Avante, Add The Hop Ups Or Not?

[GTodd]

Well im just waiting for the Avante to arive, to start working on her. Should I add the hop ups to her? I have the Hi Caps and the black negress wheels to put on, but I dont know if I should. im not going to bother with adding the Egress chassis becasue it will turn it into an Egress and I want to keep the beutiful but flawed aluminu suspension. So should I add the Hi Caps and Black wheels ar keep her stocks? I am adding the ball diff set and possi's so she will run a little smoother if I ever take it out for a spin.

[94eg!]

The Avante runs amazingly smooth with the standard drive-shafts and triple diffs. The Hi-Caps are pretty much the same as the standard gold ones, with the addition of a pressure release hole drill into the upper cap. They do require the installation of the provided front shock tower, and that makes it a total pain in the badword to get body on & off. You have to remove the shock tower every time you want to take the upper body off. Not a big deal since the battery installs by swinging the lower cover out of the way, but still a pain. Unless of course you want to butcher the body as recommended in the Egress instructions... I have the same setup on my Vanquish runner, and I gladly remove one lower bolt on the shock tower and loosen the other to get the body off every time. The complete body just looks so nice through the FRP hi-cap shock tower...

Here are some photos with the hi-caps & front FRP shock tower installed for reference. Note how you wouldn't be able to remove the body without removing the shock tower:

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.a...d=1926&id=3

For an Avante, I personally would just keep it stock. But since it's going to be a runner, you may as well run with and without hop-ups just to experience the differences. Of course those hop-ups are expensive and getting more-so by the day. It's all up to you weather or not you want to try them out...

[Lemming]

I've run both Avante's (just sold my last stock one) and have to say that the right hop-ups make it much better to drive

I have the long wheelbase carbon decks (plus prop etc), race steering, ball diffs and centre one way, drive shafts, wheels etc. None of it detracts from the original look (other than wheels and length) so I think it's a good way to go. Stuck with original shocks as I prefer the look personally.

It is just so much fun around a track! Oversteer and understeer are wonderfully controlled and it isn't as easy to break as most people seem to think. Been to Kidderminster several times and abused round the track (including regular jumps and several nasty cartwheels) with no damage. Only broke it at the last Yeovil meet due to a head-on.

As ususal, just my opinion

Steve

[Rabiedmushroom]

Only broke it at the last Yeovil meet due to a head-on.

Did you manage to find your spares to fix that? It was an awkward accident

[Lemming]

Did you manage to find your spares to fix that? It was an awkward accident

No worries on that part. Not looked yet but I have so many spares it should be here somewhere.

It was my fault anyway so I wouldn't worry about it. Teach me to give my Avante flying lessons

Nothing you could do - you stopped as fast as possible, unfortunately I had no air brakes and therefore just kept going

First breakage in 3 years though, so not bad really!

[94eg!]

I had my Vanquish cartwheeling all over the local dirt track recently, and didn't break anything. When I was a kid though, parts fell off that thing like nobody's business. BTW, the car only throws dog-bones (from the rear) when the shocks aren't set to proper length. Too much droop and one came out and cracked the rear plastic hub. Took me a while to find a used spare, but people here were eager to help out...

It's a GREAT car to run. No understeer what-so-ever. Sadly I've never driven my Avante, so I cannot compare...

FYI: Long-wheelbase Egress, Vanquish & 2001 chassis require you drill an extra hole in the original Avante body. You may want to steer clear of those...