drcarlos

As standard only really the body mounts are suspect and break. There are aluminium upgrades available for a few pounds and they are worth fitting for a regular runner. With upgrades I think the suspension at the rear is most likely to break (the tiny springs at the front of the gearbox fail) and the suspension being undamped make them a handful, but with only a sport tuned you'll probably be OK. I ran a pumpkin for ages in the 80's and 90's and the only thing to ever fail was the body mounts and the tyres needed gluing to the rims as they slipped. Apart from that it was bombproof. Carl.

It must be 4 weeks at least since I finished the build on my Top Force. I still haven't run it yet. I was planning on running it on the school field behind my house to start with but the weather, holiday and illness have conspired against me. I look at the hi cap and the poor standard v2 CVA's and think I will need to upgrade if I want to race it. The Losi 22 shocks are good with a wide range of springs but I was looking at these Cougar KF2 big bores and thinking they might fit (need to find the measurements) as they are adjustable and there are lots of springs I can use to tailor them, plus they are pretty reasonable in cost too. Only downside is they are really in the spirit of historic racing like the hi-caps, but not really different in principle to buying some alloy Carson or Turnigy ones, just better. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Schumacher-Cougar-KF2-Set-Of-Big-Bore-Shock-Absorbers-Alloy-Caps-Seats-K2-/152583085881?hash=item2386a91f39:g:1UIAAOSwRXRZPqMs Carl.

The Fox comprehensively beat a Grasshopper with a 540 installed BITD, so I say the Fox is faster than a Hornet. Carl.

The FAV was there too on static display. The Bug and Willy handle awfully 1:1 as well! Carl

NIce, my nearest track was only 100m from my house (Yateley School Model Car Club), but it is now abandoned, derelict and slowly being reclaimed by nature. After the work that went into the club and building it only fairly recently it's a real shame. I am not sure if there is the interest in RC to generate the numbers needed for a revival (as I'm sure I could persuade the new head of the school it is a good thing to have running) as I'm pretty sure this is why it died. You are lucky to have this, can you just pitch up and go for a spin? Carl.

Anyone paint their undertrays? Manual says leave it clear but that just seems a bit pony. I was thinking black like the Egress undertray? Carl.

That will lend itself better to the Egress than the Wig then, I'm not sure an Alloy mount it possible in the Wig. Like has already been mentioned it's already there in the Egress. Carl.

i can only quote based on experience with my brother Fox from the 80's. When he got it it was exactly like your Novafox, ballraced back end and nylon bushed in the front wheels. It was bog stock in all other ways so I assumed that it was supplied like this. We merely added a Kyosho Le-Mans 240ST motor and bearings on the front which made it fly! Carl.

Well I thought I wasn't going to get a chance to build it, but with a global IT cyber attack and having to stay at home to co-ordinate restore efforts saw me yesterday have a long day with mad flurries of work interspaced with long periods of inactivity. I looked at the kit and got cracking. So by 5pm it was built. As was said it's fairly easy with the ball diffs requiring care and a steady hand but that's it. I had bought enough bearing to fully ball race it (including steering) and my plastic gearset arrived Monday so that went in. So only the body left to cut out and paint now. Depending on what happens with work today depends on whether I start on those tasks, but I think I will get asked to go into the office to be able to do sod all. i can confirm I had no bearings in my kit at all. As for the Fox/Novafox, it was always ballraced at the rear out of the box, I guess due to the racing pretensions. Carl.

Just reading through the manual and saw the horrid Aluminium drive gear on about the 3rd page, remembered it was suggested that anything other than a silver can turned this into grinding paste so I have ordered: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tamiya-50529-4WD-Touring-Rally-Car-Plastic-Gear-Set-TA01-TA02-NIP-/263004839478?epid=1608110328&hash=item3d3c4f5e36:g:6WAAAOSwX61ZKCIQ Say not compatible with off road buggies but Percymon's rebuild thread here: Says otherwise. Once I see what performance and temps are like with the kit alloy pinion I'll order a steel one with the correct teeth. Maybe get some hi-caps or GPM dampers if I'm not happy with the CVA's which are the newer poo non-tunable ones so not really Constant Volume 'Adjustable' at all. Looks like a nice car and semi pro apart from a couple of bits. Carl.

I always went with a twist when I was younger, now i'm older I've become a stickler for Box art. The top force body will be box art but I'm going to also get a repro for racing that I'll do in some other scheme (probably from left over paints). Carl.

I think if i'd paid for next day delivery i'd be going after MS for a refund, but as it's free delivery no mileage in that. I can just make DPD uncomfortable a bit. On the model have you got the alloy motor mount yet? I read it was kind of essential for anything more than silver can. Mine is here, along with all the bearings, a metal geared servo, SR410 receiver, A trackstar 8.5T brushless motor and 60amp speedo. I've got the core RC metallic green paint which I am told is the same as Tamiya, just in a larger can at £2 a can less. Carl.

