Please make sure you enter in your Personal Transponder numbers in your profile - it will help speed things up on race day. Here is the link to sign up, payment is required on race day:
Any one who raced with me this summer at the FastCats Depot races knows how much I love my HPI Sprint 2. So, when I saw it's older brother, the RS4 Pro 3 for sale on rc10talk.com, I scooped it up. It's not quite as vintage as the old cars I collect... I think it was released some time in 2000/2001. I just really like the look of this car.
I got it for quite cheap, seeing as the back end of it is completely dissembled. From what it looks like, most (if not all) of the parts were included in a zip lock bag.
It looks like some of the rear differential parts are missing, but I don't think it should be very difficult to find what I need. From what I understand, a hobby store some 45 minutes away from me may still carry parts. The outdrives are super-long, and in pretty rough shape. The CVDs are super-short. This is because the belt runs down the left side of the car, so the battery can be run along the centre line of the chassis.
The shocks look pretty nice. They have threaded bodies, which is pretty nice. The shocks on my Sprint 2 are not threaded, so I may be swapping them for the Pro 3's. The under side of the chassis looks pretty good too.
And finally, here is what the car is supposed to look like. Hopefully one day, mine will look like that again! I definitely plan on getting this one up and running, and maybe even running it in FastCats GT2 class next summer.
I finally got the chance to test out the key chain cam I bought for $1 on ebay. (well, around $11 after shipping... plus I had to buy a micro SD card for around $20)
For it's inaugural test run, I attached it to the wing of Ryan Luna's brand new D8 ebuggy. It was held on with a bit of servo tape, as well as wrapped with electrical tape. The secret to getting good onboard video with any camera, is to make sure there is no shaking or vibrating of the camera. Here's how it looked:
It's also great for recording your race from your point of view. Here's a clip of what it looks like when I attached it to my hat:
Yesterday was the first Motor City Raceway practice day, and I have to say it was really fun!
The track is a good size, and was well run by the organizers. There is tons of pit space... a space almost big enough to have another track! We ran a few hours of controlled practice, and ended the day with a few heats of practice races. Because of the size and width of the track, it's possible to smoothly run ten (maybe even twelve) 1/10 buggies in a heat. There was no problem even running eight 1/8 scale buggies. At one point during practice, there was more than 10 1/8s on the track, running with very little difficulty. Here's the first of a few videos I'll upload of the days action:
To get a better look at the track, here are a couple of pics:
John Stewart mentioned he will be changing the landing on the table top jump to an 8 footer, about twice the length it was on Saturday. This will make overshooting the landing a little more difficult to do. The next meet will be in early January. I'm looking forward to it! I'll post a little more on the day a bit later. [/Tim Sanderson]
MAR 18 2011 The scans won't be available for a day or two. Check back in a couple of days.
I've scanned the first of my vintage magazines. I'll try to add a magazine every day two, but updates may be sporadic, at best. I've put a link to this scans page in my 'links' box, on the right hand side of the site. Be sure to check every once in a while for updates. I'm uploading to a free file hosting service, so I am not sure how reliable it will be. If I have problems with it in the future, I'll have to try and find another hosting alternative. Until then, I'll give ADrive a try. If you have any trouble downloading any of the magazines, please let me know!
Tonight, I put my Academy SB-V2 back together. I ran this car all summer in our Tarmac Buggy class at FastCats Depot races. A bunch of us would break out our buggies to help us scratch our offroad itch. It's a pretty slick buggy, the only problem is that parts availability for any of the Academy buggy's is practically non-existent at best. I do however, have another complete kit NIB. The last time I ran it at FastCats, I stripped one of the bevel gears in the gearbox. I've since found that MRC in the US carries Academy spares. Tonight, for $10, I ordered a pair of diff/bevel gears so I can at least get it back up and running again.
My only two real complaints about the buggy, (other than the parts thing) are the lack of threaded shock bodies, and the horribly short steering throw. For some reason, only the GV2 Pro 2WD buggy's shocks are threaded, and I think I read out there somewhere that Academy came up with a fix for the steering problem.
