My Beloved Vanquish

[94eg!]

This car was a gift for my 14th birthday back in late 1990. I found the add for $99 in the back of Tower Hobbies magazine while sitting in my office (bathroom). This car has ran with many setups over the years. Originally it had a Trinity 427 (16T) in it, but that hot motor made short work of many ceramic resistors with the original MSC. The body was painted with Testor's enamel made for scale models. As you can tell it has had quite a difficult time staying stuck to the Lexan over the years. Though I find the splinters & chips add character more than anything. The wheels & tires are original kit pieces, though they only saw minimal dirt use. The current setup features a very old (indestructible) 80'sTekin Sport ESC, 2400mah Orion stick-pack lipo, Tamiya BZ motor, steel 18T pinion (DF02), Hi-Cap shocks, Hi-Cap Tuning springs, Ball-race steering, Hi-Torque servo saver and Triple ball-diffs. It's 100% vintage parts too (except the motor & battery). She goes quite well and I've even raced it on-road once (last year). I've also managed to clear the "triple" at the local off-road track with it.

I am currently planning a re-do of the body & wheels soon, so I had been thinking of taking some photos of how the car sits now. A few nights ago we had a beautiful Reno desert-sunset, so I grabbed the camera and went to work. Let me know what you think.

[Grastens]

A very nice setting for a car with some cherished memories. Hopefully I can look forward to reminiscing about my original cars when I am older - and still have them!

[smegs]

Are you planning to repaint with lexan paint.

[94eg!]

Uh not that original body. lol

I have a new ***** body for it. That one will be painted with Tamiya PS paints. The design will be based on my original plans as a kid before I actually got the car.

PS5 Black

PS48 Metallic Silver

PS29 Fluro Pink

[Gruntfuggly]

Nice pics - I think the Vanquish is one of Tamiya's more underated cars...

[Tamiya Era]

Finally mate.....

Amazing looking old Vanquish, i can smell the old parts from here....

And thats a great painting plan.

Waiting for results..

Cheers

[Percymon]

Can't wait to see the new shell painted up. Those white lightweight wheels are pretty cheap from HK sellers too.

It might have a lot of palstic int he chassis but its very durable and surprisingly light.

[94eg!]

Yeah, I snatched up a few sets of them from TamiyaUSA when they 1st came out, plus I have an original set of off-white ones NIP. Of course I did also get a set of Fluro-Pink "Avante Black Special" wheels too. Guess which ones I'll be using... Here is a hint, I also have an Acto Power 2WD motor.

[kyosho1]

Is the nose of your Vanquish trapped/fixed under the front shock tower?

[94eg!]

<p>

Is the nose of your Vanquish trapped/fixed under the front shock tower?

Why yes it is sir. Good eye. The Carbon Chassis instructions say to trim the sides of the nose so it will simply pull out (see link below), but I could never bring myself to ruin such a nice detail. The good part is that for typical running, you never need to remove the body anyhow. The battery is inserted from below, and the battery connector is easily reached by lifting the side of the body. Should you need to actually remove the body, it's still easily accomplished by removing one of the lower shock tower screws and barely loosening the other. This allows the tower to pivot up (with the damper still attached) and the body will slip right out. Tamiya's serrated lock-nuts allow screw loosening & tightening without the use of a wrench (screwdriver & fingers only).

http://www.tamiyaclu...attach_id=14080

[Tamiya Era]

me too, didnt trim the front body on my runner as well as on my Shelf Queen. Will look so odd if cut.

and some goes for my Avante1988 & Avante 2001

[kontemax]

You can made a new damper shock tower with some piece of carbon fiber sheet.

A piece similar to Avante 2001, open on top, would be good to have easy mount of the Vanquish body as I did on my Vanquish:

Here the showrooms:

http://www.tamiyaclu...?cid=1530&id=24

http://www.tamiyaclu...cid=1533&sid=24

http://www.tamiyaclu...id=113928&id=24

Max

Edited September 20, 2012 by kontemax

[94eg!]

Very nice. It's always good to have options and show examples.

At some point I did try fitting the vanquish body to my 2001. But in it's stock form, the opening is too narrow. Also I'm completely partial to the look of the hi-cap shock tower. I love the way it bridges over the body and compliments the angle of the dampers.

Your blue vanquish looks amazing btw. Is the color Tamiya PS16? I bet it looks amazing in the sunlight. That "one company" on ebay now sells vanquish wings if you ever wanted to change back.

[kontemax]

I have both wings, original Vanquish and Egress one you can see in the pictures.

Max

[94eg!]

Oops, I missed it in that 1st pic.

[kontemax]

I forgot to say that Vanquish color is Tamiya PS-16.

