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About 2 weeks ago the existence of RC cars spontaneously popped into my head. I'm in my late 40s and haven't owned or played with an RC car in over 3 decades, but that spontaneous thought soon found me a few hundred quid lighter and waiting on delivery of this beauty:

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Assembly was a joy and I am so glad I was true to the hobby as it was when I was a kid and purchased a kit rather than something ready to run.

I've had the pumpkin almost 2 weeks now and I've made a few upgrades and mods already:

  • CVA II shocks back and front, with the harder springs on the front.
  • A brace to hold the transmission in place, similar to the AmPro one but from a more local source.
  • Fitted a replacement switch to the ESC that came with the kit so it actually mounts on the chassis.
  • Fashioned a front suspension brace out of leftover parts from the CVA II kit and a length of threaded rod cut to fit and some of the rubber tubing, very pleased with how this turned out.

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So far I've experienced:

  • Complete loss of steering on first run due to the servo screw not being tight enough...oops!
  • Loss of power due to the grub screw on the motor not being tight enough... oops again! (this one was not so much fun as I unnecessarily pulled the transmission apart to fix)
  • Forgetting to put one of the back wheels on properly and having it fall off while running, thinking I had lost the axle pin and looking for it for 30 mins in an alley only to find it back at home on my table...
  • Snapped one of the mounts for the front bumper on the body, fixed with superglue and seems to be holding fast
  • Snapped two of the body mounts, as expected based on everything I've read or seen.
  • Destroyed one of the front headlamps, not just cracked, but somehow completely smashed into tiny pieces.
  • Body is severely scrapped and scuffed and looks like a kid has had it for a year rather than a middle aged guy has had it for less than two weeks!

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So yeah, lots of fun! and today the nice post-lady brought me replacement aluminium body mounts, foam tyre inserts and a sport tuned motor, so more adventures ahead!

I have a chrome body on the way, and plan to get some chrome wheels so it can look good on the shelf and swap out to the trashed one for bashing. I'd love to get a custom paint job, but that is a project for another day.

I was originally planning on putting a brace on the rear suspension too, but it didn't seem necessary to me... any thoughts on that? Any other upgrade suggestions?

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Welcome to the forum! Lots of fun headed your way.

I would really recommend fitting ball bearings.

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2 minutes ago, OoALEJOoO said:

Welcome to the forum! Lots of fun headed your way.

I would really recommend fitting ball bearings.

Hi and thank you. I forgot to mention in my post, I fitted ball bearings during assembly.

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Looks like I over tightened the grub screw to compensate for my previous mistake, the thread is damaged on the pinion gear and the screw won't tighten, just slips. Time to wait for that nice post lady to bring me a new one :(

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Looks great and welcome to TC 👏

It’s great seeing new members and Pumpkins are always welcome 👍

What spring set did you put on the front CVA’s?

Has the front stopped sagging now? 
 

 

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I put the stiff springs that came with the CVAs, feels better but still room for improvement.

That reminds me, I had to put some rubber sleeving on the front shocks to stop the wheels rubbing on the body, the instructions said nothing about that.

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Hi, there’s some good mods to check out, by this guy: 

 

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