lukej

So I've not made it racing tonight, I struggle with anxiety, and with a few parts that haven't arrived or some that aren't finished on the car I decided to stay home. There's just something about under preparedness that really affects me. With the above in mind, I decided to move something forward on the build by prepping and painting the body. It's a Subaru Impreza WRX that was raced in the Nürburgring 24 Hours, and was driven in 1:1 by Tim Schrick, someone I had the pleasure to meet when I spent 4 years looking after drivers racing in the same series as him. To be able to buy the body of a car that I saw race in reality against us was too good to pass up. On with the photos then! Masked. Excuse the lounge mess, I've had a Tamiya explosion Next was paint. In my excitement at the LHS the other day, I mistakenly believed I'd be fine with just one can of each colour. Incorrect! Anyhow, I'm taking the OH "shopping" tomorrow so that I can restock... 2 coats in. 4 to go if the current level of translucency is anything to go by. Anyway, that's if for tonight. I did build a turnbuckle for the servo too but no photos of that. Luke

After my trip to the LHS, I got back on with the build, but focused on progress rather than pictures. That said, here's a few: New tub after tapping, I didn't drill the pressure reliefs this time and in hindsight that definitely would have made the job easier. Lesson learned. The club doesn't allow locking of diffs, so the local wisdom is to use white tack. Having assembled the front diff this way, I used 1000wt diff oil for the rear as advised by a front runner in the series. At this point it's probably best to show you the rest of the LHS haul. A Corally battery (not my preference but the LRP ones I want are on back order), shock oil, diff oil, masking materials & some paint for the body, this one will be a box art Subaru Impreza Nürburgring 24h Car. The Sidcup rules below meant this was an easy choice because it came with the kit: "Body shells: Any shell supplied with the Tamiya kit or bodyshell that has a real likeness of a real road car, GT, saloon or rally car. Wings: Body shell Kit supplied wings only." New drive cups fitted. We're allowed to upgrade the driveshafts front only so its kit rears with plastic dog bones. A tidy workspace makes me happy. Time to build some dampers. I used 88g of 50wt oil in each rear damper, and 78g of 40wt in each of the the fronts. The dampers are 42102 TRF Special Dampers with the 42131 TRF HL Cylinders. I'll add the blue aluminium spring retainers later because blue things. Not going to lie, it was late and I wanted to feel closer to completion so the wheels went on even though the turnbuckles aren't in for the steering yet. It was very much a case of perceived completion at this point and I'll be revisiting it today to finish off the odd jobs. The car is sitting a little high just now too so I'll need to adjust various settings. One last act of sanity retention was to ream the body post holes and test fit the body. It's not sitting at the correct height yet but I wanted to take any steps I could to prep it so that I can paint it today and give it time to cure before tomorrow night's racing. Luke

TTP have priced the TB Evo 8 at £625, which is £74 less than the TRF 420X I had off them. Tamico have the 420X at €690 which is about £576, and the TB Evo 8 on preorder at £386ish so a good bit cheaper if you don’t get stung on import. Luke

Insomnia is good for few things, but being up early on a day off so that I can build RC cars might possibly be the only silver lining I need! I got myself set up on the dining table with a cup of coffee and a fizzy biscuit. Set out the build boxes in a slightly OCD fashion. And it was finally time to begin. As can be seen in the above post, there's a lot of blue parts that will find their way into this build so I'll dip in and out of the regular instructions as needed. The laptop is also helpful so that I can cross reference the club's rules, The RC Racer website and various spreadsheets and documents I've assembled to plan my build. Building the prop joints, I came across @qatmix's recommendation to forego the use of the included o-ring and use two red TRF urethane damper bushings. Fortunately, I'd just bought two bags for the KRv4.1 and spares boxes. Thank you past Luke for your foresight to order extras! At this point, feeling like I was on a roll I decided to use @wtcc5's experience in tapping the TT-02 chassis by pre-drilling the holes as a pressure relief. This worked brilliantly until I got the knocked the thread forming tap on the last hole and stripped the thread out again. F! At this point, I left for a physio session and to pay a visit to the LHS for a new tub. Luke

