Running all my cars

[TurnipJF]

Let's meet today's runner:

 

M-04L Karmann Ghia

This chassis entered my fleet as a VW Beetle, which I tried to race in our club's M class but could never really get to grips with. I crashed it a lot and the shell took a battering. It sat unused for quite a while when I decided to race an M-03 instead, but eventually got turned into a small stadium truck with TL-01B suspension and an ABC Hobby Nissan Sunny bodyshell. In this form it preformed very well and saw quite a lot of running, until M-04 parts started becoming scarce and expensive. It now sits in semi-retirement, converted back to a normal M-04L, wearing this Karmann Ghia shell. 

Today's run was a gentle affair, cruising around the tarmac and admiring the chrome shining in the sun. It is such a pretty car - no need to run it fast in order to enjoy it. 😀

[JimBear]

@TurnipJF - is it possible to run, aah, sorry cruise the Ghia in this low position? As often, the real examples looks better than the ones in the Tamiyas official photos.

[Re-Bugged]

Low & Slow is the order of the day with a Ghia to absorb all its beauty 👌🏻

[TurnipJF]

14 hours ago, JimBear said:

TurnipJF - is it possible to run, aah, sorry cruise the Ghia in this low position?

Yes it is indeed - the photo shows the car at ride/cruise height. The Ghia shell is quite wide by M-chassis standards, so you can set it really low down and still have space for the front wheels to reach full lock without rubbing the insides of the fenders. 

[ChrisRx718]

Who installed that tarmac road/car park? Nothing as smooth as that around near me! 

I have to use the local tennis / basketball courts whilst the kids are in school to run anything on-road.

Ghia looks great in the sun 

[TurnipJF]

10 hours ago, ChrisRx718 said:

Who installed that tarmac road/car park?

I think it was a local council job. However it gets very little traffic, so has held up nicely. 

[TurnipJF]

Today was a travelling day, so I brought a travel-size RC car with me to drive during the ferry crossing:

 

Toys R Us Silverado

This is the only non-Tamiya in my fleet, and the only one smaller than 1/10 scale, being 1/24 scale or thereabouts. Received from a colleague as a Secret Santa gift, it has been fitted with hobby-grade electronics and sees most of its use indoors delivering treats to our cats.

Today it saw some use in one of the public spaces aboard the ferry, and got its fair share of curious looks and smiles from passengers and crew. It isn't very fast, but is quick and nimble enough to be enjoyable in small spaces. 

Back to Tamiya tomorrow!

[Pylon80]

Driving an RC car aboard a boat!! Now that's something unusual 😅

I can't wait to see what you will be running next.

[JimBear]

18 hours ago, TurnipJF said:

delivering treats to our cats

Delivery truck for cats ... who are the masters in the household? Now we know.

[TurnipJF]

Last night we got in late, so I chose this as my runner of the day (which was actually the middle of the night):

 

CC-02 Land Rover Defender 

This was chosen partly for reasons of neighbourliness as it is a very quiet runner, and partly for reasons of practicality as it has a full functional lighting system ideal for night running, as well as the ability to ignore any bits of debris that I may not notice until it is too late to avoid them.

Running the RBP track was pointless as it was too dark to see the track markers, so I took it on a little run down by the river bank instead. It was fun watching it climb realistically over the terrain, headlights cutting through the darkness and lighting our way, much to the surprise of the local frogs. I tried taking some photos, but all that came out were the bright dots of the lights, so I took some more today in the sunshine. 

[TurnipJF]

Today's runner was also an off-roader, and a very capable one too:

 

G6-01 S.W.A.T. A.P.C.

I am very fond of the G6-01 chassis, but with the rest of my Tamiyas being 1/10 scale, none of the stock body options fit with the rest of the fleet. To get around this, I built it a custom body out of styrene, depicting a 1/10 scale A.P.C. It isn't a scale model of any one particular real-world A.P.C. but it has the same proportions as a German one, the windscreen angle of an American one, the exhaust location of a different American one, the mud guard shape and central driving position of a Russian one, etc. The livery is from a photo I found of an A.P.C. belonging to a S.W.A.T. team in California somewhere.

