Wooders28

It's a whole different angle of RC ownership,but great once you can get a baseline set up.I quite like the noise and the smell/eye burning of Nitro (after all its nitric acid,and burns off to be CS gas). Not quite in the same eye watering league as the Top Fuel at Santa Pod though.Will be a bit of a pain sometimes,getting a baseline set up,but,as you have found so far,it's a learning curve.

Biggest difference I found when tuning a nitro motor was getting the right heat range of glow plug.As far as I understand, it's like altering the ignition timing on a petrol engine.I got a selection of heat ranges and found a colder plug worked better, depends on engine size and nitro content etc. http://www.osengines.com/glowplugs/

Welcome! You would be surprised how many people on here have a mechanical background and got full scale projects on the go I was out of the game for 15 yrs,messing about with full scale cars,marriage, mortgage etc etc. Biggest change is with the lipo and brushless compared to brushed and nicad's, it's like comparing a diesel engine of the late 70's to a modern diesel.Night and day.

If you go for the T&G option I would recommend the 18mm P5.We add wax into the bonding process to make it moisture resistant.Also add a green dye to make it easier to identify. If the garden is fairly flat,I would goto a carpet shop and see what lino offcuts they could give you or sell it you cheap.

Running 8s lipo's! No wonder it's a bit of a handful

I have found the best taps to be "dormer".Not the cheapest,but good tools ain't.I find Aluminium to be one of the harder metals to tap as it grips the tap.Slow and steady,one turn in,one turn out,two in,two out etc,lots of cutting paste or wd40 etc.

You pay VAT on the import duty too (yep,tax on tax).Item Inc shipping plus import duty.Then 20% VAT on that whole amount,plus whatever charge the courier takes. Then when parcelfarce do eventually get around to telling you your parts have been cleared and require payment,you have the cost of phoning to pay,ref number not existing and then having to get a morning off work to goto the depot and pick them up to make sure they don't return to sender as the 14 days are up!! (And breathe,some personal experiences there)

Is it possible to stipulate the carrier they use?

Not bought a mag for years,and not seriously (as in every month) since I worked in a papershop,as a paperboy!! Nothing like flicking through a mag,with a brew. Also nothing better than finding a 20yr old mag and looking at adverts,the new tech out then and the prices!! The world is changing,I don't use my desktop comp at all,my laptop less and less and everything now is on my phone! I have a mate who is the editor for a full scale car mag,they no longer have cars for sale in the back,by the time the mag hits the self,the cars have generally been sold online.Would be a shame to loose mags though,but it's already started (High performance Pontiac to go soon),you cannot cut out and stick pics on your wall (not that the wife would approve now anyway).

Anything slow didn't appeal,so didn't care for the clod etc. My first car was a frog in the mid 80's,and you would think that it would be my favourite, but no,hated it! (although I still like the look) The gearbox splines broke weekly,bounced about and didn't handle. Gave it away (!) and purchased a brand new fresh kyosho Ultima.

By mine I mean the hardened pinion I pressed on.

I couldn't find the five star for love nor money. You can make one out of a hardened pinion gear and press it on.Mine has lasted ok with 5700 castle brushless and 3s lipo! Replaced diff balls with tungsten (£3 find off eBay!). Apart from stuff breaking due to 3s lipo and crashing,the DF03 has been good.

I have just purchased an item from the US via ebay. If you sign in 'my ebay' via dot com and not co UK,there is an 'add to cart' option (only on buy it now though) which gives total breakdown costs for shipping and import duty before you commit to buy. Didnt have a clue that it is going to be unpacked by a third party though! Thats wrong. What is the incentive for sellers to want to stay signed up to this??

Thats just how i had it explained to me.Good to get a better insight. So given the half turns are star wound,they would give more torque? The delta wound higher RPM?

