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I know the the DT-02 Rough Rider has been done and posted here before. I am only recently returned to the hobby after rediscovering my 35 year old Hornet from my racing days as a kid. After restoring the Hornet back to its former race condition, I decided I needed a project and a cheap build. The DT-02 Holiday Buggy did the trick. I read all the complaints and detractors of the "re-release", but I wanted the chassis.. I had no intention of leaving it stock and I already had bearings, shocks, and a motor for it from buying extra and wrong parts for the Hornet. In conversation with some FB group members I found that classic RC10 bodies fit the DT-02 almost like they were mad for it. So I got to work on a few different bodies for it. The final look is what I called the Rough Raider tribute! I love this chassis. I hope you enjoy! Thanks for taking a look!

Good News!! another build thread! Another buggy, and this one takes it right back to the first car I bought when i re-found RC 15 odd years ago, The DT-02. That took the form of the Madcap 2.0, a tribute buggy. https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=71854&id=19798 For this build i want to set a few ground rules: Push the limit of the chassis - how good can it be? Go big or go home - nothing is too much for this build. Only Tamiya parts allowed - (bar bearings, electrics & one exception) That said, NO BLUE Minimal modifications - use off the shelf parts where possible A lot of the parts collecting has already happened, so this might well move pretty fast.......

Im repurposing this thread to keep my builds in one place, leaving the posts about my TT02B Scorcher, linking to my Terra Scorcher thread for the pics and comments for when i put it together but i dont expect there to be much more happening in that thread. My Terra Scorcher build. Hey all! A couple of days back i started a Plasma Edge 2. This is the first ever kit im building and my first hobby grade RC car since a Marui Big Bear i had back in the nineties. (Had two or three toy grade cars since) A couple of years back i got back into RC with building/flying fpv drones and foamboard planes, was good fun but ive since fallen out of that, too much repairing compared to RCing, im hoping a car will be a bit less maintenance per battery pack In an earlier thread over in Other Makes i showed off the 3d print that got me back in RC this time, after getting that together i wanted to pick up a kit. I was looking between the Plasma Edge 2 and the Neo Fighter, both look real good but since id never had a 4wd i decided on the TT02B over the DT03, even tho it cost a bit more. Following the instructions to get it together was very straight forward after looking at a couple vids in preparation and building a 3d printed 1/10 rwd buggy a little earlier. As for pics of the build process ill go with "draw a circle, draw another circle, now draw the rest of the f###ing owl" rather than spamming lots of pics that most of everyone will have no interest in seeing. I followed along the instructions, only difference from box stock was adding in ball bearings. Since getting it to the above state ive had it out for a little test drive, so happy with how it moves, even if the ground was mostly frozen except for a little patch of gravel at work. Today i properly attached the antenna holder using the top hole on the inner servo mount, added some foam to the underside of the battery hold down to prevent rattling and added little shelf where a battery voltage alarm was attached as i dont know what, if any, lipo cut off the carson dragster 70A esc has (it was included in the kit rather than the tamiya esc i was expecting). I also designed and printed 10mm extensions for the shocks to hopefully give a bit more ground clearance. Sadly they turned out to be a bust as the arms will not go more than a mm or two lower. Was expecting them to be able to go down at least 10mm since they go up more than that but the cups for the drive axles hit the arms just slightly below horizontal. To get a bit more clearance ive put in an order for some 96mm tires on 12mm hex rims, its not a huge step up so hopefully ill be fine without changing the gearing, the rims should be large enough that they will fit over the axle carriers, offset wasnt specified but in case the included rims arent good ill just 3d print my own to fit. Until the new wheels (and some other random bits) arrive i figure im going to paint the body shell, from my tabletop mini hobby i have an assortment of acrylics and an airbrush, seeing that the proline body colors are water based i feel relatively sure they are also acrylics so i think ill be fine with what i already have. Im having a hard time deciding on how id want to paint it tho, the strongest thought i have is red because "Red Wunz Go Fasta", i think it would look nice with the visible black parts of the chassi, white shocks and black/white/blue/yellow of the decals. Will update upon more progress.

