Reducing friction
Lubricants
Lubricants are first in the topic of reducing friction. lubricating the gears important, because of the following reasons: so the gears will not lock meaning that they will not tighten together and be chewed up. this creates some power loss. the lubricant prevents this because the surface is slick. lubricant also prevents the noise that the gears make. the type of lubricants use are Teflon and silicone. Teflon or lubes that have Teflon are the slipperiest but seem to dissipate when spinning. silicone does not dissipate but sticks to the plastic but not sticky. on speed tracks I use the Teflon so more power is delivered in a short amount of time.. and for techs the silicone cuz in all the horizontal and vertical movements the lube doesn't dissipate but stays there until the race is finished. seems to end up all around the chassis when finished
bearings for axles
bearings for the axles make your car .05 to 2.00 kph (based on my tests) faster than using the stock eyelets. I honestly won my first race with the bearings only the in the semi modified division in my hobby store. (the store doesn't really care a bout tamiya rule's, they only care when it's an open race every month.) if you want to buy the AXLE bearing it is called: Racing Mini 4wd Bearing set part (# 15034) . Here's okami's bearing version for open races. what I wrote for the tamiya bearing is the exact name of the hex hole bearing. do not be confused with part #15111 tamiya's Round hole ball bearing set. the instructions dont say this but,make sure you insert the bearing the right way if you try to forc it in the wrong way it will break your bearing this bearing is for the gear box. the hex/axle ball bearing set is the one you need it is packaged in blue foam and the gear box bearings are in the green foam package.