I’m sorry for the lack of posts on this blog lately, PACE has been growing so fast that it is very hard to find the time to make videos and useful blog posts but I promise I am working on delivering more, soon! I’m also out of space in my current office but have a solution for that coming soon that will give me room to make videos again!
Here is my latest setting sheet for my GALM, and rather than just post the PDF file without explanation I wanted to just fire a few short words together to back it up. The file is at the bottom of this post, if you want to skip straight to that!
So let me start by saying this setup is super fun, fast enough and able to hang with anyone IMHO. It is not however my “optimum” spec GALM. I have been running GALM since they launched in October 2017 (before I was a Team WELD x Overdose driver, I will point out) and am lucky enough to have tried every option part produced for them. It is by far the longest run I’ve had with the same chassis as my main car since I started drifting a decade ago. I still absolutely LOVE my GALM!
The idea behind this spec was to mix things up a bit for me, to try some new things and keep it interesting at a time when I am only able to drift twice a month or so on average due to family and business commitments. The Transrange chassis is a real game-changer and combined with the recently arrived TC upper arm mounts I knew I was going to change my setup really soon. I wanted to get this setup down on paper (iPad) before I started off in a new direction with some testing of new theories and ideas when I installed the upper arm mounts.
So what’s unusual about this setup, and why did I make these choices?
I’m not running the Floating Motor Mount System. Why? Simply because I have run it since it was released and wanted to see how the car felt with a normal motor mount again. The result is more predictable control but a noticeable amount less acceleration out of corners and on straights. I love the FMMS, and recommend it for sure. This setup would feel better with FMMS. I just wanted to test without it again to remind me of its effectiveness.
Why not full-option? I LOVE a full option GALM, but because I have half an eye on the competition scene, I need to develop my driving for competitions. One thing that a full option car means is more weight, and weight hinders acceleration and response. Both are key for a comp chassis IMHO. The option parts I am not using have been excluded only where I could do without them – usually without affecting my ability to tune the car.
I’m using resin front upper and lower arms. I do not usually use the aluminium front upper arms because the adjustable caster the V2 version offers can be done on the aluminium front bulkhead instead. I prefer this route because it also increases front rigidity in the chassis which I can feel in the steering and suspension response. Running the aluminium upper arms and front bulkhead is more weight than is required and because they are right at the front of the chassis, any weight saving there directly translates to a more rearward weight bias which can be used to aid traction and acceleration.
I use resin rear arms on this setup, which was tough for me because I adore the Overdose version 2 rear trailing arms, and the ability to run 0, 3 or 6 degrees of trailing angle that can be used to adjust the mid-corner control and make it so easy to sit on someone’s door!
I am still using the Version 2 front knuckle and aluminium rear upright (with toe set to 2 degrees) – I don’t think I could do without either of these parts on any setup, ever!
A must have part for anyone looking to save weight is the TC front bumper, since it weighs just 5.15g including the stock screws. Changing them to shorter stainless screws got this down to 4.9g which helps with a more rearward weight bias.
I also use the Aluminium one-piece front axle (6mm version with this setup) for less rotational mass and more rigidity. This is a very underrated part! From memory, I think each axle saves around 3g and trust me – it has more impact than that small number would lead you to believe.
I switched to the resin front damper mount for this setup to save weight in a crucial area of the chassis and help with F:R bias. This is because my damper setting was using the middle hole on the aluminium version anyway so that didn’t require any additional tuning other than to compensate for the overall lower chassis weight when combined with other weight savings. The resin part weighs 6.4g and the aluminium version 13.8g. I think the next evolution of this setting will use the aluminium version again.
I am using the resin battery holder because the weight saving is huge compared to the beautiful aluminium version. I have not yet begun tuning battery height but will be very soon. I’m also still searching for some good batteries that can cope with the abuse I give them that weigh less than 150g or so.
I’m running TC suspension mounts front and rear (requires 2x packs) and they have been awesome. They are actually one of the things that made me refresh my chassis with this tune.
The rear of my chassis is essentially full-option aside from the lower arms.
I use the 18T gear for the gear drive to allow me to run higher FDR to suit the hard-surface tracks that I run on which are all small-medium sized.
I am running rear ESC using the JT rear mount which works perfectly and allows some height/position adjustments. Currently I am using the lower hole on the baseplate.
Download below!
So enough talk… here is the setup sheet. You can view it on desktop below, and download via the link underneath. If you like this setup, please tell people where to find it!