I Recently got back into the hobby, with a general emphasis on participating in racing. There's a great local track that race's 1/10 EP only (rare here) with a good turn out for stock buggy 2wd and 4wd, plus other classes every fortnight. I did really want to use a Tamiya chassis in 2wd or 4wd stock, but fairly quickly realized after practicing with my DF01/DT02, that It's probably not a practical choice. I bought a used Xray XB2, and have done 2 races so far in stock class, and feel like it's coming together, quietly expecting to podium the B main in the next race or 2. After my first race though I definitely realized that the day would be a lot more fun with 2 cars. Although my DF01 is just about there with a set up to work ok in 4WD stock, it's proved horribly unreliable, I have faith i'll get it to a point where I can run it, but running it every at every race is probably going to be frustrating. The surface at our track is definitely part of the problem. It's outdoors, using a surface designed for BMX racing, super high grip, and pretty unforgiving on the car. Having the Xray for 2wd left my DT02 without a purpose, side by side with modern 2wd race buggies it's very obvious there's a difference very few drivers could make up.. So I thought I would have a go at converting it to a Stadium Truck. This is a "less serious" class at our track, with truggy and ST run together, motors are free, standard gearing for a DT02 is ~9.2?? with a 19t pinion, and about 8.2?? with a 17t, so it should run well with 10.5, or 13.5, which will make it pretty fun I ran the DT02 at our track quite a bit, I ended up breaking both towers, but it took a long time, and the truck body will save them anyway. The tub did end up basically worn out on the bottom and also cracked in a few spots. I'm going make up some skid plates, which are a general necessity at our track no matter what car you run, that should save the wearing through, and cracks may have been my error with incorrect screw lengths, or driving heaps of laps and not noticing things loosening off. I think I'll get better life out of the fresh one I have. I've always loved the Stadium Blitzer. I consider the DT02 to be a kind of spiritual successor to the Blitzer cars. They are both basic 2wd buggies in the classic style, the only real difference being the very deep offset and wider wheels. So first step was to find some wheels. I found some old Traxxas wheels which looked like they might work, and ran the idea past local hobby shop, and he came back with a suggestion of some old Thunder Tiger wheels, which turned out to be perfect. They're the same width front and back, so will work with modern tyres, they're also bearing type front, AND metric, AND fit on a normal buggy front knuckle. The rears are pin drive, so also bolt straight on, and the offsets seem to be in the ball park for sure.. So here they are. You can also see my spur gear mod from the cars previous iteration, which I'll no longer need for the motor I'll be running. Front - Rear - Body on - Top view of body - Rear 1/4 Front - This body I got from a Vintage Dyna Blaster. I'll run this for now, it definitely has some character, ill clean it up a bit (more) and remove the Dyna Blaster decals, but I have a Stadium Blitzer body and decals on the way, which I'll do in box art Next up is to build a fresh set of CVA's. And later this week or next body mounting, after I grab some tyres. I think with some trimming I should have just enough clearance, but if not I've got a few ideas for widening the track a little.

Besides the @Wooders28 front hex conversion and @ThunderDragonCy printed rear hub anyone tried different front C-Hub and rear hubs for the DT02/03? I’d like a few more arm mount options and was looking at the 201/DN-01 parts. EDIT / TLDR: Rear Hubs: alloy after market options are available, but very few hubs from other Tamiya cars fit properly, as seen below DF03 hubs and arms are a direct fit. Front hubs: DF03 hubs and arms fit. DN01/TRF201 hubs can be made to fit, 0/5 deg extra caster options. F103/104 uprights fit, both stock and TRF201 hubs 12mm hex conversion from the Schumacher Cougar KR is an easy fit and works with stock and TRF201 hubs. also this post for more hex front options And this post by @SlideWRX with a great 3d print design for new uprights.

Hi, I'm looking for a DT02 chassis - preferably NIB so I can build it up. Either a Sand Viper, Holiday Buggy, Sand Rover etc. Thank you, Mike

