My "Super Fly" Hornet Build Thread

[Butler]

I am probably wrong, but wouldn't moving the bottom pickup point of the rear shocks actually mean you need even softer shocks as the travel will be further?

Or is that having the shocks at a more laid down angle designed to compensate for this?

I have hornet, with a grass hopper shell which I love, but I have never been happy with the rear suspension on it.

[Pintopower]

With the slim silver Hornet shocks on all four corners, I wonder if there is a similarly slim silver alternative to the 5th shock? It no doubt works well with the modern broad blue one in there, but it might look better with something a bit more Hornet-ish?

I totally agree with you. At the moment, the car does/will have the Hornet oil filled units at all 4 corners. I am inclined to install Frog rear shocks at the front but we shall see. Either way, that 5th one is mis-matched but due to the length constraint of 50mm, I don't know of an alternative that would look the part. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

[Pintopower]

I am probably wrong, but wouldn't moving the bottom pickup point of the rear shocks actually mean you need even softer shocks as the travel will be further?

Or is that having the shocks at a more laid down angle designed to compensate for this?

I have hornet, with a grass hopper shell which I love, but I have never been happy with the rear suspension on it.

That's a good question. On the super hornet, the rear shocks are VERY soft. The thing with the hornet (or anything with this transmission) is that when you accelerate, the torque of the motor actually extends the rear suspension to it maximum throw. So under acceleration, you have zero rear suspension, it might as well be an on-road pan car. The angle of the shocks means that the shock now has two loads applied to it, one in the x-axis and one in the y-axis. The stock hornet, like yours, basically has only the y-axis to deal with, when landing a jump for example. When the shocks are more laid down like the super hornet, the torque of the motor isn't as able to stretch out the rear shocks as easily as the Hornet because not all the force is applied in one axis/direction. This can be seen on the Mad Bull (DT-01 right?) and the Rising Fighter and how almost horizontal the shocks are placed.

I hope this makes sense.

Sorry, I just confused myself. What were we talking about again? RC Cars right?

[GregM]

I received my V2 front suspension parts from Shapeways a couple days ago. Last night, while it was pouring rain outside (preventing me from finishing a custom bench I am building for the kitchen) and as my wife was out with her firends I decided to get the cat, some tea and park myself at my work bench. I needed the cat for some company, just FYI.

Step one, put a sweater on the cat. This not only makes her nice and warm, but makes me laugh.

ok, enough of bothering the cat.

PIC OF THE MONTH!!

[Pintopower]

PIC OF THE MONTH!!

Agreed. You should see the video. HAHA!

[hammerstien]

if you release a whole kit think i mite buy one or 2

[tilstad1]

Wow, this is pretty intense as far as modding go! It looks pretty cool I have to admit, but it does lack the "hornet" decal on the hood. 😉

What is the weight of it as it sits now? Does the stock body still fit over the rollcage? A video showing how it handles would have been cool.

Now Id like to start modding mine...😄

It definitely remind me of those firework thingies, good catch.

I just found this video of a modded hornet suspension. There is two stills of it towards the end of the video. One cant tell quite how well it works, but his mod is definitely different from most mods I've seen.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=0CAUQjB0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D47tcobgrIC4&ei=GvucVMK-FMjsgwSDkoCwAQ&psig=AFQjCNE1_LjXgKdbr7um6GM2yDQeLRuUFw&ust=1419659724015689&rct=j

[Pintopower]

if you release a whole kit think i mite buy one or 2

Well I am flattered! As soon as my testing is complete, this will be made available to the public.

Wow, this is pretty intense as far as modding go! It looks pretty cool I have to admit, but it does lack the "hornet" decal on the hood.

What is the weight of it as it sits now? Does the stock body still fit over the rollcage? A video showing how it handles would have been cool.

Now Id like to start modding mine...

It definitely remind me of those firework thingies, good catch.