I had a run with it on the RBP track, and it acquitted itself well for such a big vehicle. The 4WS gives it a tight turning circle, the wider-than-stock GF-01CB suspension arms help keep it from rolling over in corners, the extra set of wheels and tyres provide useful grip, and despite not having a massive top speed, the Torque Tuned motor and relatively low gearing give it quite sprightly acceleration and strong brakes.

When it is not dressed as a S.W.A.T. A.P.C. it moonlights as a racing teapot.

[TurnipJF]

We went back to the buggy shelf for this evening's runner:

 

Grasshopper Black Edition 

A stock build apart from bearings, black ball connectors and black carbon reinforced uprights, this has seen some running in the 380 RBP class, but before that it had quite a long stint on the shelf. I think the Black Edition livery looks really nice, and that this makes for a fine display vehicle, so I prefer to keep it looking tidy. 

It is however a nice little buggy to drive, and I enjoyed today's run with it. It isn't fast by any means, neither is it the best-handling buggy out there, but it feels balanced - the handling is just bad enough to make for a bit of a challenge with the power available, and it looks rather good tootling along on its dayglo yellow wheels.

I made an attempt at the RBP course which I think I might submit for the 380 class. It isn't a stupendous total, but might be worthy of a podium as long as no more than two other people enter. 😁

[Tamiyastef]

On 5/18/2025 at 10:05 PM, TurnipJF said:

Grasshopper Black Edition

Nice! Did you finish with a matte clearcoat? Looks less shiny than a standard one? Or maybe it's just my old eyes  

[TurnipJF]

Today's runner is another Black Edition:

 

Monster Beetle Black Edition 

This is a vehicle with two distinct personalities which depend on how it is dressed.

When wearing the carefully painted hard plastic kit bodyshell bearing its limited edition decal set, it is a highly detailed and great looking car that makes a lovely ornament, but is a delicate and top-heavy runner, prone to tipping and requiring a light touch on the throttle to keep it glossy side up.

However when it is wearing the lightweight Kamtec polycarbonate shell shown in the photo, it becomes a sprightly and stable runner that can be ragged around enthusiastically. It hasn't tipped over once wearing this shell, but if it ever happens, I doubt very much that it would break anything, and if it does, a fresh shell is less than 20 quid.

Under the shell, the chassis is near stock, apart from sealed bearings, a steel pinion, 27t rebuildable motor with 15 degrees of timing advance, MIP ball diff, AmPro sintered steel swing arm reinforcements, Miniature Manufacturing alloy hubs and shocks built a bit shorter than usual to lower the CoG and help the shafts stay put.

This afternoon someone was working on their full-size car outside the council garages where I mark out my RBP track, so today's run saw us revisiting the river bank, with enough daylight left to do so without the need for functional headlights. The ORV chassis is quite a capable off-roader for its age, and it handled the terrain without issue. 

[TurnipJF]

18 minutes ago, Tamiyastef said:

Nice! Did you finish with a matte clearcoat? Looks less shiny than a standard one? Or maybe it's just my old eyes  

Thanks! The matte appearance is a trick of the light. I took that photo at dusk. It looks quite glossy in the sunshine. 🌞

[Grumpy pants]

A quality thread, with a broad range of decent RC getting out there! 

[TurnipJF]

This evening it was the turn of another off-roader to have a run:

 

TL-01 Range Rover Evoque

This rig started life as a Stadium Raider that I built for my wife to drive. We painted the bodyshell together in a custom scheme, and she liked it so much that she wouldn't drive it for fear of damaging it. It was only when I fitted it with the cheap Matrixline Range Rover Evoque shell with a simple two-colour paint job seen in the photo above that she was willing to drive it regularly. 

Mechanically it is stock apart from the Big 3 - bearings, oil shocks and a steel pinion - and a rebuildable 27t motor. Wheels and tyres are cheap EBay specials, the roof rack is a narrowed FTX item and the brush bar is from a CC-01.

