Madcap advice and upgrades

[BuggyDad]

Here begineth my Madcap journey... 

This is going one of two ways.

Option 1

It's gonna be a runner. An occasional and fairly gentle runner, probably my shelfiest of runners, but it will run, and probably with enough power to feel like it's stretching its legs a little. I don't intend to break stuff but I would like to make it a proper good one. That'd be great. 

Option 2

This one is just too clean and fancy to be run (much). In which case perhaps I pick up a really well used one and get right under the skin of modding and running that one. That'd also be great. I think I could get a beater fairly easily. 

I don't know which of these options I'll choose because I've only seen this one picture and it could be pretty scratched up underneath although the fresh tyres and shell suggest good things. Although I've never had a shelfer before, it is probably the right direction here if it's really really good, especially since to run it I'd most likely be adding various bits n bobs anyway (diff & body for sure, maybe 3d print some breakables) that it'd lose some faith to its origins, and if I find I fancy heading off down my usual rabbit hole of modding it into a bit of a Frankenmadcap then it'd make more sense to do that to a lesser example. I can't say I will though because I know less of this chassis family than any other I've had, and it's well regarded, and actually I think I'll be a fan of it as it is. 

Anyhow, either way I need to learn some stuff, and I know there's a huge depth of knowledge in TC on this one*. What are the key points I need to know? My limited research so far raises a few areas:

- diff's the obvious one. I think I'll buy a @Muso31 diff which I see are on the 'bay

- but what outdrives go with that? And does it need CVDs? 

- I see metal motor plates are a thing, but are they bling or function in this case? 

- what are the other key weaknesses that people have felt needed addressing? 

- and what else should I know? 

Wheels and body of the incoming Madcap won't be run. I'll get a repro shell. 

*Hey, @Kol__ are you about, buddy?  

[Howards]

That's in good shape. I wouldn't run it because 

- the plastic motor plate will bend

- the diff will slip 

- the rear suspension mounts will crack 

- the front bulkhead and / or brace will snap at the first sign of a frontal impact 

These in their day were tougher than Astutes but still a bit vulnerable where the suspension arms meet their mounts and to gearbox issues. The diff design is stupid.

These used plastic bushings from the factory but this one seems to have hi-cap and the Dyna shocks so guess it will have ball bearings. 

If you wanted to run it you could replace the gearbox with a 201, Super Astute (drop in) or BBX gearbox. There's someone on here who did that with the King Cab which shares Madcap / Astute bits. If you did anything serious with it though you'll break something else. 

[BuggyDad]

3 hours ago, Howards said:

That's in good shape. I wouldn't run it because 

- the plastic motor plate will bend

- the diff will slip 

- the rear suspension mounts will crack 

- the front bulkhead and / or brace will snap at the first sign of a frontal impact 

These in their day were tougher than Astutes but still a bit vulnerable where the suspension arms meet their mounts and to gearbox issues. The diff design is stupid.

These used plastic bushings from the factory but this one seems to have hi-cap and the Dyna shocks so guess it will have ball bearings. 

If you wanted to run it you could replace the gearbox with a 201, Super Astute (drop in) or BBX gearbox. There's someone on here who did that with the King Cab which shares Madcap / Astute bits. If you did anything serious with it though you'll break something else. 

Hey, thanks. That's interesting. A third route I have (and let's be honest I'm quite likely to head that way as well at some point; I've got form!) might be to try to make something that is heavily based on it, aiming for all the same geometry but a deck chassis, visually and geometrically similar suspension and a different gearbox. Similar character, a lot tougher. Madcap Evo... 

However, this is a vastly better buggy than eg the Falcon I went that way on, so I am interested in a route that gets me to a nice vintage (doesn't have to be vintage race correct) gentle runner, if that is what one can reasonably expect to achieve with a Madcap. I believe that the motor plate and diff at least are fixable with @Muso31's parts, in a way which would not harm this lovely model. The other issues I'm not sure but it's sometimes the case that suspension mounts can be braced nicely with CF sheet without any cutting*. So I would like to explore something less drastic. 

It could be that part of that "good vintage runner" route involves leaving this car on the shelf and buying a cosmetically fairly poor one, but that depends on a couple of things:

- is this is true unsullied shelfer? I think I would respect that 100%

- and if not then would I want to make irreversible modifications to run it? 

