Mad Ax

Nice colour! I like the DI, ran mine yesterday and loved every minute of it... Good quality, plenty of upgrades, sturdy design - flipped mine several times off a tree yesterday and didn't even pick up any scratches...

Hi all, Is there a good online resource that explains all about motors, etc..? For example, I know that less turns usually = more power. It also needs a better ESC to cope with it. I also know that some motors are 10 turn single; some are 10 turn double, etc... What does this mean? If a motor is 10x2, does that mean it needs a 10 turn ESC to run, or a 20 turn ESC..? I've also seen people say that to get the best out of a hot motor you need to change pinions. In what way? Do I give fit a bigger pinion for a higher top speed from the extra torque of my new motor? Or do I fit a smaller pinion for lower gears, to make the most of the power at higher revs? I guess all this stuff is pretty basic, but after a few months of being back in the game I still haven't managed to pick it all up yet. If there's a site that already answers all these questions, I'll go there. If not, it could be a useful thing to type up neatly and post in the How Tos for other plebs like me to learn from []

I quite often fitted small wheels to the front of big-wheel 2wd trucks. Speeds up turning reponse and increases battery life by reducing strain on the steering servo. Mad a massive difference, fitting Brat wheels to the front of my Mud Blaster [] looks really odd tho...

New releases: some good, realistic-looking buggies. Tamiya's recent buggies have all been about wierd sci-fi styling and futuristic curves. The Baja Champ is one of the few current models that actually looks like a real car. I'd like to see more scale-looking trucks - I guess the hi-lift chassis will be released with a new shell and possibly different suspension configurations. I'd also like some scale-looking rally cars - it's possible that a modified Hi-Lift chassis with lots of metal and scale-effect parts could be used to replicate a MkII Escort chassis, although I doubt we'll get many classic cars released under Tamiya (especially not Euro Fords). Re-release: Nissan King Cab. Just 'cos I had one as a kid, and I loved it, and can't afford the silly prices they're going for these days. Probably not going to get it tho - the chassis isn't really like any of the current stuff, so it would mean starting up the old tools again...

is it like a high-pitched whistle? that would probably be the ESC switching, as has already been suggested. I've noticed some are louder than others...

I've got no experience of the Hound, but I love my DI for thrashing. In standard trim it does everything I ask of it, and it's a very involving build. Also comes with a full ball bearing kit included (apart from 4 steering bearings, metal bushes supplied instead, IIRC) but I don't think the Hound does. So if you ball-race your Hound, you've already spent the difference. People are now starting to take the DI seriously, there are some awesome hop-ups out there, and I think some people are actually starting to compete with them. How's that - a competitive modern Tamiya buggy!!

Cool! I've always fancied an RC version of some of the Tamiya Juniors. I've got several mini buggies (Neo Burning Sun, Super Astute, various others I forget) up in my parents loft... And I think I've got a Midnight Pumpkin somewhere, too... I mini RC Pumpkin to go with my 1/12 would be excellent...

I haven't been toBrean for a while, but I expect the sand would be fun for buggies (and we can bring some wooden things to make ramps too!) ISTR there was access to some big dunes that should be fun for buggies or monsters. I remember playing with some Star Wars guns among them a few years ago [] Yeovil is also fine for me, sheer vertical faces sound like excellent fun - get enough speed and anything will make it []

OK following on from the death of the Wiltshire meet, here's a suggestion for a meet in Somerset. Brean Sands in Weston-Super-Mare has been suggested as a good all-round place to start, should be quiet this time of year. Dunes are great fun for climbing and racing, and has big flat stretches of sand for high-speed hooliganism. Anyone interested, whack your name on this thread, and we'll think up some dates...

Brean Sands would be cool - will be cold this time of year, but I'm up for a Brean meet []

Vintage rims look uber-cool - they come in pairs. I idiotically did the opposite as you, and bout 4 packs of 2. Now I have 4 spare black vintage wheels (wide offset) which I will probably use for something or other pretty soon...

I went the other way. I bought a 2nd hand Blackfoot Extreme that came only with a lexan body [] It looks pants, but at least it's OK when I roll it []

Aiiiiiiiiiight // Ali G //

Western Europe? Most of their cars are Japanese (Subaru, Nissan, Toyota, Honda) and their only current Ford (F350) is Ford USA. Cheers Yes - sorry, that reads wrong. What I meant is, interest in oldskool RS Fords is centered on Western Europe, whereas Tamiya produce primarily for the Japanese and US markets[]

I know exactly what you mean []. LHS selling them for a very reasonable £325 all-inclusive, only 10 minutes walk from my office... Oh, how I hate being a poor man!

respect

Blimey - just looked at the map! West Wittering is a long way south for me... Shroom, I'm not too far from Taunton (well, Bath...) If you fancy a break from packing boxes I'll meet you somewhere for a bit of a bash []

