94eg!

It's probably normal with the power of that brushless you've got in the thing. You may just have to pull the rear apart & clock the tension one notch tighter.

It looks to me like he tried replacing the bronze suspension arm bushings with custom delrin pieces. But in the end there wasn't much weight savings. I really like the idea of using the glass reinforced "gray" parts from the TR-15T though. The cool thing is that most (or all) of them are still available at TamiyaUSA.com. Anybody else want to take a crack at it???

Had the same problem with mine. I live in the desert and they start to show cracking after a couple months. Not a big deal, and the original part is cheap (and sold in sets of 2). The part number is #9805475 and cost $2.20us at TamiyaUSA.com. I'm sure pretty much any 10mm o-ring will work so long as it's a similar thickness. If you get some silicone ones, you shouldn't have this problem again... PS: You will also find this same o-ring on the clutch adjustment cover. Even though mine cracked badly, it still had TONS of stretch in it when I tried to replace it. Seamed to seal just fine. Oh well...

My brother has a 19T Orion Method R V2 with a Novak XRS ESC in his Rising Storm. It can easily clear the tripple at our local track if it wasn't for the suspension issue we created by installing old Kyosho shocks on it. A faster motor will probably require drivetrain upgrades in the form of a metal motor mount and propeller shaft. We are using the Tamiya DF-02/TT-01 motor mount which turned out to be heavy steel part painted silver (to look like aluminum). I would probably buy an aftermarket aluminum one if we had it to do over again. You will also need to re-gear the car to keep motor temp under control. You can only use 0.6 module "metric" pinions from 16 to 19 tooth (car comes with steel 19T pinion). These are sold by Tamiya in their "A.V. pinion sets". We are using the smallest pinion that fits (16T), and the motor is still overly hot after a race-style run around the local track. He purchased a nice 3racing snap on heat sink, and it fits perfectly under the body. We then cut holes in the rising storm's intake looking things next to cockpit which allows a straight shot of fresh air right into the motor heat-sink and directly out the back. This same technique looks like it might work on the small intake looking things below & in-front of the side windows. List of Tamiya parts I recommend: 53664 TT-01 AL motor heat sink 53666 TT-01 Metal motor mount 53620 TT-01 AL propeller shaft 50354 16T/17T AV pinion set Other parts you might also consider: 87025 Ceramic grease 10 grams (better than the petroleum jelly that comes with the DF-02) 53439 Anti Wear grease 3 grams (coat small gears inside front & rear diffs to tighten them up).

I had the same problem with the 4 in the rear that hold the lower control arm blocks to the chassis pan. Since replacing the chassis pan due to a collision, I started layering blue masking tape on the bottom to protect it. Apparently that was all that was needed to keep the screws in place because they never come loose now. Just stick a small strip of masking tape over those screws, and that should do it... Of course this guys solution was much more inventive than mine (look about 1/3 down the page)... http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=e...%3D4RP%26sa%3DG

And the same goes for your brakes...

The receiver will have to match both the frequency (27mhz, 40mhz, 75mhz etc), and the modulation (AM, FM, PCM etc) of the transmitter. If those both match, all you need is a receiver crystal thats on the same channel as your transmitter, and it should work perfectly...

I wonder if that means Tamiya has a brushless motor/esc system on the way. They show a generic brushless system in the car with the ESC in Tamiya foil blue...

Thanks for the advice. I actually moved both standard battery holders to the "outer" positions (instead of 1 in & 1 out) and that seems to allow plenty of room. Then I stuck a fat piece of foam tape where the battery cable passes next to the holder. Should do fine that way, but I won't know for sure until Tuesday (fingers crossed). Still thinking about getting the Hotshot II under-tray, just so I can run side-by-side packs without stressing the battery bars...

The lower the number of turns, the more powerful the motor will be. This certainly comes a price though. A faster motor will require much more frequent rebuilds, more custom gearing changes, reduced run time, more powerful speed control, and puts more stress on all components of the car. If your just going to be bashing around, I suggest a speed control with about a 15 turn limit and perhaps a 17 turn motor. Novak makes the XRS that is cheap ($50us), small, and has reverse. It's very simple to use and comes with all the typical connectors already attached. Plus it will still allow you to use the many mod motors. Your won't be lightening fast, but it will certainly get over the jumps. It will also be necessary to re gear the car to keep the motors from overheating. A smaller pinion and/or larger spur gear will keep the stress down and keep heat under control. For bashing, you want to be able to keep your thumb on the motor can for at least 3 seconds. If you cannot, you need to let the motor cool before continuing the run. This will insure your not burning up the motor prematurely requiring the motor be rebuilt (have the commutator cut on a lathe and install new brushes).

The rotor should be printed with either 6513W or 7010W on it. If it says 7010W, you probably don't want to use it. You can always just buy a new 6513W rotor along with the brush set to be sure. There are plenty of them for cheap on eBay. The 6513W rotor should be no problem for your ESC...

