Florian Joos Xray T4 2018 DHI Cup Race report and Set up

The DHI cup is the traditional season opener for 1/10 scale touring cars. It is a really nice event held in Odense, Denmark, not too far from the German border. The DHI cup started in 2001 and was initially only a touring car race. From 2012 onwards, 1/10th scale offroad cars compete on a different track in the same massive hall.


The touring track had a very flowing layout with low kerbs. Although the carpet wasn’t ETS carpet, the traction was very good. I found the LRP CPX 22 spec tyres not too bad either, although some of the top drivers complained about inconsistency between the two sets you could use.

Florian started in both modified and stock with the Xray T4 2018. We decided to use the optional Xray Aluminium flex chassis combined with the 1.6 top deck for both classes. We knew that we wouldn’t be that competitive in the beginning when the grip was low, but hoped to improve the results from the second qualifier onwards.

With this information in the back of his mind, Florian started the practices with a different mindset and just concentrated on getting to know the track layout and the grip level of the tires work.

Touring Stock

After the free practice Florian was in P25. After the training session he improved to P20, so our plan seemed to work. The car was getting better and better. The Xray team members were really helpful and we talked to Mike Gosvig and Marcus and Per Hellquist about setup Thanks to their help we managed to improve the setup even more.

The biggest change was to remove the long bolt in the motor flex mount and only use 2 screws (as you can see in the final setup below). Florian was really delighted with his pace as he got two P11 positions during qualifying. In Q4 the car was really formidable and he got a P9 and set his fastest lap-time as well. This gave Florian a P14 overall, with which he was extremely happy.

The finals however were not so good. In B1 his car was almost perfect. Florian was running in P3 with Tony Streit (a former ETS winner and regular ETS A-main finisher) hot on his heels. Florian was able to stay close to the guys in front and keep Tony behind him. Coming out of the chicane before the rostrum on lap 15, Tony tried to out accelerate Florian, but accidentally hit him hard from behind. Tony waited for Florian to recover and let him retake his position, but his car was tweaked too badly and he had a DNF.

Unfortunately the bad luck continued, B2 was even worse as Florian was hit on lap 2 and had a body tuck. He didn’t give up and fought hard to come back, but he had a body tuck again on the next lap, which ended his race. He was really disappointed because the car was so good to drive now. Before the race, Per Hellquist, Marcus’s dad, told us Florian’s car had way too much steering on corner entry and that he couldn’t get fluidly round the corners. It was as if Florian steered into the corner and then had to get on and off his steering wheel to get round it.

We decided before B2 to lengthen the front wheelbase by 1mm (it was at the shortest position). We also added 1mm shim on the steering arm to keep the Ackerman setting and readjusted the downstop in the front. Knowing that his car was very good now, he wanted to do his utmost in B3. Florian had a bit of luck when the leader crashed out, but he took the lead and kept it until the end! He was extremely happy with that result.

Rank	Final	DRIVER	Model
1	A	Patrick Folman
2	A	Tim Benson
3	A	Frederik Broløs Mikkelsen XRAY T4 18
4	A	Helge Johannessen
5	A	Kevin Nielsen	XRAY T4 18
6	A	Steven M. Olsen	XRAY T4 18
7	A	Mike Gosvig	XRAY T4 18
8	A	Moritz Flügge
9	A	Oliver Havránek	XRAY T4 18
10	A	Patrick Danielsen
11	B	Lukas Ellerbrock
12	B	Tony Streit
13	B	Merlin Depta
14	B	Björn Christiansen
15	B	Henrik Heitsch
16	B	Florian Joos	XRAY T4 18
17	B	Daniel Horn
18	B	Stefan Finnich
19	B	Morten Iversen
20	B	Caspar Morgen

Set-up

Here is the set-up we used. 

The things we changed to keep his car competitive:

• Training 1
•  Droop 5.6 front and 4.6 rear
• Rear toe-in 3 degrees
• Diff oil 5000
• Wheelbase shortest position at the front
• Ackerman shim 0,5mm
• Bittydesign M410 lightweight body
• Qualifier 1
•  Droop 5.8 front and 4.8 rear,
• Qualifier 2
•  Rear toe in 2.5 degrees
• Qualifier 3 
•  Ultra light weight Bittydesign M410 body, to get more corner speed under high grip conditions
• B2
•  lengthen front wheelbase by 1mm and 1mm Ackerman shim

Ideally I think he should have started with a carbon chassis and change to an aluminium chassis before the last practice. I also should have gone up in diff oil in Q4 and perhaps have reduced the rear toe in to 2 degrees as well.

Touring modified

This was more or less the same scenario as in stock. After free practice Florian was in P30. After the timed training in P22 and after the qualifiers in P16. Before Q4 we changed the screws of the motor flex mount and only used the rear 2 screws instead of the front 2. This was a tip Mike Gosvig gave us, and it made the car great to drive. Florian managed to scrape 2 seconds off his best time and finished in P11 in that final. This allowed him to take P16 overall, again his best performance in such a strong field.

The start of B1 was hectic, but he managed to finish in P4. B2 saw a clean start, and Florian was running in P3 for a while with Simon Kurzbuch, the 2014 1/8 scale World Champion on his heels. Florian made a mistake and had to let Simon go by, and finished P4 again.

The mechanic working hard

B3 was not so good, although the car was now great to drive. We put a 1.4 rear stabiliser on the car instead of a 1.5 and increased the diff to 7000 (from 5000). This made the car easier to drive, especially on corner entry, where previously it was twitchy. Florian only finished P8 due to some crashes, but set his personal best laptime.

Final Set-up

Mod set-up

Overall I Florian was very happy with his result. The Xray T4 2018 is a great car to drive and responds extremely well to setup changes. He is really looking forward to his next races.

Florian was also impessed by Oliver Havranek, a young driver who is only 12 years old. He not only made the A main in stock, but also in modified! Big thumbs up to Olli!

A great weekend's racing

David Joos