Grastens

Since the adventures of the driver figure, I have not made meaningful progress. However, recently, @speedy_w_beans designed a fabulous rear wing mount to replace the sorry-looking attempt I made at producing a slightly more-accurate part. My sad-sack effort looked like this: Compare with the 3D-printed excellence from speedy_w_beans: No contest! I mean, his even has room for a proper tail light! And today, I finally had some free time to install it: You may recall that the new wing stay was designed as a part of a new rear motor mount panel that was reworked to include engine and brake details. All together, these would replace the stock rear motor mount panel, the plastic engine detail included in the original kit (if it was ever to be used for the re-release), and the wing stay. So, off came the original part: The only modification required was to nip off the locating tab on the left motor mount side. The 3D-printed part has no matching notch, so the tab has to go. It was such a diminutive price for such a massive upgrade in detail! This is certainly a well-designed piece. Yes, a massive upgrade: When speedy_w_beans consulted me on the part and modifications, one of my requests was to eliminate the bosses under the rear wing mount. The trade from 3 x 10 mm tapping screws to 3 x 6 mm machine screws and nuts were the reason: Yet so well-designed was the part, and such attention paid to its finishing, that the holes for the wing were already tapped! The mount itself was just thick enough to make the nuts redundant, too: Incredible! Thus attached, the presence of the car has been greatly enhanced: Another appreciation of the new part: The rear wing is now straight, level, and at an accurate-looking height: Overall, I am beyond thrilled by this latest addition to my build. Thanks, speedy! While I wait for painting weather to finally appear (plenty of false alarms lately), I will prepare the polycarbonate body. This will include cutting out the cockpit section, to fit my own driver figure. For the time being, I have decided not to proceed with a scratch-built roll bar for the chassis, instead ordering another chrome parts tree so that I can fit the rear roll bar and turnover pylon to the polycarbonate body, too. If I can successfully manage to bend plastic sprue or rod in the correct manner, though, I could revisit it. An accurate installation would mean more work on the cockpit piece… Meanwhile, that driver still needs modifications to fit under the shell! I will make some cuts and putty it together over the next month.

If he did, he would have called it FAB However, Wild Willy's cartoonish proportions would lend themselves well to a Thunderbirds-style driver! Hmmmm... The cage is spot-on - that looks like a proper Class 5 racer already!

I, too, thought it was a Sinclair C5-style vehicle, but reading through all your notes quickly dispelled that notion, and opened up a really interesting and unique one! Mind you, I was just excited to see another new JennyMo build thread The use of a solid axle is also interesting, but as you wrote, it is definitely in the ethos of a true Unlimited-class racer! I look forward to following along as it all shapes up - including the detailed posts! I wonder who will be driving... Edit: and NOW I see what you did there with the name! Nice one

A beautiful and well-spec'ed bike! It feels special from here - I hope you are able to get back on it soon I know the feeling of paying more for hop-ups than the bike: ... But what matters is that I have fun, right? However, I have been working quite hard lately on a different one. While I am out of town, I have access to the following road-going beauty: The owner does not ride it very often these days, so an agreement was reached where I can ride it as much as I want during my stay - provided I keep it in top condition, of course. The components are 10-speed as opposed to the 11-speed groupset on my, uh, "Schwinn," but the frame is of much higher quality! Since the time this photo was taken, I have lowered the angle of the handlebars and swapped in proper clipless pedals. So, today, I put in a good, hard ride, and met my distance goal for the week a little early To the relief of the owner, I then spent a good part of the rest of the day servicing it. It took me a while, but I think cycling is a hobby I can stay interested in - maintaining all the components is something I find therapeutic. However, it is one more wallet-draining pastime!

Interesting point. Given the breadth of HPI touring car shells advertised at 200 mm wide, perhaps this makes sense? Unless those were not their 1:10 bodies...

