Hobgoblin

Pretty much any 2.2" truck tyre will fit. I used to run Schumacher ones from modelsport on mine (though I kept the stock fronts)

If this is using traditional radio gear, a mixer and escs it's pretty straightforward without a gyro. Just change the end points, dual rates etc down on the steering channel to 50-70% and it'll be a lot less squirrelly with turning. I have to do this a lot with my combat robots to stop them oversteering without losing straight line speed.

Hi, for sale is about a third of an original Vanquish. Long term project that has gone on for at least 18 months sat in its boxes without anything being done really. Just been disassembled, not cleaned or anything. If the pictures aren't clear enough please let me know and I can get some more for you. Located in the UK - does 30 quid sound too cheeky? Will consider splitting if there is something specific you need or want.

Hey! I'm pretty sure it's still 260mm - maybe only a couple mm longer if so. I will have a measure up for you when my next project arrives. It just fell into my lap and I feel it would be rude not to snatch it up! A bit of a parts juggle and I can have one really pretty nice one and one to chuck around and play with!

They're not really designed to have oil in them I think, so any sealing you may do may be slightly in vain. Can't hurt to try though. I had to use quite thick grease in mine but I liked it fairly stiff for loose surfaces.

Excellent, thanks for the nod! Will check that out. Yes the front was a little bit of a mess. Once I've made a couple parts I can look at wings a bit clearer.

Bullets directly to motor tabs yes? This works fine you just need quite a lot of heat. A bit of flux might help alongside leaded solder.

So after a decent pause from RC cars I felt the itch come back and whilst browsing eBay one night I found a decent little gem in the form of this F102 (I think?) project. I was searching initially for pan cars as that's always really appealed to me, just having a flat plate chassis and hanging the bare minimum off it with but seeing this I was rather taken. I noticed a few choice parts, namely the Hi-Cap shock and the carbon chassis and pulled the trigger with a cheeky lowball that got accepted. Plonked on my desk I could have a better look at things and whilst its a bit grubby and well loved (much like myself) it is in very decent condition. Bodies and such are going to be a bit difficult to sort but that can be solved down the line with the holy trinity of Creativity, Patience and Money. The chassis is carbon fibre which is really nice to find - if I'm reading things right this was a hop up with the stock being FRP? It has some really hefty gouges and scratches which will need some attention. Someone has made a valiant attempt at sealing the edges of the CF with glue and I can only imagine they held shares in an adhesives company because it's been rather excessively applied. Better too much than too little though, I can sand it back and go from there. The screws are pretty much toast. Lots of road rash on the heads make me uneasy about being able to continue using them. Bit of spodge and residue here and there but it's a good base to work from. I have realised I am completely missing part "BP8" but I am planning to use the front profile as a template and cut a new one out from some spare 2mm CF plate. My first Hi-Cap! Just the one, mind! After always being priced out of being able to get some of these great shocks I'm very pleased to have one in hand. I do believe this was listed as an upgrade for the F102? I will strip it down and give it a once over but it feels really smooth and other than the rusted spring it is in great condition. It got better the more I found as it had the hop up aluminium motor mount and what looks to be a carbon drive shaft too! That I will know more about when I strip the back end and the differential (pretty crunchy) It came with a 15t Core RC motor which I feel is almost certainly too fast for this kind of car? I am honestly fairly tempted to go back to a silvercan or similar stock motor. On the fence whether or not to go try and find a 21.5t brushless for it but I do think I want to keep it as cheap and cheerful as possible. Happy to take suggestions for what would be a good F1 option - period or modern. My plan so far is looking like: - Strip & clean -New fasteners where appropriate -New motor & keep the TEU-101BK esc for cheapness and to keep some Tamiya on the car -Pick a body style and then start looking at wings - I have not ruled out designing and printing my own. - New battery, probably a 2s Lipo. either a short hardcase or a soft cell pack. What would be nice to know if there are any identifying features which would let me take a guess at what this car was originally. After a quick flick through all the F102 manuals nothing unique or identifiable jumped out at me. Still, should be a nice relaxing project! Cheers, Harry

I had the hobby on 'pause' for the better part of a year whilst I sorted out some real world things. Kept browsing ebay though and when the stars aligned I pulled the trigger on a new toy. Should be a bit of fun!

Fantastic news! Hopefully it brings a few FXT's out of the woodwork.

He's since closed up shop (and as far as I know had no affiliation with the .com link) I now tend to do stuff myself or farm it out to China (via slightly pushy sales ladies with a tangential grasp of English on Facebook)

I have a decent amount of spares, certainly a lot of the gears and the aluminium 'housing' . Let me have a look. The one part I can say for sure I do not have enough of is the outdrive cups.

