Product Showcase: Usukani Front Bulkhead for Sakura D4

Usukani has released several great upgrade parts for the Sakura D4 in the past several months. One great part that seems to have gone unnoticed by many is the Front Bulkhead. It is a great mod, and provides multiple benefits to the the D4 chassis.

Product Showcase: Usukani Rear Shaft Conversion Kit for Sakura D4

There is no doubt that the 3 Racing Sakura D4 has taken off since it was introduced. The same can be said for Usukani. This young brand has gained interest and momentum worldwide in a short amount of time. They have put a lot of focus on the Sakura D4 and are delivering unique upgrades for this popular chassis. Usukani's latest and most significant upgrade to date is the Rear Shaft Conversion Kit for the Sakura D4. They are producing it in Pink, Black, Silver, Yokomo Blue, and Red. The USA pricing on this little gem is a mere $78.

This kit is very comprehensive, and replaces the entire rear drive section and bulkhead on the D4.

It comes packaged neatly, and protects the finish on all the parts nicely.

Sakura D4: Suspension Blocks and Rear Lower Arms

A lot of time has been spent de-anodizing (pink) and polishing aluminum parts on this chassis, and hopefully this will be the last batch for a while. It is really time consuming.

I would have done these mods earlier, but had to wait for some of the parts to be in stock. The suspension blocks are from 3 Racing and the rear arms are Yeah Racing D3 arms. As mentioned in an earlier post, I like the D3 arms because of the narrower track compared to the D4 arms, giving a little more adjustment range by using spacers and/or wheel offset. This is a short term solution while I am waiting for Usukani to release their new rear arm design. Hopefully soon...

Sakura D4 + Usukani + Punisher S13 @ Tri Acres

I have been posting about my D4 RWD recently with all the Usukani parts installed, and have been talking about how I am loving the way the car runs. Finally I got a chance to put together some video of it in action at Tri Acres RC Drift Circuit. Here it is in the current state of tune.

Sakura D4: New Dampers, Aluminum Parts, New Gyro, and New Screws

I've really been enjoying the D4 so far, and the more I work with it, the more I like it. 3 Racing made a nice step forward over the D3 and now that factory upgrades are starting to filter through the pipeline, essential upgrades can be completed.

The first order of business is taking care of my main gripe with the stock chassis... steering wipers.

Product Showcase: Usukani Tube Style Turnbuckles

One of the interesting products offered by Usukani are these neat tube style turnbuckles. They come in several standard lengths; 23mm, 27mm, 33mm, and 39mm. They also come in the following colors; Pink, Purple, Red, Gold, Tamiya Blue, Yokomo Blue, Silver, and Black. They have internal threads that work with plastic rod ends. Usukani recommends using them with Yokomo rod ends, but I was able to make them work just fine with my 3 Racing parts. I think they will work with other brands as well, but I have not been able to test them personally.

I chose the 39mm Silver version for my Sakura D4 rear upper turnbuckles. As you can see in the comparison with the stock turnbuckle assembly there is plenty of thread engagement, and adjustment range. They should be very strong, too. The turnbuckles can be adjusted with a 5.5mm tool, on the flats, or there are a couple of small holes through the middle that a small hex tool can be used in. There is also an identifying band machined in one end to designate left-handed threads, making it easy to know which way to adjust them.

The Usukani tube style turnbuckles add a nice extra bit of style and functionality to your drift chassis. They should look really good once I have some more aluminum upgrades on my own chassis.

Usukani D4 Carbon Option Set: Completed Chassis Gallery

As promised, here is a gallery of the completed Usukani Sakura D4 Carbon Option chassis set. I really love the look of the black version. It matches great with the de-anodized aluminum parts and I almost don't want to finish adding the electronics.

Before I assembled it though, I took steps to keep it looking good...

Usukani D4 Cabon Option Set: Overview and Detailed Pics

Usukani recently released their carbon option set for the 3 Racing Sakura D4. It's available in either black or silver carbon. Both look great, and I chose black for my build. The set includes the main chassis, upper deck, front and rear shock towers, front bumper support, rear battery mount, and a spur gear holder.

The main chassis looks really nice, with a good carbon pattern. It has nice styling with some relief cuts in various spots on the bottom of the chassis. It is 3mm thick vs. the 2.5mm thickness of the stock chassis. The machining is clean and consistent, and all the countersinks are nicely done.

Sakura D4: Smoothing Up the Drivetrain and D3 Rear Arm Swap

The D4 has been a solid runner so far, but that doesn't mean I should stop trying to improve on it a bit. Like everyone else, I have been waiting for 3 Racing to finally release their upgrade parts for the D4. I desperately want to replace the plastic steering arms with some aluminum parts. I'll probably try out some of the rear suspension mods that they have coming as well. In the mean time, I did a few mods with some parts that are already available.

The Punisher Comes out at Night...

Took the Punisher S13 to the track for a little night drift session this past Sunday.  It sits on the new Sakura D4 chassis, which I am still enjoying and tuning.  It made it through the maiden voyage with only a couple of bumper scuffs from some wall taps.  It looks pretty menacing at night.