I specified the same HPI fifteen52 turbofan wheels for my ongoing Lancia 037 build: It is worth noting that the 037 shell is quite narrow to begin with... At the time, I was musing that the setup would look fantastic on a Lancia Delta, which actually used these wheels in period - unlike the 037, where the wheels appear on vintage rally cars post-Group B. However, I see from Superluminal's image that the wheels actually fit quite well under a Delta shell. The semi-slick tires on this 037 were a tight fit for those HPI wheels. Overseas gravel-style touring car tires (or most tires made overseas) seem to work better, since their bead seat diameters tend to be larger than stock Tamiya tires'.

I like the Fenix Classique - if I ever stumble upon a grand or so, I would love to pick one up!

I appreciate the depth and notes in this build thread. It helps to spread the enjoyment of watching this neat little kit come together

I neglected to mention this incredibly lovely 3D-printed wing mount arrived recently, courtesy of the incomparable @speedy_w_beans: This will take a place of pride on my Ferrari 312T3 build, once I return to town. In the meantime, I am admiring the pictures - he really did such a spectacular job designing and painting it, and it is quite sturdy, too. Fine intricate assemblies like this are part of the reason I fell in love with static modelling, but this is a job far beyond anything I could manage, yet I am lucky enough to be the owner of this

Those mirrors could be useful on a number of 1970s-period projects... With a little bit of work, this could be a stunning car - and it looks like studioRS already knows what to do!

It's not a popular opinion, but I think my favourite style is the turbine-type wheel issued with models like the current Tamiya Honda City Turbo: The set is distinctive, with an interesting appearance that is so rarely seen in RC cars. It also mounts some cool-looking tires in those Advan HF-style treads: The Michelin TRX-style tires that also fit are not bad, either!

I, too, appreciate precision tools, but so far have only gotten as far as a proper torque wrench set! That was purchased recently as I took advantage of some spring sales at some of the online bicycle shops. While I wait for that (and several other accessories, including proper wheel bags), I have gotten into the spirit of the season with some part-time work at the local brick-and-mortar bicycle shop. They are in the middle of reorganizing their stocks and moving out seasonal equipment, so I provided the grunt work while preparing a bike or two for the showroom floor The snow is receding in quite a fashion now, so I have been able to get out there and get riding. I am taking it slow; today I rode just under 40 km in the city, and am still feeling the effects It is a bit frustrating that temperatures are just low enough to discourage RC painting, but in the meantime my other hobby is keeping me well-occupied!

Seconded on the driver - especially with such a unique car. I could personally see either a racing driver in wild matching coveralls, or a young hooligan behind the wheel Everything looks great!

Nicely done! It has a cool 1990s-modified feeling to it, but no doubt drives closer to the 21st century! Thanks for sharing

An aftermarket McLaren M23 shell arrived today: I had plans to paint it up as a privateer entry, and convert the 1976-spec shell to a 1973-spec one. The latter may require more cutting and scratch-building than I anticipated (including, possibly, exhaust pipes), but I hope to make an attempt. After seeing that the seller issued me two sets of Marlboro-McLaren decals, though, it is almost a shame they will go unused... Well, they may appear somewhere else, but I cannot imagine where at the moment. The shell came with a pair of rear-view mirrors, an odd-looking driver head, and a cheap wing stay. The wing mirrors are definitely inaccurate, but again may find use somewhere else. I can chop up the wing stay for another F1-related project, too. The helmet, though... I guess I took Tamiya quality for granted, though I had no intention of using this one for the shell, anyway. Curiously, there is no back-plate, so the helmet is hollow. But maybe if I built one, and a tiny wire cage: Now THERE'S a scratch-building project: But overall, I am content with the new McLaren shell!