It is quite a quick model for an off-roader, not much of a crawler, but well suited to running around the large open grass spaces in the park where we often take our cars. My wife is a faster driver than I am and gets bored going slow, so while I prefer my CC-01 or CC-02 for such outings, this is more to her tastes.

We didn't have much time this evening, so the run consisted of a few laps of the RBP circuit and some running around on the grass. The car ran without issue right up until the end, when the left steering knuckle inexplicably gave way. I'm guessing it must have been cracked before and this evening's run was the last straw?

[TurnipJF]

Today we have two runners, both of which have 4-wheel steering:

 

WR-01 Twin Detonator #1

This beast has been in my fleet for a good while, and was my first foray into the big-wheel truck scene. It was built back when RC Dagger Web was a thing, and my choice of platform was inspired by the rigs I saw there, as were most of the mods I did to it. A pair of metal-geared servos drive symmetrical steering assemblies front and rear, dual ESCs allow MOA mixing and electronic dig at both ends, all the ball studs have been replaced with steel ball nuts on steel screws, all the tie rods and upper arms are adjustable steel items, it has extended shock towers with long-travel alloy piggyback shocks, putty in the diffs, and of course sealed bearings and a pair of steel pinions.

As we know, WR-01s aren't terribly stable at speed, mostly due to the front end having kick-down instead of kick-up, which translates to the kingpins being angled forwards instead of backwards, so the caster goes the wrong way. However this isn't intended as a speed machine, but rather as a highly maneuverable conqueror of rough terrain and in this it succeeds admirably. It has conquered everything from African deserts to British snow and hasn't broken a single part ever. It is also very good at traversing artificial obstacles such as one might find on a teapot racing track. It managed 2nd place in its first teapot racing event dressed as a steam-powered Foden lorry, and gave me a great deal of insight into what makes a successful racing teapot - insight that served me well when putting together my subsequent teapots.

Today's run took place on a grassy area near the river bank, and was an informal affair with no track laid out. I did a bit of fine-tuning of my transmitter settings as I recently transferred it from my DX3C to my DX4S and the steering mixes needed some minor tweaking so that it would crab straight. After that I just drove it around and enjoyed the sight of it in motion. Driving it put me in the mood for some more 4WS action, which brings us to the second runner of the day:

 

M-03 Morris Minor Van

This little bundle of joy consists of an M-03 fitted with an extra steering servo where the MSC servo used to mount back in the day, with the M-03 front arms and hubs swapped to the rear of the chassis and connected to the aforementioned servo. A set of TL-01 front suspension took their place, widening the front track width. I then swapped the motor wires around so that forwards became backwards and vice-versa, fitted a TL-01B bumper to what was now the front of the chassis, and topped it with a Kamtec Morris Minor van body. The rear arches had to be widened of course, so I spliced in a set of box arches from one of Kamtec's Ford Escort shells.

The chassis was put together in this manner so as to make for an extremely nimble and maneuverable rig for use in teapot racing, which is very much like autotesting/motorkhana/autocross, driving a compact obstacle course against the clock, but performed using an RC car carrying or resembling a teapot. Dressed as a teapot, it has proven extremely successful in this application, having won every event that it has entered. With 4WS active, it has a turning circle of about 1.5 times its own length, and can perform precise and controlled 1/2 donuts allowing it to rotate through 180 degrees pretty much on the spot. However with just the front wheels steering, it becomes a capable circuit racer, nice and stable at speed, behaving better than some chassis designed from the outset to be RWD. (M-04, I'm looking at you...)

Today's run was on tarmac, with a few cones set up for me to practice slalom, figure-of-eights, tightly-drifted circles, passing through tight gaps at speed and the like. Some teapot racing layouts make RBP tracks appear wide and spacious by comparison, and with the year's biggest teapot racing event only a few months away in August, it doesn't hurt to keep my hand in.

[Big Jon]

That M03 is magnificent. Do you have more pictures to share?

