EsotericRC

Thanks for that. Was considering some Lunsford Ti turnbuckles for my modded Supershot build as well as maybe for my son's TD4 down the line. You've sold me. Gotta order some now. Heh. That TRF Reinforced Adjuster tool...is it part # 42186? Am gonna be getting the reinforced adjusters as well for my Supershot, so it only makes sense to have the right tool for them...

That carbon rear damper stay looks great, and I like that the included wing mounts have retaining screws instead of the body clips. I guess now you can actually use the Tamiya blue wing screw hop-up. Heh. I recently started putting together a list of the hop-ups i'm gonna buy for my son's TD4....guess I need to add the carbon rear damper stay to that list. Definitely agree with you on the gear diffs. When my son built his TD4, I opted for the gear diffs as well....mainly because the T-nut hop-up kits were unavailable at the time, but am pretty happy with that decision. They seem to work well.

Late to the party seeing this build, but WOW...that's some of the cleanest wiring i've seen on any build. Very inspiring. @Nicadraus, where do you get the braided sheathing with the color striping? Also, those 3-wire clamps you use for the brushless motor wiring, are great. You've definitely inspired me to give more attention to the wiring/electronics in my builds. So, Thanks!

I just went through this same thing recently. Got my 10YO son into the hobby after taking a LONG hiatus from the hobby myself. Was debating between radios and considered some of the FlySky, etc radios, but being a long-time Futaba user I ended up buying him a T3PV to use with his first build (TD4 Super Avante) and any future builds (10 model memory). Am happy with the decision. The tx of the 3PV is relatively small and light so it fits his hands well, yet is perfectly fine for my adult hands. @stu1973, are you and your son only planning on running one car at a time? For us, my son and I want to be able to run 2 cars at the same time so that we can race each other, and that requires us to have 2 separate controller setups for his cars and for mine. Currently, I'm using an old 3PM, but am also planning on upgrading to a 2.4ghz system so will likely get a Futaba T4PM for myself.

Definitely an interesting looking chassis, and @toyolien...I gotta say that I love your build threads. Love the pics taken in the scale garage and everything. My son finished his first build (TD4 Super Avante) recently, and ever since he's been asking what he can build next. He wants to do either a rally or grip build, and after seeing this, the XV-02 may be a contender. Was actually thinking of taking one of the 2 TT-01's my son and I have and turning that into a rally car, but it'd probably be more fun to build a dedicated rally chassis. Heh. One question about the XV-02 though...does Tamiya make a front one way differential for it by chance? The front one way is one of the reasons I was thinking of building a rally car out of one of the TT-01's. Both of ours have front one-way diffs (and rear ball diffs), and I love the ability to quickly induce a slide/turn with the front one-way by applying the brake, much like the use of a handbrake in real drift and rally cars. Would be great if this was available for the XV-02, but these days it seems like front one ways are becoming less and less popular. Anyway, subscribed and watching with interest...

Subscribed. Been thinking of doing something similar with an older TT-01 I have. What you planning on doing for shocks/suspension? For mine, am contemplating some taller shock towers and longer shocks for more usable travel. I dig the E46 M3 body you're running too...have the same body on one of my drift cars.

Good stuff. Love seeing more and more 3D printed stuff in the hobby. I have a Prusa MK2S and eventually i'd like to head down a similar road. Subscribed

Oh, most definitely will post some running vids once everything comes together!

Also picked up some 3" corrugated pipe to use for the track borders. At first I checked with both Home Depot and Lowes and was shocked how much the price of corrugated pipe has skyrocketed recently, likely due to supply chain shortages from the pandemic. However, I looked in my local FB Marketplace listings and found a guy selling 2 new 100ft rolls of the 3" corrugated pipe for $35. He's a contractor and had some left over from some of their builds that he was just trying to unload. Perfect. Once I finish moving dirt, will have to figure out how I am gonna hold the 3" pipe in place. Am thinking of getting some steel rebar, cutting lengths of it and welding a large washer onto one end, then drilling a hole down the center of the pipe and driving the rebar spike through it into the ground. Anyone have any better ideas for ways to hold the corrugated pipe into place? Anyway, I will try to get some work in on my SuperShot build soon. My apologies for the delay...