Max

[Gruntfuggly]

Just noticed a few details on your car - I like the mesh in the vents. Also I see you're using square section springs on the dampers - I used to have some of these but I don't know what I did with them - are they Tamiya?

[kontemax]

Square section coil springs were an Hop Up Option of the Hop Up Option. So if the Hi Cap Dampers were an Hop Up for most cars the square springs where an Hop Up for the Hi Caps Dampers.

Max

[94eg!]

Yes, the fronts are part 53053 and the rears are 53054. They both be found on ebay at the moment. The rears are very expensive these days.

They are good springs, but kinda awkward as far as tuning spring-sets go. They are not really meant to be options. It's kinda like Tamiya recommends a specific spring pair for specific chassis, and there is almost no way to use the other springs on that same chassis. The problem is that typical tuning spring sets should have the softest spring as the longest spring so you can maintain proper ride height for the given rate. In these sets, the shortest spring is ALSO the softest spring. This makes it EXTREMELY difficult to switch between rates or tune on the track since your ride heights jump all over the place each time swap them out. The soft springs make the Vanquish "LOOK" nice & low in the front, but then the spring is nowhere near stiff enough for that ride height. I will say setting up the rear hi-caps on the Vanquish was a complete nightmare unto it's own. Finding enough droop while keeping the dog-bones from binding took a couple days. As it stands, I am nowhere near the kit recommended setup.

Here is a link to the packaging for the "short" springs (the longer ones) so you can see how Tamiya recommends the install. The back of the box shows both front & rear spring recommendation for many different chassis: http://www.tamiyaclu...66393&sid=20749

Oh, and also the long square springs, like any other long springs, do rub the shock body cylinders. But since they are square & sharp-ish, it does make a bit of racket. So it kinda takes away from the smoothness of the hi-caps. Still looks VERY cool/unique.

[94eg!]

- Shimmed Front & rear suspensions.

- Full alignment

- Rebuilt, sanded & shimmed center diff.

- Fresh re-work of electronics.

- Fitted 3800mah Intellect Lipo.

- Fitted new steering tie-rods & ball joints

- Fitted HPI Super RS4 wheels & slicks.

- Fitted new replica body & wing.

- Fitted new front bumper

READY FOR A ROAD TEST!

[matman]

I'm liking what i see & can't wait to see how it runs & what you think about it .

Looks great .

[94eg!]

Had a chance to run it last night with the slicks. It was pretty cool out, so grip was low, but the 4WD was still quick. It's almost insane just how much steering angle these cars have. Especially after the old-school alloy uprights carve their way into the soft ABS C hub. Additionally the center diff keeps the front wheels from fighting the rears in those tight turns, making the car extremely maneuverable. And the lack of a slipper really puts the punch to the ground (thank you LiPo). It's the only 4WD I've seen do donuts on pavement.

Still a great car after all these years. Very different from any 4WD I've driven.

[Percymon]

Man that looks mean with the HPI wheels !

[94eg!]

Got the car out yesterday with ancient pin-spikes in some soft dirt & fluffy grass. It was a blast. I had the locked center in it due to a noisy 25yr old spur on the center diff option. Car was a blast in the dirt with TZ motor and 20T pinion.

On a side note, I had ordered some Avante 2011 parts to rebuild my old center diff. My parts didn't include the new version of the rear propeller joint, so I had to re-use my old one. Interesting note is that you MUST re-use your original pressure plate due to the splined (1988) vs square (2011) hole. Even the spring washers have a slightly different thickness. When I tried to use the 2011 spring washers, the whole thing was completely bound up solid once the screw was fully tightened down. Switching back to the original 1988 spring washers fixed the issue and now it's smooth as glass.

So I ended up with these parts in this order

- 88 prop joint

- 1150 (11x5mm) bearing

- 11 spacer

- 4mm e-clip

- 88 spring washers

- 88 pressure plate

- 11 ring

- 11 spur

- 11 balls

- 11 ring

- 11 bevel gear

- 11 thrust bearing

- 11 spacer

- 11 lock washer

- 11 cap screw

Another interesting note is that the 2011 diff plates are not all that great. You MUST make sure the side of the plates with the rounded edges faces towards the balls. The opposite side with the sharp edges is really nasty with all sorts of deformations running around the outer edges. Even after sanding them with 400grit wet/dry, I was unable to take them down enough to scuff the entire surface. I did sand the rounded side like a normal diff build and they came out very smooth and even. Then I finished them off with some 600grit and bolted everything together.

Cant wait to get this fresh diff back into the Vanquish!

[MAD RACER]

Very nice.

Love it. :)