Chapter 12: The Big Picture My findings from my interview assignments did little to change the narrative of the Avante’s history. Of the two drivers I had singled out, Rikimaru seemed to be more amicable than Perry, but then did not really go out of his way to be nice to people. Rikimaru just went about his business, and rankled when it was suddenly taken away from him with Perry’s increased involvement – most people would have. The secrecy of the Azente meant that he never got closure for that slight, and while he is certainly quite settled in today, I never shook the feeling that it cast a shadow over his subsequent career and life. Perry, meanwhile, was part of the Avante’s legacy, and outwardly appeared to enjoy the attention. He was living an elegant life over in Switzerland, with an easy schedule as a special driver within Tamiya. Despite his success, he did not seem entirely happy – and in period, neither were the other drivers and several engineers who worked with him. The Avante appeared to be his closest friend, and the only one he kept in touch with, which helped me to understand his feelings when its development was in the hands of other personnel. But was that really the way he wanted it? “Shakey” Roop distanced himself from the Avante completely, and unlike Rikimaru or Perry, seemed genuinely happy with his life since the Azente pulled into the garage for the last time. In the Azente program, his contributions paled to those of Rikimaru and Perry, and consequently he was not really to blame for the car’s failure. Perry still saw fit to aim some vitriolic remarks his way, and with the flop of the Striker and other setbacks in his career, he left the cockpit. Regardless of his perceived skill behind the wheel, though, he was nice, and I was happy to see him in a life that suited his stable demeanour. The key to this story was Junichi Tazawa, who was on the engineering team that developed the Azente and then the Avante. Though he left shortly after the Tamiya Racing Factory made its debut, he still provided a calculated assessment of the whole story. With Rikimaru as one of his long-time colleagues before Tamiya, he was not without some bias, but was blunt in stating that his teammate made for a bad test driver. Simultaneously, he depicted “Paranoid” Perry as manipulative, but genuinely talented and intelligent, with good ideas. The notion that the program could have succeeded with one or the other personality in the cockpit was a perspective I had never considered. In the end, the Avante’s failure to win was not Perry spoiling the car, or Rikimaru stunting its early growth, but Tamiya’s mishandling of two excellent racers whose working styles could not be reconciled. We had all believed that Tamiya muddled the execution of an excellent concept; my findings only gave another reason as to how that happened. I wondered if I was still missing some important details from my inability to interview Sugiyama or Booth for my work. It was not all for naught, though: with the uncovering of the prototype Azente, we saw, however briefly, a world where the Avante would become a champion. In those early days, it was completely possible. The words of “Paranoid” Perry from an earlier interview came back to me: “Nobody believes me, but some day… yes, some day I’ll prove it.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Since the writing project started, 2018 has become 2019, and I have fallen out of touch with @Bwaaatch and his Tamiya Azente project. Nonetheless, this has been a fun project - if you have managed to read it all, even after all this time: thanks!

