THE HP FREAK

HI!... I also got the brass 3mm inserts installed in the front steering knuckles, so I can run my custom "A" arms made from TRAXXAS turnbuckles.

HI!... Well I got the front bumper tig welded up. Man is this thing strong! I also used two new "1984" TAMIYA "HORNET" front bumpers. These bumpers have a ton of flex in them and won't break. I trimmed both down and bolted them to the front bumper and made a aluminum plate to mount one on the rear. The BIGWIG rear gearbox does not like backing into curbs. lol!

HI!... Well I got a bit more done on the aluminum chassis "BIGWIG' this week. Some people would wonder why I would do this to a 24 year old car. Well I took my other plastic chassis "BIGWIG" out last night to bash with a few buddies. Let's just say they weren't happy that a 24 year old R/C car was beating all their slashes and nitro powered trucks. lol! We clocked the old girl at 61KPH (38mph). Well I mis judged a distance and ended up smashing into the edge of a shopping cart in the middle of the parking lot. lol! Cut the old girl right in half. I'm hoping for about 70-75KPH once my 11.1 VOLT, 5000mAh LI-PO's show up. Here's a few pics of the carnage :

HI!... It's also been hard to find upper "A" arms for the front and rear. So back to TRAXXAS again and I got some turnbuckles. They had to be cut down to length but worked out perfectly. Stock front upper "A" arm : New fabricated TRAXXAS upper "A" arms : Fabricated rear TRAXXAS upper "A" arms :

HI!... When everything is completely done all parts will be getting powder coated gloss black. Picked up the tire/rim upgrade today. The stock tires are so hard, probably due to the rubber technology is 24 years old. lol! Getting the car up to speed is a challenge. It wants to go in donuts most of the time, even with the 4x4. So I looked around and found some TRAXXAS "ANACONDA" rims tires that come on the TRAXXAS "BANDIT VXL". I couldn't believe it! They are a direct bolt on. Same size as the stockers. Now I should be able to get some half decent traction on the road.

HI!... The chassis was all TIG welded inside and out. I then ground down the welds on the outside to make it cosmetically pleasing. I made another front bumper. This one with some supports to keep it from bending on impacts. It is currently at my welders getting the supports TIG'ed on.

HI!... And aluminum fabrication begins. This was all done by hand. I do have a brake for the bends.

HI!... Well after breaking like 8 chassis's in 6 weeks I decided to build one from scratch out of aluminum. Here is what the stock chassis looks like : So I used some bristle board and started to mock one up :

This is my 1986 TAMIYA "BIGWIG. The older members will remember this buggy. It was quite famous back in the day. Was one of the 1ST R/C cars to get a 8.4 volt battery and the TECHNIGOLD motor. Full rack and pinion steering. Oil filled shocks, 4 wheel drive. Well when I got back into R/C cars about a year ago I decided to buy a few used ones of these to re-live my childhood. I had one when I was 13 back in "86". I really luved running it. So I bought a few off E-BAY and decided to upgrade them with modern technology. I upgraded to a TEKIN R1 ESC and TEKIN brushless "REDLINE" 537 motor. Got a few MAXAMPS 7.4 volt, 8000mAh LI-PO batteries for it. Well with a custom 19 tooth pinion she has been clocked at about 40MPH. Not bad for a car that was only running about 15-20MPH stock. Just wish there was more gearing options for it. Anyway the chassis was never designed to take impacts at this speed. Due to it is only street driven it has encountered the occasional curb. The chassis's are a black ABS bath tub style and being 24 years old the break quite easily. So getting sick of trying to find parts for this car and when you do their expensive, I decided to start fabricating and using parts from other cars to keep the "BIGWIG" alive. Here's what the "BIGWIG" looked like stock : I 1st started by upgrading the fragile stock front bumper with a custom handmade aluminum one. Then I worked on the shocks. The stock TAMIYA plastic shocks are not much to be desired. So upgraded to some TRAXXAS ones. :