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Unknown Driver

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Everything posted by Unknown Driver

  1. For the last few years my "bashers" have been a re-re Blackfoot and a TXT-1 that I modded. Unfortunately the TXT can't take much horsepower and the Blackfoot was so worn out I had to retire it. Luckily I never ran the hard body, so it looks amazing on the shelf with Ampro's LED light kit. The TXT will get shelved next because they've both been replaced by the LMT Of course I turned the LMT into a yard sale on day 1 by disassembling everything to make sure the build was up to snuff - I cannot overstate how impressed I am with this truck. I wish Tamiya would make a modern solid axle truck.
  2. Zero doubt: I would build a Black Edition and ENJOY the suffering to look at those rims. Hubba hubba!
  3. Absolutely! Which is all I plan to do with it. LOL Kyosho used metal for their chassis, usually stamped aluminum I think - which makes much more sense to me. The Tamiya design puts all the weight on the suspension arms (unsprung weight) which makes for a poor handling vehicle whereas Kyosho used more composites in the suspension. At the end of the day I realize it's a very old design and I should grade on a curve, but I couldn't help but be a little bummed. On the one hand they did some REALLY cool things on the car (center diff, gear diffs, CF chassis, locking rim centers, all that) - but then missed the fundamentals. Definitely makes you appreciate how far car design has come!
  4. Sorry boys, this is going to be a tough one but I think this is the only venue with people mature enough to let me vent. -takes a deep breath- I hate the Avante. After building the Egress which I absolutely LOVED, it's abundantly clear to me why the Avante was a failure as a race car. It's over-designed, heavy, miserable to put together, and (based on the assembly) difficult to tune, and I blame 90% of it on THE STUPID END LINKS. I don't know HOW someone at Tamiya in the 80s didn't look at this design and ask "are we really going to tell people to use shims to set the ball-end orientation?" or "why don't we use plastic ball-cups like everyone else on threaded rod?" or "why are we using parts that are SO heavy and over-designed?" Every link is a nightmare to assemble and requires 5 hands. I cannot TELL YOU how many times I had the ball ends on/off in the process of shimming them to "just the right orientation". And the little sway bar receivers on the links are a pain to orient and on TOP of that: the sway bars don't move freely and don't stay centered (rear)! You'd think: "well, with all those metal parts, surely the car is slop free!" - but no Shirley, it is not. This is one of the sloppiest cars I've put together. Like...approaching Blackfoot front suspension sloppy. I've built lots of cars in the last few years and this thing is by far one of the biggest let-downs of my RC life. I expected a Ferrari and I got a Gremlin. -end rant- Let me know how much I owe you all for the therapy session. LOL
  5. Not sure if there's room under the body - but you could replace the screws with studs and use the blue anodized nuts that team associated cars (B6 / T6) have, or a thumb-screw of your choosing.
  6. NOOOOO! Sorry man, there's NO way I'm taking that thing out in the dirt. All my builds are destined to be hangar queens.
  7. Finished a bucket-list truck over the weekend. I'm a little irritated with how hard the side decals went down but I can live with the slit I had to put in the Stadium Thunder decal. Otherwise it came out pretty well I think. *Not a re-re* (I know the bed should be dark, but I bought a full can of flour yellow and doggoneit I'mna use it all!)
  8. I had to comment on this build: absolutely amazing. I love the idea of trying to modernize the Astute to mid-motor trim and by using the TA02 rear transmission, you've effectively created a "laydown" trans much like the state-of-the-art race buggies use. SUPER cool. Do you plan on running it on any high-grip surfaces? I'd be curious how it handles compared to a modern buggy on astro or carpet... Also, what are you doing for a battery situation? I'm assuming you'll run the battery transverse immediately in front of the motor, but you MIGHT be able to fit a shorty, low CG lipo running longitudinally... Great job!
  9. Finally got the NOS decals for my Blackfoot III yesterday - after looking at the truck on the shelf with NO decals for weeks I couldn't get them on fast enough. But GEEZE - as Glenn from Tamiya Legends would say - what a ball ache! Worth it still and I didn't realize the blue lightning had a metal flake to it. Still waiting on an RC10T3 and BNIB Stadium Thunder (original!) to arrive!
