Panther

I'm interested to know what you went for in the end and how you got on with it. I would like to have a go at rock crawling and I wondered about getting a budget rock crawler and doing a few modifications to make it perform better.

Thanks for your replies guys, I've ordered a couple of sets of cheap drift tyres and I'm going to give it a try on tarmac. I've got a set of 26mm tyres for a cheap set of disc wheels I got and I also got the staggered 32mm-26mm for my bling wheels to see if it will work or not. It may give too much rear grip but I 'll give it a go. Nice videos there, I'll need to find a big flat peice of road to practice on.

What kind of surface do you drift on? So far I've just been making do with normal tamiya tyres on a wooden sports hall floor and it's so slippy that you have a hard time keeping a straight line. If you fit proper drift tyres can you just dift on normal road surface?

I'll have a bit of a play around with different drift tyre compounds (if you can get such a thing) and see if I can cure the hideous understeer of my TA03RS. I tried putting loads of preload on the rear springs to make the back end stiff, but that didn't seem to make much difference.

I was thinking to get into R/C drifting after having a go and thinking it was fun. The only car I have that is suitable is an old PIAA Porsche GT2 on a TA03RS chassis, but it's quite understeery and you have to brake hard on turn in then put in a fair bit of power to get the back end out so it's not ideal. I've seen a relatively new Tamiya kit based on the TT01D and wondered if this would be a better bet for getting into drifting, or is there a way I can set up my TA03RS for better drifting (cheaply). Any advice welcome.

I have just looked through the clear as mud instruction manual for the Accucel 6 and just to clarify for anyone having the same issue: To get the thing into Auto mode from Manual on the NiMH program, first press enter to get the charge amps flashing THEN press both the + and - together to toggle between Man and Aut. The voltage level is fairly self explanitory but the charge current should be 1c according to the instructions which means that my 3000mAh battery can be charged at 3A and my 1800mAh at 1.8A etc... Discharge cut off level is 1V per cell so it will be 6V for my 6 cell battery and my discharge amps I have set to 1A as it doesn't seem to say much about it in the manual and I was unsure what to set it to. I altered the capacity cut off to just over the battery capacity as some of the energy will be converted into heat but I have left all the other settings such as sensitivity (the automatic charge shut off once the battery is full) at the default level. After all that I think you just set the discharge/charge cycles to 1 and hold down the start button. If it blows up or goes on fire I'll let you know.

I would go with this reccomendation. Bead blasting will put a textured finish on the parts even at 40psi, I use it mostly for car and motorbike parts (full size, not models). Walnut shell is another option. I have a shotblasting/beadblasting/powder coating/painting company and bead blast stuff on a daily basis.

I now have a Toshiba laptop power supply with a 15V 5A output but the coaxial connector is the wrong size. I got it from the local scrap store and they also gave me the correct sized coaxial power plug to fit the charger which I will solder on. The correct size is a 5.5mm outside diameter with a 2.5mm hole in the middle (there are about a million different sizes of these things). The Toshiba power supply had a 6.3mm outside diameter. If anyone wants something off the shelf that will fit, just google "12V 5A power supply 5.5 2.5" and you'll find tons of them starting at around £5. I hope this is helpful to anyone looking for a power supply for one of these things.

I think most people just get a 15V 5A power supply for a laptop (around £5) as they work quite well. I think Toshibas have the correct fitting although I may be wrong. I might go for one of them if my 12V power supply doesn't work.

I just bought one of those off ebay for £25 and it came with all the extra connectors including the Tamiya one. It didn't include the 12v transformer but luckily I have a universal one that should fit. edit:Charger

I've had problems like that when water has managed to get into the reciever. It causes intermittent problems like the ones you described. It might be worth putting your old reciever on the radiator for a bit with any rubber bungs taken out of it rather than throwing it out.

For some reason I can now access the online manuals in the reference section where I couldn't before, so I can now read the relevant pages. Some ideas on hidden body mounts would be good though.

I've managed to get hold of a couple of Porsche GT2 body shells (one genuine Tamiya and a ***** copy) for my TA03RS so I'm doing a Taisan for show and a PIAA for bouncing off things but I don't have a manual to show me where the stickers go. Can anyone help out with a scan of the relevant pages? Also, how do you do hidden body mounts? The body shells don't have holes in them so it might be nice to keep them like that.

I've been trying to drift my Porsche GT2 on the TA03RS chassis and it seems to be working OK in the local sports hall. The only modifications I have made have been larger diameter tyres on the rear and smaller ones up front so that the back end is always a bit loose. Having read this thread I might try and get a dedicated drift car, it is good fun!

The problems I've had with my Blackfoot gearbox are as follows: -Worn pinion gear starting to slip which was replaced -Worn bushes in the gearbox which are now replaced with bearings causing the gears to move around and slip -The diff was causing the side plates of the gearbox to flex and allow the diff gears to slip so there's now a screw holding that together -Worn wheel axle bushes allowing the axles to slop around and the drive shafts to slip; now changed to bearings Try those things first. The next problem I think may be too much play in the rear swing arm joints which will then cause the drive shafts to start slipping again. I think I may mount the rear swingarm on bearings once that happens. Also as Tony says, check your pinion gear is meshing properly.

I know even less than I thought!

I think I'll take your advice and go for the uprated parts you linked. Your chassis knowledge is fairly impressive, I knew my Manta Ray was a TA01, but I've never even heard of the others. Thanks

As the title says really, I need a pair of front uprights (the manta ray ones are red, but i believe black ones will also fit) and a motor mount to fit my old Manta Ray. I also need one of those circular thin flat plate things that you put between the motor and the motor mount, I assume it's some kind of heat insulator. Thanks, George

Thanks, but I think I've found the problem and it wasn't what I thought it was. It seems that the diff forces the metal side plates of the gearbox apart and the teeth jump over each other when it is under strain. I need to find some way of bracing the sides to prevent this from happening. I'll think of something.

Are the parts interchangable? Could I swap to a Frog gearbox? The gear that appears to be causing the problem is the lower one with the smaller cog on the side of a big one in one piece. I got a second hand gearbox off ebay, but unfortunately it has the exact same wear problem.

The bearings in the Beetle and the Blackfoot are 1150s and 850s as far as I know. You can get bags of them fairly cheaply off ebay. A bit of a hijack, but if you find somewhere that sells gearbox internals let me know!

I don't know either, looking up that part number on Google returns a mix of descriptions, some are listed as a body kit i.e. all the bits you need, and some are listed as a shell only. Time will tell...

This place: Model shop

I'm not concerned about what it's worth, I want to be able to use the thing. I can see the appeal of collecting models and making them like new, but I prefer to get use out of them. I've ordered some staggered fitment wheels, I just need normal rear axles now.

If it included both, then there should be a few spares kicking about, I've already ordered the shell from Modellbau (I think that's how to spell it). I'll put up a wanted ad and see what turns up.