markbt73

Don't I wish... Nope, it's much more ordinary than that.

Sigh... No... it's black, and it's a 2 door, but it has never said a word. And it definitely doesn't have turbo-boost.

I don't know if anyone has already done this, but I thought I'd share it. While doing the 3rd shock mod, I was looking for a way to remove and install the rear axle without having to take out eleventy thousand screws. What I did was trim out a tiny bit of part D11, as shown in the photo, so I can get to the screws that attach D8 to the chassis. By removing those two screws, the two screws that attach D8 to D11, and disconnecting the shocks, you can wiggle D8 out enough to pop out the axle. I also beveled the leading edge of part D8 a tiny bit to make it easier to remove and install. Sorry for the blurry picture; my camera is junk. I'll do a diagram of where to trim later if anyone wants/needs it.

OK, try this one. This is actually my own car:

It does get easier. The first week is horrible, but after that the nicotine is out of your system and then it's just a psychological thing. The most important thing I found when I quit four years ago was to stay away from smokers. Out of sight, out of mind. The best part is being able to smell and taste food again. It's a subtle thing, but definitely a plus. Good luck!

It's not leaking; it's just "marking its territory."

Aaugh, cut it out! You guys are making me want another Blackfoot!

The Mad Fighter is just an update of the old Grasshopper/Hornet concept, swing arms in front and a solid axle in the rear. Personally, I like the re-issue Hornet for best value/fun in that class; its direct steering is less sloppy that the Fighter's setup, and it comes with an ESC and oil shocks for the rear. And IMO, it looks a lot cooler. All of these cars are pretty primitive, but they're so light that they can be quite fast with a standard 540, and they're tough as nails. Tons of fun to drive, as long as you don't expect handling miracles.

Pretty, but wow is that expensive, especially when you consider this...

The one in my re-issue Hotshot does that. I think that ESC wants some cooling air. I don't think it likes being all enclosed like that.

How about the R5 Turbo, and maybe a FWD chassis to do the old Mk1 Golf?

Looks like a good start. I'd suggest getting 2 battery packs, and then look into some decent tools, especially hex wrenches, small pliers, and good Phillips screwdrivers. You'll enjoy the hobby a lot more if you aren't trying to build or repair your car with cheap tools.

Well, HT servos are more expensive, and they drain a lot more current than standards, so there are plenty of reasons not to use them for everything. If the ESC can't deliver enough juice to keep the servos happy, they might glitch. And you'll kill your battery faster. It's like using a sledgehammer to tap in nails to hang pictures on. Yeah, you can do it, but it's overkill, and there's a chance it might not work so well.

Actually, you can take just about any modern-ish 4WD buggy and put 2.2" truck wheels/tires (or Wild Willy 2 rears on all 4 corners) on it. Most of them use 12mm wheel hexes already, so they'll bolt right on. I'd imagine a Blazing Star/Dirt Thrasher would be a good candidate for this. Just remember to gear it way down, so you don't cook the motor.

While I was unpacking today, it occurred to me that I do have a vintage NIB model kit. But it's neither RC not Tamiya: It's an AMT 1:25 scale kit from the late '70s of one of my all-time favorite cars, and the first car I ever owned. And so I guess I know what you NIB collectors are talking about, to some extent: it's nice to just open the box once in a while and look at the parts, and think, someday, I will build this...

Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic! Funny one-liners, diabolical puzzles, pretty graphics, and no sore thumbs from button-mashing. One of my all-time favorites. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_titanic

For my 12th birthday, I got a little Radio Shack (Tandy) Lamborghini Countach. It was "full function," but not proportional, and it went about as fast as I could run. I loved it, drove the wheels off it, coated it in several layers of paint, wore the front bumper completely off driving down the curb (it wouldn't make it back up; I always had to go retrieve it). Then about a year later, walking through a store with my dad, I saw the premiere issue of Radio Control Car Action magazine on the shelf. I bought it, read it cover-to-cover many times, waited eagerly for the next issue, and did the same thing. I spend an entire summer mowing lawns and doing other odd jobs to save up $150 for a Grasshopper kit and all the trimmings. (I really wanted a Wild One, but I wasn't patient enough to save the extra $30 it would have taken.) 20 years and I don't know how many kits later, when I got a re-release Grasshopper, I assembled it without the instructions because I still remembered how it all went together. I've left RC behind a few times (for real cars, guitars, girls) but I always seem to come back.

