Mad Ax

Next day, all I photographed was the rear hubs. They are aftermarket alloy ones, but the threads aren't in great shape. They are quite neat - they have grub screws in to hold the pivot balls in place, but I guess too much torque on the grub will damage the thread on the ball, which will then damage the alloy thread in the hub on the way out. They're serviceable, but may need replacing. Front hubs are plastic and they're not perfect either, so might be worth budgeting for all new alloy hubs later this year. There's not a lot of photos over the next week, but reassembly was halted when I couldn't find enough shims to return the car to stock spec. My plan was to rebuild it as per the book, but with a load of shims missing I had to wait for more parts to arrive. Fortunately Schumacher seem pretty good for stock and parts aren't overly expensive, although it adds up when I'm buying lots of little packets. These wide shims are used to mount the lower arms to the chassis. Changing them adjusts the roll centre. BTW I'm really enjoying my new Pit Matthew. The rubber pockets stop screws etc. from getting lost. I usually use some Ikea tubs, but I have a tendency to catch one end of them and catapult small parts across the workshop. This was taken on my birthday. Car coming back together at last.

The front spool is a bit melty too - something must have happened to this at some point, but it still works OK so doesn't need replacing. The next day some fresh parts arrived. Upper link mounts, lower shock mounts (called alloy lock stops as I think they are used for a different purpose on other cars) and some new lower shock eyes, although I found a half-empty pack of these in the kit box later. Presumably I did more than just photograph parts that day, but I have no photographic evidence and it was too long ago for me to remember.

The next lunchbreak I was back in the workshop for more rebuilding. This is the mullered inner suspension mount. And here is everything all stripped down to its component parts. The bottom of the chassis is scratched from racing outside, but that doesn't affect performance. The rash is quite nasty under the front but who cares? It's a race car. (Although I confess I did look for a chassis decal to hide it)

I the time for these sorts of books has mostly passed. There is such a wealth of information available freely online now that it's hard to justify the need for a book like this. Now if it was very well researched, written, had some great full colour photos (especially vintage photos) and some rare snippets of information that might not be so easy to find (for example, interviews with the drivers of the time - many of them are still active in the vintage racing scene now) then perhaps it would be a good coffee table read. What I would really like is a go-to cookbook for car tuning, and I can't find one. There was one published around 10 years ago but it doesn't seem to be in print any more. I know there's loads of info on Youtube (Tonisport in particular have some awesome vidoes) but I want something I can refer to trackside without having to watch videos at 2x rate on my phone on a dodgy internet connection while listening to cars whistling past, air compressors, track announcements and charger bleeps. What I really want is a long, detailed chapter on what each different tuning option does and what equipment I need to tune it, a chapter on which order to make the adjustments to best effect, chapters on pre-event prep and how best to "reset" a car after making wild setup changes for particular edge-case conditions, and then a go-to reference chart for different negative handling symptoms that will link me to all the tuning adjustments I should make, and the order I should make them in, to dial them out. If I put enough time and effort into this I could probably write something based on Youtube videos, but as I'm not exactly an A-final racer it would be pretty worthless coming from me.

I agree why not to run the Monster Beetle for all the reasons stated, but the decision between Blitzer and Sand Scorcher is much harder. I appreciate all the good reasons for running the Blitzer. The flat bottom, the wide tyres, the light weight. Mostly the parts are plastic, so they won't corrode, but the tub will fill with sand and the salt will get into your electrics if it's wet. So you'll want to bag your radio and ESC and use a waterproof servo. Also in my experience, the springs will corrode if salt is left on them. The worst part (and easiest to overlook) is the suspension screw pins. These are not stainless and will corrode if salt water gets into them. Then they'll swell and lock up the suspension and be hard to remove. I actually run my Blitzer and my Bear Hawk (same chassis) a lot on the beach but both have stainless suspension pins. They're both very capable on flat sand, and lots of fun. However, there is only one true car for the beach. The clue is even in the name. The Sand Scorcher comes with paddle tyres, locked rear diff and a waterproof radio tray. The instructions (IIRC) even advise you to put some sealer on the transmission. Well, if they don't, you can anyway. And there's even a cover over the motor endbell, you don't get salt in the can. Plus there's something about the way a Scorcher drives on sand that no other car can match. Especially if it has that perfect, slightly damp consistency and rippled surface, where the suspension can work and the car can slide but still soft enough to throw up some rooster tails as you power out of corners. SRBs don't really make sense on astro, grass, dirt or tarmac, unless you modify the suspension and fit a ball diff, but on the sand they are perfect. I don't even worry about the metal parts. The majority are brass, stainless or pot metal, which doesn't corrode like mild steel. You don't even have coil springs to worry about. Just bring a paintbrush to dust off all the sand after your run before you take off the radio cover, change batteries, and go out again.