One thing (i could be wrong though!) about Brushless motor 'turns' is that '.5' turn motors (ie 27.5t) are 540 size motors and 'whole number' (ie 27t) are 380 motors in 540 size cans.I dont think it makes much difference on a 2wd dasher,but i think the reduced torque in a 380 in a 4wd may start to heat up a bit.I think its a bit like single,double and tripple windings in the old skool brushed motors.

This sounds like me not so long ago! There has been advances in batteries and motors in the last few years (I say a few, 20+ years lol) Lipos are great, took me a bit to swap over but never looked back. They store a lot of energy, but as they store a lot of energy they need to be treated with respect. Each Lipo cell is 3.7v (NiCad's are 1.2v each ,6 cell= 7.2v) mAh hasn't changed,the higher the mAh the longer the car will last per charge (I remember 1800 mAh being the one to get!) Hard case needed as a must for RC cars to take the knocks. The C rating is the amount of power it can deliver in a burst (20c = 20 x discharge rate , 30c is 30x etc) only really something to worry about if racing. I went for the castle 5700 brushless combo for the same reason.As far as I can gather for each volt the motor will turn 5700 RPM so running a 2s Lipo would be 7.4 x 5700 = 42180 rpm. Don't know if there is a chart / conversion for turns to Kv. Hope some of that helps and if I am a bit off the mark then no doubt someone with more experience will educate me a bit more too!

I try and run all mine, but, the vintage ones like the (marui) ninja, dont get out much and dont get driven hard when they do, try getting new tyres for a ninja! The DF03 gets hammered the most along with the RB6 (kyosho).They get fixed easily and fairly cheaply and normally upgraded! All the while they are sat,on the shelf,pride of place in my garage.

Just a heads up for this Thursday:- https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/thursday-13th-march/product-detail/ps/p/25hp-air-compressor/

Worked quite well, no gearbox or diff issues what so ever! but It turns out that a Castle 5700 brushless system and a 3s Lipo in a DF03 chassis is a handful.(Who would have thought!! lol) Issues with the damper shafts bending and snapping,(uprated towers needed) Gearbox ripping the bolts out and separating from the chassis, Snapping drive shafts etc etc. Good fun though.

Why import? I hear the weather in Spain is much better! Would have to be a cheap,strong and fit standard wheelbase bodies,wheels etc.Kind of price range that could be a whim purchase RTR.One main thing it needs to have,is the ability to look like it could do 100mph sat on the shelf,with great box art!

When i get a chance to strip it out i will.Although it looks exactly the same as the standard slipper shaft. The ally gear is only pressed on anyway. Once i had measured the distances I used a hydraulic press but you could use a vice with soft grips. Used an angle grinder to cut the none geared end off the new pinion and cut it to size. I drilled out some round bar to the measured depth,used that to press the hardened pinion on. Used a diamond file to take off the burr on the teeth. Job done!

At the risk of abuse,i have never associated tamiya with racing buggys! (i can hear the teeth grinding already!) In my racing days,you bought a schumacher procat,optima mid etc for your race car not a sand scorcher, subaru brat or bigwig.You had those as your first car,your bashers and to be honest had just as much,if not more fun with those,partly because they actually looked like cars you have seen in real life.Lap times dont matter too much to a teenager RC bashing in the woods with a few mates jumping tree stumps.I am guessing i lot of people on here started their RC addiction in much the same way,which is why the RE market is big and why its a land slide victory for the proper bodied cars!

If i remember right,(off the top of my head,so check sizes) www.readyheli.com/HO-0600LH-18T-RevCo-Hard-One-06M-Hardened-Pinion-Gear-5mm-Shaft-Diameter-18T-p-33786.html

A slipper clutch should be first on the list.I couldnt find the 5 star hardened shaft,so made one.A hardened helicopter pinion pressed onto the slipper shaft.Had to grind down the pinion slightly though as they are a bit long.I am running a 3s lipo and the Orion rocket pack fits,but you have to trim some of the chassis for the leads.I guess if you are racing it will be 2s though.