Chapter 11: The Interview – The Missing Link My transcript for the interview was as follows: Well, thank you for taking the time to sit down with me, Mr. Tazawa. Tazawa: I didn’t know if I would have enough time to grant you this interview, and then couldn’t recall if I knew anything about it! Those were some names I haven’t heard in many years… Names? Like TXR? Azente? Avante? Tazawa: Oh, everybody knows about the Avante. The TXR and Azente, though… How did you get to the Tamiya Experimental Racing division, exactly? Tazawa: The Coro Coro Racing Team was in ascendancy. We had been racing with the Dash-1 Emperor for a little while, and while we weren’t the fastest, we were sure we had the right idea to make an even better racer. We had the aerodynamic balance and light weight; we just needed to develop a chassis… In hindsight, I somewhat regret not spending more time on that. Anyway, we had caught some people’s attention with our car and some of our results. I get a job offer from Tamiya, and was asked to interview with them almost immediately. This wasn’t too hard, because I was asked to meet them in California. I was unaware they had a facility there at the time, but of course our own shop was based there, too. What was the interview like? Did Rikimaru ever come up? Did you have any clue that what you were going to be working on would become so special? I don’t remember much about the interview, except that I was offered quite a substantial sum of money! There was mention of a product-development role, but hints were also dropped at something bigger during the interview. My eyes were full of dollar signs at that point, though, so I just signed the papers right there without much of a second thought. Resigning from the very racing team I built was tough, but the crew was quite professional about it. I was less than a week into the job when an executive approached me and asked if I could put in a word for them to the Coro Coro driver, Rikimaru. I thought they would be offering him a big-time salary, too, so I did that – and that is how Tamiya hired away two senior Coro Coro team members in a blink! Secrecy is a big part of the product development process, especially in a competitive racing program. I think we were both unprepared for just how significant the Azente was going to be, though… What do you remember about TXR? How do you remember it? Tazawa: Early on, it was surprisingly relaxed – a lot like Coro Coro, actually. I remember thinking this was why they hired me: I had plenty of experience in an environment much like the one at TXR. It was a bit strange, too, because it quickly became clear that what we were working on was unlike anything ever seen in the racing world. I thought that a project of that importance deserved more formality, but TXR didn’t see it the same way, and so we were allowed to work much like I was used to – except with far more secrets. Officially, we were involved in other projects. Mine was the redevelopment of the ill-fated Striker; with some cues borrowed from fighter planes, we turned it into the Sonic Fighter. That was an embarrassing story, since our budget was so small. There was no way we could turn it into a competitive car, which was a shame given its forward-thinking chassis concept. But then, money we saved on the Striker replacement was money we spent on the Azente… So, while I was not all that happy on the official side of things, that was all anybody in the public eye knew I did. What kept me going was the excitement of the Azente, especially once Rikimaru really got some good laps going in testing. We thought we had a revolution on our hands! But, when “Paranoid” Perry commandeered the project, everything seemed to change. I guess that was just how things went: it felt a lot like an after-hours volunteer exercise for some time, until the concept showed real promise, and then the factory stepped in and turned it into a real professional project. You mentioned that it felt like an informal project in your spare time early on, yet your recollection suggests you were targeted specifically for a factory-backed effort on the Azente. Why is that? Tazawa: I think I arrived at that turning point in the program. But even then, I think Tamiya was just throwing money at me to get my attention, and then pushing me into the project to see what would happen next. They spent the money to make sure I was on board, but kept their involvement low-key until they were convinced they could turn our work into a winner. I think once there was proof the car could compete, the factory involved itself fully, and in doing that they appointed “Paranoid” Perry as the lead driver. That was when things really changed… How was your relationship with Perry? Tazawa: It was clear that Perry knew what he was doing – for a while, anyway. But he was so headstrong, and his earlier successes with the car – including that novel suspension layout – seemed to reaffirm everything he thought he knew about his own abilities. Soon, he began filtering suggestions from the engineering department, and by the time the Tamiya Racing Factory was established, it felt like he was ignoring us completely. To be fair to him, he never called us names, but it did feel like he looked down on us in Engineering sometimes, to the point of irritation. It bothered us that he himself tinkered with the designs that we had worked so hard to perfect. I wonder if that is why nothing seemed to work together on the car. I don’t really care for Perry as a person, but even with all the things I thought he did wrong, there was no denying he had a brilliant mind. I think the problem was that he knew that, and so took his own word as the only one he could trust. He worked TRF into a program that would do that, too. Maybe he was too brilliant that way… Before Perry, there was Rikimaru to test-drive the car that became the Avante. Obviously, you two go a long way back. But there are disputing claims about who led to the downfall of the car: do you think it was Perry, or Rikimaru, who was responsible? Tazawa: I don’t know what you mean. In a previous interview, Perry claimed that Rikimaru was not a typical driver, and so had a penchant toward unconventional setups and configurations that made it difficult for other drivers to drive the same car. As a test driver developing a new car, this is said to be the reason the Avante handled so poorly in the hands of other racers. Is this true? Could it have played a part in the Avante’s fate? Tazawa: … As far as I know, Rikimaru was not involved in the primary design of the Azente. He had some say in the fine-tuning, and we only made major changes based on his driving feedback. He was not as in-depth an engineer as Perry was, so I don’t see how he could have botched a car that was already so unlike anything else on the track. The biggest mistake was by Tamiya, I think. Rikimaru could develop a car quite well, but contrary to what many believe, he was a bad test driver. Coro Coro was successful with him because he was the one driving the finished car – he wasn’t really testing it so much as he was practicing. Perry was much the same way: he knew exactly what he wanted in a car and could tell you exactly what he needed from its settings to help him go faster, but he had a poor sense of what other drivers might want or consider. By hiring two drivers who could only think of themselves, and then not sticking to one or both drivers the whole way through, Tamiya doomed themselves from the moment they began working together. Of course, back then I didn’t know much about Perry, or about what would happen over the course of the Avante program. So, in the end, were both drivers responsible? Tazawa: You might be able to say that, but I think Tamiya itself is the real culprit. This is all quite revelatory… Mr. Tazawa, thank you for your time. Tazawa: You’re welcome. Now, if you’ll excuse me… *** With that, Mr. Tazawa hustles out the front door. The visitors’ parking lot is empty by the time I get to my own car. The truck that I saw unloading the mystery project earlier is gone, too. His time in the Diablo Engineering laboratory raises so many more questions on its own, but he already gave the answers I came for. I stepped into my car, eased it out of the lot, and watched the building disappear in my rear-view mirror as I rolled down the road.