It's Friday again people! What are we up to this weekend? Hopefully a quiet one for me, I was hoping it would be back to normal for a bit but unfortunately we were let down this week by the bodyshop working on my wife's car, so I've had to take several hours out of my working week to drive her to work and back. So I won't finish work until late today, well into what's supposed to be my Night Off, it'll be dark by the time I'm done so no more testing on the hillwalking truck tonight. Friday - work until 6ish, then probably chill in the studio with some beers and a pizza. I'm tempted to go to the shop and get some beers with actual alcohol in them for a change, I've barely touched a drop since the start of Jan but tonight feels like one of those nights. I'll probably have 2 cans and fall asleep Saturday - day with my daughter. Got some tidying and chores to do, then no solid plans. Might take her to see some family depending on how it all works out. Otherwise probably spend all day playing video games. If she wants to spend some time in the workshop with me then maybe we can do some quick jobs on the hillwalking truck. Making some kind of barbecue chicken for dinner. No idea how it's going to turn out. Recently my culinary experiments have been utter disasters, if I wasn't trying to feed a family I'd just get a takeaway instead of destroying my soul yet further by wasting more expensive ingredients on something nobody will eat. Sunday - If I can get the hillwalking truck ready on Saturday eve, and if the weather is good, and if I can be bothered, I might get up super early to go out for a sunrise walk. Then it's Workshop Sunday. I want to fit the rear light buckets for the hillwalking truck, which means tidying up the spare wheel mounts also. New wheels arrived and new tyres are on their way so I can make progress on that, hopefully. Would be nice if the new tyres arrive in time for Sunday. Also I need to go through all my crawlers, as there's a pay-n-play day at the quarry in 2 weeks time and this is the last proper Workshop Sunday before then. Sunday eve - possibly go out for a walk if I didn't get one in the morning, or possibly spend the night with my wife so I can go racing at the local club on Monday eve. The team principal of my new endurance racing team will be there, so I can have a practice on the endurance car before I have to race it in the prologue next weekend. Have a great weekend everybody

As far as I am aware, all the TA02-based trucks were TA02T - so the Chevy, Prerunner and Ford are all the same chassis underneath. I could be wrong about that. The TA02T is a hybrid that uses a mix of TA01 and TA02 parts to give a different wheelbase. That's all there is, really - it isn't wider. There's a fantastic comparison here: https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=48983

Also most of the rod ends have open backs, so the balls can be unscrewed instead of unpopped, which lengthens the life of the rod end considerably, but for some reason this one didn't. There were plenty of spares in the box so I'd swap this over later. Here's how they should look. So - an hour into the strip down, and I'd found a few parts that needed replacing. Some I already had - an opened back of new shock ends were included - but I needed new shock mounts and a new carbon upper arm inner mount. Schumacher are pretty good for parts - sometimes things can go out of stock for a while, but their numbering system is good and plenty of UK stockists carry parts. It wasn't hard to get new parts. To be continued...