* see my embryonic Boomerang - pretend the orange bits are CF sheet

 

 

[Kowalski86]

I like option 1, build it and have fun running it. You'll get much more enjoyment out of a runner than something to just glance at every now and then.

[jonboy1]

From what I remember, the chassis is a bit fragile around the front bulkhead, so that would be the first thing to investigate. If it's broken, I think that will decide your plan of action, as a replacement chassis tub will almost certainly be either extremely expensive and/or weak at the same place. I vaguely remember someone on here doing what you were thinking of - a carbon chassis with Madcap front and rear ends, so might be worth a search. Bear in mind though, that the Madcap is to the Astute as the Vanquish is to the Avante, so if you are going to that trouble it might be worth seeing if you can get more Astute parts and build it into a Super Astute hybrid. Along those lines, if you look at the build spec for the Jamie Booth replica here:

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/article.asp?id=94

that used a fair few Madcap parts (I built my own replica to pretty much the same build, you can see it in my showroom) so that might be a cool option.

The main issue with the diff are the housings deforming, from people over tightening the 3 screws joining them, so that would be a first check. Replacements are still around (I have one half if you are interested) as are the inners if you are patient enough! To be honest, I never had mine slip when I ran it as a kid, so if you set it up right, look after it and don't abuse it, I reckon it'll be fine. 

The motor plate from the Astute is a direct replacement for the Madcap plastic one, which is pretty useless as it warps. The Super Astute motor plate is different though, so unless you want to change the whole thing over to the TTC don't get that one. Bear in mind too that the motor housing for the Astute/Madcap/KingCab is different from the Super Astute too and not compatible.

The TopForce cvds are a direct replacement, as are the inner drives.

If you plan on running it, please, please swap those front tyres - they make rocking horse poop look like cans of baked beans!!

Hope some of that helps, keep us updated on progress!!!

[BuggyDad]

11 hours ago, Kowalski86 said:

I like option 1, build it and have fun running it. You'll get much more enjoyment out of a runner than something to just glance at every now and then.

That is my "Plan A", although my version of that has me replacing or reinforcing key breakable parts first, as a minimum. I guess though there's also a fair chance that I decide this one is my shelfer to a sister runner, to be acquired (or possibly created). That option still has to have a runner in it. I won't simply shelf this and that be that for me and the Madcap. 

I'd have been better to acquire and work with a lower value example first, but sometimes we don't get to choose the order of things. 

8 hours ago, jonboy1 said:

From what I remember, the chassis is a bit fragile around the front bulkhead, so that would be the first thing to investigate. If it's broken, I think that will decide your plan of action, as a replacement chassis tub will almost certainly be either extremely expensive and/or weak at the same place. I vaguely remember someone on here doing what you were thinking of - a carbon chassis with Madcap front and rear ends, so might be worth a search. Bear in mind though, that the Madcap is to the Astute as the Vanquish is to the Avante, so if you are going to that trouble it might be worth seeing if you can get more Astute parts and build it into a Super Astute hybrid. Along those lines, if you look at the build spec for the Jamie Booth replica here:

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/article.asp?id=94

that used a fair few Madcap parts (I built my own replica to pretty much the same build, you can see it in my showroom) so that might be a cool option.

The main issue with the diff are the housings deforming, from people over tightening the 3 screws joining them, so that would be a first check. Replacements are still around (I have one half if you are interested) as are the inners if you are patient enough! To be honest, I never had mine slip when I ran it as a kid, so if you set it up right, look after it and don't abuse it, I reckon it'll be fine. 

The motor plate from the Astute is a direct replacement for the Madcap plastic one, which is pretty useless as it warps. The Super Astute motor plate is different though, so unless you want to change the whole thing over to the TTC don't get that one. Bear in mind too that the motor housing for the Astute/Madcap/KingCab is different from the Super Astute too and not compatible.

The TopForce cvds are a direct replacement, as are the inner drives.

If you plan on running it, please, please swap those front tyres - they make rocking horse poop look like cans of baked beans!!

Hope some of that helps, keep us updated on progress!!!