My buddy Patrick shot a little bit of video and put together a short clip of it in action.  The backfire unit looks awesome at night!

PiPES Backfire Unit

I recently purchased a PiPES backfire unit, and really love this thing.

They can be purchased in a variety of configurations as single or dual exhaust, and include a pair of red LED functioning brake lights.  I chose a 12mm single exhaust for my soon to be completed S13 project.

The way it works is pretty awesome...

Sakura D4: Steering and Suspension Mods

As of right now, 3 Racing has not released any upgrade parts for the D4. But that doesn't mean some simple improvements can't be done in the mean time. I noticed that the center link in the steering has some flex as the angles get closer to full lock. It would have been nice if 3 Racing made a straight link for the RWD kits, but I am sure that keeping parts to a minimum is what helps keep cost down. Another problem with the center link is that it is a fixed length, so Ackermann cannot be adjusted. I made a center link out of two Sakura shock ends and incorporated an adjustable turnbuckle.

You have to make a little room for it first...

Sakura D4: Got lock?

I really like the design of the D4 overall, but as I have mentioned earlier, I feel like the front lower arms are just a little too big in diameter.  The insides of the wheels hit at full lock, and can stop the wheel rotating, inducing a spin.  I was able to gain a little more by adding 7mm hexes and 1mm spacers to get some decent angle, but the wheel still hit pretty easily.

Here is what it looks like with the wide hexes.  Not bad, but the wheel is hitting the y-arm at this point.

Sakura D4: Dialing in the Setup

I was able to spend a day running the D4 at the local track, and do some tuning.  I posted a video a few days ago, and some people were interested in the setup.  I didn't start with exactly the settings in the manual, based on my experience with tuning for our local track.  The Surface is epoxy, and is fairly smooth.  It compares favorably with polished concrete.  We have found that this surface requires a very balanced setup overall.  Here is what I started with:

First up, corner weights.  This chassis balances very well and comes out nearly perfect L/R balance with only 2 grams difference.  With a 5300 battery mounted in the middle of the chassis (standard) the rear weight is almost 57 percent.  This had me a little nervous at first because our track has favored 50 percent rear weight setups so far.  Keep in mind that these weights are with the body on.

Next up, Alignment:

Sakura D4: First day on track

Our local track was open yesterday and I was able to get the D4 out for it's first test.  Things did not go very smoothly at first, as I was fighting a car that seemed erratic and did not handle well.  Several changes made it better, but far from good.  Then, a breakthrough... the gyro started freaking out and the steering servo started moving on it's own.  The Yeah Racing gyro apparently was not working; possibly from the beginning.  I had a spare MST gyro in my box and switched over to that.  Suddenly the car was transformed.  It was pretty balanced and hooked up, only requiring a few more changes for good results.  I will be doing a few more tweaks to get it dialed all the way in, and plan on publishing my setup info in the blog soon.  But I left yesterday feeling pretty good with the progress.  This is a solid chassis out of the box.

Here is some video with the progress of yesterday's tuning:

Sakura D4: Chassis Detail Shots

Snapped a few detail pics of the competed 3 Racing Sakura D4 roller.  I really like the look of the natural aluminum over the pink.

More Pics...

Sakura D4: Build Tips

Having finished up the 3 Racing Sakura D4 build, I thought I would share a few tips that could help the build and setup process go a little smoother.

The single biggest tip I can give is to buy a 3mm (M3 x 0.5)tap and use it everywhere that a 3mm screw needs to screw into a plastic part.  The only exceptions would be where the droop screws go on the control arms and the screws that hold the battery retainer plate (the one that swings away for loading the battery).  For the rest, pre-threading the holes will help the assembly process go much smoother, and you will be able to more accurately tighten the screws.  This helps prevent stripping the plastic by accident and rounding out the hexes in the screw heads.

Next...

Project Sakura D4: Intro and Unboxing

After a longish wait (choose the free shipping option...) my 3 Racing Sakura D4 combo arrived from RCMart.  The combo included a nice RC OMG servo, Yeah Racing gyro, and NOS bottle balance weight.  Not bad for $159 shipped.

I really like the overall design of the D4, and from the pre-production pics that 3 Racing released, I think that it will have a lot of potential.  I plan to do a series of posts that detail my build and show some key areas of detail.  Initially I want to stick with stock components, and demonstrate that you can build a nice car out of the box using some craftsmanship and attention to detail.  Just because it is a "cheap" kit, doesn't mean that is will drift like one, or that it is necessary to spend a bunch of money on upgrades.

Let's see what's in the box!

New Build Coming Up: 3 Racing Sakura D4 RWD

I just received an email from RCMart that the Sakura D4 pre-order combos have shipped, so mine will be here soon.  I plan to do a full build on the blog and document as much as the process as possible.  The plan is to stick with as many of the original kit parts at first and try to tune it using a low budget approach.  After that I will probably do some mods to see how they improve things or not.  Stay tuned,,,