Notice anything wrong here? This carbon part mounts the upper arms to the bulkheads. At some point the car has had a hard knock, and it's split the carbon. This would have put the alignment out, maybe too much to compensate with the multi-piece arms. I found more problems on the front lower shock mounts. This one was partly out, and both had damaged threads. I guess they take a bit of a bashing. The shock eyes aren't great either. I think most of that thread came out on the screw

So, what is it? It's a Schumacher Mi-8 touring car, previously used on tarmac at a club that has now closed down. The previous owner said he was an A-final regular and the car had been great on tarmac, but as the club had closed he was moving over to buggies and the Mi-8 was no longer needed. I agreed to give it a good home in exchange for some Paypal tokens, and then set about the long process of stripping it down and rebuilding it from the ground up. I started a month ago - on 10th Feb, to be precise - by rolling out my new HPI pit mat. I won this in the raffle at the Modelsport 50th, and it should be perfect on my workbench. Much easier to keep clean than the fabric Asiatees one I've been using. Not only do I get shock oil, axle grease and various other nasty things on the matt, I also do a lot of work with aluminium and it's not uncommon for swarf to get picked up in a fabric mat, which puts scratches in bodies and carbon parts. And this is what the chassis looks like. Touring cars have moved on a long way in the last few years! The last modern TC I bought was an Xray T4F 2019, which wasn't really all that different in design philosophy to the Corally RDX that I owned back in the last 00s. This is completely different. Just look at it - those carbon A arms are works of art! I could disassemble this car, glue all the parts to a white board, and hang it on my wall. As far as I'm aware, it's mostly stock. It has carbon battery hooks and alloy battery clamps, and the rear uprights are alloy, but everything else is as it came out the box. Although the box says it's an alloy chassis version - which would be more suited to carpet - this one has the carbon chassis. This makes sense, as it was raced outdoors. I don't know if the box is wrong, or if the previous owner changed it for a carbon version. It also looks like the previous owner fitted the simpler top arms. The kit comes with 2 options - one has 2 turnbuckles, for adjusting camber and caster, the other has a single turnbuckle (seen here) for simpler adjustment of camber only. I wasn't sure why - I would piece together the puzzle later. The other arms had been assembled, so I guessed he'd preferred the simpler setup. At best, I was only partly right.

What's this? Another Back to the Track thread? Yes - I periodically start these whenever I get the urge to go racing again. 2024 was perhaps my best year of racing ever, completing all rounds of the Iconic Cup for the first time. It was hard work - 6 weekends away from home plus the bonus non-championship round at Cotswold. But there was a moment when I was sitting on the tarmac, watching the end-of-season trophy presentation, the sun on my back, the tyre dust on my face, additive on my fingers and the smell of the previous night's barbecue smoke in my clothes, when I reflected back over the miles driven, the time on track, the battles, the passes, the crashes, the breakages, and I was temporarily overwhelmed with emotion. What an adventure. What a journey. I was certain, as I set off on the 4+ hour journey home from Halifax with the entire season behind me, that I would be back again in 2025. 2025, however, brought fresh challenges. Not least, the Iconic Cup's schedule was punishing - it would have been hard to cover my fuel costs for the first 3 rounds. Losing Mendip Raceway meant there was no home race for me. Sealing the deal was the fact that the entire series got fully booked out within a few hours of opening, while I was busy racing at the Modelsport 50th at the beginning of February. But - all is not lost for 2025's racing plan. A new race series - the BRCA Sporstcar Endurance Championship - pits teams of 4 drivers against each other, driving modern touring chassis with Le Mans Hypercar bodies and 21.5T brushless motors, in races ranging from 2 to 6 hours in length. This is something I've wanted to do for years. Sadly I missed out on Mendip's endurance race last September by dint of Facebook's wonderful algorithm deciding I didn't need to know about it until it was too late to get a team together. The only endurance I've ever driven was a 2-hour buggy race on A1 Racing Club's astroturf track. It was dark by the time we started, it rained throughout the race, and our re-release Sand Scorcher suffered a number of problems - not least the universals coming lose every 5 laps - but we finished top of our class by being the only SRB entry to finish. The ciders we sipped after the race had ended were some of the best we've ever tasted. Almost a decade later, a racer who I know from a local club but haven't seen in years, posted on Facebook saying he was entering his TRF-421 in the Sportscar Endurance series and was looking for drivers. I jumped in straight away, offering my services and - I hope - accurately and honestly describing my abilities as someone who is definitely not quick, nor skilled at car setup, but careful, dependable, and doesn't crash much. At least - that's how I was in M-chassis in 2024. My relatively high place in the Iconic Cup championship didn't come because I was topping the timesheets (far from it) but because I was consistent, stayed on track, picked up points in every race and was always there on track while others were spinning off it or haemorrhaging parts. However, this was only in the M-chassis class. I haven't driven a 4wd touring car in anger since the TA-05 IFS was a current car. I had a brief stint racing a stock TT-01E with a Fat Fox body at my local club, but that was a few years ago now. 2019, by all accounts, and I wasn't very good at it. So - I figured my best chance of not embarrassing myself and my team mates at the first race of the season was to get myself something modern and head along to the local club to get my eye in. If I can handle a modern touring car around a tight and technical club track with a 17.5T brushless in it, a 21.5T car on a nice big outdoor circuit should be easy by comparison. Modern TCs are seriously expensive - way out of my budget - but with the new Schumacher Mi-9 on the market and Christmas just over, there were a few Mi-8s for sale in the Book of Face. A week later, this landed on my doorstep.