Definitely not the case this time. My parcel dispatched and tracked from MS yesterday and landing at local depot very AM this morning. Then nothing until around 11:30 when delivery date was apparently changed at my request (which is not true), this is a DPD screw up and my guess is that my parcel didn't make it onto their van so they changed it's delivery date. It's not the end of the world as I'm working at home tomorrow and the drop shop is about 3 miles away, but it's the whole thing that instead of apologising it has been made out to be me that changed it. Carl.

So I have to wait another day for mine, just got an email from MS and DPD saying they have received my request to change delivery date to tomorrow, WTAF? No change from me at all I rearranged it yesterday and it was accepted. Seems i spoke too soon about then being half decent. Sent a tweet to find out why. Carl.

Picking mine up tomorrow on the way home from work from a drop shop, love DPD they seem to be the best courier out there. Carl.

Just received a mail to tell me that my order has been processed and will be dispatched shortly. Also showing good stock on Modelsport site now. Looks like I may have it for the weekend. Carl.

Supposed to land at Modelsport tomorrow now. Odds on it being pushed back yet again? They must be the biggest supplier in the UK and they are well behind other European outlets. Reminded the wife that I said that I'd be getting 2 models this year and this was landing soon. Hopefully shipped tomorrow and with me on Friday but I doubt it. Carl.

Confirmed what I was thinking. Not seen 20000mah but you can get these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6pcs-D-Size-D-Type-13000mAh-1-2V-Ni-MH-Rechargeable-Battery-Cell-Grey-/351257789479?hash=item51c8988427:g:t38AAOSwEeFVKN2o 13000mah, should give a decent runtime. Carl.

I'll have to have a play with my shocks, I'm suffering with grip roll on stock settings, running a 13.5T Trackstar Brushless, TBLE02S Speedo and Turnigy Nano 4600mah Shorty Lipos. DF03 Universals might be an option I take up too. Car.

The shock towers to get are the Carbon ones IMO, the one I have (Eagle Racing I think) have been great. I have Alloy C hubs, turnbuckles and rear hubs and they have all been great, I kept plastic arms after reading sometime ago that alloy ones were a waste of money. I haven't got the alloy propshaft or the universals but might add them if I go back to the track with it. They are tough little buggies though and good fun. Carl.

Mine also pre-ordered from Modelsport hopefully shipped on Thursday (then need to inform the wife another toy is arriving, eek). Anyway according to the manual for the last re-re there were no bearing in the kit only bushes so I ordered a stock of shielded and rubbers sealed bearings in 10 packs from China and stored them along with the new Paint, ESC, Servo, brushless combo and alloy motor mount so it's ready to be built when it arrives.

Fitted and setup a HK X-Car 120Amp speedo in my boys Hyper MiniST to replace the blown cheapo Chinese blue one from eBay. Seems to be OK on the bench, just need to check it's setup in software too. Receiver the long awaited 10.5T Sensored Trackstar motor for the Neo-Scorcher. This turned up with some sticky glue like substance on the underside of the motor next to an endbell hole and vent hole. Wired it up and it stuttered a low speed and went slowly at full throttle, also got hot real quick (like after 10 seconds of running), DOA after a 10 day wait. Only the second DOA from hobbyking in lots of items ordered from them. Hopefully their warranty return process is as smooth as last time. Carl.

Close to you is TORCH (Titchfield) so you are lucky, It's an Astro track and by all accounts quite friendly. They also race 2WD buggy so you have the right kit. Most cars will tend be models of a similar type, usually the Schumacher KF, Yokomo or Associated race kits. Most will use brushless and there will be 'allowed' tyres. These are generally Schumacher Spikes on the rear and cut staggers on the front and are on the list because: The work the best on Astro They don't destroy the Astro (like min pins do) Tamiya won't be laughed at because everyone started there and lots of guys race the revivals and DT challenge so have a couple themselves, but they will recommend better cars if you want to continue. You'll need different wheels for the control tyres as they won't fit the star dish. The disc wheels are used because: They are tougher They are less likely to be buckled from the factory or get buckled due to 1. I haven't been to my track for a while (SHRCCC in Farnborough) but was hoping to get back there for a few practice sessions once I get the Top Force as I'd like to encourage classic racing on a regular basis as a sort of non-serious side of it. On that note I did find it was all quite serious, some are more committed than others and there are obviously the personalities that will grate and be snobby, but generally they are decent people and like a bit of a laugh. Carl.

They have agreed to Refund me. Once the cash arrives I'll put it towards the X-Car 120amp. I like the TBLE-02S for simplicity, if it had a lipo cut off it would be the perfect hobbiest ESC for brushless, much like the Hobbywing Quicrun is for Brushed. Then if it had lipo cut off they'd probably be 3x the price as everyone would want one. Carl.

Egress, is great quality, but suffers grip roll at high speed on standard settings. It could be that mine is over motored though as I'm running 9T brushless in it with a 19T pinion. Hoping that the Top Force is going to be more stable corning at speed. My Hopped up TT02B copes with the 9T easily and I run a Hobao Hyper MiniST with a 4T Orion Vortex on 2S and that is like a rocket but corners with rollover. Carl.