Yes on the chassis tub I'd hate to break it. And I also guess pretty much any Astute parts will be hard to find. It sounds like TTC gearboxes are rare as hen's teeth. But fingers crossed I'll soon have some good scope to make carbon fibre sheet parts. Combining all these points might lean me towards a fair bit of my own making in an effort to end up with two cars - this genuine vintage MadCap and a sleeper fun runner Madcap that's essentially an attempt to make an Astute out of commonly available and homemade parts. 

There's a £100ish somewhat rough Madcap for sale locally. Two actually, same seller. But I'm not around til the bidding ends and I won't have mine til then either, so I'm not sure that helps me any. I'm kinda hoping they don't sell and I can contact him to go have a look at a later date. 

All these points perhaps lead me to a period of consideration and reflection before action on this one.

The Madcap contrasts with my other cars in that I'm not (currently) driven to modify for any reason other than resilience. I want to experience the low short wheelbase snappy driving of this period/family of buggies.

[BuggyDad]

It seems to me that there are some reasonable visual similarities between the BBX gearbox and the TTC one. To design a car with a CF single deck, a BBX gearbox and a front end which seeks to mimic the stock parts in geometry and appearance but adds CF bracing and a little meat here and there, doesn't feel like a huge stretch from what I did with Mohawk and would I think create a car which could pass itself off as a Madcap/Astute quite well at a distance. I digress but that could be a project for next winter. 

[Kol__]

Hey @BuggyDad mate, I'm not around much lately as taking another hiatus from the hobby currently. I am rekindling the love of late a little though. Started buying some bits from Buyee this week, so the fire must be starting up again😂

Re your purchase, nice one mate, welcome to the world of the Madcap!😎 Has it arrived yet?

I would suggest that if the one you have is in good nick, then pick up some used spares such as chassis, shock towers etc., even some arms maybe and run it with those so it doesn't matter about damage (I have loads of spares of all of those in various used states, so just ket me know what you need).

Then once you've experienced running one and having some fun with it, you can put it back together with the original parts for the shelf. As tbh mate, it's not worth doing anything to a Madcap mod wise. Tamiya did it for you, the Super Astute is the ultimate iteration of this platform.

My Madcap mongrel is more Super Astute than anything now and all the better for it as a runner. You could go down a similar road to me. However, I will warn that it's pricey. The 2018 TTC gearbox is the really killer, expensive and rare.

Xtra Speed make some good parts for the Super Astute, and some fit the Madcap - UJ's for example. I have a set of their hardened drive shafts and axles with the pin fit hexes (oh Madcap is circlip and spline) somewhere if you want them.

On 6/12/2024 at 11:29 PM, jonboy1 said:

The TopForce cvds are a direct replacement, as are the inner drives.

Hey @jonboy1 bud,  hope you're well. I don't believe thats correct. The shafts overall are different lengths iirc and the axles are a different design and length so don't fit the hubs. I think I put some comparison pictures of the differences between the two in my Top Force build thread, but can't remember for sure. I don't think the inner drive cups for the gearbox will work either, as they are shorter both in overall length and drive cup depth, but I could be wrong there.

[GTodd]

There's a very few items to get to make it bullet proof.  Jazy rider makes metal front and rear hubs, and the reas suspension mounts. Blitzer beetles rear suspension mounts and hubs work too. You can also get the front suspension mount in metal as well. The rere super astute parts are still on eBay and can be used too.  Lastly the diff. I guarantee 1/10 of the people that comment on the diff had one. I ran a Joel Johnson modified in mine for a decade, no slipping. If it's not slipping now it won't unless you put a hot brushless in it. The king cab had issues due to it's bigger wheels but even that is over exaggerated.

[jonboy1]

22 hours ago, Kol__ said:

Hey @jonboy1 bud,  hope you're well. I don't believe thats correct. The shafts overall are different lengths iirc and the axles are a different design and length so don't fit the hubs. I think I put some comparison pictures of the differences between the two in my Top Force build thread, but can't remember for sure. I don't think the inner drive cups for the gearbox will work either, as they are shorter both in overall length and drive cup depth, but I could be wrong there.