  10. I totally understand that. Right now I have 1 foot firmly in each camp. I race carpet offroad in the winter (B6.3 and T6.2) so I've spent a lot of time studying chassis setup, etc. But at the same time, I love the old stuff - and being hands-on with it helps a person appreciate where the hobby has come from. It's like racing an F1 car on the weekends and working on Model Ts during the week. Two extremes. LOL
  11. I've been sitting on this Egress for over a year now (and a re-re Avante). I finally figured it was time to build it - I got a Tamiya motor, vintage Tamiya ESC, all ready to put a show car together. But NOTHING prepared me for how eccentric the design of this car is. Diffs? Weird. Suspension? Weird. Everything is unusual about this car. It's almost a glimpse into what happens when a company gets hung up on a specific design style (swing arm suspension) and can't let it go. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE the car - but sheesh...what an odd duck. I'm sure the Avante will be no better. lol
  12. May you all forgive me for posting something non-Tamiya, but I'm rather proud of this guy. It's one of my top 5 favorites for sure. It has a Tekin Rebel ESC and Trinity Green Machine 2 motor.
  13. I had to! Unfortunately even in box the rims had started to yellow. Plus, I figured the pink would 'pop' on an otherwise plain looking car. Thanks Willy
  14. Finished a vehicle I never thought I'd own yesterday. I always hated the Frog. It's ugly, the suspension is awful, and it's just too quirky for me. Hm...I just described 2/3 of the Tamiyas I already own. Oh well! It's an original NIB build that I scored on fleabay for $180 (!!!)
  15. Sanwa radios are the dominant brand at my LHS / track and I've never seen those old school 'rubbers' for them (LOL). Not having to hold 8 AA batteries was my favorite part about upgrading to the MT44 (From an Airtronics MX Sport). More comfortable, less weight, but still had a quality feel. RXs aren't cheap ($50?) but there are the Ruddog units and they perform fine.
  16. This. The TD4/2 chassis just does nothing for me when you realize your options at that price point. It's like they're trying to be too clever. If it weren't for the re-releases, (I suspect) Tamiya would be in big trouble from an RC perspective. I wish they'd develop some newer monsters and sell them with lexan AND hard bodies. Hand drawn box art on one side, "bash photos" on the other side. Make the brand more relevant to new hobbyists while keeping the 'heart' that we look for. I feel like they could regain some market share that way. BUT: that involves engineering and investment, which they seem averse to. -cough- RIP TRF -cough-
  17. I have a leg in both camps so I may see things that those only in the vintage/Tamiya scene may not... From a racing / bashing perspective, the hobby is absolutely still growing. 10 years ago the rage was short course trucks (starting with the Slash and later evolving with true race bred vehicles) which brought a lot of people into the hobby. Then crawling became a thing which sells a TON of cars, and in the last 2 years drag racing has become the hot fad, to the point that my LHS put in a drag strip with full computerized timing. And the demographic/diversity with some of these new segments is phenomenal. Old/young, rural/city, male/female - if you can't find something in RC that tickles your fancy, you haven't looked hard. Which is awesome. Offroad carpet / astro is still my LHS bread and butter though, with 2WD stock (17.5) being the dominant class and 4WD stock (13.5) following next. They sell a lot of cars / kits as most manufacturers are on a 1 year design cycle now. The LD2, B6.4, etc etc are all absolutely built for stupid low turn motors. Most of the talented mod drivers are running a 6.5T or lower motor and they're ballistic. Chassis designs have stopped making huge advancements (rear --> mid motor) and are now all about subtle refinements. That said, I absolutely miss the magazines/catalogues of yore. Advertising mattered MUCH more and manufacturers put more effort into their branding. I'm SO sick of kit boxes with a black background and car (TLR), no image of the car at all (Associated), or a shadow image (X-Ray). I co-host a podcast on our LHS youtube channel (RC Madness) and last week we pawed through some old RC Car Action magazines from 1995. The vibe was SO different. I do blame the internet in part. The hobby is definitely more affordable, popular, and technologically advanced, it's just lost some of the 'heart' it used to have. Or - have we, as an older demographic, been around long enough to allow our nostalgia glasses to fog our perspective? For me: Tamiya restorations to reminisce about the past, go racing for the challenge of staying competitive and current. You can scratch BOTH itches. Or y'know...buy some ointment.