Hopefully this is in the right place, it makes more sense than in the 'Builds' section since it's really just a modification... We've been through a lot together, me and my £50 DT-02. A lot of batteries, that is. It's probably my favourite runner. They're tough as old boots and have really predictable handling, with a tight turning circle, decent ground clearance and good weight balance for jumping! Problem is, there aren't many on-road-suitable tyre options for the DT-02/03 buggies. There's the Carson All-Terrain wheel set, which has sold out pretty-much everywhere during the Covid-19 lockdown. These are generally black or chrome wheels in a design which I don't particularly like, though, and you're kinda stuck with them. The other option is the front wheels of a Tamiya QD touring car from the 2000's, which had twin 1150 bearing front wheel fittings, based on a touring-car sized 52mm rim. Then you're kind of stuck with the CC01 range of tyres, or some crawler tyres, which aren't really appropriate as they're generally too soft. There is the pricey option of Tamiya Street Rover wheels and tyres, but your tyre options are limited and as said, this is an expensive route! So what about hex front wheels? There's this option from GPM which I tried originally: Unfortunately, they just don't work. The wheel nut still has to be tight against the wheel, clamping it in place. The only way the wheels can 'freewheel' is to back the nut off a couple of turns. Then you'll find the nuts will fall off when you run it. Not good, sorry GPM. Some internet searching led me full-circle back to the TamiyaClub website, where a 2017 post from member 'Pininy' (who sadly doesn't seem to be registered on the forum) listed some parts and a small modification to convert the front of a DT-02 to hex-fitment. Massive thanks to him (or her??) I'm just re-documenting how this all goes together below. Parts required: 3Racing FGX-107 - Sakura FGX Parts Part G 3Racing FGX-124 - Heavy Duty Wheel Axle For 3racing Sakura FGX 4x 850 ball-bearings (5 x 8 x 2.5mm) 2x 2x10mm pin (for hex) - Tamiya 50594 2x 5mm ball connectors - Tamiya 50592 4x 5mm ball end (short) - Tamiya 50797 Option parts I used: Tamiya 53828 DT-02 Turnbuckle Suspension and Tie-Rod 2x 22mm hinge pin & e-clips 2x 1.5mm x 3mm spacer So these are the current hop-up tyres I had fitted after wearing-out the kit ones last year: I think they have a little bit of life left in them if I use them on grass! Here are the wheels and tyres I want to fit: DF-03 front and rear wheels, which are obviously 12mm hex fit. Fitting the rear wheels of course is very straightforward: And there are no issues with clearance etc. The front end has to come apart next: There's quite a lot of wear on that little pin-screw which holds the front upright in the C-hub. I decided to replace these after finding that 3x22mm hinge-pins fit, more on that later. You need to modify the front C-hubs to get enough clearance for the new knuckles. I did a quick and simple job with a Dremel, you could likely do it much neater if you had the inclination! You can even see all the black debris from the grinding tool un-ceremoniously sprayed up the side of the body! Here are the new parts required: They go together like so, I have fitted the 5mm ball connector to the pin closer to the axle for maximum steering angle: I strongly suspect that the axles can be the commonly-found M-Chassis items from Tamiya, but I didn't have one to-hand in order to check sizing etc. But they fit in exactly the same manner, so I can see no reason why it wouldn't work. This is it all fitted. I used the 3x22mm hinge pin, retained the small metal shim at the base of the knuckle (as per DT-02 standard instructions) and required that 1.5mm blue spacer to take out the vertical travel of the pin. At this point I fitted both sides and re-connected the steering tie-rods. Unfortunately, I had an un-holy amount of toe-out, as the arms were now too long (the ball connector has moved inwards from the stock items). I replaced the adjuster ends from the 53828 hop-up set with 4nr of the standard 5mm short adjusters, like so: Ta-da: Then it was time for wheels-on. I haven't taken any pictures but it's naturally the same as the rear-end, 2x10mm pin goes into the hole on the axle, 12mm hex over the top (included in the 3Racing parts) then the wheel and the locknut. And this image hopefully shows why you have to modify the front C-hubs for the knuckle to clear on full-lock: Then you're ready to go: This opens up a huge aftermarket for optional wheels and tyres, especially at 2.2" buggy size. I have some road slicks on order which I will fit to this and update with some pictures. Crucially: there are no clearance issues front or rear, and whilst you have a smidge of added ground-clearance with this setup, the chassis still bottoms-out before the dampers reach full travel, thereby protecting those precious shock towers!