A resurrection of a rather-old thread, but I finally had the time and inspiration to finish(?) what I started: Chapter 10: A Splash of Coro Coro On a bright Thursday morning, I got into my car and started down the streets back to Diablo Engineering’s facilities. With luck, I could catch him around noon, as Mr. Rikimaru suggested. Junichi Tazawa, from what I understood, was a “client” of Diablo Engineering. I gathered that Mr. Rikimaru did not talk very often to him, despite their time together with the Coro Coro Racing Team. That struck me as quite odd: how could an experience as crazy as building a racing team out of a noodle shop not make friends for life? All I knew about him was: he was one of the founding members of the Coro Coro Racing Team; he was hired away to work on the Azente program and took driver Rikimaru with him; he returned to Coro Coro when the Azente became the Avante; and then he worked with Coro Coro through to the end of their own 4WD Unlimited-class involvement. Rikimaru’s words returned to me: “Management got angry with me for my underwhelming results, and the once-excellent relationship I had with the Coro Coro Racing Team disintegrated.” I also recalled that the Fire Dragon, while not competitive, was at least reliable. Inflated expectations were to blame for the departure of the once-popular Japanese driver, but whose? My interview trail had taken me to so many interesting places: I got to meet the secret face of the early Avante in California, before sitting down with the very public face of the finished car in Switzerland, and then with an unlikely connection in the middle of small-town suburbia. I had learned so much, and there was still so much more to discover, yet I had to focus on one question: between Rikimaru and “Paranoid” Perry, who could claim to be in the right about the Avante program and its mysterious predecessor, the prototype Azente? The time I spent with “Shakey” Roop seemed to sway general opinion toward Rikimaru. Even he admitted that “Perry made it clear we were all guests in his little venture” and that “He had some uncomplimentary things to say about me, then as now,” while he “got along with Hino Rikimaru; he was a nice guy who cared a lot about his work and not much about the politics around the project.” Without reaching Booth or Sugiyama, neither of whom appeared overly involved with the drama surrounding the Avante’s fate, the narrative was squared solely upon the struggle between Rikimaru and Perry. Roop was a driver, though, and as Perry took a special disliking to him, the opinion could only be taken so far. Perry was heavily involved on the engineering side of the project, meaning he likely worked closer with engineer Tazawa, especially as the Avante program matured. My thoughts were interrupted when I spotted the industrial building and its parking lot on the left side of the road. No traffic again – I eased the car into the lot, and once parked, quickly made my way into the building. My watch read 11:58am. *** The security check took a bit longer than I would have liked. As the clock in the room ticked to 12:00 exactly, I implored the officer: “Could we please hurry? I’m only here to see a Mr. Junichi Tazawa, and only if he’s there.” A voice piped up from behind: “I’m here. That’s me.” I turn around to see a short, slightly-stooped, elderly Japanese man. His wire-rimmed glasses are from a time well before this one, and it looks like he had not changed his clothes since that time, too: compared to the clean-cut Rikimaru, this man is quite dishevelled. But his crooked smile betrayed a mischievous spirit, and I found myself charmed despite his unkempt appearance. “Oh! Mr. Tazawa, it is a pleasure to meet you,” I said, shaking his hand. It feels rough and coarse in mine – this is a hands-on engineer. “I am writing a story on the Tamiya Experimental Racing division and the Azente program, and am wondering if you have a few minutes to spare to talk about it?” The grin faded from Mr. Tazawa’s face, replaced by a solemn expression. Given how pained he looked, I thought he had bad memories about the whole thing, and I nearly apologized for bringing it up, until he replied: “I have something to do here, but if I finish ahead of schedule, maybe I can do that.” The smile returned. “Can you wait for an hour?” What other chance was I going to get? “Yes. I will see you in an hour.” We both cleared security, following which Mr. Tazawa disappeared out a back door. I could hear a truck rumbling outside, getting closer and closer. What could he be working on? I stepped hesitantly toward the back door and took a peek outside. There was a truck parked outside a garage door at the back of the facility. Mr. Tazawa was talking with someone who appeared to be the driver, while four other people in matching uniforms were unloading a very alien-looking four-wheeled figure from the back of the truck. The mystery car was wearing a tarp, but the curious shape was obvious underneath the sheet. Feeling that this was something I was not meant to see, I quickly ducked back into the building. That silhouette reminded me of a Coro Coro racer, but not like any I knew… The wait was going to be even longer than I expected. Somehow, I made it through (with the help of some old racing magazines), and Mr. Tazawa emerged from the laboratory some fifty minutes after he entered. “Mr. Tazawa, do you have some time…” He beamed as he pulled out a chair across from me and sat down. I was about to find out how the engineering department handled the Avante and the Rikimaru/Perry saga. Could this be where I find out who was responsible for the Avante’s downfall?

