smaerivo

Hi all, sharing my 'ancient' F102 car. I got this one in 1995 (originally from 1992), based on the F102 chassis. At the time, it was equipped with a TK-S03 steering servo, Acoms AT-5 ESC, and powered by those 7.2 V NiCd packs. Communication went via the 40 MHz band. In the years following, I added an aluminium front body mount, larger snap pins, an aluminium differential joint set for the steel rear axle, a hi-torque servo saver, and rear aluminium motor mount, ball-bearings on all axles. After collecting dust for nearly two decades, I took it from the shelf and drastically updated the car: Increasing the height of the central upper deck to accommodate larger batteries (I went with NiMH... didn't feel to secure about LiPo). A Reflex Stick Pro 3.1 LCD 2.4 GHz FHSS 4-channel transmitter and receiver (supporting ABS, EPA, DR, and EXP). A new Mtroniks tio Storm 14 electronic speed controller. The default 540 motor (27T, brushed, 14000 RPM) can now be swapped for: Mabuchi Sport Tuned RS-540 motor (silver can, 23T, brushed, 18300 RPM) Super Stock RZ motor (23T, brushed, 27500 RPM) Lightly-Tuned motor (28T, brushed, 16300 RPM) CR-Tuned motor (35T, brushed, 12000 RPM) See here for an explanation of the motor codes. All motors can be fitted with an extra heat sink, and also with an optional 5 V fan connected to the receiver. The rear axle was replaced with a carbon axle. The steering servo was replaced with a high voltage splash-proof brushless digital HRC Racing HV titanium gear 44 kg torque servo, and the fixed steering rods were replaced with adjustable blue anodised aluminium turnbuckles of 32 mm and 50 mm and accompanying reinforced adjusters (short and long). The servo is mounted using aluminium servo stays which stay in place using Loctite Threadlocker Blue (Medium) 242. The central damper system was replaced with a TRF special aluminium tension-adjustable damper, filled with medium damper oil, in addition to new front springs. A SkyRC GSM-015 GNSS speed and GPS positioning sensor was installed that allows full trajectory sampling up to 10 Hz (their newer version is compacter, but does not store the trajectory). In addition, a SkyRC GC-401 gyroscope was initially mounted near the middle of the vehicle for additional steering assistance. It was then replaced with a Yokomo DP-302 V4 (manual) aluminium drift steering gyroscope (with assist mode) and moved to the centre of the vehicle on top of the bridge. The car now easily takes high-speed corners without drifting out of control. Those pesky and painful-to-the-fingers Tamiya-style battery connectors were also replaced with IC3 ones. They have been treated with silicone for smoother (dis)connecting The cockpit has been equipped with white LED lights and a rear red LED light. To capture on-board video footage, both the car's Lexan body as well as its frame can be equipped with a Vizu Extreme X8S actioncam. Strips of custom-cut aluminium were glued to the car's underside to prevent bottoming out of the chassis plate. I also spent some time on figuring out which other tyres it can be fit (taken from the F103 chassis): front soft, front hard, rear soft, rear hard, wheels, and bearings to accommodate the different front axle diameters. It now weighs approximately 1.4 kg. Depending on the gearing, tyres, motor, and weight of the car, it can currently achieve about 80 km/h (~ 48 mph). In order to stabilise the car's behaviour and steering at such high speed, the use of a gyroscope is necessary as it was not out-of-the-box designed for these conditions. For more descriptions, photos, and movies, please see: https://www.maerivoet.org/index.php?page=links-tamiya-mclaren-rc-car I hereby also post a selection of some photos.