Hi All, With the quarantine stretching on I got ambitious with upgrading my son’s Sand Viper. The kit comes with the brushless ready TBLE-02 S. Reading the forums here it sounded like pairing this with 2s lipo, a steel pinion and a 13.5T sensored brushless was a good route to some fun (thank you!). I acquired a Muchmore Fleta ZX v2 13.5T https://www.amainhobbies.com/muchmore-fleta-zx-v2-13.5t-er-spec-brushless-motor-mmrmr-v2zx135er/p693983 After soldering it all together the ECS starts up flashing red/green which indicates it thinks it’s in sensorless mode. Ok here’s the trouble shooting I’ve tried: 1) Attach the old sport tuned brushed motor: works fine. 2) Attached an old sensorless brushless motor: esc starts up in low voltage warning mode 3) Removed the sensor harness and tried running the Muchmore motor: it gave a small shudder and was clearly getting power than stopped and gave the over load protection warning. (This May have been unwise but I was looking for options) 4) Attached an NiMH battery and tried steps 1-3 plus the original setup with the Muchmore, table-02 and the nimh: same results across the board. I attached a picture of the setup and am happy to take more. It could be my solders are bad (they sure are ugly) but they are very solid, I could lift the car with them. There’s no crossover or short on the solder. And step three above seems to indicate the motor is getting power. I’m happy to chase any ideas or suggestions. Thanks in advance!

For sale unused shocks all but one are new Tamiya 19402709 / Tamiya 54567, 1 set of front and rear black oil cva shocks, suitable for dt-01, dt-02, dt-03, df-02, tt-02B, NIP (new in pack), sealed, fixed piston type £15 inc. UK shipping next up... 1x used but cleaned and un-assembled thundershot / fire dragon / terra scorcher set of front yellow cva oil shocks in great condition, £12 inc. UK shipping next up... Tamiya 84347 CW-01 short shock set ONLY parts for 2 CVA shocks! could also be used for rear of dt-01,dt-02,dt-03 etc comes with soft rear springs, normal pistons and attachment parts £14 inc. UK shipping next up... Tamiya 19402709 / Tamiya 54567, 1 set of rear ONLY white oil cva shocks, suitable for dt-01, dt-02, dt-03, df-02, tt-02B, NIP (new in pack), sealed, fixed piston type no screws, ball connectors inc. this time just shock parts and oil bottle comes with normal dt-02, dt-03 rear springs, ideal for WT-01 if you have alloy shock towers (might need stiff springs though) £12 inc. UK shipping each. 2 sets of these are available next up... Tamiya 84366 wr-02 cva mini shock set in yellow, 2 shocks only, no attachment parts and fixed pistons, no oil bottle can be used also for dt-01, g6-01, gf-01, dt-02, dt-03 etc but you would need longer springs £10 inc. UK shipping Paypal gift please Going on ebay Sunday if no one here wants them

Some pics of my DT-02 with a McAllister modified coupe body. I chose this body to use in place of my Holiday Buggy body for bashing since I don't want to destroy the HB body. The color is Spazstix candy dynamite purple, backed with Spazstix mirror chrome, backed with Spazstix ultimate black backer. Looks like a metallic black cherry. The wheel selection is just goofing around from what wheels I have. I don't have any other bearing mount front wheels and am open for suggestion for a set of offroad wheels / tires to go with this body. With the way I have it now, it looks like it's ready for a tractor pull. I may use @Wooders28 idea and swap the front to hex mount for more wheel options. (Haven't cut the body posts yet because I have another body to fit to this chassis)

DT Challenge 2018 7th October New venue this year …………. Swindon RC Car Club hosting Same Rules as previous years with the DT01 class now open to all DT01 cars (last year was just the Madbull) 20 places now available for the Hotshot gearbox cars …………. check out the rules and more info on the DT02/03 Facebook page