I did forget to add that you need to use 3mm thick bearings in the outer hubs (there is a tamiya part number for these I'll try and dig out) but yes, they do fit:

I have the exact same set up in my Super Astute too

[BuggyDad]

My first Madcap arrived:

This isn't the posh auction one. It's a runner I picked up locally today. It looks OK I think. It's well used but seems generally in reasonable shape, a cracked rear upright but not too much else to worry about I don't think. Anyway, it's meant to be the basis for a project. I will start by stripping it down for a proper clean and compare it against the posh one when that arrives, to identify anything not original, then I'll replace the front shocks, probably the rears too because they look like a bit of a bodge and their springs don't match left to right, and fit new electronics. I'll also buy the @Muso31 diff, although I might try running the original too. Overall I'll look to get a pretty straight up vintage runner going here I think, although a few mod opportunities come to mind: 

• I'm not sure about the dogbones and cups - these look new but they look like they'd pop out a bit easily so I suspect they may not be the right ones, and CVDs should be an option anyway.
• JC Racing do repro arms which probably make sense for a runner, although these ones look OK.
• I think I might be able to make some CF suspension mount bracing, we'll see.
• Maybe look at Bulkhead reinforcement - I think the front could be discretely braced back to the battery section, if they tend to break where the stock bulkhead screws down to the chassis, or if it's the chassis that breaks around there. Not sure about the rear.
• The steering geometry looks nice but the parts are sloppy - I might try to make my own bridge and use 5mm ball joints.
• I might run with different uprights and C-hubs if I feel these are weak - I'd prefer to avoid breakage of old parts
• And most likely I will at least measure for a CF chassis deck (maybe double deck?), even if I don't make that, or research to see if I can find the measurements for the Astute chassis; this could then also become the basis for fitting a modern gearbox but that'd be well beyond the scope of this vintage runner.

It interests me that it's a nice overall design that would've presumably been very heavily compromised in its driving by the undamped shocks (is there meant to be some "friction" in these? Mine sure don't have any!). The expense of a ball diff also runs counter to the cheap shocks.

This one has an old home made metal (steel I think) motor mount plate, which I see no reason not to stick with if it looks accurate enough when I take it apart. This diff feels nice and smooth - I've no idea whether that's a good sign or not. The motor is an old silver can with a Mabuchi sticker on, I wonder whether that's original - it'd be nice if it's only been run with that power.

Anyway, not sure when I'll get into this with summer here and not much RC time, and other projects ahead of it I really should do first without this distraction. We'll see. Certainly nothing much this week, with neither the time nor the brain space for hobbies, just too much work and life stresses going on. 

And so a couple of questions...

1. Does anyone have pictures of classic Madcap breakages, mainly in areas of bulkheads, chassis, suspension mounts, please? I'd like to collect up that kind of information to inform my actions...
2. Does anyone have a CAD drawing of the Astute chassis or key measurements or anything else useful which would help me create a drawing of it? Ditto the shock towers?

[naturbo2000]

Most importantly, read to @kontemax's excellent Astute guide. https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=116410&id=24

The bulkheads split where they meet the chassis on the underside. The square section with 4 bolts stays on the chassis. The front comes away in line with the front edge of the chassis.

The rear arm pivot blocks split.  You can run longer machine bolts and add nuts to strengthen them, but I still have them fail,  probably due to old plastics. Can replace with Astute versions (Super Astute was rere'd in 2018), or alloy.

Ball diff is made of cheese. It's probably already failed on the runner.  Might be OK on the auction car.

Hubs are pretty reliable all round. I've broken rear ones at the upper arm mount, mostly due to using short balljoints for adjustable upper arms. 

@Kol__ and I have basically upgraded our Madcaps to beyond Super Astute spec. You can find them in the Builds section of the forum,  or I can dig out links if you want.

My most recent run at RHR caused me to break a Super Astute front bulkhead in a new way - one of the lugs for attaching the shock mount broke off. My fault for not using a suitable washer to spread the load. 

[BuggyDad]

3 hours ago, naturbo2000 said:

Most importantly, read to @kontemax's excellent Astute guide. https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=116410&id=24

The bulkheads split where they meet the chassis on the underside. The square section with 4 bolts stays on the chassis. The front comes away in line with the front edge of the chassis.

