Destiny are a new brand, looking to break new ground in the very popular 1/10th touring car class. The car carries over some key design...
Destiny are a new brand, looking to break new ground in the very popular 1/10th touring car class. The car carries over some key designs influences from several successful competition chassis and has added some interesting concepts of their own. So the theory is that they have created a car that has all the good ideas seen in this class integrated into one kit, let's take a closer look.
My review will cover a basic guide on the build & any tips I can offer
1. Unboxing
The box looks very clean & simple, a sticker on the side denotes that it is the touring car, a possible indication that other cars will be offered by the brand.
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| All the parts are clearly bagged. |
Everything is separated into separate bags & in an order, no need to open multiple bags to find certain parts/ screws.
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| The only extras I used |
On the advice of
Zen racing (the official UK distributor of Destiny), I installed the optional spring steel steel front CVD’s & spring steel outdrives to prevent potential issues with coping with heavy loads across the front axle
I also fitted a full set of titanium screw from
Moodyfools. An excellent addition to any car available on the market. Very light & superb quality to boot
2. Chassis & drivetrain
Although sanding/ sealing the edges looks cool & prevents splitting, I haven’t really had issues over the years. I decided to skip sealing all carbon, allowing the carbon flex naturally. Just a sanding to take the rough edges off
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| Clearly marked and they fit perfectly. |
All the bulkheads are clearly marked to denote where they should be fitted on the chassis. The lower bulkheads also have small key-way’s in them to hold them evenly in the chassis, to prevent tweak being built into the car from new & in the case of potential accidents. The pivot block also adopt this design, this make them sit even, preventing incorrect geometry settings when building the car
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| A solid lower mount to help give symmetrical flex. |
The motor mount has many threads for screws, this allows you to adjust flex in the mount.
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| Loads of flex options |
Less screws for more flex, more for less flex. I would leave it stock & make adjustments after a few runs at your chosen track
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| A drop of paint will make your life easier |
The plastic diff/ spool bearing holders have arrow marks to help with alignment in regards to belt tension. I added a small drop of paint to help identify the marking quickly. This can prove very handy if you are making quick diff adjustments between races, making it a LOT easier to find the sweet spot.
3. Steering
Destiny have chosen to adopt a steering rack design of their steering. It goes against convention which utilizes bell cranks. This has similarities to a well-known Russian car on the market.
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| Pre-assembled |
The mounting point to the chassis has elongated mountings, allowing you to make a very quick Ackerman adjustment +/-1mm by loosening the screws and moving it the other way. Although the instructions show how to build the rack, it comes prebuilt to show you how tight the tension screw should be. This applies load to the center bearing, eliminating play.
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| The steering system is on rails |
If the screw is too loose, you will have excessive play & very vague steering. If it’s too tight, the steering will be very slow & will destroy the bearings.
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| Super smooth! |
During testing, I found the steering will work itself loose in the 1st run, even with thread lock. Make sure it’s readjusted after the 1st run & you should be ok
4. Suspension
The car uses a very nice honeycomb design for the suspension arms. This seems to be very strong without gaining excessive weight.
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| Nice idea to change the caster |
The caster blocks use a sleeve insert to allow the use to choose the amount of caster required.
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| A drop of CA glue |
A small drop of superglue is advised to fit these to prevent them working loose
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| Front shims |
When fitting the suspension arms to the chassis, I found that the shims weren’t clearly marked in the manual, it advises you to run 1.0mm on both sides of the arm, they will bind. You have to use 0.5mm (which is supplied). The rear advises you to run a 2.5mm shim at the back,
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| Take time to shim your arms |
I had a similar issue to the front. I used a 2mm shim & a couple to 0.2mm shims to make 2.4mm, this was the best compromise I found. A bag of 0.1, 0.2& 0.3mm shims are included in the kit to find tune the free play as required
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| Interesting wheel hex |
The hex hubs do away with using regular pins & a clamp to secure them. Instead, they are keyed to the drive shafts & held in place with the wheels/ nuts when fitted & a small o ring when wheels are not fitted
5. Shocks
These build very similar to most manufacturers on the market.
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| If you stare hard, you can see the exit hole! |
A main difference I found was a hole in the shock cap nut, this allows for easy shock bleeding/rebound setting
6.Anti Roll Bars
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| Smooth movement and easy to set-up |
The anti roll bars are housed in bearings to ensure a very smooth range of movement. In the day and age of low COG it seems a little strange to add weight on the bulkheads, especially as this design makes no difference to how they work compared to the other designs. (Although they are easier to set up).
Finished
The chassis was an easy build and once I installed the electrics I was keen to see how it would perform.
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| Ready to race! |
Track testing
I started to use this car for the remainder of the BRCA national championship. I believe I didn’t get on with modified racing, so we will move onto the indoor season. I will be competing at the Xray winter series (formerly the CWIC) in Melksham. I will be competing in the 13.5t blinky category
Although I won the 17.5 blinky class last season, this class now adopts a handout motor, new control tyres with supplied additive & fixed gearing. To help promote the series, there are more Xray supported drivers competing in this class. I will aim to achieve similar results as the 2015/16 season. The car has already filled me with more confidence, so I will try to update as I progress in the championship
Update 1
During testing, we have experimented with steering. For stock racing, we are testing a more conventional bell crank design.
With thanks to OTM racing, a mounting frame has been designed and fabricated to allow us to test this modification.
I feel that it gives sharper steering characteristics & changes direction quickly with more front end bite
Update 2
Rounds 1-2 of the Xray winter series has got underway.
A couple of top 10 runs in qualifying netted me 9th overall. The finals were tough, but I finished 7th in final 1 & 8th in final 2. A great start for the new season
Set-up
Here is my current set-up
Overall Summary
The Destiny is a new car on the market and it is fair to say that it has made quite an impact with club racers. Now I have got my hands on one I can see why it has caused such as stir.
The quality of the components is superb and the base car is a solid performer and it has proven to be very strong with no breakages so far. The steering system feels great, but when I raced it on carpet the steering didn't give me the feel that I wanted when on the track. This is a personal driver thing and it could be because I have become so accustomed to the feel of a more conventional steering system.
The exciting thing is that Destiny are really pushing ahead with new parts and developments as they aim to become one of the leading brands in the 1/10 onroad class. The RX-10S is a fantastic start, and I am excited to see where the journey leads :)
Destiny UK stockist Zen Racing link
(HERE)
DestinyRC home page
(Here)
Moodyfools Link
(Here)