A wonderful thing happened this week - the dates for the UK Club 380 race series were announced. The races are happening at BMR near Nottingham, same venue as the Iconic Revival, although I think on a smaller grass track. Round 1. 26th April Round 2. 31st May Round 3. 21st June Round 4. 19th July These are Saturdays, I think to avoid clashing with the main club race meets. The fantastic news is that round 2 takes place on the same day my holiday in the Peak District finishes, so I can check out of my hotel and make a short 90-minute drive - probably with a stop for a walk and some lunch on the way - and hook up with Club 380 for some top fun racing - and it should only increase my fuel bill by around £10. Typically a return journey to BMR costs around £100 + 6 hours driving, so that's a massive result. I'm probably adding maybe 1-2 hours onto my drive home, but that's fine because it's broken up by a few hours of good racing

I usually charge at 1C and find that's not a problem. Most of my LiPos are pretty old now, they can take a while to balance (in fact I often stop charge once they're mostly there as it can time out trying to get the final balance right) but they'll still last a couple of race heats or plenty of time bashing in the garden. And I'm getting over 4 miles out of my 3S walking batteries despite a very heavy rig and over 2A of torches on the roof. On rare occasions I charge at 2C - mostly when I decide last minute to go walking and I have limited time to get to the hills before I run out of daylight.

Great work, the scale and stance looks just nice under that Chevy body

So, how did it go? In a word - epic. Faultless. Perfect. Well, alright, not perfect - the sump guard catches on things and prevents me backing off them, the suspension is still too soft and it tips over too easily. Also the new transfer case is very loud and gets annoying after a couple of miles - I guess being screwed to the hard floor and the body acting as an echo chamber doesn't help. I found it was better if I stood off to one side. There's no obvious solution to that. I could take it apart and check the mesh, although it isn't adjustable. I suppose I could fill it with grinding paste and run it in the drill chuck for a few minutes to see if it smooths it out. The gears are about twice as wide as those in the previous case, so maybe I could find someone to machine them down. That would probably help a lot, but it's a lot of work and risk. Or I could try to grind off the corners myself and leave a smaller mesh area, which should quieten it down, but again, with the risk that I damage the gears and they don't mesh at all. But otherwise, it was fab. I was terrified that the old motor wouldn't like running backwards, or that the new gearing would be too low, or that I'd continue to have overheating problems, but I had none of that. The truck will run at just over walking pace in low gear. That's fine for me, although the motor is running fast. 2nd gear is too fast, really, but means I can run at walking pace with a lower motor speed and less noise. I worried it might be too much load on the motor, but even after long runs on grass the motor wasn't even warm to the touch. I really couldn't fault it. The dash light was great. This is an RGB LED that tells me what mode the truck is in. Green = normal (inertia-based) throttle and steering. Blue = cruise control. Purple = direct (crawler, non-inertia) mode, for instant throttle and steering response when traversing difficult areas. Red = failsafe (should warn me if the radio connection is lost and bring the truck to a full stop). Sometimes it's hard to tell if the mode has responded, and this gives me an instant visual indicator. In the final truck, this will be mounted behind the dash panel so it's less obvious and won't make the cab glow like a beacon. The torches were good. TBH they are bright enough that I could rotate the outer ones outwards to give a wider spread, which might be nice. I mostly ran them at around 1/3 output. Even that is too bright to look at when it's coming towards me, so I think I need to add another setting where they are barely on, for when other walkers are coming towards me. The cage worked, it stayed shut and stopped a lot of rattles that have plagued the truck since its first test run. I'd lost a bit of enthusiasm recently having put so much time into it - so much time untested, wondering if it was all going to fail drastically once I got out on the trails - but this has really got my energy back. I'm sure I'm going to have some great excursions with this truck later in the year.

