourse awards this year. I knew Norm's FOJV buggy was going to give Guido a run for the money and there were several other top notch builds. I made my votes, not voting for Guido as usual, and hoped for the best. Guido placed:
2nd for Best Interior
1st for Most Unique Scale Item
1st Best of Show in Class 3
My thanks to everyone that voted and voted for Guido and I was so happy to take home the Best of Class.
The TTC was a great event! These were the most brutal courses I've ever seen. Guido was a bit outmatched for this but I went out with the plan to have fun and just do the best I could.
Frame Twister: The 4ws, width, and wheelbase worked well and we got through this with no real struggles with a good time.
Obstacle Course: The jumps looked very intimidating on this and I was first up. There was a mudhole with a sharp left hand turn into an immediate STEEP hillclimb shortly into the course. I made a couple easy tries at the climb and was going to winch when someone (SuperDave I think) said to hit it harder than that. Well, being caught up in the moment I hit the gas; Guido made it about halfway up before the front tires lifted and ended up in the mud hole upside down. I tried to winch but timed out halfway up the hill.
Hill Climb: This course started out great as the Pitbulls gripped well up the first two rises. The course then went back downhill where it snaked along the ridge going up and down the hill. I got about halfway through the course when I made a sharp right hand, downhill corner with a bit too much speed and Guido flopped over and landed on the boundary marker.
Mud Bog: I was near last in this event so I was worried about the mud getting really rutted and dug out, but it turned out that it stayed pretty even for everyone. The first trucks had to plow through some mud near the start of the course; the later trucks didn't have to deal with that but had to get through the really deep hole that got dug out at the end of the course. I hit the gas off the start to let the Pro4 eat and Guido clipped a boundary marker about 2 feet from the start. I was so bummed....Once everyone was done running I lined up again; I put that Pro4 in there and traveled a long way to throw some rooster tails and by god I was gonna get a run in that pit even if it was just for giggles. :ror: I eased into the gas this time, the Pro4 wound up, the Pitbulls were chewing up mud and spitting it out and Guido blasted through the first part of the course. Near the end the mud was over the hood and Guido sank, I worked the 4ws to find some traction, found some grip and shot out the end. WOW, that was a blast!! It would have been a good time if it counted, but it put a smile on my face just the same.
Truck Pull: This is usually Guido's go-to event. The underweighted sled was no problem as most competitors had a full pull. Tim and Dave added a bunch of railroad spikes and made the sled much heavier. The Pro4 and Pitbulls again had no problem as Guido ripped down the track. They decided to base the results on time since there were so many full pulls again and I think Guido's time was pretty competitive.
Mini Rubicon: I knew this would be Guido's weak point. Too much weight up too high and a tough rock course on an off-camber slope was just asking too much. Guido made it through a couple gates then fell off as the rear steer unsettled the weight on an off-camber rock turn. I finished right behind Difuser and made it a bit further than Norm.
Tank Trap: This thing was a sight to behold. I have never seen such a display of evil in all my days. It was so long I was afraid my batteries wouldn't last. The run started out slow as I winched down the rock face and around the first corner. I wanted to play it safe and not roll into a boundary marker, no way I was going out that easy because I know Guido has a hard time on stuff like that. After that there were two mudholes that each dropped off a waterfall, I tried to go down the carefully but rolled on the lid on each one. After that I was making good time through the course, prolly because the judge said I had 51 seconds left :ror:, I blasted through mud holes and climbed logs really well. The long wheelbase and 4ws were working great and the Pro4 was smooth and reliable. I went as far as I could until I tried to bounce over a log, the tires grabbed a rock, and the Pitbulls launched Guido over the rock and off course. Much respect to those competitors who finished the whole course, this was a tough one.
Overall I am happy with Guido's performance, the changes worked just as planned and I had no electrical or mechanical malfunctions through the whole TTC. Guido is still a very heavy rig with a pretty high CG and given that, he works pretty good and drives very similar to a 1:1. I appreciate everyone who voted him in and apologize for finishing last. Ty was very happy with the pics he was getting (except for the black paint that doesn't photograph well :ror
so maybe we will see a pic in an article in RC Driver.