After that, the rest of the chassis was nothing unfamiliar. I took time to appreciate the fact that detaching the rear gearbox is a matter of undoing 4 screws, though the front requires more due to that bumper. I used the smaller one in the kit; it is specified as a “not used” extra piece in the manual, but it fits the chassis and tucks neatly under the nose of the 037 shell. While I still want to produce a good-looking shell, this build will result in a simpler, less maintenance-intensive version of my first car, so I might be inclined to run this one without the snow-plow in front! The SR410 receiver features a prominent antenna. I was looking forward to using the antenna tube until I remembered that it would have to go right through the engine bay I was hoping to build for it! It may be used after all, but in the interim I have it taped to the chassis: I referenced my first 037 for wiring layout and body mount positions, recalling that I ran my first car’s shell lower than standard. I ended up replacing the cuts of rubber tubing on the rear body posts with two of my many plastic bushings, from other kits. The turbine wheels and semi-slick tires were all that were left to finish up the chassis: As I looked at it, I felt a wave of 1990s nostalgia, despite the fact that I would not remember that era particularly well. The chassis layout and wheels would contribute to that feeling; with the short wheelbase and overhangs, the impression was of a compact and powerful sporting machine – much like the original 037… The bare shell went on to complete the look: And sure enough, the wide track appeared. The 037 shell is narrow (no more than 180 mm wide at the front), and the rear is wider than the front, so the impression was then that the front track was wider than the rear. It drove me crazy on the original Tamiya Lancia Rally, but here, I did not mind the look – it was not as noticeable on this 037, and contemporary performance cars across many scales suggest that a wider front track is better for handling. The stagger is more evident in this photo: The rear wheels, meanwhile, fit nicely under their wheel arches and fender flares. The front and rear track for the chassis is physically identical, but appear visually different. One issue with the shell that I was reminded of was the lack of clearance for the front wheels: the front edge of the front wheel arches would foul the wheels while steering. I do not remember having to remove 6 mm of plastic during the first build, however. That was exactly what I had to do for this one, lopping off that amount just so the car could turn. With the chassis finished, it was time to put it away. Space was at a premium, though… In the end, I put an old locker shelf over my Bruiser chassis and stacked first the 037, and then the lighter Ferrari 312T3 project on top, with the car stand: The 037, meanwhile, got its own shelf space: The build, as with the first one, was enjoyable. It was obviously not as sophisticated as a 3-speed truck, but it did not need to be – it was plenty of fun to put together, and still rewarding to be able to do so and have it operating smoothly. Amidst more rumours of warmer temperatures and clear conditions, I have scrubbed up the shell and accessories in preparation for paint…