In the cold light of morning, the previous night's mud was very much evident on the white truck I've got a lot of cleaning to do before I can paint this rig... Fortunately the inside stayed dry, because I haven't finished my arches yet.

That is a flare. There was some kind of exercise going on Salisbury Plain, which was only just starting to kick off at this point. This was the first of many flares. I'm not sure what fires these - there's a distant boom, then about 6 seconds later a bright orange light falls from the sky, then just hangs there for what feels like an age, casting a second sunset over the trees. The firing range starts just the other side of those trees, although the exercise is probably some way past that. As well as the flares, there was shelling also - I could hear the shells being fired from way off to the left somewhere, and about 5 seconds later the most incredible boom as they landed almost dead ahead, with a crashing echo that rolled across the plain like thunder. Awesome, and really quite scary when you think about what it's all for. Back on the lane, lights on full blast. You can see how deep it makes the shadows. This puddle seems to exist in perpetuity. Distant flare for artistic effect. And there you have it - 4.29 miles from one battery, including having the torches on for much of the way, lots of weight in the truck, and some boggy ground to cover. Not to mention the front tyres being almost completely flat. I only had another .16 of a mile to finish the walk, but I'll take that - I think that's on a par with previous excursions, so the old motor and new transfer case hasn't affected my runtimes at all. Back at the van. At this point I had a perfect view down over the plain, I could see some kind of muzzle flash as some shells were fired but they were landing softly. There were a few more big loud ones but whatever was firing those was a long way off to the west.

At the end of this woodland I normally double back and do the final 5-6 miles of the walk in mostly open fields, but the light had diminished so much that I couldn't see where I was going. The lights on the truck were superb, but I haven't finished the rear floodlamp yet so I had nothing to show me where my feet are going. At this point I decided to call it early, and head for home. This lane takes me almost directly back to the van, but it's very dark, with overhanging trees and uneven ground, and hard to walk on in the dark. The truck lights, being low to the ground, don't shine down into the potholes so it's hard to tell how deep they are. This creepy long-exposure shot only shows a tiny section of the lane. It's arrow straight for farther than the eye can see and quite oppressive in the dark. So, I chose to divert into the adjacent field. It's much nicer walking under the clouds than under the trees. I also had a little assistance to help light my way.

Deeper into the woods, I had to turn on the lights. This is the roof light on the lower setting. Out of the woods and onto open plains. I've no idea what this big expanse of old tarmac is for. Now we're in a dip to the left of the distant trees in the pic above, and the light has gone. This is quite a steep climb, and parts of it are wet clay. Despite slipping the wheels a little, the truck got up it with no bother. The lights are very effective, but the chalk paths cause a lot of glare, so I mostly ran on the lower setting to save my night vision. This is one of my favourite parts of the walk. We're in another wood, much older and tighter, but with some really good paths. The truck was very smooth over the rough ground, the lights didn't jump or vibrate at all.