These two pics were from earlier in the year:
I still think that out of any buggy, past or present, the SBV2 has one of the best looking bodies!
Tarmac Buggy was a pretty sporadic class this summer. Some days there would be a full heat of buggy's, and other days there'd only be 3 or so (if any) racers in a heat. Here's a few of us running a qualifier in July:
Here's something many of us racers in the GTA are eagerly looking forward to. A new indoor carpet offroad track called Motor City Raceway will be setup weekly in an Oshawa gymnasium. Here's a video the organizers made during the setup test this weekend:
Is that a crash mat filling the gap of the table top? Total Euro-style!
It looks like the cat is out of the bag... The gymnasium is in the O'NEILL COLLEGIATE & VOCATIONAL INSTITUTE. 301 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, ON L1G 4T2.
Although Oshawa is a bit of a haul from me here Mississauga, I'm still going to try to make it out there at least once or twice a month. (Hopefully more!) Thanks to the Hobby Show's racing last month, the dust has already been blown off of my RB5 & ZX5 . I'm ready as soon as Motor City is ready! *EDIT* Word is the first day of practice will be on Dec 18th *EDIT* For the latest info on the track, click on the Motor City Raceway link in "tsan like's" on the right side of the blog. [/Tim Sanderson]
The ebay fairy made a visit again yesterday, and stuck this under my pillow. Although the majority of it seems to be from a Kyosho Ultima II, much of it seems to be from other cars. From the Ultima II, I think we have the chassis, upper plate, gear box, suspension arms, rear shocks (?) and rear shock tower(?).
The front shocks appear to be from a Traxxas Radicator. (thanks Wes/losiXXXman;) After removing the upper deck, we can get a better look at the steering setup. The RC10 steering assembly would explain why the car has such a wacky steering servo placement. Because it is backwards from an Ultima, (link attaches to the left side, instead of on the right) the servo was mounted upside down so the link can attach to the bell crank. The chassis is made of 'Kelron'. It's written in between the battery frames/slots. There is a ton of flex in this material... it's basically just a piece of plastic. Most of the rigidity comes from the plastic upper plate. A previous owner had mounted the front shocks upside down. Because of this, when the shocks arms fully extend/droop, a strain is put on the shock caps. The caps aren't broken, but the threads are a bit stripped, and have trouble staying on the shocks. I'll be turning them right-side round. Hopefully I can salvage the caps, otherwise I'll have to come up with a replacement.
It came with a Novak 410-MXC esc. I haven't tested it out yet, but it doesn't smell burnt or melted. My Buddy Jeff Eveleigh (xxxmain on rc10talk.com), and fellow newly addicted vintage rc buff, tells me this is a pretty nice bit of gear. Because I am probably going to incorporate modern electronics in this runner project, this esc will be making it's way into my more period correct Ultima project. The motor is a modified Yokomo motor, but i have no idea which model, of any specs on it. Jeff also told me the plain silver can is odd for a Yokomo motor. Maybe when I remove the motor there might be some sort of clue to what it is. The gears and gearbox seems to spin nice and free, however the external gears look a bit ratty. I might look into a more conventional 3 gear gearbox, maybe something from a later Ultima. I think I have an extra RB5 gearbox kicking around here, somewhere. I plan on putting a 13.5 or equivalent brushless setup into this, so I'd like something I could replace the gears on a little more easily.
The front shock tower looks like it's from a team Losi JRX2
The back shocks I wasn't sure of, but Jeff was pretty sure they were from Kyosho. Either the rear shock tower is very tall, or the shocks are very short. The bottom collar thingy is also from an RC10.
The back tires are Team Associated T.Q 20's, I'm not sure what the front ones are... maybe Schumacher? All they say on the side are RP 927. The back tires are in fairly decent shape. Unfortunately the front ones have had many spike trimmed off, and the spikes that are there are quite worn down. A 2nd set of tires/wheels came with the car. The rears are paddle-style tires (possibly Duratrax?) on HPI rims. The Front's are Schumacher C.A.T. tires, mounted on what look to be dyed ProLine wheels. Both sets of tires are in pretty good shape.