Too rich for my blood, but it does look cool, and now it has my wheels turning: One of the things that has always bugged me about the available 2WD RC kits is that you either have direct-drive solid axle or IRS with a gearbox, and both are rear-motor. This means it's impossible to build any sort of realistic chassis under, for example, a muscle car body. But what this shows you is that there are all sorts of uses for the deluge of "truck" axles now available, and they don't necessarily have to include big knobby tires and brush guards. Imagine, as an example, how cool it would be to build a chassis with a XC/CC axle in the back, wishbone suspension in front, and a motor mounted longitudinally where the engine would go in a 1:1 car. For gear reduction, use a planetary gear set, possibly one of the ones available for RC aircraft, so everything stays nice and in line. Now top it off with your favorite RWD, straight-axle road car body, and you have a vehicle worthy of sitting on a trailer behind your High Lift. Sigh... Yet another in a long list of "things I'd do if I could spend massive amounts of cash on toy cars."

What I want to know is, how did you get Quentin Tarantino to drive your truck?

We used to use rigid steel or fiberglass antennas in 1:12 scale on-road, because if the car flipped, the antenna would bounce it back onto its wheels. I've tried one on my HPI Micro RS4 with similar results. But I guess that trick only works with a really lightweight car with a low center of gravity.

Motor is now installed. It's a 380 out of a Grasshopper, connected to an old Stormer Racing reduction box, which gives a 1.8:1 reduction. Obviously, because of the extra gear, I'll have to run the motor backwards. Should slow the car down enough to be controllable for showoff runs, which is all it will ever see. I might run it on 4 cells, too, just to slow it down more. Sorry about the blurry photo; my camera isn't exactly state-of-the-art.

Well, I got the basic rolling chassis together last night. Took about an hour; there's not much to it, and I'm an old pan-car guy anyway. Here it is sitting on my very cluttered desk: I found a couple photos on the web to use for reference, too. One shows a good shot of a fairly stock 392 Hemi four-barrel in a 32 Ford engine bay. And btw, the etymology of the term "lake pipes" is that they were originally used on the coupes and roadsters that were raced on dry lake beds in California. The lake pipes were capped, so the exhaust ran through normal mufflers on the street, but out on the lake, the caps came off and the exhaust was unrestricted for a bit more power. The kustom guys picked up on the fashion statement, but not the purpose.

The front ones will go right on, but the rears use different adapters. The LB is the old 5-point adapter from the early days, and the KBF is the more modern 12mm hex. Wild Willy 2 wheels, however, which are the same size as LB/MP wheels, will bolt right on. But be aware that they're smaller than stock Blackfoot wheels, so you'll lose some ground clearance and speed.

My wife got me a Hemi Coupe kit for Christmas, and I haven't had time to do anything with it yet, except think and plan. I think I know basically where I'm going with it now; I just need time to actually do it. It's going to be fenderless, gloss black, with some careful engine detailing and (if I get really ambitious) working lights and an interior. It will be set up as a runner; I am not capable of building a pure static shelf queen, but it will probably not see much action. As such, I'm going easy with the power. I'm going to try to adapt the motor plate to run a 380 out of a Grasshopper, and I have a 2:1 reduction box that might work to slow it down even further. I have a spare TEU101 for control and a Futaba servo that already has the ears cut off, just waiting. As far as detailing goes, I really wish Parma had chosen a Chevy small-block instead of the Hemi. I'm tempted to try to build one or adapt one from another kit, but that might be going a bit far. So the Hemi stays, but I don't like the big drag-racing blower, so I'm going to do a little scratch building and make a hi-rise intake for dual 4bbl carbs. And the zoomie headers are going too, replaced by 4-into-1 headers and "lake pipes." You know, something that could actually be driven on the street, were it 1:1. I don't know what to do for wheels and tires yet. Have to think about that a bit... ideas welcome. Photos coming when I actually start. I have a million things going on right now and sadly, no time to devote to RC of any kind, but soon. Really.

Loving this project, keep up the good work guys! Can't wait to see it finished. But if it were me, I'd make it a GMC-style grille instead of a Chevy, just because I've never seen one done that way: