TC3... sold!

I decided I couldn't wait to build a storming FWD monster so I have decided to move the TC3 on to a new home. Already sold via the Modelsport forum so I'll be keeping an eye out for the right FWD chassis.

Loved it, Loathed it!

So while breaking my (second!) RS4 for parts I was thinking that my cars fall into two distinct categories (well, with one exception!) I either loved them, loathed them... or they are my Traxxas Slash which is just... meh!

So how do they sit, well from where it all began when I was a nipper to current day, here is how they scored!-

Tamiya Thunder Shot - Loved it
Tamiya Boomerang - Loved it
Tamiya FF-01 - Loved it
Kyosho Ultima RB - Loathed it
Tamiya TL-01 - Loathed it
HPI RS4 Evo (x2!) - Loathed them 
Tamiya TT-01D - Loved it 
Kingmotor Baja - Loved it to drive but it was a PITA so it scores a... Loathed it
HoBao Hyper 12 - Love it
Traxxas Slash - Meh!

So only 1 of 4 nitros hit the spot or 1of 5 internal combustion cars and 4 of 5 Tamiyas were among my best cars.

Interestingly this makes my recent decision to put together a collection of electric Tamiyas together less crazy than it might seem... oops... did I just say that out load?! Better watch this space to see what will be making its way in and out of my collection over the next few months.

Bye Bye RS4

Well I slept on it and I think the RS4 has to go. I've simply never been happy with the car, the rally conversion needs more work than I planned (single speed conversion etc.) and well... I've already got my TC3 project on the go and a few others that I'd like to do sooner rather than later.

I'll keep a fair amount of the car (suspension etc.) as spares and may use these bits to Frankenstein something up in the future. Bespoke bits will end up on ebay and this has solved my issue of where to source a radio for the TC3 at least ;)

3... no, make that 2 wheels on my wagon!

So I thought I'd treat myself to a little bash at the park and ride this evening.

It was an off the cuff decision to go so I didn't have the Slash's batteries charged (starting to remember what I didn't like about electric!) so I took the recently fettled RS4 and the Hyper 12.

Firstly I wanted to try out the RS4 now that it had the new diff and it drove... exactly the bloody same! Pulled left under throttle dived right when I backed off... AAAARGH! I decided to give it an early bath and went to have a go with the Hyper 12.

I saw that it had half a tank and this got alarm bells ringing. I had changed that knackered steering servo hadn't I?  Well, no it turned out that I hadn't. Doh!

So... back to the RS4 then! The rally conversion has shifted the body posts slightly and the fronts are now very wobbly and after two frustrating failed attempts to get the body on with the thing getting impatient and stalling I decided to run it without the body. Crap handling aside this thing is FAST! Way too quick for its new rally life so I'd have to look at the gearing at some point. It was very tricky to control with even travelling in a straight line requiring steering input as you went on and off the throttle. Eventually the inevitable happened and I hit the only car in the car parks tyre. Doh (again)

This resulted in even more strange handling followed a few seconds later by the rear wheel falling off! I was limping it back to me and I found that the handling actually seemed to be more predictable with three wheels and being a basher at heart I decided to blat around on three wheels until the fuel ran out!

Coming towards the end of the tank I was doing a burnout when the front wheel and hub went flying off into the hedge! I couldn't believe it! Seconds later the engine died as the last of the fuel was slurped up and I packed up for home.

Here is the damage-

As you can see the rear has sheared off and the front... well god knows what happened at the front!

So obviously I'll be getting it back on the road right? Well... I'm not sure I will.

I enjoyed the process of putting the rally conversion together but the car has never been right since I got it, it will always have the flimsy (relative to a rally model) RS4 underpinnings, it needs a new single speed gearing set up to suit the rally nature and the engine is a bit temperamental. All in all I'm tempted to see the back of it.

What would I replace it with? Well, probably the car I was going to buy instead of the RS4 in the first place... The Kyosho DRX. It seems to tick every box straight out of the box. I'll sleep on it (I need to save up for a DRX anyway) but I feel that the RS4 might be making its way onto ebay in bits.

RS4 Diff replacement plus the first small step with the TC3!

For various reasons I haven't touched any of my RC cars for over three months, tonight I decided to get back to them and as I mentioned before I was halfway through replacing the front diff on the RS4.

I had removed the old diff already so the car was in bits on the desk and despite this being a relatively simple job I did suffer a bit of "where does that bit go?!" Possibly why once the job was done I was left with...

Oh well, I'm sure they weren't that important!

That done I thought I'd have a look at the TC3 that I plan to turn into a drifter tourer hybrid. I bought it as a rolling chassis and it seems to be all there.

It has spent its life carpet racing so is immaculate underneath but covered in fluff!

Other than the annoyance of all the hex screws being in inches (more tools required!) I'm looking forward to getting started on it. Tonight I only got as far as giving it a look over and putting one of my cheap Acoms servos in. What I did find though was that my 7 cell Slash cells fit perfectly!

This is a massive bonus in that I can get the car up and running without having to buy more cells. It also means that the decision on which battery connectors to go for has been made for me and no additional charging leads will be needed. Finally it means that when I upgrade to Lipos I'll effectively be upgrading both cars.

Bring on the snow!

Just spotted this on the RC Geeks facebook page-

I really need to try that with the Hyper 12 if we have any white stuff this year!

EDIT- Well it seems that you can buy them on ebay... who would have thought it! If you can't get them in 1:12 size then it might make a nice CAD modelling project.

OK... so where were we?!

As you can see from the dates on my later blog posts I haven't touched my RC cars in 3 months to the day. This is not good enough!

Luckily from the blog I can see that the reason my RS4 is in pieces if that it needs a new diff (which is ready to fit still in its original jiffy bag) a good job because I had genuinely forgotten!

To help get things back on track I have made a Google document that has the current status of all of my cars which I have made available to view here

Hopefully amongst my list of 29 things I need to get done around the house (no exaggeration :( ) I'll get some chance to get back to work on them!

103mph RC Crash!

I'm sure we've all had some pretty hefty crashes in our time but this one surely beats them all! The thing just disintegrates!