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Rick_Sammler

avante ground clearance

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Hi all,

I'm the "proud owner" of an Avante 2011, and I just don't understand something about the front ground clearance of this car. It's usually admitted that this latter is quite limited but in the article we can find in the review section of TamiyaClub (see the image below) the car is high in front and the text mention that the ground clearance is good.

I can't see on the pics how they achieved to get this height. And I don't think it's a difference between the 88 and the re-release version.

So if anybody has an idea to resolve this "mystery" ...

post-40562-0-69196600-1425402416_thumb.j

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Sorry I can't help with that, but would you be so kind to let me know what magazine that article is from?

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It seems to be from a ModelCars issue (October 88). Again you can find it in the reviews section on TamiyaClub Portal. So credits go to ModelCars for the article and to TC for the scan

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possibly longer damper units, thats all i can think of to achieve an easy higher ground clearance.??

James

:)

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I can only think of a really heavy damper oil - I know my Avante has the potential for that sort of ground clearance, but always sags by 10 mm or so at rest. Then again, the dampers are effectively shot on mine... All other parts look stock.

I also believe that the tracks the Avante raced on in that era had less-aggressive layouts, which may mean that less ground clearance compared to today's buggies would be good by their standards.

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It's also noticeable that there is no Rx or ESC fitted, which probably means that there wasn't a battery fitted in it when pictures were taken.

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As MadInventor noticed, the answer is simple......Weight! Without the electronics & battery components, any car will be riding high like that. Buggies are meant to be low and meant to run on smooth tracks.

Coincidentally, the Avante series is odd due to their high-mounted lower arms that run in line with the driveshafts. This is a unique feature that gives these cars a very odd stance. Due to the arms the car may appear high off the ground (especially with electronics all mounted on the top deck), but in reality the chassis pan is still quite low while the arms themselves are farther away from the ground. If the car had typical low-mounted arms, the ride height would definitely look much lower and compliment the chassis height much better.

Another part of what makes this car unique.

Ideally you would mount all electronics on the lower deck (or under the top deck???) and set the ride height so the driveshafts sat parallel to the ground at static height. Then you would set the spring rate to keep the car from bottoming too much. Then adjust the front & rear balance to make the car turn how you want. This is why there were SOOOO many hop-ups for this car. It was kinda a basket case out of the box and actually had very little tuning options (F&R camber & F toe only). When compared to the adjustabliity of a modern race chassis, this thing was designed by cavemen.

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Thank you for your extensive explanations.

In defense of Tamiya, HopUp options appeared very soon after the release of the car, showing that in their minds the Avante was like a work in progress for TRF drivers. The Egress being the ultimate evolution.

But you're right, the front arm position is probably the worst mistake they did, and couldn't be corrected except on the now well known Jamie Booth's Egress prototype, featured in this forum.

So now I have to find alternatives for front springs replacement (softer).

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I wouldn't say it was terrible. Just unique. The Booth-Egress was more conventional (and probably stiffer) and allowed the driver to play with options like roll center & probably even wheelbase.

As for your OEM spring options, you would have to go with hi-cap dampers and hi-cap option springs. The major problem with hi-cap options springs is they are not all designed for the Avante series. The stiffer springs are actually the longer ones which is the opposite of what's needed for single chassis tuning. Stiffer springs hold the chassis up higher which means they need to be shorter to maintain the same ride height (within the adjustment limits of the damper collars). The hi-cap option springs were vehicle specific meaning certain pairs were only meant for certain vehicles. Kinda cruddy really. To run a desired spring it is often necessary to rebuild the dampers in odd ways. I know it took me about 6 tries at building the dampers for the rear with different rod ends and droop limiters to get my Vanquish the desired droop-stroke, compression-stroke, spring-rate & static ride height with OEM parts. Definitely a fun project and definitely worth the effort.

Even still, remember this is a vintage car. Personally I think it's best to enjoy in stock form with OEM hop-ups to experience how they drove in the 80's. No sense trying to eek every last bit out of it at the track with modern tech. But some will still find that task a fun challenge.

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