pb mini mustang

[kaiser]

anyone ever see one of these ?

it has to be one of the worst designed kits i have ever seen.

we had one in the hobby shop i worked at in high school.

it was on the shelf for years, so the boss told me to build it and put it on display.

so i did just that. what a peice of junk, the palstic was so flimsy, nothing lined up right, i had to fit many of the parts by hand with a file.

the only cool thing about it was the two speed gear box, way ahead of it's time.it made the car way too fast, faster than it's chassis could handle.

we finally sold it, only for it to come back that same day broken.

[Incredible_Serious]

kaiser,

Many people, myself included, have enjoyed these immensely. I agree some of the plastics seem flimsy (instructions do tell you to boil them first), and some of the build quality needed more finishing than most. British engineering I guess...[]

I don't have memories of breakages though. If you build them with bearings throughout, they run forever and take anything. I used to run mine with a Technigold and it handled it no sweat.

I have a handfull of these now as new builts and runners, come down to Australia some time and I'll show you how much fun they can be! []

Alex

[kaiser]

i had never seen one in the us. my boss didn't even know where the kit came from. it didn't have an instruction manual.

i don't mean to offened any of my overseas comrades by bashing this car, i just thought it was really cheesy.

i do wish i knew about the boiling of the parts though, that might have made a difference.but you would have to admit, compared to tamiya, kyosho, losi and associated (the brands i owned at the time) the pb mini mustang is not as well made.

it's really funny how some cars made it to every country and other like these never made it to the us in large numbers.

[WillyChang]

I made soup when building mine too... []

Only thing WORSE than cheesy plastic would be, actually MAKING THE DOGBONES out of the SAME PLASTIC. [:0]

[Dirt Racer]

quote:Originally posted by kaiser

anyone ever see one of these ?

it has to be one of the worst designed kits i have ever seen.

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Worst Designed?...[xx(][xx(][xx(]...LOL...

Wierd you should say that when some 4WD pro's Rated a recent Kyosho Touring car which had all its designs based on the same car you Quoted "Worst Designed".

I agree theres a lot of plastic on it but what do you expect from an 80's car?... RC didnt have any flash material such as titanium or use of alloy screws or outdrives etc etc.

http://eraprise.com/4wdrcbb/viewtopic.php?t=179&start=0

Theres the link to the 4wd forum i was talking about. Follow that thread to the letter and you'll see how the Design of the Mini Mustang is rated or lets say it never got slagged off..

If i had my way i would Have them remake the Mini Mustang but with better materials with some redesigned wishbone layout as for the transmission i wouldnt touch it...

[kaiser]

ok, mabey i should retract my "worst desinged" statment. it was an ok design, but the materials are awfull. IMHO the kyosho optima mids of the same erea are much better cars.

and like i said before, compare the mini mustang to cars that were available in the states at the time, the quality just isn't there.

then again i only have experience with this one kit and many of you have had many of these. that was the first and last pb car that i ever saw, and it was 15yrs ago.

[Incredible_Serious]

Hey Dirt_Racer... you need a Maxima... same transmission, but more normal style arms and hubs..... and alloy drive shafts too!!!

I have heaps of this stuff now... anyone need any? lol...

Alex

[Dirt Racer]

quote:Originally posted by Incredible_Serious

Hey Dirt_Racer... you need a Maxima... same transmission, but more normal style arms and hubs..... and alloy drive shafts too!!!

I have heaps of this stuff now... anyone need any? lol...

Alex

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OK you got my attention, im listening [] What you got on offer?

[terry.sc]

quote:Originally posted by kaiser

anyone ever see one of these ?

it has to be one of the worst designed kits i have ever seen.

we had one in the hobby shop i worked at in high school.

it was on the shelf for years, so the boss told me to build it and put it on display.

so i did just that. what a peice of junk, the palstic was so flimsy, nothing lined up right, i had to fit many of the parts by hand with a file.

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Typical British designed car at the time. It was developed at the same time as the Schumacher CAT, but Schumacher and PB fell out over the transmission design, and the PB proved the much more efficient. The PB was the better car straight out of the box and required a lot less fitting than the CAT. Anyone remember shredding your fingers trying to assemble the CAT plastic UJs? You had to warm them up first so they would flex enough to pop together without breaking them, then the CAT anti roll bar was a straight piece of wire and a bending diagram, you even had to solder the balls onto the ends of the wire.

Both cars were designed for 4wd racing, and at the time (1985) to be competitive Tamiyas Hotshot needed everything throwing away apart from the gearboxes and suspension, and Kyosho had the Progress or base model chain drive Optima which needed RC10 shocks and new shock mounts added as a start. The Mustang came out first and just blew away the opposition. The CAT could not compete against the Mustang until Schumacher managed to tame the handling. Schumacher gained the upper hand as they put a lot more effort into developing their car to be competitive, PB tended to concentrate on their core market of 1/8th scale.

[Dirt Racer]

quote:

Anyone remember shredding your fingers trying to assemble the CAT plastic UJs? You had to warm them up first so they would flex enough to pop together without breaking them, then the CAT anti roll bar was a straight piece of wire and a bending diagram, you even had to solder the balls onto the ends of the wire.

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Dude i hated assembling the cat...With the shredding the fingers bits..OMG...LOL....[]ouch[]ouch[] I ended up throwing up a fit and throwing the whole box onto the wall out of frustration...Took me weeks to finish it off since i had to order those darned UJ's..Yup and it was dreadful to drive out of the box..[V][V][V]

[bender]

In Australia, the Cat came out first (September 86) and was an immediate hit - winning our off road Nationals in it's first meeting.

The Mini Mustang was relaesed early 87 and finished 2nd at it's debut Aussie Nationals that year.

Yes the quality wasn't really good (although the car was reliable) but as was mentioned, it had a very well designed drivetrain layout - it's a pity the car didnt come with ball diffs though.

The biggest problem with the car here was that our dusty tracks tended to seize up the fast change battery system !

[Dirt Racer]

quote:Originally posted by bender

The biggest problem with the car here was that our dusty tracks tended to seize up the fast change battery system !

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Hmm, i can remember using that fast battery change system for an enduro race ironically fitted onto a cat, such an ingenious idea saved us seconds per battery pit stop!.

[SJoerD]

You bet I've seen them before - I accidentally just added one to my showroom, not knowing what it was... [:0]

[quincey]

AT LEAST IT'S NOT AS BAD AS THE BAJA CHAMP![!] NOW THATS A BADLY DESIGNED CAR!!(MELTED GEARBOX/BROKEN GEARBOX CASES ANYONE?)

IVE GOT A MAXIMA AND IT GOES A LOT BETTER THAN SOME MODERN 4WD'S IVE DRIVEN YOU JUST HAVE TO RECOGNIZE ITS FAULTS AND PUT UP WITH THEM!AT LEAST IT WILL GO OFF ROAD WITHOUT BREAKING PLUS THERE OLD SO THAT MAKES THEM COOL[8D]