  18. In the summer I like to get up early, get a coffee/breakfast sandwich, and take the Blackfoot to the local beach for 7:30ish AM. It's too early for anyone to be there, so I have the whole place to myself to relax, enjoy the view, and do a little driving. Sometimes it's about the quiet moments...and who doesn't like nice big sandy rooster tails?
  19. I put a $100 Novak Hammer ESC and $100 Thorp transmission in my used and (VERY) abused hand-me-down Blackfoot. If you scale by age/income (I was 12) that's a pretty bad couple decisions. lol But recently, I'd have to say my first 1/8th scale buggy build, all brand new. Probably around $1200 all told.
  20. Is most of that adjustment gained with hop-up parts? Or maybe I'm not seeing it in the manual. The a-b-c-d blocks are molded and don't have pill-inserts, so you can't change anti-squat or rear toe in kit form. Same with axle height front and rear (no pills, so it's fixed) and caster (no pills in the front knuckles). Pretty much every competitive offroad car right now (LD2, 5.0, B6.4, YZ2 Cal3 and their 4wd brothers) have some way to adjust kickup (same as caster) - either via the front pivot block or a pill system. It would be cool if Tamiya released the parts to make the car much closer to race-capable (like a "TRF kit") - given the car's price compared to modern 4wd buggies they'd be able to throw $200 of hop-ups in it and still be cost-equal. Probably won't happen, but it would be cool if it did.
  21. Morning all, I can't keep up this pace, but I'll sure have fun going bankrupt trying. LOL - the Thundershot came yesterday. Shelf queen it's whole life - all I had to do was dust it off. I also came to a minor realization... Many of the restos I've done that came with their original bodies were unpainted BUT had decals applied. What kind of ack-basswards behavior is this? When I looked through the Thundershot manual, I realized that the builder is instructed to BRUSH PAINT the body. So people probably would apply the decals, then use them as a template to know where to paint. This body was painted pretty thin, so I gave it another coat (by brush!) of white and dark blue. Came out pretty good. I do wish it still had the mono-shock, but at least the mini shocks are period correct.
  22. Figure I'll throw in my $0.02 (that's USD...so it's worth less. haha)... For the record: I REALLY WISH Tamiya still made race-quality cars. I currently run Team Associated for buggy/truck and I'd drop them in a heartbeat, even if it meant dealing with part availability. That said: until TRF is resurrected, it would be extremely difficult to successfully race any of the current cars against modern buggies. The last-gen TRF cars would probably be okay with some tweaking, but parts will kill you. Other platforms, including the TD4/2, just don't have the adjustability to run successfully on carpet, astro, or even high-grip dirt. (Caster, rear toe, anti-squat, roll center, kickup, diff height, gear diffs, etc etc etc.)
  23. I'll 2nd the "offroad astro" and "offroad carpet" racing. Most dirt tracks are hard-packed nowadays, so if you're going to race on a hard surface it might as well be one that doesn't wear out the chassis and keeps the car clean. I run carpet in the winter (USA, New England) and it's absolutely awesome. Astro turf is in general a little more 'forgiving' than carpet because it lets the car slide just a little. See what's local and popular and pick from that - good luck!
  24. What ^ he said. People used to build their own packs (side-by-side or saddle) to accommodate the chassis of the vehicle and because "race packs" were usually sold as loose cells. Even a killer "old school" pack can't hold a candle to a LiPo - so if your car CAN fit LiPos, they're the easiest route. If you were to try ordering loose cells to build your own packs nowadays you'd end up with run of the mill cells since I don't think anyone out there matches anymore.
  25. I got lucky last week and picked up this unbuilt original Frog kit off ebay for the same price as a new re-re. It's SO cool seeing the blister packs and the part marking on the old molded parts. Unfortunately - I'm missing one rear arm and the resistor plate, so they're on the way. I think I'm going to do box-art with a brighter pink, and paint the spokes and hubs of the rims the same color.
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