I just found this video of a modded hornet suspension. There is two stills of it towards the end of the video. One cant tell quite how well it works, but his mod is definitely different from most mods I've seen.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=0CAUQjB0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D47tcobgrIC4&ei=GvucVMK-FMjsgwSDkoCwAQ&psig=AFQjCNE1_LjXgKdbr7um6GM2yDQeLRuUFw&ust=1419659724015689&rct=j

Thanks! The car isn't done as of yet so it will soon have some decals.

The car is still VERY light, unfortunately. The reason I say that is a Hornet needs weight to handle better. When I run this, I add over a pound of wheel weights considering the LiPo weighs nothing at all, versus my old 5000 mAH battery. My original intent was to have the body fit over the cage but then I started to run into a number of problems and decided that I wanted to make it my own.

Ah yes and that video, I have seen it before and was definitely a thought in my mind when I was building this. the reversal of the trans along would be a huge improvement simply because of the rotation of the motor is no longer maxing out the shocks as the stock ones do. The only reason I didn't go down that path was I knew I would have remade the trans case and then, further taking away more of the "Hornet" part of the "Hornet". I did seriously contemplate that mod though, it looked cool! Love to see what you have in mind!

[GeekSpeed]

Wow, nice work. If you could just make the wheels available to the public, I would be crazy happy.

[XV Pilot]

I totally agree with you. At the moment, the car does/will have the Hornet oil filled units at all 4 corners. I am inclined to install Frog rear shocks at the front but we shall see. Either way, that 5th one is mis-matched but due to the length constraint of 50mm, I don't know of an alternative that would look the part. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

There are the Fastrax 55mm units in silver, that can be shortened to 50mm with an internal spacer. They are a bit wider than the Hornet shocks, but at least the colour would match. Or perhaps a GPM aftermarket shock for one of the smaller 1/18 models might work? I'll keep looking and let you know if I find something suitable.

[Nitomor]

Wow, what a thread, I'm a big fan of the hornet...

Here's how I added weight to mine!!

Doesn't the wild one have a shorter shock at the front which could be used as a 5th shock?

Great job btw,

Cheers

Nito

[Pintopower]

Wow, nice work. If you could just make the wheels available to the public, I would be crazy happy.

Thank you! I can do that but they are not cheap. That's a lot of plastic there. I think they are about $90 for the set. On a plus side, last year when I tried to print them, they were $140 so shapeways has been getting cheaper as more people are printing and the technology is progressing.

There are the Fastrax 55mm units in silver, that can be shortened to 50mm with an internal spacer. They are a bit wider than the Hornet shocks, but at least the colour would match. Or perhaps a GPM aftermarket shock for one of the smaller 1/18 models might work? I'll keep looking and let you know if I find something suitable.

Hmmm, that could work. Keep me posted and as always, thanks for the information!

Wow, what a thread, I'm a big fan of the hornet...

Here's how I added weight to mine!!

Doesn't the wild one have a shorter shock at the front which could be used as a 5th shock?

Great job btw,

Cheers

Nito

Thanks Nito! Yours seem to also be more stable than mine! Hmmm, wild one aye....I dont know but I have never once looked at it. Ill take a gander and see what we have. Thanks for the hint!

[Pintopower]

There is nothing better than a box from Shapeways. They are always full of everything that I could ever want! I would assume that one day the boxes will be larger but that is another thread.

Anyway, My Super Hornet inspired rear lower rear shock mounts came in!

The outside:

The inside:

The super hornet ones are designed to work with the geometry of the Super Hornet chassis upper shock mounts which are wider apart than the Hornet.

Installation was very simple as you would expect from a part that is essentially a Tamiya (re) engineered part. They just slide over the axle tubes and screw in. If you have or have seen a super hornet, there is no difference.

The real changes start to come in here. the Super hornet mounts the shocks on the outside of the supports. Due to the requirement that i needed them a tad narrower, i mounted mine to the inside (that's why the look of the supports is basically reversed when compared to the S. Hornet).

Here is a comparison of the stock Super Hornet and my version. Please excuse the state of the Super Hornet. Is is next on my list of restorations.