Hey, thanks, that's great info. An accompanying @kontemax thread even includes photos of multiple broken front bulkheads. 

Have you replaced the whole Madcap front bulkhead section with Super Astute parts? 

Max is solving the problem on an Astute (unbraced bulkhead) and he seems happy with either the SA solution (which is close to Astute plus the G4 brace), or to use Madcap bulkhead and Madcap brace but with a mod to stand that brace down to the Astute deck. He does also mention that using the Madcap bulkhead in place of the Astute one (so as I read it unbraced) is a marginal improvement on OG Astute (but only M as rginal and irrelevant here anyway). Implied therefore is that he seems happy with the Madcap design but in the Astute use case the SA parts are better because they fit the chassis right. 

Or if the SA solution is much better than Madcap even on a Madcap chassis, then it looks like one could in theory fit a whole SA front end, but SA parts are like rocking horse poo so I suspect that's off the table. 

I think here we have a different situation though. He's solving an Astute problem and regards the Madcap as OK in this regard (I think?), yet nowadays people are saying the Madcap is weak here. So reading between the lines a bit, I think age probably contributes - maybe the Madcap parts here would be OK in a stock runner with newer plastics but with the old plastics etc it's a likely failure point.

So, I think my options are either to find 2018 SA parts (looks difficult) or modify. I could brace the brace (!) back to the battery area easily, but I might be skirting around the real problem - the brittle old plastic at the bulkhead failure point is only supported a little more by doing this. Maybe I need to look at adding material right down low at the failure point. 

Or have I got this completely wrong and SA G4 will in fact fit onto the Madcap Bulkhead, under the Madcap brace? I suspect not, but designing something that would could be a possibility. 

3 hours ago, naturbo2000 said:

The rear arm pivot blocks split.  You can run longer machine bolts and add nuts to strengthen them, but I still have them fail,  probably due to old plastics. Can replace with Astute versions (Super Astute was rere'd in 2018), or alloy.

At the back I see Xtra Speed make some alloy mounts, which are probably a wise addition especially on a CF deck. On a plastic Madcap chassis though I will see if I can supplement them with a left to right brace to help the plastic chassis out a bit.fingers crossed I can find a way through from pivot pin to pivot pin but if not I might be able to add a plate beneath. 

[naturbo2000]

I've gone with a carbon fibre SA chassis. Given the minor 1-2mm gap present if you fit a Madcap bulkhead to a SA chassis, I think the reverse swap is not possible, but I've not tried it.

I used to split Madcap bulkheads _and_ chassis back in the 90s. It's all relative,  but generally none of the bulkheads are great. SA bulkhead and brace is about as good as it gets.

Btw look at any ebay Madcap and around 50% have front-to-back splits near the chassis bulk head bolts. Probably mostly due to over tightening the bolts. 

Pargu does an alloy one,  but is out of stock at the moment.  I haven't tried one,  but am keen to do so.

For the rear end, a brace across the suspension pins is probably sufficient. Note that the SA already uses this solution. 

[naturbo2000]

Actually,  looking at page 2 of my Build thread, the Madcap bulkhead fit better on my SA chassis than I thought it did. The SA bulkhead on a Madcap is likely possible,  with a couple of caveats:

1) You get a slight wheelbase difference. Kontemax's diagrams show this.

2) you can't fit a Madcap bumper to a SA bulkhead (without cutting it down). I haven't tried cutting the only one I have.  Astute bumpers are absurdly unobtainable...

3) a Madcap brace wouldn't fit the SA bulkhead as the front central screw hole doesn't exist. 

[bavee]

I fitted @Muso31 geardiff in my Madcap, it is a drop-in replacement. At the time he also offered the metal motor mount on the bay.

I also adjusted the steering arrangement.

Other than that my Madcap is standard. And if you ask me that is just fine for a light runner.

 

[BuggyDad]

16 hours ago, naturbo2000 said:

my Build thread

Your build thread is going to be very helpful. Thank you. 

I hope at some point to make a CF chassis to the SA pattern. Whether that will precipitate a whole car build out of new/repro/homemade parts is a possibility, or just as a drop in part mainly to modify my runner Madcap for battery type/position and a little more resilience, I'm not sure. We will see how/whether/when I build up the CNC capability and where that takes me. I have the equipment now, but not really the know-how or the final prep of it. 