Watching with interest! I had this one on the watch list too, though I'm glad it went into good hands.

Steel is harder and so more wear resistant than aluminium which not only deforms over time but will wear into a powder. This mixes with your grease and turns a lubricant into an abrasive and suddenly your plastic gears are suffering wear too. You need to know the gear pitch. This will either be MOD (metric) or DP - (diametral pitch, Imperial) then there is tooth count "T" as you mention and bore which will almost certainly be 1/8" or 3.175mm for 1/10 RC (occasionally its 5mm bore)

Hi @nel33 The Manta body fits still, the wheelbase is the same as the MR and the shock towers still clear. I don't have my MR body anymore so I can't show you how it looks on the chassis but a quick search shows this https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=36245&id=24 As the Manta Ray is designed around the tub chassis, you'll probably want to find yourself an undertray of some kind just to protect the chassis and fill out as it can look like its sitting high.

He's going to be sulking for a few days as his belly had to be shaved for the test sample! He's young enough that it's going to be fairly positive either way, if its nothing he's got to live with a little lump or if its something more sinister or they couldn't be 100% sure he'll just have it removed and cost me 4-600! Then I'll be selling a Falcon and more besides. Joys of having pets. He'll get some extra treats tonight at least.

Unfortunate sales post here. My happy squeaky child has decided to grow a lump and has just cost me £182 to have it checked out. Part and parcel of having small animals unfortunately. I need to make that dent so some of my toys are going to have to go! DF01/Manta Ray/Top Force Calling it a top force is a bit of a lie it's a OG 90's Manta Ray that had had a nick walker carbon chassis, re release top force shocks and some jazz rider alu. Rough spec: 8.5t speed passion brushless motor (can be replaced with 13.5t speed passion) 120a generic sensored controller (fan removed) 2 cell 4200mah 25c turnigy hardcase lipo Low profile turnigy metal gear servo Tamiya CVD's up front Front and rear ball differentials (have 1 spare gear dif I can swap in) Aftermarket aluminium steering knuckles Tamiya alu motor mount and hardened prop shaft Racecraft body shell from penguin (velcro mounts at the side) Pepper pot wheels from JC racing with pro line pin point tires. Has a turnigy RX which I'll remove unless you have a GT5 handset. Bit of a melting pot, definitely not one for the purists as there's a mix of original, re release and Aftermarket buy it was a really fun car and I'm really sad to see it go! Comes with some spares, not lots of great use but things like shock bodies etc. Old tub chassis and that. Has the body mount too so if you wanted to fit a normal body the option is there. Rear bumper too - I run without one. There's a decent amount invested in this but I'm realistic on price. I'd like £200 within the UK. Or any offer over £182 at a push lol! Happy to answer any questions just send us a message. Ps his name is Arnie (aka the Terminibbler) he likes sleeping and eating green peppers and servo leads

Wow that's fantastic @R6cowboy it looks like it's come out incredibly clean! Can't wait to see your progress!

Well they share the chassis tub and that's pretty much it. Same as the blitzer trucks and beetle, just the tub. It's a huge amount of unique and fairly poorly desiged parts that would have to get made so I'll be pleasantly surprised if it does get re released. I can't see it having mass appeal with its fragility. Hopefully it doesn't reflect in a hypothetical pricetag, more expensive for the collector.

Love what you've done! My blitzer beetle was my first kit and I feel called to defend it It seems really unfortunate that it was so close price wise, for me in the UK I could have bought 2 blitzer kits for the price of a Kyosho scorpion or Superb Astute at the time and had enough change for radio gear. This sort of sets the mental standard. Low complexity, lots of plastic, easy to out together in a couple hours. I think the blitzer is a great performer out of the 'Old Guard' re releases. It will stamp something like a frog or hornet into the ground and be a lot less fiddly to work on. They're better drives than builds for sure! Pretty tough too.

Look at where the red jumper is The one closest to the edge is for selecting battery type therefore cut off. I wouldn't blame you if you also want to use an alarm,

2.2" and yes they're same as the blitzer. Pretty much any 2.2" truck or stadium truck tire will fit. Buggy 2.2"s be too narrow, even the rears.

Absolutely, it's a joy to work with - hard enough to form a proper chip. Nylon and the like can still be too "gummy" sometimes. Loving the progress also. Lots of care going into this.

Looks totally dodge. Funnily enough all of these websites with amazing bargain prices seem to look suspiciously similar.

I fitted a new prop shaft to my TL01. I bought a couple from a chap on FB and I am really impressed! Stock, 32.7gm Hollow carbon 4.5gm - Just a bit of saving! I don't think its anywhere near as strong as the steel but it's a great Richard waving part. The love affair with the TL01 continues