I guess any custom project of this type ain't gonna be "easy" - but with enough patience it could be done. After all, if you convert a Hi-Lift chassis to RWD, you no longer need the front axle. So you could rig up the front end from a TT, TA, TB, CC or whatever happens to fit best. It'll need some research and practice - but anything's possible, with enough time, money and pursuasion [] I saw a hi-lift in my LHS yesterday, for what I think is a very reasonable price. If I can save enough money over the next few months I might buy one, and if my finances are better off next year I might use my experience building my first to work out how a 2nd can be modifed into something totally different... I doubt we'll ever get oldskool Fords from Tamiya tho, the interest is centred wholly on Western Europe and even then, it doesn't represent the majority of buyers in that area...

I think it's a great idea [] I've owned 1:1 minis, and would love to get hold of some NIB M03 Mini kits to build and modify - probably my next NIB will be a Mini. Having 3 in Italian Job colours - well, that would be seriously cool [] IIRC the Italian Job minis were MkI Coopers - they had different grilles to later minis and other subtle differences. The Rover Mini Cooper Rally is about the closest shell to these. I have seen pictures of a Tamiya Cooper S rally car, but can't find it in the TC cars database - perhaps it was a static kit. I don't know exactly what the police cars were, but they seem to look very similar to the Alfa Giulia M04 [] Make a bus from any old parts and use big rig rims; scale may be an issue however

I'm in the same camp as Neo - I like running my RCs, but don't know anyone locally who's into the RC scene so usually end up running on my own. In fact, I haven't taken the cars out for ages, as it's too dark in the evenings and I'm too busy on weekends. I do love building tho. Putting together an NIB RC or modifying NIB models to make a hybrid or custom is really enjoyable. Moreover, I like to build things that "work" - I love putting together gearboxes, servos, etc - I love to see the finished thing drive around my carpet on its maiden test-run. I love taking it out into the countryside and giving it a good blast, but after that - I'm usually bored. I've bought a few runners off other folk recently, but I'm just hoping that I can get out to a few TC meets soon, otherwise the recent purchases will be for nothing... I keep getting ideas in my head for all the fun projects I want to do - a 4x4 twin-engine M03/04 hybrid Mini (or perhaps 4x4x4 M0303); a scale crawler using TLT axles and Blackfoot body; a "hovercar" drifter using a 200mm body with uncut arches over a TT01 drift chassis; a custom-chassis super-wheelie Pumpkin, a modern chassis Scorcher... sadly, money is the biggest set-back in all these projects [] And then, when I've gone to all the effort of building them... I'll never run them!!

That actually wouldn't be too hard to make, if you started with a Hi-Lift chassis and converted it to RWD. The ladder chassis construction of the hi-lift isn't too different from a MkII Escort chassis in terms of principle (after all, you'll never get an accurate Ford replica chassis unless you make it yourself []) Anyway... Then you'd change for shorter coil-over shocks up front, shorter unsprung dampers at the rear and use the leaf springs from the Hi-Lift to mimick a MkII principle design. THEN all you need to do is find some suitable wheels - Rover Mini Cooper wheels for example, look like Minilites that were a popular escort mod; or hunt around for something that looks a bit like a classic 13" 4-spoke RS wheel. MkI and MkII escort shells are available in lexan from a UK ebay supplier. The rest is just putting it all together, innit? [] Or, you could just use a lexan MkII shell and slot it over a RWD TT01 []

It depends on your idea of "fun" I guess... A clod can be modded to go faster, or climb better, or crush more stones than a hi-lift... But it's not so technical a model, and it certainly doesn't have much scale realism. RC isn't always about speed or climbing power - to me, the hi-lift is a beautiful piece of kit. It also has design influences going right back to the Hi-Lux and Bruisers that were very high-end models when we were kits. And as Shodog says, it's like a Harley - except that the Hi Lift is actually good []

It depends on your idea of "fun" I guess... A clod can be modded to go faster, or climb better, or crush more stones than a hi-lift... But it's not so technical a model, and it certainly doesn't have much scale realism. RC isn't always about speed or climbing power - to me, the hi-lift is a beautiful piece of kit. It also has design influences going right back to the Hi-Lux and Bruisers that were very high-end models when we were kits. And as Shodog says, it's like a Harley - except that the Hi Lift is actually good []

Sun 15th is good for me - or Sat 14th if others are racing in Swindon on 15th [] That spot looketh quite good for some general bashing about []

****, where's "Manicured American Voiceover Man" to give us the details on "The Ford truck's superb off-road handling" and "the astounding ability to climb" and tell us how it's "just like it's full-size counterpart?" Let's have a re-engineered 80's style commercial []