I am interested both in putting together a fairly simple "light runner" Madcap, but also in this idea of a homebrew astute, ie deals with both resilience and availability issues, gives me a design job, but remains geometrically pretty faithful to the Astute family, rather than just dressing up my own buggy in an Astute/Madcap body. I'm interested to see if I could achieve a front bulkhead area that's stronger using some CF alongside the 3d printing. 

17 hours ago, naturbo2000 said:

Pargu does an alloy one,  but is out of stock at the moment.  I haven't tried one,  but am keen to do so.

Alloy bulkhead brace is that?

15 minutes ago, bavee said:

I fitted @Muso31 geardiff in my Madcap, it is a drop-in replacement. At the time he also offered the metal motor mount on the bay.

I also adjusted the steering arrangement.

Other than that my Madcap is standard. And if you ask me that is just fine for a light runner.

Yes I intend to buy both diff and probably motor plate too, even though I do have a homemade one. 

Interested to know what you did to the steering? I was looking at the Xtra speed bell cranks and thinking they'd do nicely. My old Madcap coat hanger setup is sloppy. 

[bavee]

1 hour ago, BuggyDad said:

Interested to know what you did to the steering? I was looking at the Xtra speed bell cranks and thinking they'd do nicely. My old Madcap coat hanger setup is sloppy. 

I changed from steering rods to turnbuckles:

Made a huge difference.

Owww. I now see I have the SA shocks on  it too...

I dare to drive it as is because I have a load of spares:

From when I stumbled on a Madcap box wit some content missing (used by a shopkeeper to source parts...).

[naturbo2000]

I originally did the same as Bavee and drilled out the steering bellcranks for ball adjustors and turnbuckles. Now I'm running the Xtra Speed setup. It's pretty good, possibly with some shimming (I can't remember).

Pargu bulkhead is a whole bulkhead, no brace needed. 

[BuggyDad]

1 hour ago, bavee said:

I changed from steering rods to turnbuckles

 

33 minutes ago, naturbo2000 said:

Now I'm running the Xtra Speed setup

I think these and a 3d print could all be solid options on this. 

34 minutes ago, naturbo2000 said:

Pargu bulkhead is a whole bulkhead, no brace needed

Ooh now that's a thing. Pricey but it's where you probably want some weight and is relatively difficult to make a strong one another way. So may actually be worth it. I wonder if they'll come back in stock? 

[Kol__]

On 6/15/2024 at 8:10 PM, jonboy1 said:

I did forget to add that you need to use 3mm thick bearings in the outer hubs (there is a tamiya part number for these I'll try and dig out) but yes, they do fit:

I have the exact same set up in my Super Astute too

Ah yes, using the 3mm bearing could help with both the extra length of the TF UJ shaft and the axle, without it you can't get the far enough through to get the 2x10mm hex pin into the axle. However, it seems from @Juhunio's thread that even with the 3mm bearing there are clearance issues at the drive cup end. Running without a rubber o-ring or foam insert in the drive cups wouldn't hurt though I reckon 

1 hour ago, BuggyDad said:

Ooh now that's a thing. Pricey but it's where you probably want some weight and is relatively difficult to make a strong one another way. So may actually be worth it. I wonder if they'll come back in stock? 

Indeed it does look pretty decent and you're right a bit more weight over the front end could be a good thing. It would be interesting to know how much it weighs.

For my Madcap/Astute mongrel I'm running the Madcap bulk head and front bumper, fitted to an original FRP Astute deck, with the Super Astute steering (now upgraded to alloy) - which was tricky to set up with the Madcap cap bulk head due to clearance issues. The Madcap bulk head brace doesn't work with the SA steering, so I plan to make a custom brace out of 3mm ally sheet to better support the front end.

4 hours ago, BuggyDad said:

Interested to know what you did to the steering? I was looking at the Xtra speed bell cranks and thinking they'd do nicely. My old Madcap coat hanger setup is sloppy.

Xtra Speed do them for the Super Astute, nothing that fits the Madcap though I believe.

[naturbo2000]

6 hours ago, BuggyDad said:

 

I think these and a 3d print could all be solid options on this. 