One difference between this build and my first one was the assembly of the rear differential. I heard that the TA-02SW (and thus TA-02S) has a “non-adjustable” ball differential in the back, meaning that instead of tightening or loosening the set screw within to adjust the differential effect, the unit is meant to be fully screwed in. I did not do this in the first one, so the second one was assembled with a fully-tightened set screw. The lack of springs in this rear differential should have tipped me off, though my only clue for that would have been that I had previously assembled an adjustable ball differential for an Avante, which featured two prominent springs. I also had more 3 mm washers to use on the first build than the second, so this 037 has more slop in the suspension than the previous one. A steel pinion was sourced to replace the standard aluminum part. Assembling the kit the second time around, though, really allowed me to appreciate the construction process: as figuring out where everything went was more second-nature to me, I could pay more attention to the details, such as the relatively-compact gearboxes or the kick-up on the front suspension, which had me convinced that the car was a natural off-roader. That latter point is a bit of a stretch, since the very much on-road Porsche 911 GT2 uses the similar TA-02SW, but this feature made me think of the off-road driving that 037s saw in their prime. Everything went together smoothly, though I forgot the rear dog-bones the first time around! I did not wish to take out the decal set at this point, so I used some leftover “Caution” stickers for the chassis and motor: a less-rectangular “Caution: Rotating Parts” decal for the chassis, and a vintage “Caution: Hot!” decal for the motor, which was probably from a vintage kit for its MSC resistor (the sticker alone was given to me from a fellow hobbyist). It did not take much time to make good progress: The build really began to diverge from the first one when I started using my new car stand. It has holes drilled in the car platform for holding dampers, which is perfect for building oil-filled types. I put that feature to use to enhance the damper build on this kit: Left to sit in a stable manner like this, I noticed the oil dampers had more consistent rebound across all four units once assembled. It has already made a difference! While the dampers were waiting for the oil to settle, I configured the electronics. A Dynamite ESC was going to be used, but it had an EC3 plug instead of a Tamiya connector. I went with a spare Hobbywing 1060-type ESC instead, coupled along with a handsome ARRMA Durango waterproof servo to a Spektrum SR410 receiver: The SR410 is not only smaller than the SR210 (somehow), but it does leave some potential for lighting control. I hope to add lights to this 037, and being able to manipulate them from my radio would be quite a bonus. In the event that does not work, I have a standard light set that plugs directly into the steering and throttle channels on the receiver. More significantly, the use of the SR410 means that I will be using my new (to me) Spektrum DX4C radio, instead of my well-worn DX3C. The benefits so far are mainly properly-functioning trim switches and an integrated antenna; perhaps I will find more advantages as I introduce it to the rest of my runners. Once that was sorted out, I built up the dampers. The kit springs are 29 mm tall – I removed the larger of the two internal spacers that are placed in each damper, in an effort to increase the chassis’ ride height. When the body is lowered from the stock location, this has the effect of tucking the chassis further under the shell, reducing the amount of chassis visible from the side. Removing the larger internal spacer meant the springs were too short for the dampers – even with the largest spring pre-load spacers, I needed springs with a 33 mm height to fill in the extra space. The internal spacers ended up going under the lower spring collars to take up the slack, which ironically means the chassis is at the same effective suspension travel as standard. I will be looking for longer springs if they exist. The idea of using the longer damper eyelets at the bottom occurred to me during my first build, but it went unused. The chassis in that configuration never bottomed out, which is useful for taking heavy loads off the suspension components when jumps are landed. Therefore, I continued with the shorter damper eyelets this time around. The assembly of the dampers is best illustrated here:

