aaronmihe(2)

Very true.... On the other hand I (and many others) would not be happy if the forums became an in-club with only paid up members using them. I have a quandry in that I run a site with similar costs to Chris, I can see the same costs coming out of my own pocket... I'd like to think that AU45/yr is worthwhile but at the same time if people leave and the forums dry up to an extent it won't be worth it. To me the value is in the forums. I haven't made a decision yet, I'll trial it during September and make an informed decision then. A.

Chris, good on you for making the tough decision. I don't know if I'll value the extra content at the AU$ price it comes down to, BUT I won't be leaving the forums either. I have access to galleries and web space etc through my own site (www.ausmicro.com shameless plug). I'd just like to urge those people who say that they can't/won't pay subscriptions to stay on the forums and continue to participate, if you want Galleries there are sites you can create them and display the pics in hyperlinks etc here still! To me the forums still make TamiyaClub the best site globally for the Tamiya R/C hobby and it's the participation of everyone that makes it so. There's no reason for anyone to be going anywhere.....

On my Baja Champ I run the TA03 oilers with the 3 hole pistons, the soft oil as supplied with most kits and the orginal Baja springs. The shocks are built to max length and give 16mm of travel. overall the ****** is very driveable on rough ground although beeach (hard sand) and smoother surfaces shoudl have it set a little lower to reduce wear on the drive shafts.

I know - I broke a 14T and am having trouble getting a replacement (OK I haven't looked all that hard) ...

So if I get the rear to toe-in less *laughs* I ran it with a lot more front toe out and it was unstable and understeery, now it's stable and understeery. Locked diff idea is now shelved, although I haven't looked in them since I bought it so i pbably should check It's got all the turnbuckles etc so adjustability is good - using Carbon decks instead of the tub...but considering goign rear motor

I had an unfortunate failure of a pinion gear yesterday on the TA03 I acquired used. The 14T pinion had a 'iffy' grub screw and yesterday it let the pinion slip destroying the spur gear in the process. So I'm on the hunt for a new pinion. Obviously my 16T motor has enough grunt to cause trouble if it comes loose again - so I've now learnt the lesson. No more used pinions! Anyway while I'm sourcing a new pinion I thought I'd pop the gear diff out of the back and pack it solid with grease to 'lock' it up a bit. It this a sound plan? Shoudl i just bite the expensive bullet and go for a ball-diff? At the moment the car understeers by nature and I'd like to get it a bit more taily

Don't get me started on pinions at the moment *mutters about grub screws*

Hopefully it's not me being the cause of the elitist comment Darryn (from my post under another topic about the quality of current vs Past Tamiyas). It certainly wasn't meant as a comment about NIB collections or collections in general. Like Darryn and others have said it really is a case of what floats your boat. personally I admire the self control of anyone who can keep the kits in their boxes! I'm envious of those with vast collections in any form (runners, NIB, NB etc) I do think it's a shame they're stuck in their boxes, these things were built to be fun, but at the same time there's a conflict, history will always need NIB as 'samples' of what things were like. The modern kits certainly lack the presentation of the kits even just 6-7 years ago!

OK well that didn't work :

*looks at kettle on other side of office* *looks at small plastic tub type item nearby* *looks at rims with fragments of over glued tyres attached* Lets just see

Well I'm sure I could drag myself down there for a day trip, maybe even make a weekend of it. The tracks at Wodonga are on and off-road? Would the on-road be suitable for Mini-Z as well? *ponders* There's a chance the lure of blending a bit of NSW/VIC interstate rivallry in the ausmicro.com ranks may get some other goofs turning up Either way my driving and my cars suck so I know I'll be going home with the wooden spoon (and if anyone brings 959 and lets me touch it I'll be going home with a w---y)

I know there's a few diagrams online showing the relative pin placements and even a list or two of compatibility! I'd try the LHS or an electronics wholesaler type place... In the end though for some of mine I simply used square headers from a electronics shop and shaved coners to suit the Rx I was using.

Well that'd be the way to do it IMHO, make an Aussie Meet day co-incide with another race/meet of some kind. Ofcourse that doesn't solve the distance problem for some of us. [xx(]

Just as an alternative suggestion, The GM V4 ESCs (V4 is F>Brake, V4R is F>Brake>R) are small and reasonably priced... Very happy with my V4r

Either that or he got a 1:1 scale one Vastly more time and money consuming than 1:10th

Yeah gotta side with Willy here.... All the new forms of R/C are making the market spread and grow. I've seen people get drawn back into R/C through picking up cheap little Bit Char-G and end up going all out into 1/10ths again. I think the real problems is that some of the Tamiya diehards are somewhat elitist. The TL-01 is a great chassis and is very quick outa the box, it has a small range of tuning options and it keeps the cost of being in R/C at 1/10th scale down... That's great from hack around point of view and not so great to a collector/elitist. Personally I'd rather see a line of solid performing cars/chassis and durable bodies than an array of overpriced and somewhat fragile re-releases. History is great, and now that we mostly have the money to indulge in buying it we forget just how inaccessable the three-speeds, 959s etc were in their day! No think of it just like 1:1 scale cars, the Leyland P76 was a half decent design, with a series of innovations, yet no-one in their right mind would ever want to buy one brand new these days!

Oh this just keeps getting more and more interesting.

mmm I'm thinking here 5mm OD in either lightweight tube or similar, mmmm methinks there's a few options around. Anyone know what the Hop-up CF one weighs?

Call me dumb Willy, but I'm assuming you mean the brass? tube or alloy tube stuff in the little racks in most LHS's? This sounds very very interesting to me The tube would be just as good as the lightweight shafts in CF I would assume? maybe a little heavier but mucho cheaper? A little bit of effort to drill the holes and cut the lengths correctly and 'voila!

Well I have to say my New built Baja Champ is dead set awesome out of the box - running only my 'nasty' CEN Conquest ESC (20T limit, R>B>R) giving great run times and very good speed. I'm still running the stock 27T but will probably go down to a 23T or so. Oil shocks seem to be a must for the Baja Champ though - it's very bouncy with the Friction dampers. Other than that very very stable and is handling the dirt track and close cut grass exceptionally well.

I 'opened up' the wheel arches on a Parma Dodge Neon Coupe body to run with sedan wheels. It looked excellent and didn't throw out the proportions at all. It's actually a good body to run, failry streamlined with good 'crumple' zones due to its length!

I'll match Supershot with Matt (Qubarb?) so we're neck an neck

Well I'm in Canberra would suggest it's an indeal place for a meet. It's more central to Sydney and Melbourne, has a good successul couple of clubs which may get in on the bandwagon and there's at least 1 serious collector here (according tot he blokes at the LHS) Ofcourse I'd drive my crappy road cars around at any meet here, I reckon a few of hte other guys from here that I run with at work (Hi Matt + Danny) would stick their heads in as well...

What about an aftermarket shaft? I mean they're availabe in heaps of sizes - if only I knoew what measurements were what ie TL-01 is sedan 38mm... I've seen them up to 75mm in aftermarket brands... Anyone know or got one to measure?

To slip back on topic... The guys at work and I (we run in our lunch times mostly) use a tarmac 'parade' ground, which has a fine layer of very small gravel (1 or 2 mm in size) scattered over it, it makes for a bit of fun but is tough on the plastics. There's also a couple of dirt access roads and stuff we run on (well they do with their off-roaders) We're lucky in that it's a huge area (it also has 4 full size basket ball courts painted on it, with adequate space between these... it's HUGE! while still being out of the way of the public eye so our bosses don't mind.