Hmmm. I have the thing assembled as the manual says for 7.2v stick packs with the right (motor side) battery mount on the inner setting, and left (non-motor side) with the battery mount on the outer setting. Do the stick packs fit better if they are both on the outer settings? This might explain a few things and could be worth a try before buying more parts. As for the foam padding, I already have some where the battery would touch the radio box and gear box. Thanks again guys... When it comes to filing the battery holder, I really wanted to avoid it as I would rather get to the root of the problem, but it certainly did cross my mind.

If the car is gonna be a runner, then my advice to you is don't replace parts that aren't broken. I completely understand buying them and keeping them as spares. But if you install them just to dress the car up, they get scratched & beat up as soon as the car gets in the dirt again. PS: If that front shock tower is original, remove it from the car when you run it. Make your own custom one, or have someone make you one. If you break the original, it simply cannot be replaced. And you might want to swap the body out for a Kamtec replica for driving too. They are not the same, and the Kamtec one is more durable.

I think it's pretty obvious what the next re-re is gonna be. I mean they already did the Tamtec version....

marcusom, make sure you check the chassis plate very carefully where the rear lower-control-arm blocks attach. When I spun my DS around and crashed backwards, the impact caused the screw to oval out the rear most hole. When I replace the broken rear mount-block, the alignment was all messed up and one of the rear tires had way too much toe in. It required I replace the whole chassis pan which wasn't a big deal at the time, but that part is not exactly readily available now. Makes me very nervous to drive my DS now...

I'm using ready-made stick packs since side-by-sides won't work. Here is the problem illustrated for a little clarity: The Yellow wire is being cut by the blue battery holder right where the red arrow is pointing. As you can see, the wires are so close to the lower portion of the battery holder, that any amount of play in the battery WILL cause sheering. And since the battery isn't held in any type of "firm" position, I can't really find any solution to the problem with the stock parts. I guess I'll just go for the Hotshot II battery plate as you guys suggest... Thanks... PS: I have another question concerning this car. If I were to step this car up to a Super Stock RZ motor, are there any specific mods I should consider? The car is fully ball-raced, has the smallest pinion (13t), and the differentials tightened up with Tamiya Anti-wear grease. It also has the Parma bump-steer correction kit and front upper control arm brace. Thanks in advance...

You could try simply gearing down to see if helps your thermaling problem. A smaller pinion and/or bigger spur will put less stress on both the motor and ESC...

Do you mean you use the supershot underguard AND the CRP plate together? That would be good, but the underguards are way too expensive for me now. I'm really kinda leaning towards the HotShot II under tray. I also like the way that it widens out & completely covers the underside of the battery. Unfortunately I don't know how it compares in the "chassis stiffness" department to the stock or CRP fiberglass plates. Any more opinions or experiences would be really helpful...

I've been running my vintage Hotshot at the local track recently. The car performs quite well with a Kyosho stock 05 motor, and I'm really having great fun. The only issue I've found is that the lower battery plate seems to be sagging. And since a 7.2v stick pack is offset to one side, any extra play causes the large plastic loop-like-piece to cut into the wires where they come out of the stick pack. In fact, a GP3300mah 7.2v stick pack has such an awful fit in general, that I'm just not sure where to go from here at all. I've thought about doing the Hotshot II undertray conversion, or getting one of those beefed-up CRP battery trays on ebay. Does anybody have any experience with either of those setups, or maybe recommend something else? I would really like to keep driving this car at the track since everybody gets such a kick out of it...

Funny thing I just looked this up for you. My brother just broke one of his Lunch Box uprights yesterday at the track...

To comment on the original question: I don't think that cutting the decals has as much an impact on the value/price as it does the number of people that would be interested in purchasing them from you. Cut decals would pretty much only be purchased by someone that planned on using them. And since they will be used, the fact that they are cut won't really influence their offering price much...

My prayers go out to you and your family. Keep your head up...

Yesterday I ran my 17 year old Vanquish at the track for the first time ever (it's only ever been run in the street & yard). To my surprise it performed flawlessly with no breakage, and actually out jumped my brothers 19T Method-R V2 powered Rising Storm (which always noses down on take-off). The Vanquish was fitted with Top-Force/DF-02 wheels & tires, Avante ball-race steering, Full bearings, hi-cap dampers, hi-cap option rear springs, Super-Stock TZ motor w/ 19T AV pinion and vintage Tekin TSC-408 sport ESC. Go Vanquish!!!

I did a little digging, and it turns out that the Tekin charger I'm using monitors the rate at which energy is being absorbed by the batteries and adjusts the charge current to maintain the user selected setting. This makes much more sense now. The cool thing is that it you can change it's charge current to pretty much anything you want in .01amp increments (up to 10amps). This allows "trickle" rate charging as long as the thing doesn't time out (I don't know if has a time limit or not)...

I've only heard of trickle charging the pack the first time it's charged. You should be able to fast charge it up to 5amps from now on. If you want max performance out of the pack, you should put it on a 20+ amp discharger after each run (if you didn't drive the car to a halt). This helps train the pack to run strong and then suddenly dump (instead of having a slow tapering of performance). Just make sure the 20+ amp discharger has a voltage cutoff because you don't want to over-discharge NiMHs.