Hope the group mods don't mind me posting this, but after testing by me and a racer i know have decided I am confident enough in my DT02/3 3 deg toe in uprights to offer them for sale. I have opened a Shapeways store called CTE RC (https://www.shapeways.com/shops/cotic-rc) and have put them on there with a few of my other designs. There are fitting instructions on the part links on the store. No one else makes toe in uprights for these chassis which is why i did them. Hopefully some of you might find them useful, or fun, or just a nice colour (There are about 10 colour options). Here's a pic of Andy's cool DT02 and DT03 race cars and my DT03 truggy with them installed. There is a full installation and rundown over on by DT03 Build log The improvements I wanted was to reduce the size and make the uprights dedicated to the metal driveshafts. The kit uprights are bulky and bind on the wishbones. As you can see in this comparison, the new uprights allow about 10mm more suspension travel, which gives more roll capacity and more grip. No one else makes toe in uprights for these chassis which is why i did them. If you race you will find these a big step forward from the kit version. Andy (my tame racer) reports more rear end grip and stability and the ability to get on the throttle earlier out of corners. He was able to dial in more front end grip because the rear was better. Also reported it had a bigger impact on performance in the DT03 on astro than the DT02. Hopefully some of you might find them useful, or fun, or just a nice colour (There are about 10 colour options). If you would like to order they are available as individual left and right items. Left: https://www.shapeways.com/product/DHAWQ2DWJ/tamiya-dt02-3-rear-upright-3-deg-toe-in-lh?optionId=65301051 Right: https://www.shapeways.com/product/FPEB2TSM2/tamiya-dt02-3-rear-upright-3-deg-toe-in-rh?optionId=65300950 Cheers!

Bearings fitted, servo fitted, ansmann clash motor, could supply ESC if needed? Wrong wheels, hex fitment on front. Small tear in rear wing Very light scratching on bottom of chassis,, hardly used.

Related to getting my 3 deg rear uprights, i am interested as to why the 03 is so unloved by DT Challenge racers and other track runners. To me (i am not a racer, but understand technical things) the 03 has longer wheelbase (similar to race buggies) and much better front suspension and steering setup. Same rear suspension as the 02 so even scores there. I have an 03 and although it took a few (enjoyable) months getting a setup on it, it seems like a great handling chassis. Any racers or track runners got any thoughts? More interestingly, are there any parts i could design within the mod class rules that would improve the 03 past the 02?

Need some C-hubs for another grasshopper 2 chassis I'm updating to 4 bar front suspension. Don't really want to buy the entire parts tree just to get c-hubs. Anyone upgraded to aluminium c-hubs on their buggy want to lighten their spares box?

Next project! The massive bulky rear uprights on my dt03 offend me! They are huge to clear the plastic dogbones and with metal driveshafts in they actually foul the lower arms preventing full droop. Aluminium ones are rare and cost a fortune so I thought I would model up some slim uprights myself and get them from shapeways. Seeing as I am on this though, I can do pretty much anything I like so would it be good to add a degree of toe angle maybe? There's already some toe in on the car, but I remember the @super gripper write up bemoaning the lack if toe adjustment. I figure with a 1 deg pair you could either add or subtract some toe in depending on how that affects the car (I have no idea what the effect is by the way!) Would you want more camber link holes? If so, what configuration? Any other features I should add? Let's design the ultimate DT02/3 rear upright!!

I have a Rising Fighter I bought for my kids. It's had a couple of hop ups with my old CVAs and AMPRO rear shock mounts and transmission stabiliser but I have hunkered after a 4 bar front suspension. What can I say? I like tinkering. As much as the AMPRO kit is cool as this is my kids basher I really didn't want to move away from ABS plastic. That and not wanting to cry each time 22 bucks worth of AMPRO wishbone snapped in a big shunt! I also have a load of DT03 front suspension leftover from my upgrades to my Grasshopper3 DT03, and I saw some cool double wishbone mods on grasshoppers on YouTube which got me thinking...... First thing I needed was to make a plate to mount the DT03 central wishbone mount (DT03 part C2). I used some 3mm aluminium and the Rising Fighter parts as a template for holes. Hand made and a bit rough. Holes in the DT03 part are 20mm lateral and 21mm longitudinal. I drilled 4mm holes to give me some wiggle room then some 12mm m3 machine screws and nuts to secure I bought a pair of DT02/3 wishbone sprues Part No 10004254 on eBay for £6. Mount them reversed to clear everything. I used screw pins to mount them but 48.5mm shafts would also work. You need to open out the holes in the central mounting with a 3.1mm drill. They don't have a pivoting shaft on the DT03 so are a tight fit otherwise. I used the DT03 c-hubs (part B1) and uprights as I upgraded my DT03 to GPM metal c-hubs and blitzer uprights for truck wheels so I had them spare. The Rising Fighter uprights would also work but you need the c-hubs. I mounted the 64mm eye to eye CVA shocks in the outer position. For the top arms I used part 5 from the DT03 wishbone sprue Into the end of this I threaded a ball screw from the CVA shock kit I then lined up the part with the top of the chassis, backed up against the stiffening rib on the front suspension mount I used the hole in the part as a template for a 2.5mm drill to put a hole in the tub. I used m3 x 15 self tappers as they were spare but 12mm would work. I then drilled a second hole through part and tub and installed a second self tapper. The top arms and steering arms were all made using the DT02 turnbuckle set. I mistakenly bought this for my DT03 but the steering turnbuckles didn't fit. They are perfect here. All the longer steering arms and top arms can just as easily be made using M3 threaded bar and the tamiya ball ends and ball connectors. And finished. Really good geometry. No bump steer here Bit of fun with some spares really. If you add up the cost of parts all together I am not sure I makes sense but it works REALLY well. Maybe one for you GH2 ReRe buyers? Hope you like. Cheers!

