sosidge

To be honest, you have a bargain build at that price and I would leave it at that. The DB-01 was a really interesting release when it came out. But it came out over 15 years ago. A lot has changed. It was never a basher. It only made sense as an inexpensive racer. And to be viable on the race tracks it needed a lot of option parts. None of which are available now. It's heavy, it uses unreliable ball diffs, cheap shocks, no slipper clutch and wheels that are no longer a standard fitment. I know it has a following on Tamiyaclub. But lots of cars have a following on Tamiyaclub for illogical reasons. Frankly if I found one for £100 I'd put it straight on ebay to turn a profit. And I say this as someone who used to have a DB-01 and has probably done more racing laps with one than 99% of owners.

I doubt you would get a local shop to stock Carten as they are a small brand out of Taiwan that mostly sell direct to a handful of shops. However Kyosho have good support in Europe and are already sold in several Dutch shops, there's no reason why your local shouldn't be able to start a relationship with them. In fact the Netherlands is so small I'd imagine that every shop is basically a local one!

Quicrun and Ezrun are both around the entry level and can cross over with one another. Xerun is the high end. Hobbywing do have a lot of very similar ESCs on the market.

Probably this one, the old version of the MAX10 esc - https://www.hobbywing.com/en/index.php/products/ezrun-max1049

Tamiya chrome wheels are the exact same material as their standard wheels, they just go through a chrome plating process on the surface. Strength is the same for both.

Sounds like you haven't been using the correct size of screw to attach the servo saver. Try the right kind of screw that will actually hold securely, and if the servo gear has stripped, you'll need a new servo. A metal gear servo will be more durable.

People don't buy these to run, these are fun builds for middle-aged men with memories and money to spare. Fair play to Associated for offering such a wide variety of vintage kits. If they sell well, who can blame them?

I would always get a charger with a proper display, even if only charging NiMh, as more info is always better when charging batteries. Not sure why a B6 charger is coming up in your searches because they are very outdated, but SkyRC do a variety of modern chargers that have a proper display and the ability to take good care of any type of battery.

You have to actively choose to run 7.4V so there should be no risk of servo incompatibility when running standard servos. Unless you know what you are doing. But if you know what you are doing you probably wouldn't be asking for advice on a servo to buy.

Torque is measured in oz-in or kg-cm There isn't really a mid-range for servos any more. You've got your basic Futaba servo which doesn't have the (claimed) performance or metal gears but performs well in a lightweight 1/10th scale car. Then the Aliexpress cheapies that claim huge torque (25/35kg) and have metal gears but aren't actually fast. I have some of these and have been lucky so far but as with most Aliexpress products, quality control is non-existent. Then you jump up in price to "premium" chinese brands that have very high specs for the money. I have a couple of these too. And then if you are willing to almost double that price you can get a high performance servo from Futaba. This is what I always used to buy but the prices are insane now. Most people these days are making do with the chinese cheapies or the chinese premium servos. Bear in mind there are a lot of people out there who just rebadge a chinese servo and add 50% to the price. I wouldn't worry about HV compatibility. A good servo will perform well on 6V. The jump up to 7.4V won't make a bad servo good all of a sudden.

M5? Unusual size for RC. But you might have more luck finding a low profile serrated steel nut, these grip harder than nylocs anyway.

Amass are the original manufacturer of the XT60. They are widely available. My favourite version has a clip-on cable cover, makes soldering a lot easier and neater. So far the off-brand XT60s have been fine for me (none of the issues that plague non-original Deans with fitment), but the Amass connectors seem better quality than some of the copies.

In a car park I'd choose an M-05 or M-06 every time because the M-07 has a lower ride height and is designed for smooth, well prepared tracks.

I bought a Quadhands. Unfortunately it's not as useful for RC as I would have hoped, the clips don't have enough freedom of movement. For XT60s I have a little jig made of plywood from a UK company called J Perkins.

Almost every charger on the market will have a mode for NiMH batteries, and I'm sure XT60 to JR adaptors are available - if not, it shouldn't be too difficult to solder one up yourself. There is no need to spend any where near £200, £50 will get you an ac/dc device that can charge anything you need. Visit your local shop for advice or look at what is popular on one of the big UK online shops (not ebay or amazon), you'll have lots of good options. Edit to add that your Overlander charger will charge a NiMH transmitter pack with no problems, you just need to find the right cable.

SkyRC have solid UK support so I don't see any reason to buy from China. ISDT have patchy international support, I have an ISDT charger and it is fine but I don't think I would replace it with another one. Recently a charger from a Chinese brand that is sold direct by Chinese sellers was "banned" by the US authorities after dozens of reports of fires when using the charger - https://www.cpsc.gov/Newsroom/News-Releases/2024/CPSC-Warns-Consumers-to-Immediately-Stop-Using-HTRC-C240-Battery-Chargers-Due-to-Fire-and-Burn-Hazards-Risk-of-Serious-Injury-and-Death You can't guarantee that a charger is going to work perfectly but I have a lot more confidence in something that is actually being supported by a proper UK distributor (not someone who buys a bulk order from the factory to sell on eBay).

If the fun race is likely to turn quickly into proper racing, then a second hand race buggy would be the way to go. Wheel/tyre compatibility and availability is going to be an issue after not too long with a basic Tamiya, as would outright performance and handling, and you would end up buying a race buggy anyway. However if it's going to be bashing around the garden I would go for the Tamiya kit. 7 years old is just about old enough to do some of the build with parental support so it is a fun project.

Surprised these are still out there! This is a very early LiPo charger that was widely copied. Fundamentally the charger works well but the copies are often made of poor quality components which would explain why yours has failed. There are plenty of chargers available from well supported brands now, I wouldn't touch any of the cheap imports from Chinese sellers.

Do you have a picture of the endbell and brush?

Pressure in these diffs is set with the spring washers. Effectively they are not adjustable. The bolt should be fully tightened (take care not to overdo it as the pressure plates are aluminium and prone to stripping).

That's the side of the box though, with the paper insert that shows the contents. Usually Pro kits come with a nicely printed box that can be re-used as a car carrier. In fact this pic shows what you are actually getting - looks pretty good to me:

Normally you use black behind a translucent silver. Brings out the depth of the metallic.

What are the charger settings? I would watch the display as the battery charges. If the charger is set to 8.4V cutoff, what you should see is the voltage reaching 8.4 and then the current slowly declining to 0A. Obviously after the battery has finished charging the voltage will drop a little so make sure any judgements you are making are based on the battery as it charges rather than a battery that has finished charging an hour earlier.

These vehicles don't need a LiPo battery - we ran 4wd cars and trucks on NiCd/NiMH for decades before LiPo came along. But you can only get out what you put in. A NiMH is a low-performance battery.

If you are in a remote location I don't imagine you will get huge numbers of people. So just focus on laying out a track that people can get around easily enough and have fun. Choose the classes of car that are allowed sensibly based on the space available. It will grow from there if people are interested. Proper timing equipment is serious money and unless you have some benefactors that are willing to subsidise it at first it's probably not worth buying until you have proven that there is interest.