okay this is a weird one and probably gonna sound dumb but bear with me. been racing 5inch for about two years, pretty consistent lap times at our local track, usually hovering around 2nd or 3rd in my heat. swapped out my old TBS Unify for a Rush Tank recently because the Unify was acting up and i had the Rush sitting in a parts drawer.

since then my times are noticeably worse. like half a second off per lap which doesnt sound like much but over a 90 second race its actually significant. the video feed looks fine to me, latency feels the same. nothing else changed on the quad, same tune same props same motors.

a buddy of mine thinks its placebo and i just had a couple bad weekends but ive run 4 race days on it now and the pattern is pretty consistent. could a VTX swap actually affect performance somehow or am i losing my mind. the only thing i can think of is maybe RF interference with my receiver but i havent seen any failsafes or glitches in the logs

probably not the VTX itself causing the issue directly but is your antenna placement the same? sometimes when people swap VTXs they move the antenna slightly and depending on your goggle position on the track it can cause more static or breakup in certain spots which makes you unconsciously back off. even minor video artifacts that you dont consciously register can affect your confidence through a gate

also what power level are you running it at, if its set lower than your old setup you might be getting more noise in some spots on the track without realizing it

half second a lap is not placebo lol. check your betaflight logs and see if theres anything off in the gyro data, sometimes swapping components can shift the weight balance enough to change how the tune feels even if you think nothing changed. also double check your VTX isnt running hot, ive seen them thermal throttle mid race and it doesnt always show up as obvious breakup it can just cause enough weirdness to throw off your concentration