[TurnipJF]

3 hours ago, Big Jon said:

That M03 is magnificent. Do you have more pictures to share?

Thanks! I do indeed. I'll put some in the thou-shalt-not-type-words thread.

[TurnipJF]

This evening it was the turn of another Black Edition:

 

Grasshopper II Black Edition

I admit I am a bit of a sucker for Tamiya's special colour editions, especially when they are Black Editions, so when the Grasshopper II received the Black Edition treatment, it was inevitable that one would make its way into my fleet eventually. This one has a few small variations from stock, such as spacers in the front shocks to give neutral camber at ride height, black ball connectors and carbon reinforced uprights, Rising Fighter front shock tower reinforcements, internal struts to reinforce the rear towers, extended lower rear shock mounts that move the mounting points backwards, laying the shocks down a bit and stopping the spring from rubbing on the Torque Tuned motor that I fitted along with a steel pinion. The front of the motor/gearbox pod is stabilised by an AmPro brace which prevents the clickety-clack on acceleration and braking. Orange anodised alloy wheel nuts tie in with the decals.

Initial testing found that the oil shocks were of little benefit built stock, so the front ones were drained of most of their oil and now work as gas shocks, better suited to the very light front end. The rear shocks have the softest oil I could find, along with 3-hole pistons drilled out to 3mm per hole. In this configuration, they actually provide damping, rather than just looking pretty. It needs functional damping as the Torque Tuned motor gives it a surprising burst of speed, and it is hard to control with the stock suspension setup.

Today's run was a multi-surface affair with a couple of attempts at the RBP track followed by some hooning around on the grass. The buggy performed faultlessly as expected - there isn't much to go wrong on these simple chassis. 

 

[TurnipJF]

This chassis is currently the one with the greatest number of alternative bodyshells in my fleet:

 

GF-01 Sherp

As with the G6-01, I really like the GF-01 chassis but didn't fancy any of Tamiya's body options for it, so I built my own. The overall proportions of the chassis reminded me of a Sherp, so this is what I used as very loose inspiration for the shell. I built a prototype that turned out well enough for running, then built another for shelf display with carefully-applied paint and all sorts of scale off-road accessories, than a quick-and-dirty one for vigorous use, wrapped in a thick carbon-effect vinyl rather than paint for hardiness, then I got involved in the Splendid Teapot Hillclimb scene and built it a teapot-themed post-apocalyptic pickup bodyshell, then I built it another, with shiny paint and a dragon driving it. It now has 5 shell options, with the one pictured being the first I built.

The chassis is close to stock, with the Big 3, metal hexes, putty in the diffs and a TL-01B bumper, but otherwise built according to the manual. I really like how the chassis performs off-road, remarkably stable and well-behaved for a "comical" design, while being capable of traversing a variety of terrain without getting stuck. The short wheelbase makes for a tight turning circle great for teapot racing, and it is rugged enough for me to be able to lend it to newcomers to the sport, safe in the knowledge that it will still be in working order when they are done with it. It took first place on its first outing as a hill-climbing teapot in the hands of a beginner, and has made it onto the podium in every event since.

Today's run was a river bank and grass affair, purposefully seeking out the rough areas and enjoying the sight of the little Sherp bounding joyfully through them. There is nothing serious whatsoever about this little rig - it is all smiles from beginning to end.  

[Pylon80]

I remember your thread on the Sherp! What a cool home-made shell. I think you used styrene sheets if I recall... I guess that is sturdy enough for the accidental roll overs?

That collection of yours is neverending 😅

[TurnipJF]

15 hours ago, Pylon80 said:

I think you used styrene sheets if I recall... I guess that is sturdy enough for the accidental roll overs?

You are correct. It has rolled down many a hill with no damage so far. A little bit of triangulation and internal bracing goes a long way to improve robustness without adding a lot of weight.

[JimBear]

I searched around and found the SHERP thread, but the photos seems to be gone, sadly:

... and then I went off looking for the real-life version.

Did you do any build threads for the other g6-01 (found a photo of the SWAT and some other red six-wheel body)?