Finally getting back on this project after some work & motivation related delays! Over the past weeks, I've been assembling a large stock of parts for all of my builds ready for a couple of days off when I can do some proper building, with most of these acquisitions showng up in the Postman threads. The first acquisitions were mostly for my KRv4.1 build that's coming soon. TT-02 based it may be, but legal for Sidcup it is very much not! There were a few packages exclusively for that build and my TRF 420X that came after, before a pair of anti-scratch pliers arrived off the back of a @qatmix article that I was reading Next up were a sequence of parcels that my OH would be very disappointed in the cost of, if she understood the expense of blue crack... So yeah, I've been having a splurge! Anyway, that brings us up to where things were before I got building this morning. Luke

So will any of you buy one? I’m tempted to see what the latest shaft drive offering is like, if for no other reason that to compare lap times with my KRv4.1. I suspect fully built it’ll cost me a similar number to complete so in the interests of science it’s be rude not to - at least that’s what I’ll they’ll the OH! Luke

And The RC Racer’s take on the teaser video can be found here. Luke

Was the BRCR post on Facebook your work? Luke

Looks like they’ve taken notice of some complaints about the 7 with its spine, and there’s now an upper deck/spine to stiffen the car. What do you guys notice about this vs past TB chassis? Edit: Having seeing the Blautal post on Facebook, I’m getting ready for @wtcc5 to drop some insight here. Take it away Kevin! Luke

For those who want to see the teaser video, here it is! Click Clack Luke

Saw a post over of Facebook from Kentech announcing the TB Evo8. Assuming details are thin on the ground right now but what do we know so far? Luke

I got a box of parts from RC-Kleinkram for my TT-02 spec racer and KRv4.1 builds And some trophies I need to take to a pair of my clients for a 3rd place in VW FunCup back at the beginning of this year I also had a bad day with my 1:1 car Luke

I've posted a number of merchandise orders for a client: Took delivery of some race trophies for the same client & one other: As well as some more parts for my spec racer and KRv4.1 builds: And my 1:1 car killed itself. Head gasket & bottom end knock at the same time! Luke

You already know what I’m thinking Kevin… Mega work as usual! Luke

Naturally 😉

My ridiculous second Tamico haul this month. This is for my SRCC & KRv4.1 builds, just waiting on the last few bits from RC Kleinkram and then I can begin to assemble both... It arrived Thursday, just as I was leaving for a second weekend at Spa Francorchamps, so unfortunately I didn't get to unbox it all. Fun fact, I've now spent more time on the E40 driving across Europe than I have at home this month. Hopefully, I can distract myself from work for a bit tomorrow and do some organising of parts. Luke

I started organising my collection… Luke

These arrived Thursday! from @wtcc5 Most of these bits are to help with my KRv4.1 build. Today, this lot came in from Tamico Again, mostly for the KRv4.1, but also some organisational bits to sort out the collection and keep my home office a bit neater. So it's not all from today, but I was away in Belgium until late last night so I'm counting today as delivery day... Luke

You’re my hero Kevin

Ah I use the B7 and R12 depending on application, nice stuff and black for that stealthy look 😉 Luke

I run a 3PV and PowerHD servos, what one is in that tin? Luke

In what might be the first of a few today, my first ever high end TC chassis arrived, and they included the shorter battery posts @qatmix tells you to look out for in his excellent article. I popped the 2 sets of Rush wheels & tyres that arrived yesterday into the box, that way everything I need for the build is in one place and not mixed up with my other half-finished projects! Much as it's just a justification for my addiction to the blue stuff, I'm claiming that multiple builds happening at once allows me to fill time waiting for parts to arrive Luke

@Willy iine Those Minis are ace! Might have to get myself a couple! Luke

Me too! I’m going to build it as a “KRF” 😉 Luke

The first two of many deliveries this week. The parts are for my KRv4.1 build with more bits coming from @wtcc5, the tyres are for my TRF420X that's due with me tomorrow from TTP. They're EWS spec in case I have enough time to enter into that at the end of the year. Luke