Not sure this qualifies for Build or Design Thread. After watching The Grand Tour's VW Beach Buggies, i've decided to make a similar replica of Richard's modified Beach Buggy :-) Here's where I am starting with a Holiday Buggy on a DT-02, not going to make too scale. Just some modification that makes it looks a bit scale -ish.. list of things done so far... 1) full lights 2) Animated Driver, head and arms on steering wheel 3) roll-cage. similar ?

Hi Guys, I am looking at getting a buggy to build once I have completed the CC01 that is currently on its way to me. I need help with making the right choice. So I am asking for advice from all the awesome guys on these forums. I'm looking at the three chassis below, 1. Grasshopper 2. Holiday buggy or any of the other DT02 Chassis 3. Racing Fighter or any of the other DT03 Chassis Any advice would be greatly appreciated. If you guys have other options for buggies, I would like to know that too. Thanks guys.

Hey guys, Im a new member, new to the RC Car scene, I have always been interested in RC models, and I always liked the Tamiya Dark Impact and HPI Savage 4x4. The missus's dad bought himself a Holiday Buggy for Christmas, (he's a old RC racer and used to compete) and so the missus bought me a Tamiya DT02 Holiday Buggy for Christmas as something different and up my street ( Im a Mechanical Engineer by trade and have numerous Land Rovers Motorbikes etc haha) So, I spent Christmas day building the buggy, dead pleased with it - very quickly came to realized I needed the proper Tamiya Screwdrivers lol. Only I didn't have any of the radio gear so have had to wait for that to arrive ha. Ran the car a few times with the Father in laws to discover the out of the Box 380 motor was a bit slow compared to his GT tuned one haha. So, so far The car has got a Flysky 2.4Ghz system, a Overlander 3300Mah Nimh battery and a HK servo. I have also purchased some oil dampers, and have since discovered the springs are a bit stiff ha. Have purchased a 3racing ball bearing set and also some drive-shafts, now herein lies the problem. These are the drive-shafts and cups Ive ordered, the drive-shafts fit the standard cups fine, however the cups that I have ordered are too small, I have ordered the same cups that were quoted on TheRCRacer article. Sorry for the large first post, but thought you guys might like to know the story ha. heres some photos; Regards Matt

For sale :- NIP Tamiya K block tyres. Front and Rears. 54185 & 54186 £15 plus £3.90 second class recorded delivery UK.

Hi I need som help with picking right motor and pinion, part numbers will be helpfull. I currently own a Super Fighter With DT-02 chassis, i've mounted ball bearings all over, and fitted with a RS540 Sport tuned. I want more speed I know that it's not recommended with a larger motor than the sport tuned, but in different threads in this forum I can see that it works anyway.. I would like to have a Tamiya motor, i like to use original parts all over. Of all the different motors from Tamiya, the super Stock series, GT tuned, Torque tuned and so on, wich one should i use, and with wich pinion? As you can see, im new to this, started this hobby couple of months ago, and DT 02 is my entry kit, after doing that kit i while, i am gonna upgrade to a more pro chassis. Thankfull for answers! (sorry if my English is bad..)

I only have a few DT02 chassis covers left ....... they are made to fit the 2010 Holiday Buggy, 2011 Sand Rover, Street Rover and Nissan Titan. Now the weather has gone all rubbish you can safely run your DT02 in all winter muck Usual price of £6 each plus P&P at cost.