It is that odd part of the year where it is warm enough to think about painting and preparation for RC model kits, but not warm enough to actually attempt it. In the midst of my Ferrari 312T3 and Bruiser projects awaiting paint and additional plastic-related work, I saw fit to build my second Lancia 037. I took less time on this build – as I have already built one, I had to be faster on this chassis. More importantly, I saw no need to document this particular build to the same depth as my previous one since I am writing about it in the same thread. Hence, detailed notes can be found in the earlier posts in this same thread. However, the privilege of building two has brought several thoughts to the forefront, where they were previously glossed over in the experience of constructing one for the first time. The start of this project saw a new and much neater location to work: It is merely a different room in the house, but the surroundings are far less claustrophobic than my previous workspace. It is less permanent, though. Also new to this build is the Duratrax-brand car stand, which I planned to use for the chassis once it reached the advanced stages of assembly. A new place accompanied a different approach – where I previously left wheels and tires to the last step, I did these first. Over the past few months, I have accumulated quite a few sets in addition to the kit’s offerings, and these joined the kit’s semi-slick tires and Lancia 037 wheels: There is a different set of wheels, too: I acquired a set of HPI fifteen52 turbines with this particular 037. I am not sure if turbine wheels were used on the 037 in period, but they did appear on the Delta S4: Since I intended to give this 037 a post-period feel, I went ahead with this set. I heard they do increase the tread width of the chassis they are mounted on, along with rumours that they do not work on the present iterations of the Tamiya Lancia Delta Integrale (a shame since turbines were also used on that car). Nonetheless, I hoped to try them out, and given their appearance in on-road racing, I paired them with the kit-stock semi-slick tires. For the stock Lancia-style wheels, I had at least one set of Pirelli rally-style tires from overseas – the thinking was that private teams might have a preferred wheel and tire for most of their events, but would stick with standard rims where other tire types are required. Unfortunately, the bead seat diameter of the turbine wheels is larger than the stock wheels’, so the semi-slick tires were a tight fit while the Pirelli-style gravel tires were a bit too loose for the stock wheels. I glued them anyway; the turbine/semi-slick combination is likely to be the everyday set, and at least they were able to seat properly. Rubber bands were used to help along the stock/Pirellis: Once glued, the turbine/semi-slick set was secure, though I will likely have to revisit the stock/Pirellis: I made up two sets of the stock/Pirelli combination, as I had another set of 037 wheels and Pirelli-style tires that I wanted to use with my first 037. Between them, they will have three sets of gravel tires – I had a third set paired with generic black dish wheels, which may become the alternate set for this 037. A surfeit of spare ball bearings allowed me to begin: And so, I started on the rear gearbox.

How lucky I am to have you, your skills, and passion as part of my otherwise-humble build - that is a gorgeous engine detail and wing mount combination right there It will be worn proudly by my 312T3!

Great-looking design! Hope you can find an America-based volunteer!

Lancia's drivers ran the 037s hard, so why not?! I thought it was stupid not to use the bumper, but seeing it at full-tilt like that, the bumper probably broke off already! I was never this destructive with my own Lancia Rally, but the philosophy of running a car that was built for it has always resonated - especially a racing model. Thus, I do love this picture Besides, new shells exist for grafting repaired sections now