ARC R12FF Mid Summer Report

As some of you might have read, I very much praised the ARC R11F last summer. The R11F was ARC‘s first FF touring car, and a real success both in how it worked on track for an average user, and in the big race results it produced.

With the follow-up R12FF released early this year, I really looked forward to finding out if that would feel as good on track. Certainly the race results seen so far looks promising, as racing is slowly starting again in Europe.

I previosuly wrote down some initial thoughts after the first runs with the car, but now that I have had a lot more time with the car, I thought I would do a more comprehensive post on what I have found so far. I still have lots of things to test though, so this is very much a half-term report.

The one thing that I actually think describes the R12FF best is the fact that I have yet to have one single crash with the car – Yes, that beautiful Michael Clemente Motorsport inspired Bittydesign HC-F body is yet to be scratched!

While I know the test track well and usually don’t crash much when testing there, it has never happened before that I have done half a summer of testing with no crashes.

The R11F last summer was also super forgiving and confidence inspiring to drive, but this is taken yet further with the R12FF. At the same time, I have also slightly struggled to get the car sharp enough for me on that track which is very technical. It’s only when I added the optional flex plate that I got the sharpness that I wanted – but more about that later.

Despite that the car has sometimes felt too stable, it has still produced just as good laptimes and 5 minute run results as the R11F. I do however have a feeling that there is still even more speed in the car – just need to unlock it.

R12FF Low Shock Towers

These I tested back-to-back multiple times, and while I did not see any improvement in laptimes or results, the car felt even more confidence inspiring with these used and the dampers mounted low on the arms. Since the results were not worse either, I have since left them on the car because I like the feeling they give.

R12FF Flex Adjust Plate Set

As I already mentioned, the addition of this to the car made it sharper. The standard R12FF is quite flexy, and the standard upper deck very slim, so adding some stiffness seems to work well. I use the R129010 R12FF Flex Adjust Plate Set-Short Lipo Set (same as R128031 with hardware included). Of course, there are a lot of ways in which you can set this up, so you can keep experimenting forever. So far, the setup that I have liked most is one that stiffens the rear of the chassis (see setup sheet). This is staying on the car as well since it gives a lot of options to fine-tune the balance of the car.

One note is that before I added the flex plate, the fastest lap of each run would always be the first. However, with the flex plate (in various setups), the fastest lap is usually the third or fourth lap of a run.

Below you find my setup as of right now. The car feels very good now, and work really well, but please note though that many things are still to be tested, and I will post a follow-up at the end of the season.

Testing has been done in very varying track conditions – from 20 deg to 40+ deg track temps.

You find the PDF by clicking the setup.

As mentioned, there is still time to find in the setup of the car, so I very much look forward to more testing with the car.

I’m also tempted to try some of the available options like the R129012 R12FF Front Short Arm Set and R129004 R12 ATS System, but I will have to see if I invest in those or just work on the setup with the parts I have.

Here a couple of decent runs from my last test session.

Enjoy your summer ☀️