Ooh now that's a thing. Pricey but it's where you probably want some weight and is relatively difficult to make a strong one another way. So may actually be worth it. I wonder if they'll come back in stock? 

I've dropped him a message. He said he'd get back with an update, so we'll see. 

[BuggyDad]

Well my auction buys still haven't arrived. Fingers crossed they might turn up this week.

I have noticed there seem to be quite a few Madcaps and parts on ebay at the moment. I haven't bought anything but some things floated by last week that were worth considering for sure.

Anyway, I still haven't quite decided what to do yet. I don't intend just to fit-break-replace vintage parts on my runner Madcap. Rather I'd prefer to solve key failure points and/or break only commonly available or homemade parts. There's risk, for sure, but let's try to head off the main ones at the pass. 

It'll have the Muso parts for sure. They're not cheap, of course, but they're functionally worth it and should last forever. I'm interested in the Pargu rear suspension mounts too. Most likely I'll design rear uprights and front c-hubs for (commercial) 3d printing, and I don't yet know what I'll do ref the front Bulkhead area. I do think a homemade solution might dribble out if I squeeze my brain hard enough. I've been working on the same area on Mohawk, with some new ideas (more CF meccano, less printing) that don't yet all fit together but have potential. I will also model a CF Super Astute chassis, plus the other Astute CF parts, I just need to find the key dimensions (and the time, it's a bit far down the list). 

[Jason1145]

Interesting your buys haven’t been delivered yet, the auction finished Tuesday 11th June about 5-6pm… when did you pay their invoice  ( Did you set auto pay or wait for invoice then pay manually?)

I disabled their auto pay and had to wait for their invoice to be emailed, it arrived next day at 10am.

Once I’d regained consciousness I ended up paying later that day, poor poor wallet

So, paid on 12th, it was dispatched on 19th and I got it on 20th.

I had chased them up in the interim and was told they were dispatched in the order of payments received, so if paid quickly they would be posted earlier.

I’m saving my 8 purchases as I’m too overwhelmed with them, giddy ain’t the word to describe how I looked through all 8 purchases 🥳

I’ve noticed lots of Madcaps on EBay too, yours looks right up there for cleanliness though, looking forward to its appearance on this thread, the poor thing doesn’t know what’s waiting for it!

[BuggyDad]

27 minutes ago, Jason1145 said:

Interesting your buys haven’t been delivered yet, the auction finished Tuesday 11th June about 5-6pm… when did you pay their invoice  ( Did you set auto pay or wait for invoice then pay manually?)

I disabled their auto pay and had to wait for their invoice to be emailed, it arrived next day at 10am.

Once I’d regained consciousness I ended up paying later that day, poor poor wallet

So, paid on 12th, it was dispatched on 19th and I got it on 20th.

I had chased them up in the interim and was told they were dispatched in the order of payments received, so if paid quickly they would be posted earlier.

I’m saving my 8 purchases as I’m too overwhelmed with them, giddy ain’t the word to describe how I looked through all 8 purchases 🥳

To be fair* I left the place it's getting sent to on the morning yours arrived and won't be back there til Sunday, so fingers crossed it's there then. 

8 models?! Crikey. I hadn't appreciated that but I see now in the auction thread. Interested to know whether they are living up to expectations/hopes? 

33 minutes ago, Jason1145 said:

I’ve noticed lots of Madcaps on EBay too, yours looks right up there for cleanliness though, looking forward to its appearance on this thread, the poor thing doesn’t know what’s waiting for it!

Uniquely for me, it's safe. I  have pretty much reached the conclusion that it would be sacrilege to run it, and I've bought a scruffy runner one, so I intend to run that instead, fairly lightly, with a few little resilience mods. And then what I think I will most likely do is work away at creating a sort of 2024 Astute. By which I mean I'd like to make a car that's faithful to the Astute/SA in its key geometries but doesn't use any rare parts. So I'd make CF parts to the Astute patterns and substitute in or design/print everything else. Likely use a BBX gearbox. And then I can rag that around to my heart's content.

For the auction one I shall dress in white gloves and a dicky bow just to get it out of the box.

*sorry, I hate that phrase, it just seems appropriate here