markbt73

It sounds like you might be getting interference, maybe from the metal servo gears being transmitted to the antenna in the car. The best way to avoid this is to make sure the receiver antenna wire isn't anywhere near any other wires on the chassis. Don't bunch up excess antenna wire inside the car; let it dangle out the top of the tube. And don't wrap up the antenna with other wires, or you're more likely to get interference. If you isolate the antenna wire and you're still getting glitches, try a plastic-gear servo. The standard Futaba 3003 or Tower TS-53 is plenty of power to steer that truck. And you'll save some money.

Bandits are pretty tough. They use the same gearbox as the Rustler and Stampede, so they'll handle pretty much anything you can throw at it. They sell that car now with a brushless motor, with steel transmission gears. If you needed to, you could add those gears to yours. But it's really tough stock. If it's old enough to not have a slipper clutch, you should think about adding one.

The Manhattan Project features a Tamiya Subaru Brat in a, er, "supporting" role. It carries some interesting cargo.

They all twitch when you rub the antennas together. It's just a little interference. If I remember right, the ESC will blink at you until you set it up (push the button, pull the trigger, do the hokey-pokey, etc.). The little instruction sheet that came with the ESC should tell you what to do. But I don't think anything will work until you go thru that setup procedure.

Oh, it's only a matter of time before I seal up the electronics in my Lunchbox and go splash around... and that icy video is scary, but really... if you can't even walk to you car properly, don't bother trying to drive anywhere. Duh.

That might be the most concise, easy to understand description of a one-way I've ever read. Well put.

Traxxas uses 12mm hexes, so they'll fit. The only place you'll have trouble is on the front of the KBF where there's no hex. You should also look into HPI or RPM wheels; they're both 2.2 and usually come with all sorts of adapters to make them fit anything. You'll need 4 rear wheels for the trucks with 4 hexes, and 2 rears and 2 fronts for the KBF. WW2 wheels (with tires on them) bolt right onto the KBF, but you lose all the ground clearance because the overall diameter is smaller. Makes it almost impossible to flip, though.

Well, after a tough month, my wife and I have relocated to Portland, Oregon from Los Angeles, and I swear my blood pressure has already gone down 10 points. I like it here. Still unpacking, so no RC stuff out yet, but I have a new Parma Hemi Coupe sitting in its box, waiting patiently... might do a build thread for it, if anyone is interested (and even if they're not, I might do it anyway, because I can). Having a ball trying to catch up on the latest projects and rants and raves and whatnot. Can't wait to get a car out and go for a drive, as soon as it stops raining... BTW, we got Verizon fiber-optic internet service installed yesterday, and oh my goodness is it fast. Highly recommended.

Most sincere yuletide greetings from sunny Pasadena, California! No snow ever!

A bit more personal list: Highlights: The three wonderfully Zen-like evenings spent assembling my Hotshot The insane grin and delighted giggles from my wife during the first run of our his-and-hers Lunchboxes Low points: Nothing to get excited about (or even care about, really) other than the re-issues Hopes for 2008: Re-issue FAV or Wild One, and the resulting begging/rationalizing to my wife to let me buy it Lots of quality bench time modifying the Lunchboxes, and a decent place to run RC cars near our new home in Portland

Oh that is just all KINDS of awesome. I love Firebirds. Too bad nobody makes 1/10 scale "snowflake" wheels.

...and eat your Wheaties; those nuts like to be TIGHT.

Most servos are really close to the same physical size, except at the extremes. Avoid anything that says "mini" or "micro" or servos designed for 1/4 or 1/5 scale models, and you'll be fine. What you want is a "standard" servo. I favor Futaba myself, so number S3003 is what I'd choose. And no, the brand doesn't have to match, as long as the servo will plug into the receiver. I don't knwo who makes Losi's electronics (JR maybe?), but odds are it will work with anything.

Nice! I've always hated the lack of "steelies" for RC cars. Those look great!

230mm is the size for the old "pan" cars, which was the standard on-road car platform before touring cars. I think I've seen some of the pseudo-Can-Am style on-road bodies still available in that size, and a few odds and ends of hot rods and muscle cars from Parma, but they're getting scarce.

Anything will fit, but a Tamiya body will be more convenient, since the locations for the mounting posts will be correct, and in a lot of cases the holes are even drilled for you. The HPI and other shells are meant to be more universal, so you'll have to locate the posts yourself. It's not hard, but it is an extra step.

It's like a kinetic sculpture that you can go play with.

I didn't paint them box-art back then, so I see no reason to do so now. I had a sky-blue Grasshopper and a two-tone orange and yellow Falcon. (My Blackfoot was black, but only because it wasn't painted at all. And I didn't put the decals on.) I never really considered the box-art paint scheme to be an option, because I figured everyone else would go that route. I want my cars to instantly recognizable as mine. Now, my 'Hopper and my Lunchbox are both currently "naked," because I don't have a place to spray paint hard shells. The Hopper is going to be flat black with hot rod pinstripes, and the LB will get made up to look like either a Winnebago or a plumber's truck (I haven't decided). My Hotshot is bright blue, which I think looks great against the red parts. The only vintage car I'd really be interested in would be a Fast Attack Vehicle, and those pretty much have to be some form of camo to look right, but I'd still vary it somewhat.

Well spotted. 1968 Plymouth Barracuda.

What about the Tamiya 2-piece wheels with the gold mesh middles and the chrome rims? i think they came with the TA02W 300ZX kit.

All right, see if you can spot this "diamond in the rough," one of my favorite muscle cars: I won't be too picky about year, because this style was made for more than one year, but make and model, please.

Well, actually... The car in the photo is even rarer than that. It's a 1969 Hurst/Olds. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldsmobile_Hurst/Olds The paint job and the vanity license plate on the front give it away. (Sorry to be pedantic, but I'm a huge muscle-car nut.)

I remember a car called the Rock Buster that was a Grasshopper knockoff (or maybe license-built) from a company called World Engines... There were a bunch of companies that made knockoffs of Grasshoppers and Strikers and whatnot for a while.

When I put oil shocks on my first Grasshopper I spent a couple hours picking it up and dropping it... I made every member of my family come watch it land on the workbench. "It used to bounce, and NOW look!" I said. None of them were quite as excited about it as I was.

Wow, I feel (relatively) sane... My only thing is that the very first thing I do when I open a kit is put the tires on the rims. It's like that's the "official" start of its existence as one of my cars, even if I don't get around to acutally building the car for a while. I do build kits very slowly. My cars may be lacking in visual appeal, but they are always mechanically as close to perfect as I can get them: no binding or slop anywhere, no bubbles in the shocks, silky-smooth gearboxes. I understand completely about the serenity of workbench time; it's my favorite part of this hobby. Oh, and I can't walk past a car sitting on a table or shelf without squishing the suspension down. Don't know why.