Both complete rears:

Mount close up:

AMPro mount close up:

Rear width comparison:

The shock mounting is nicer than anything Tamiya ever did on the Hornet family, in my arrogant opinion. The Hornet at least had a ball end on the end of the shock but the Super Hornet relied on slop to allow for the floating solid axle's articulation. These are vintage You-G units that I added a through ball end to. I was going to put the stock Hornet shocks on but noticed that I needed to make a smaller collar to let the spring seat properly.

Once installed, everything was playing nicely. I changed the light units out since the new rear end is in the way of the buckets. Purely cosmetic but hey, it's fun.

From above:

I also installed my battery tray modification. This was a simple bracket I made to emulate the Super Hornet style. This one requires two holes drilled into the chassis and then is held in with two self tapping screws that lock it to the chassis. So far, with a lipo battery, landings off a 4 foot jump have not bothered anything though I suspect that the stresses of a 5000 MAh NiMh may be too great for the little posts.

This is one of my race packs. This gives about 30 min of run time to the car and fits with its buzzer.

Here is a battery door I made out of polystyrene. Works great. I just copied the stock one save for the little tab on the trailing edge that slots into the chassis.

A couple of body clips and we are all set. You know how nice it is not to have to tape you battery tray onto your RACE car? Feels nice.

I will posted some completed shots of the car shortly. Enjoy!

[Pintopower]

Just took some pictures. I seem to have forgotten what this car once was. Oh well, after driving it, I'm pretty blown away by how good it is.

This bumper is for show. I won't race with this. I have added these to a bunch of my other Hornets.

Honestly, the stock lamps are way prettier than those that light up but I dig lights and plus, I don't run with those on the car at the track.

SAG!! It finally has SAG!

The front double wishbone front end. There is where this whole crazy project started.

Battery tray:

Rear end:

Lamps:

I have some more testing before these are made availible but so far, I am blown away by the durability of the plastics.

Be back soon!

[Crash Cramer]

WOW, now that is starting to look good. ARROGANCE, you have SOME. I think this is something so cool that Tamiya ought to buy the rights, call it the Super Mk3 Hornet and make moldings of all your 3D printed parts and start pumping out the kits for us all to buy and more importantly ENJOY DRIVING. I think it is nice and humbling to have to TAPE your battery in, it isn't called SPEED TAPE for nothing by all the NASCAR guys. If I might be so bold, could you add just a pinstripe or something to the wing at the UPPER edge?? It looks like a great buggy from the FULL FRONTAL shot, but that small bit of red paint on the BIG WING just makes the wing look too small since the other part of the wing has been left clear and blends perfectly into the background. Just my 2 cents worth and MY ARROGANT request.

Keep up the good work.

[kontemax]

Video please.

Max

[pastimesteve]

Wow, that thing is SO cool. Fantastic work. I agree with Kontemax though, I really would love to see a video of it in action to see how the suspension mods work.

Steve

[Pintopower]

WOW, now that is starting to look good. ARROGANCE, you have SOME. I think this is something so cool that Tamiya ought to buy the rights, call it the Super Mk3 Hornet and make moldings of all your 3D printed parts and start pumping out the kits for us all to buy and more importantly ENJOY DRIVING. I think it is nice and humbling to have to TAPE your battery in, it isn't called SPEED TAPE for nothing by all the NASCAR guys. If I might be so bold, could you add just a pinstripe or something to the wing at the UPPER edge?? It looks like a great buggy from the FULL FRONTAL shot, but that small bit of red paint on the BIG WING just makes the wing look too small since the other part of the wing has been left clear and blends perfectly into the background. Just my 2 cents worth and MY ARROGANT request.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks Chris. The car still needs some detail I agree. Still working the bugs out.

Video please.

Max

I know, I know...I need someone to actually video it for me. With my GoPro, the car is a red speck. Ill do something soon, worst case I will beg my wife record with the iPhone.

Wow, that thing is SO cool. Fantastic work. I agree with Kontemax though, I really would love to see a video of it in action to see how the suspension mods work.

