1st car (in a looooong time) - Mad Bull?

[system11]

Hi all, many years ago I used to enjoy thrashing a Kyosho Raider, a friends held-together-with-superglue Frog, and later my Vanquish around the local BMX track (whatever happened to those...?).

I've decided it's time to have a little fun again with RC cars, so I'm looking for a fun lowish cost basher (right word?) to throw around the garden, local park+ride car park, rough scrubland and the like - possibly even the Portland Bill rocky scrub on holiday.

I tried to do as much homework as possible before pestering people for help, things have changed a lot (and yet we're still using 7.2v packs!?), but I've got a suggested car setup in mind. If it looks like a really bad idea, or if there's something far better to pick, please correct me

I'm looking at picking up a Mad Bull, and adding a ball race kit, a 19x2 Orion Dragon motor, some ESC (as advised hopefully by a friendly shopkeeper) that can cope with it, and a good old fashioned twin stick Acoms.

Few questions though - I like cars to be slightly tricked out, even if they're never going to be competitive. Can the shocks be replaced with decent aluminium dampers, are they common sizes or do I need specific parts? Will the gearbox when fitted with bearings cope with the motor? Should I go for something with a few more turns instead, if so which? Will the differential cope, and if not - can it be upgraded at all?

Apologies if this is the wrong place to ask! Opinions welcome! I was about to just find a 2nd hand Frog, but then I read about parts availability being a bit of an issue with older cars, and also read that Mad Bulls are almost indestructable. Looks cool too.

cheers,

james

[fury_dice(2)]

Hi James and welcome to the club []

The Mad Bull is a very sturdy car and would certainly stand a 19-turn motor. The handlings a bit imprecise though (to say the least) and there's not much you can do to 'trick it out'. Ball-races and an ESC are essential - you could probably save some money buy getting these from one of the Far East sellers on ebay (perfect-shops, walawala_com for example) or StellaModels who sponsor this site. As for alloy shocks, as long as the lengths match up I'm sure that you could use any after-market parts that you can find although you'll have to set them pretty soft. Have a look through the cars in the showrooms and/or serach the forums for past threads to get more info.

Other Tamiya cars you might want to look at are the King Blackfoot/Blackfoot Extreme if you're after more of a truck-type-thing or the Gravel Hound if you like the buggies.

Have fun [] David

[system11]

I was going to London tomorrow, but I think I'll go via Stevenage and visit one or both of the shops there, see what they can hook me up with

I couldn't decide between a truck or buggy to be honest, hence looking at the Mad Bull to start with! I visited a small local (Cambridge) model shop to see what they had, times certainly have changed - it used to be that you could go into even a borderline hobby shop and see 10+ different kits to choose from, all I found this time was a Wild Willy 2, the Baja cars (they look identical?) and a slightly more interesting Blackfoot Extreme (is that any good?)

Aside from that, it was RTR city, which takes away a large part of the fun in my opinion, lots of touring cars (ditto), and nitro powered - which are just too fast and noisy for what I wanted.

[BlazingDragon]

quote:Originally posted by system11

I was going to London tomorrow, but I think I'll go via Stevenage and visit one or both of the shops there, see what they can hook me up with

I couldn't decide between a truck or buggy to be honest, hence looking at the Mad Bull to start with!

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I was in a similar situation, and ended up going for a Staduim Blitzer. Just finished building it (have a look in my showroom).

It has similar problems to the Mad Bull (i.e. not many hop-up parts) but the basic chassis and suspension design looks pretty good to me.

I'm sure you'll be happy with whatever you buy []

[fury_dice(2)]

quote:Originally posted by system11

all I found this time was a Wild Willy 2, the Baja cars (they look identical?) and a slightly more interesting Blackfoot Extreme (is that any good?)

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The Baja cars are identical except for the bodies. They're based on the TL01 chassis and so have loads of hopups available from Tamiya and third parties, and they're 4wd. The Blackfoot Extreme is like a 2wd Twin Detonator and has the advantage (in my view) of a hard ABS body. Main disadvantage of both of these IMHO is that the shock towers are integral with the chassis meaning you have to swap the whole thing if you bust one! WW2 is just mad [] you either love 'em or you don't.

Blazingdragon's recommendation on the Stadium Blitzer is a good one (great chassis) and I still think you'd have some fun out of the Gravel Hound. Happy hunting []

[system11]

Went to Time Tunnel today, saw a Mad Bull run - great looking car but I can see what people mean when they refer to the steering and front suspension. After seeing a Twin Detonator run too, I decided that was probably going to be a better bet.

Sitting here next to me is the kit, the radio gear, a nice big 3000mah battery, some iridescent pink/gold paint and some black overcoat, a ballrace set, two Vega Volt 21 turn motors, and two pairs of aluminium dampers (also met. pink).

I'll put pictures on the showroom when it's finished, before I take it to the quarry/sandpit type place locally and thoroughly 'test' it If it's still not quick enough I'll get some 19/18 turn motors and a twin motor ESC. I've been advised to assemble it stock first and bed it in with a few runs before fitting the motors I have now, so that's a little bit in the future

Now to test that paint on some spare clear plastic I have lying around...

[system11]

(for the benefit of anyone searching for info on Mad Bulls)

Well I ended up with a Twin Detonator and a second hand Mad Bull. The MB is hopped up with bearings, and a Vega ESC and 21T motor. Absolutely brilliant little car and the rumours of near indestructability are true - 4 corner cartwheel today for several meters with no breakage.

[BlazingDragon]

quote:Originally posted by system11

(for the benefit of anyone searching for info on Mad Bulls)

Well I ended up with a Twin Detonator and a second hand Mad Bull. The MB is hopped up with bearings, and a Vega ESC and 21T motor. Absolutely brilliant little car and the rumours of near indestructability are true - 4 corner cartwheel today for several meters with no breakage.

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Glad to see you liked it; I'm still looking for a NIB Mad Bull for a sensilbe price (in the USA).

How's your Twin Detontor coming along?

[system11]

quote:Originally posted by BlazingDragon

Glad to see you liked it; I'm still looking for a NIB Mad Bull for a sensilbe price (in the USA).

How's your Twin Detontor coming along?

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I ran it once so far, about 20 yards up the street. Then I took it apart again for more tweaking The paint is currently drying on the wheels, there's a pic just after build 1 in my showroom, and a pic of how the chassis looks now - there's now an ESC and two Peak Dragon 19T motors. They've been dynod so that the normal rotation motor is stock timing, and the reverse motor has been timed to match it for RPM while running backwards. I made a new motor wiring loom because the Tamiya one really isn't long enough. When the paint is dry on the wheels, and some spacers or stronger springs put on the shocks, it should be ready to roll.

Advice for any Twin Det owners looking for shock upgrades - the low friction damper set listed on the back of the manual is a a VERY borderline hopup application. It reduces the height and travel, and under hard acceleration it'll essentially bottom out at the back. Much better (and I will be doing this soon) is to get hold of some of the extended shock mounts, and put a set of 4" on there instead.

It should be pretty fast, I'm measuring just over 23500 RPM at the motors when both running, the motors can be timed up to just under 28000, but of course the torque vanishes there.

While the paint is drying, I'm stripping down a 2nd hand Monster Beetle for a rebuild with bearings and a few better electronics A mod clod is soon to be in the post, and hopefully a Kyosho Optima too. Looks like the bug is back..