In the older part of the wood. Here I had some problems - the path is on a slope, and the rig is so top-heavy that it leans hard and falls over a lot. Apart from adding more weight under the floor and stiffening up the springs and ARBs, it's hard to know what to do about this. It was very hard to drive here. Deep in the woods is a hollow where the water gathers, and the passage of walkers and horses has turned it into a crater field that the 1.9 wheels struggle over. The low sump guard doesn't help either, as it catches on a lot. But I'm reluctant to raise the ride height because it'll top over even more. I had intended to glue the lens covers on the front lights before I went out, but I forgot. I'm regretting that now, as they got filled with mud.

Finally, I got out of the house and up to the hills. The beaming sunshine had given way to a heavy overcast, but it wasn't cold. It was gone 5pm by this time, so I had less than an hour until sunset. A good opportunity to test the new lights! Plus everything else too - since the last run, this truck has had a new (old) motor (an ancient 55-turn Novak Fifty-Five that was skimmed and re-brushed 2 years ago after drastically overheating in the 6x6), a new 2:1 transfer case, and a cut-and-brazed centre propshaft. So there was a lot that was untested, and potentially a lot that could go wrong. My back has been very bad recently, and I didn't relish having to carry this beast home if it broke down... 15 minutes later, at the bottom of the hill, where it was still kinda soggy despite having had no significant rain recently. One of my favourite parts of the walk, in the trees. By the pond, about to cross the bridge into the old wood.

OK - finally - interior plate installed and crossmember back on. Refitting the body is awkward, as the entire assembly needs to be held in place, then the bumper held on top of it, then 2 machine screws into a plastic thread into the crossmember. I find it easiest with it hanging over the edge of the bench. I'm actually using my paint bench here because the Mi-8 is on the main bench and all my electrical stuff is overflowing on the spare bench. Then I came across a potential snag - I'd designed and made the roof cage without the spare tyres fitted, and the lower bar fouls on the tyres when slotting the cage in place but all was good - there's enough give in the tyres to get it in place. The final version will use tyres that are slightly smaller in diameter and much softer, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Friday came around and the weather was better than forecast, so I decided to get the truck back together and go for a test drive. This turned out to be more of a challenge than I expected, partly because the reassembly took longer than planned but also because problems at work meant I had the work laptop balanced precariously on the end of the workbench so I could be on hand to solve problems while also wrenching on the truck. As you can see, there was a lot to do. I started just after 2pm, and with sunset at 6 and a 25 minute journey to get to the hills, time was of the essence. The first chore - and it was a chore - was to widen the hole I'd made for the front loom, because now it's got a bigger connector on it. I used a file for this but in retrospect it probably would have been quicker to take it off and drill it bigger. Front loom fitted and dash lamp in place, and front crossmember refitted. Then I spotted a problem. I couldn't refit the interior / arch plate because I'd neglected to drill holes in the new servo mount. For a moment I considered leaving it (there are 4 other screws to hold the plate down) but stripping the front of the truck down to get this part out is a lot of work, so I decided it was best done now before it all went back together again. Refitting the nuts on the servo plate isn't easy. Double-sided tape and a small screwdriver required.

OK - more updates! I took a bit of time on my Thursday lunchbreak to get the lighting loom sorted out. That meant disassembling the 2-wire front loom I'd made for the front headlights to incorporate the additional wiring for the dashboard lamp, then splicing that into the connector that also includes the rear lights. I put multiplugs on everything so I can remove the entire rear lighting loom, or I can unplug the front loom in various places depending on what part I might need to disassemble. Then, for the first time ever, the rig would get a full test with literally every bulb connected. Except... When I'd cut my original 2-wire loom up, I'd taken off the front plug. So that would be a problem for another day. Anyway, my workshop is full of legs that I've cut off resistors, LEDs and transistors over the last fortnight, so for testing purposes I was able to hook it all up. Everything worked as expected and there were no nasty surprises.

Carson Paint Killer on a contraband cotton swab, a nice firm rub parallel to the masking line usually tidies it up nicely