Unfortunately, no updates one the SuperShot build yet. Since my son finished his TD4, he's been bugging me to finish our backyard track so that he has a nice place to run it so I've been spending my free time lately finalizing the layout and working on the build of the track. Unfortunately, since it's built around 2 trees, there are roots from those 2 trees so I can't just till the grass to remove it and make the track surface. Have to actually build up the dirt about 3"-4" to cover the roots and level out the surface some, so that requires hauling in dirt from another part of our property. Quite honestly, it's backbreaking work since i'm moving it all manually with a cart, spreading it with a rake, and packing it with a hand-held tamper. Will be so worth it in the end when it's done and we can spend countless hours racing cars around it. I've actually stretched the track dimensions a little to 56'x36', which is about 2016 square feet total. Current planned track layout has 2 longer straights, with segments of technical turns toward the center of the space. The lanes should be about 7ft wide the whole way through and I am plan on having 2 or 3 jumps, but nothing too crazy, with maybe a few banked/bermed turns. Here's a rough sketch I did of the track layout: So far, this is what i've gotten done: Building it around the 2 cherry blossom trees does make things a bit more difficult in terms of track layout since we have trees to work around, but I chose to build it around the trees for 2 primary reasons. First and foremost is to try to camouflage it some so it doesn't stand out so much...to try to avoid the ire of our local Home Owners Association. Second is to make use of the shade from the trees so that we're not just baking in the sun whenever my son and I are out there running cars on it.

Love the backstory, and looking forward to seeing it come together with the black SuperShot shocks. Also curious how that esc/motor combo will be in the Hot-SuperShot. Subscribed. Hah, yup...BITD when I used to run my original SuperShot with a Novak ESC and Trinity Monster Horsepower motor, it was pretty **** fast (for the time at least), BUT...literally ran for 6-7 minutes and then needed a multiple hour charge. That sucked. The added efficiency brought about by newer battery and motor technology is most definitely a welcomed change to the hobby....heh

That is some inspiring work. Love it. I have a 3D printer (Prusa MK2S) and have been fantasizing about trying to design some custom gearboxes for my SuperShot that use the TD4/TA06 dfferentials and a slipper clutch (maybe from a DF03). Seeing this thread, I am even more inspired to give that a go at some point.

Yup, I frequented Yorktown Hobbies, BITD, and the place in Stoneleigh was Stoneleigh Cycle and Hobby. Stoneleigh was actually my first hobby shop...where I bought both my Frog and my Supershot in the early to mid 80's. I think I bought my first Powell Peralta skateboard there first, and that's how I realized they carried hobby grade RC stuff. And yeah...I used to LOVE going to the MARC show at the Timonium Fairgrounds! Looked forward to it every year, and always found good deals there. I bought a Graupner HydroSpeed boat there one year that I recently found at my parents' house too. Planning on restoring that at some point as well...

Yup, though I never used it, I do remember there being an indoor track in that area. I think it was somehow related to the old Gary Nixon Enterprises (hobby shop) that was in the area as well. Gary Nixon was an AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famer that rode for Triumph (and later Kawasaki) and was a successful motorcycle racer in the 60's and 70's. I remember going into his shop to buy parts for my Frog and Supershot in the late 80's and he had motorcycle racing memorabilia hanging on the wall above the main counter, including his old racing leathers and some old motorcycle parts. I remember it being a pretty big store, but I think the RC stuff was only by the front counter. Don't really remember what was in the rest of the store. Or maybe he had a track inside of the store?! Was so long ago...Can't really remember now... But I do recall...I used to hate driving into that underpass as a kid. Rumor had it that several people had died in the underpass over the years, from drowning when the river that ran under York Rd closeby (Beaver Run or something like that) would overflow and the underpass would flood during heavy storms. Always thought it was a creepy place. But I digress...

The other project that I have been working on as well, that I mentioned earlier in the thread, is a small-ish backyard dirt track. Space I have to work with is about 56'x33'...pretty much the area covered and shaded by these 2 cherry blossom trees in the yard. The idea is to use the area covered by the cherry blossoms so that the trees serve as a sort of camouflage to hide the track so as to not draw the attention and ire of the local Homeowners Association. I set the track layout using landscape marking flags and started moving dirt to line the track and fill in the roots, etc around the trees. It's also been ridiculously hot and humid here lately, so the work on it has definitely been slow-going since I can only work on it for short stints before needing to take a water/cooldown break...