Steve

Will do Steve. The front end on the car is fun to watch move actually.

[Crash Cramer]

HA HA, you said BUGS

[Pintopower]

HA HA, you said BUGS

Funny man. Well, technically I did work some of the "Hornets" out of the Hornet.

[Pintopower]

Well since there were quite a few people that asked me to get some running videos of super fly, I decided to head out to the track and make it happen. It was a new track layout that had been only finished for one day so the surface was pretty darn good. Problem is this track is designed for modern buggies and it's a very grippy clay surface that the drivers perpetually bag the owners of the track to water down. Personally I like to reminisce about how when tracks had loose sandy surfaces that would allow the The buggy to drift a-la "initial D" around every turn. That was driving. Nevertheless I was very excited about tossing super fly on this new track. There were no ridiculously high jumps for once so the track surface seem to almost be made for a vintage car. After about 10 feet I forgot what car I was driving. This was no hornet. Well I mean it did have a solid rear axle so there was some hornet there but overall the car landed jumps like the surface beneath was a fluffy cloud. Fine, fine, fine. I didn't exactly launch the car 50 feet through the air but a three or 4 foot high jump you did in the car that landed and was relatively composed.

Here it is after depleting a 4500 mAh Lipo. With a stock 540, that makes it nearly a 1hr run time. My arm was starting to hurt holding the radio.

Still meet telling you all this is useless, I'm sure everybody wants to see the video. Well how shall I begin? After three straight battery packs the car was performing beautifully. Then I asked one of my friends to take a nice vantage spot while most of the cars are off the track to take a video. As he began to walk to the corner of the track my remote control started beeping at me. Apparently the batteries were dying in it so I walked off the track, grab the hornet, and went to change the batteries. I flicked the switch to the off position on my brand spanking new Novak XRS speed control and was confused as to why the lights on the speed control we're still on. What was even more puzzling is why the speed control burst into flames. Yes, it burst into flames. I grabbed the car, flipped it over, cursed at my new high quality battery retainer the system which forced me to snag my pliers to pull the clips out to yank the lipo out of the car assuming that it was the battery that was causing the flames. The speed control then simply started to smoke profusely. I ran outside because I was in the process of suffocating all of the patrons of Norcal hobbies. Needless to say by the time I was done the speed control was a mass of melted plastic and a fried circuitboard. None of the wires had any burn marks in them so I find it very unlikely that the wire shorted however all of the solder points on the wires got so hot that they melted off of the units. Needless to say, that was the end of my day. So I still owe a video.

This was a heart breaker:

The underside stayed untouched so the chassis of Super Fly stayed untouched.

On the plus side, super fly was unharmed. It does however reek of burnt electronics so I can't even bring it into the house right now. It's currently sitting in a box in the back of my truck where I can smell of nature.

As soon as it's all put back together I will take a video. Does anybody know what Novak speed controls are lipo compatible, by which I mean have lipo cut off, have reverse, and will run a brushed motor? Before you say I can buy some $30 unit please know that Novak and I go way back. They are made in the US from start to finish and follow all stringent California environmental codes for manufacturing and waste disposal. Out of my 40 some cars, other than the a few Tamiya units, they all have Novaks.

Thanks and sorry for the lack of video.

[Crash Cramer]

WOW, did the electronics smell at least have a tinge of ORANGE/CITRUS smell to it?? All joking aside, that sucks big time and I bet the folks at Novak might point you to what ESC they like for your needs, shoot, they might even get you a discount when you send the burned unit in to them for proper disposal???

Keep us posted and try tossing SUPER FLY into a giant bag of rice and see if the smell won't go away??

[Pintopower]

Na I don't want to do that. The XRS is long out of production, i'm thinking 10 years or so. I found a unit called the Eiger from Novak that is a crawler unit but looks to work well for non-crawler applications as well. Plus its brushed and Lipo ready.

[neverfollow]

I saw the article of this build in this month's RC Car Action...congrats Alberto!

[Pintopower]

Thank you! Was it in the print version?