selection of their vented, hard-steel clutch
bells, so I installed a 13-tooth unit and adjusted the gear mesh. The truck accelerated
much more briskly with the gearing change,
but it continued to gain speed when it
approached the end of the straightaway. I’d
have to install a 12-tooth clutch bell, or [God
forbid] install a bigger spur gear, to get it
geared perfectly to this track.
CONSISTENT BRAKES
The brakes took a little tweaking to get them to
operate to my liking, but once they were set, I
never had to fiddle with the brake linkages
again. I set the brake bias to provide a 30/70
front-to-rear ratio to help the truck turn in more
aggressively. Tapping on the brakes got the
rear end to brake free, which allowed me to
toss the truck into the corners. I had to rely on
the brakes quite heavily to slow down at the
end of the straightaway, and when preparing to
enter tight corners, the brakes felt consistent
and I didn’t experience even a hint of fading.
NEUTRAL STEERING
The truck transitioned well through the switchback turns, and it had more than enough
steering at slower speeds. I noticed a slight
push under power, but it wasn’t so bad that I
couldn’t compensate for it with some creative
driving. The push actually makes the truck
easier to drive in the hands of new racers, but
experts will definitely exploit the truck’s suspension-tuning ability to make it feel more
responsive to steering inputs.
SWAYBARS ARE A GODSEND
A simple swaybar adjustment made a world of
difference in handling. I loosened up the front
swaybar and tightened up the rear in an effort
to gain more steering through the technical
sections of the track. The truck seemed to
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rotate better through the turn, and the rear
end remained planted even when I got back
on the throttle to exit the corner. I was able to
keep it closer to the pipes and put in faster
laps after adjusting the swaybars.
DAMAGE CONTROL
Before long, I had the Matrix TR FRE making
consistent laps around the track, but one section gave me fits on every lap. The rhythm
section that wrapped around a pair of switchback turns was extremely hard to negotiate.
After I had flipped the truck onto its lid dozens
of times, I finally resorted to just taking it slow
around that particular obstacle. After burning
through a gallon of fuel, I had the track down,
and I felt comfortable enough to race the
truck. I decided to inspect it before calling it a
day. Everything was tip-top, except I had lost
an E-clip on each of the outer front hingepins.
