 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
This is my new Serpent 710 to replace my Impulse Pro, the quality of the Impulse was very good but
the 710 is definitely an improvement with all the parts assembling without the need to hand fit components.
The car has been designed with ease of maintenance in mind which was'nt the Impulses's strongest point,
the most obvious visible changes are the layed down steering servo and adjustable rear top link, but as
you look closer your discover a whole lot more which we'll examine below.
Theoretically the front and rear diffs should come out with the removal of just 4 screws, in practice
this is'nt the case, for the front your'll need to remove the shock tower and slacken off one of the
bulkheads and for the rear your'll need to remove the shock tower and back plate, this allows the
top links to slide out enabling you to release the diff. The front diff is supplied as a one-way as
standard but with the simple addition of 2 pins and a aluminium retaining collar it can be converted
to a solid diff which is both very simple and clever, there is also an optional ball diff available
with an adjustable slip ring to enable adjustments to suit track conditions (no more messy diff fluid).
The rear is also a ball diff with an adjustable slip ring, both the front and rear can be adjusted
without removing the diffs from the car, the other usefull feature on both the front and rear diffs
is the offset bearing collars that enable belt tension adjustments by simply rotating the collars,
this really aid trackside adjustments, maintenance and tuneability.
Two other usefull features are the adjustable roll centres front & rear and the Dynamic Rear Wheel
Steering (DRS). The adjustable roll centres effectively alters the centre of gravity of the car which
affects how much the chassis will roll while cornering, this enables you to tune the level of grip
for a given wheel, it also affect the camber change as the suspension moves through it's travel. Both
the front and rear roll centres are relatively easy to change which reduces the amount of time that
the car is off the track. The DRS is quite a unique feature that alters toe-in/out as the suspension
is loaded. The DRS link is a seperate arm to the lower rear wishbone that attaches to the same upright
as the wishbone, the inner pivot point has 3 mounting positions which are lower, level and upper. With
the pivot set level the DRS remains neutral with no affect on toe-in/out, in the lower position as the
suspension loads the amount of toe-in will increase, this aids stability on the straights, improved
traction in slow corners but less stable under braking. In the upper position the wheel will start
to toe-out more as the suspension is loaded, this gives improved high speed steering, improved stability
under braking but less stable under acceleration, as with all adjustments they are a compromise!
The gear pitch has been decreased by using 0.8 pitch gears which make the transmission smoother,
it has also allowed the use of larger spur gears to reduce the drive ratio. Both the new Centax III
clutch and the new lightened gearbox have been developed especially for the 710 rather than adapted
from components used in other cars in the Serpent range, this means the components are significantly
lighter than the parts used on the Impulse Pro and 705, the affects are instantly noticeable when the
car accelerates.
