El Gecko

Yes if I remember correctly I passed the wire through the nub on the gearbox, as well as the holes in the side pods, and then made the bends in the wire before putting the whole assembly back on the car. I have not tried to take it fully apart yet

Seems a bit late in the millenium to still be using the word "ghetto" in a joking manner.

1.5V is for alkaline batteries, typically NiCds or NiMHs are rated at 1.2V per cell, so that would be 8.4V nominal voltage for a 7-cell pack. But fully charged, you'd have another half a volt available, which would cause every 7-cell battery to exceed the maximum spec.

Not sure what's "ghetto" about it? Other than the condition of the wire, it's not much different than installing a sway bar?

Now that I've got my vintage Hornet running again, it will be interesting to see how it fares against its "properly suspended" brother

It's a shame that postage from the other side of the world is so expensive... there's a lot of potential in that mound of motors

Just an update on this: I finally ran the car again, after 20 years! And despite not having the springs in the side pods, there was ZERO gearbox slap, even when going full throttle from a dead stop. Not only that, but the articulation is even better than stock because the shocks can actually work through the correct geometry. And I gave it a proper bashing too... didn't roll the car or anything, but jumped a few small things and definitely worked the suspension out, and that wire didn't even budge. We'll see how it goes long term, but I'm loving it at the moment... it handles so much better than a Grasshopper!

On the contrary, particularly on the Grasshopper/Hornet chassis there's loads of understeer, up until you hit the sweet spot with rear wheel speed to get it to kick around. On round 6 I was starting my Scandinavian Flick at the middle marker and coming into the far hairpin sideways in a 4-wheel slide, then just rotating the last 90ish degrees with the throttle and powering out. @mud4fun I was thinking about this more and perhaps like the Hornet, your rear tires are just TOO grippy compared to the fronts? I know you're planning to get some new front tires, but maybe in the meantime put on a halfway knackered set of rears and see how you get on?

Ok, I will tell you the secret... it's a slot car layout Hoping some more of my HO track designs can find new life for postal racing... I gained a lot of experience packing fun little tracks into as tiny of a space as possible

Sure, I could always buy one. That's easy. Anybody can go out and buy a replacement part. My rule (and my personal challenge) is to try to make it (or fix it) before I buy it. Hopefully I've bought myself about 6 months before I have to even think about spending money on this part. And I taught myself how to make a steering knuckle, which I hadn't tried before. So the next one will be even better. And I may not have to ever buy one again.

I still have my old NiCds as backup, but they don't get used ever since I got NiMHs. Same size, same plug, new charger, longer runtimes, no worries about them exploding while charging (looking at you, lipo). Win win win win win.

Hard to say as I've never driven an RC10, but I've noticed that when the Frog handling is in the "sweet spot" (softer than stock), the car bottoms out on anything but small jumps. I would say it easily outhandles a stock Fox, but I'm not sure how they would compare with similar work done to the Fox suspension. The Frog definitely takes some getting used to if you're coming from a longer wheelbase car, or rear motor, or 4WD. It's a bit like driving an old Cobra--it just wants to constantly swap ends, and you have to be really smooth with your throttle and steering inputs to keep it from doing so.

Made a new steering knuckle for the Grasshornet out of a piece of old bumper. Direct replacement with no real measuring to speak of, only had to put a couple turns on the tie rod end to get it squared up. My cutout allows even more inward movement than the stock piece for increased Ackerman angles. Hopefully it holds together!

mic drop standing O

Sounds like you need better front tires on the Cougar and softer suspension on both, with as much usable travel as possible since the track is so rough. Also, don't forget, it's a brand spanking new, full-on race car. You've set it up with the "factory tune" but there are a lot of little adjustments to dial in before it'll feel comfortable for you to drive quickly, which would be true no matter who the driver is.

I look at it from a compatibility standpoint. Brushed is compatible with everything, so I can put any of my motors in any of my cars with any speed control--mechanical, electronic or otherwise. If I go brushless (and/or lipo), that would be a total system (motor and ESC and possibly battery) that will probably stay in one car forever, and will not be compatible with anything else in my little fleet.

I should have known better, but I just had to experience it for myself. Unfortunately a steering knuckle had to die while satisfying my curiosity I think I'll stick with normal size wheels from now on...

Been getting this a bit in my Grasshornet lately too (with HW1060), haven't figured it out yet. It's definitely got something to do with the speed control. Possibly a bad battery connection? I think it helped to unplug and replug the connectors a few times to make sure the inner metal parts were fully seated.

Apparently I'm living in the past because I still do half this stuff? Especially make my own parts.

It's interesting. I think the nostagia has taken over for me, no matter what brand it is (yes, I've heard all about Traxxas business practices and they rub me the wrong way as well). But I see the lonely piles of parts that used to be my Traxxas trucks, and I feel an overwhelming need to drive them again!

I had actually intended for the exact opposite of that... start at the arrow and go around the curves, with the long journey back to the line serving as a "back straight". The LapTrax records every.little.movement to insure I get a solid lap count, including my shadow when I walk around putting markers back in place! So my thought was to place the phone on top of one of the outermost end markers, facing out away from me and the rest of the track. Probably due E or due W from those markers if north is up on the diagram, at a 90 degree angle to where the little arrow sits. I'm actually a little sad that I didn't post the mirror option for the track, but I'm happy everyone is having fun on it! Haven't had a go yet myself, but I've just had a "mad scientist" moment in the basement, so the "car" part of this round will be interesting, as always. Good luck all!

ORV heaven!

Actually a triple! There are three "8"s there if you count the hourglass in the middle, it's like an infinity trinity 🍺

I put a Nikko Big Bubba aerial on my Hornet for nostalgia... my dad made the "flag" out of yellow electrical tape 25 or so years ago when it was still attached to the truck

Yep I'll leave it be for now, I'm curious to see others' track suggestions as well! Agreed on the novice front too. My driving skills are still very novice, but have significantly improved over the last few months. I also have a heavy throttle finger like you, and have to remind myself multiple times during the race to dial it back and keep control (usually after a spinout). The cool thing is that while we may be well past our prime competition years, the kids watch us and take mental notes of what NOT to do, thereby avoiding our mistakes from the beginning and giving themselves the upper hand.