So, after a great time at the DT02 Challenge held at SHRCCC on 28th September, its time for me and William to get into racing at our local club (TORCH). We've already been down once and ran our (at that time stock) Holiday Buggy round the track a few times. Since then I've acquired a rolling chassis Sand Viper and also an additional Sand Viper body shell and wing. At the moment I'm in the process of converting the Holiday Buggy into a Sand Viper using the additional shell I got, plus some spares ordered online. I'm also turning the rolling chassis into a runner for me to use. Here's where I'm up to so far: William's car: - Removed the 540 Sport Tuned motor and replaced with a silver can 540 - this was at William's request as he was a bit overwhelmed with the speed of the ST motor at the DT02 event - Replaced the HB shell mountings for the Sand Viper mountings Still to do: - Replace the HB wheels and tyres for more suitable ones (Super Gripper has provided links for these, Rob from TORCH has also been very helpful in this respect) - Trim the body shell so it fits around the Carson front shock tower brace For now I think that will suffice for William...I want his skill level to rise so it is equal to the performance of the car before doing anything else. I think once William progresses much beyond this setup I'll buy him a Sand Viper so that we can keep the HB for fun times - JWeston made this recommendation to me a week or so back and now I'm starting to realise the level of hop-ups that will be necessary to make any DT02 competitive I can see his logic. My car: - I've rebuilt the gear box using new A-tree parts as the original had seen some action and a couple of the screw holes used to mount it onto the chassis where shattered. Nice surprise when I opened this up to see it already has the ball diff hop up fitted - I've put new bearings in as part of the gearbox rebuild - don't think this was strictly necessary but as I had some spares hanging around I figured I might as well whilst the whole thing was in bits - I picked some white Sand Viper wheels up from Smitchos at the DT02 event - the rears are on and fitted with some cheap Pro-Line RED tyres I bought (£2 so seemed a bargain!). The rears are fitted, just need to swap the fronts over - Installed the 540 Sport Tuned motor - Replaced the bearings for the rear wheels - the rear left wheel seemed to be binding and wasn't spinning freely - all sorted now Still to do: - Fit electrics. I've bought a TEU-105 ESC, an Etronix Pulse Transmitter/ Receiver, and a Acoms AS17 Servo that all need to be fitted - Fit same wheels/ tyres as will be fitted to William's car Lee (Super Gripper) has given me an extensive shopping list of items needed to properly prep the cars so they're competitive at TORCH...I'm looking forward to working my way through that list as our skill levels increase and we start to feel limited by not having these items in place. I will put a photo up of the two SV's once they're prepped and ready for a blast around TORCH this coming Sunday afternoon

Hi all, Just finished installing the hop ups to make my previously stock HB2010 eligible for next weekend's DT02 challenge event. We took the newly tuned HB out for a spin yesterday and was impressed by the massive increase in speed that the new motor and full bearings have given the buggy. We've also been down to the TORCH track last Sunday afternoon for a blast round the track there - great fun and should be even better now we've got the 540 motor in there. However, the poor HB body shell is already starting to look a little battle scarred...I lost one of the headlights yesterday as a result of a head-on smash (fortunately the red plastic seems to react postively to super glue and the shattered plastic is now back in place, for how long remains to be seen!). I've also got cracks around the roof area. This leads me think that the HB shell isn't going to withstand the rigours of weekly racing...plus having been down to TORCH last week we were definately the odd ones out, and of course the body shell, driver figure, etc are all adding weight. So, the aim is to get both my son and I in a position where we both have a car to race - at the moment the Holiday Buggy is our only RC car - we're both total newbies to this hobby. I'm planning to buy a Sand Viper kit to build for myself to race and gradually hop-up over time, plus experiment with camber angles and so on. Initially I was thinking I'll have to buy two sand vipers, however I then realised that HB and Sand Viper are based on the same chassis. A quick google search showed I can buy a Sand Viper body shell and wing online for about £10 which got me thinking - how easy is it to swap out the HB shell for the sand viper shell? I've got a few bits left on the M and D trees that look like mounting points for body shells - are these the ones that I'd use for the Sand Viper shell and wing? What else would I need to change? I'm planning to go back down to TORCH the first Sunday in October and talk to them about entry requirements for their races - I'm assuming I'll also need to change the wheels and tyres for Sand Viper wheels and whatever tyres are permitted in races? If anyone has done this, or can advise feasibility it'd be much appreciated.