digitrc

They need careful lubrication (a little silicone grease on the main balls, a lot of black grease on the thrust) and careful tightening (hand tight and back 1/8th of a turn to start with). Because of this many people have problems the first few times they build a ball diff, it is something that only experience can really teach, you need to get the "feel" for when they are adjusted properly.

The M-05 diff will only cause problems if you either lack experience in building ball diffs or try and run it far too tight. For "normal" settings it will cause no problems right out of the pack. You just need to take care with the build, because it is properly adjustable (unlike the TA03 diff which is not intended to be adjusted).

Personally I wouldn't use any of the silicone greases on gearboxes, they will slow it down quite a lot. Lord knows what that 151 grease in a spraycan actually is either! Bike shop suggestion is good. I use a small tub of Castrol LM Grease that I scooped out of a much larger tin.

When you say you adjusted the ride height with the "bump stops" what exactly do you mean? Do you mean the droop screws? Because you should NEVER use the droop screws to adjust the ride height. They will take all the grip and handling away with them. Use the spring collars to adjust ride height. Set the droop so you have at least a couple of mm downtravel all round (check by lifting the car up from ride height, the suspension should sag before the wheels leave the ground). I'm sure your tyres are fine. I have put plenty of glue platches on tyres by mistake and for club racing they are OK. You can file them off with an emery board if it bothers you. I wouldn't have built the tyres up with Tamiya foam inserts personally but that doesn't mean they are fit for the bin. Most people buy the pre-mounts nowadays. It's true that a lot of people use lighter fluid as a tyre cleaner also, I use motor cleaner myself.

It's another kind of connector. Not so popular now as it was 5-10 years ago. Deans is as close to a standard as you will find now if you want concealed contacts. Personally I would solder direct to the motor as it is not a part you often replace.

I don't know if it is a trick of the camera, but it looks like you might have the toe-in rear hubs on that car, and they might be on backwards (giving toe out). Or they might be bent. If that's the case, handling will REALLY suffer.

"Lubricating" the comm like that also makes the motor very mucky by the end of the run. It will need cleaning out every time. I dabbled in comm drops a few years ago and feel that the disadvantage in terms of gunk outweighed the advantage of a boost at the start of the race. Others may disagree. For bashing, I wouldn't do it at all.

Bundled antenna + short pipe = bad idea. How does your kitchen radio sound when the antenna is collapsed and folded away?

No. You need a PS spray and paint from the inside. PS the white bodies are generally ABS PPS I'm sure someone will chime in about the time they repainted a lexan body on the outside with a TS spray but that is not the intended use!

Good choice with the M-05 steering set. Although you can get suitable mounting posts in #54148 (DB-01 steering post) or #54193 (M-05 steering post) which is a bit cheaper than buying a complete FF-03 steering system. You never know, the drag link from the M-05 or DB-01 may even be suitable as well!

Those suggested ratios are for on-road. Buggies have somewhat larger tyres so you would need to go maybe 20%-30% higher on the ratio.

There is an internal spacer supplied with the shocks to limit travel. It's the suggested way to build the shocks for an on-road mini but you could leave it out for more travel. All would be clear when you had them. #54000 are great for on-road but they don't have the option of running longer travel. You could try some touring size shocks (eg #42102). Depends how importance ground clearance and bump handling is to your rally project.

I would suggest the 50746 Super Mini shocks. They give much more compression travel, and if you build them without the internal spacer, they have plenty of downtravel for rally.

The lowdown on brushless lingo... T or turns - the way the motor is wound, refers to the number of turns in the stator. Useful for comparing motors of the same type - not all motors are of the same type though (more later) KV - a measurement of the motors RPM per volt. NOT a measurement of power. T or teeth - on gears, a smaller pinion gives more acceleration, less top end and is a bit easier on the motor (generally) Other important lingo... Sensored/sensorless - the way the ESC reads the motors position. Most if not all racing ESCs are sensored which gives better low-end feel. Sensorless ESCs have rougher throttle feel and can sometimes "cog" or even run backwards unexpectedly, but are generally fine for bashing. 540 - the standard size for a 1/10th RC car. Now, the EZRun system you mention is very popular and very good value. Bear in mind that it is sensorless so won't have the nice low speed feel of the more expensive sensored systems. Another thing to bear in mind is that the 9T motor they supply with the EZRun is actually a small 380 size motor in a large case, so doesn't have as much power as the 540 size motors (which are referred to as an x.5 motor by Hobbywing). Couldn't say whether this is a good balance of power for a Hotshot - others will have direct experience of upgrading the motor. My personal feeling is that the old Tamiya cars are well suited to the kit motor or maybe a Sport Tuned, and that much more power than that will start to rip the car apart. The Hotshot is 1985 technology - the fastest modified motors at the time were barely any quicker than a Sport Tuned is now! Hope this helps.

Those are HPI Super Star wheels which used to be an option parts (don't think they ever came with a 2wd buggy kit). Not available new in those sizes any more... will be a vintage hunt to get some! Those might be the white versions dyed.

There is no reason why you can't use your existing brushed ESCs with LiPo. Those MRTs should still be usable, and are probably better than any of the brushed ESCs you can buy new nowadays - in what way have they worn out? If you are worried about the low voltage cutoff, you can buy external ones.

Generally you want a looser diff setting in the rear, and I wouldn't run a locked diff on a car that might go off-road. Ball diff front and gear diff rear would be my choice.

Any non-polished sanded finish will wear smooth in a very short space of time. I don't think the "rough" diff prep is worth it, and I have always had very good results with just leaving the parts as they are, degreasing them and assembling them. I think the design of the outdrives/pulleys and the lubrication of the thrust bearing has much more impact on the diff smoothness than the materials and preparation of the balls and plates.

You could be waiting forever for that charger... don't let a back order get in the way of your racing! Hopefully there's still time to cancel that order with Apex and go down to the model shop in Bath to get yourself a LiPo charger. I'm sure they stock one, if not even the shops in Bristol stock LiPo chargers! PS I guess from your race day and location that you go to the club at Melksham? You'd be very welcome at the club in Chippenham on Tuesday nights too, or at the CWIC series that Chippenham run at the leisure centre in Melksham (forgotten it's name for the moment).

If it is only a small mis-cut in a shell that isn't going to get much use, I doubt you need to do anything. But if you feel you must do something, a shoo-goo patch is a sound idea, or you can get some body repair tape which is very thin aluminium tape - Tamiya do it amongst others.

A common alternative in the UK is square section downpipe, connected by timber blocks, held onto the floor with velcro, and with some kind of rounded/soft end for the corner apexes.