rroodd 0 Posted January 28, 2006 This is my "Pitstop Taipan" - a fully hopped-up SRB buggy, using optioned parts from RCH, Thorp, Parma, etc. (They were apparently made up this way by an Australian importer, in the early 80's) Has a Thorp ball diff, welded alloy roll cage, fibreglass chassis plate, polished gearbox casings, machined alloy rear rims (not sure who by..?), RCH nylon suspension arms, Alloy front and rear (mono) coil-over shocks (RCH..??), etc, etc,. I've only just finished a strip & clean of it, and now I reckon it looks tough. It has "Pitstop Taipan" engraved into the metal on the front of the gearbox, and also underneath at the back. I'm interested in any comments by anyone....??...or if you've ever seen on before...?? Driver's name is "Cole Trickle" who is the character played by Tom Cruise in movie "Days of Thunder", so that's weird...... Darryn (RetroRC) knows a lot more about these than I do, so I'm hoping he can share some more info on them in this thread......?? (Thanks Darryn...!! []) Cheers guys, and thanks for checking it out/commenting. Rod. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shodog 1835 Posted January 28, 2006 That Car looks killer. Definetly a lot of vintage goodies on it. Was Taipan a hobby shop? Reminds me of the Team Losi Ranch Pit Shop make over of the Yokomo YZ834B Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RETRO R/C 59 Posted January 28, 2006 Flat out at the moment with a new baby in family (born 2 weeks ago)[]......sooooo I will have to be relatively quick until a little later. Pitstop was the importer of many products into this country from the US. The car was called the "Pit Stop Taipan". Back then it cost an amazing $750 Australian! (MASSIVE DOLLARS). I have peices of my old car - and still regularly converse with Colin the original importer. Basically the car used only the gearbox moulding from the original car - just about everything else was from RCH and other aftermarket manufacturers. Will try and get the full history down here at some stage. Your car looks like it is missing a couokle of peices - but then again - it has a few I dont remember as well - so it is a real nice find! Cheers Darryn Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
terry.sc 16 Posted January 29, 2006 There's an article on early 80s racing in Australia in the media section http://www.tamiyaclub.com/article.asp?id=82 They actually raced these for 8 minutes using 1200mah nicads[:S] Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rroodd 0 Posted January 29, 2006 Hey, thanks for the extra info. so far guys.... Much appreciated..!! (and congrats on the new bub, Darryn...you will be busy...!! .[]) Terry, I can't believe I've never stumbled accross that article in the literature section of TC, .....thought I'd looked at everything..! Cheers mate !! Man I'd love to go back in time and race these things...... They are still a very heavy buggy - showed a young friend of mine how much this thing weighed compared to his RC10-B4 - he couldn't believe it ..!! Rod. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Backlash 481 Posted January 29, 2006 Rod, I remember these. They were really ahead of their time for quite a while here in Australia, but for the money they cost, they should have nearly driven themselves. I have some early magazines with articles written By Jack Grenager, who is Colin's ( the fellow Darryn speaks of) and Jeff's father, and who I beleive to be the owner of the then Pitstop RC cars and accessories store (that I beleive was run from the Grenagers hardware store?). I dont ever remember Jack racing, but understand that Colin and Jeff were national champions for a number of years in the early 80's racing these Tiapans. Now, to really tease you, I have a Video taken by a club member at a local event in 84' were these cars raced. I've been meaning to convert it and post parts of it here on the site. Its amazing to watch, and great to see how the technology has changed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rroodd 0 Posted January 31, 2006 Hey Backlash,,,,,wow,,,,you've got me drooling for some of that info/articles/video you have....!! Would love to see a scan or two of those magazine write-ups,,and I'm sure there's a few people on this site would love to check out the video footage of these things in action...!!! Please keep us posted as to when you might get a chance to upload some stuff...!! Cheers for the help buddy, Rod. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Backlash 481 Posted February 1, 2006 No worries Rod. Having read the article again, Jack is telling of the development work to the SRB's made after the Tiapan, but its still an interesting read. There is also an add for the old MIP gearboxes and suspension parts used in that era. I sat down the other day and scanned in the articles, and then proceded to reduce their size to 600x800, just like I do with the pics of my cars, then only to find that I cannot post these, that Netsmith has to do it, and the articles should be 1000 odd pixles in size. DOH. When I get time I will re-scan them and foward them to Chris for posting. I also have to sit down and convert the whole Video onto DVD, as its now 20 years old, and the tape is starting to degrade a little. Its not so much a problem getting the video onto my pc, its more playing around with the image size, so that image is still large enough to view, and to keep the file sizes down to a minimum, so I can post them. I'm also not really up on video editing, adding music etc so this will be a steep learning curve, as Ive never done this sort of thing before. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
