Falcon restoration and tuning

[interocitor 4]

Hello,

This is my first post in this board. My name is Tim, 40 years old from Germany.

A few days ago I found back my Tamiya Falcon in my parents house. I got it as a present as I was 10 years old.

The remote control was missing, the overall condition was poor. I think it had suffered a lot from me as I was a child. The body cober has some cracks, but not that worse. 

After completely disassembling the car (with exception of the year box) I cleaned everything very well and re-assembled the car. 

As the tyres where on bad condition I replaced them with new ones. I used Novafox tyres and Novafox gold chrome rims. They match perfectly with the car and are slightly bigger than the original tyres. 

The original remote control unit was lost over the decades, I borrowed a Graupner MX-12 (originally designed for planes and helicopters) with the matching receiver from my neighbour. After some programming it worked as desired.

From the local model shop I purchased a 3300 mAh battery and a new receiver battery. 

The falcon had it's comeback today, after some meters on a paved road I took it to a beach volleyball field.

As a next step, I would like to

- increase the top speed

- lower the suspension

- install a second battery, parallel to the existing one, in order to double the driving time.

Are there any ways to make the car faster while keeping the stock parts? As this car is so old, I do not want to invest more money in it.

Same for the suspension. Are there any "cheap tricks" to get it lower?

I replaced the oil in the front dampers as they have always been kind of "slow" in action. The new oil did not bring any advantage. I decided to leave the oil away and, they do work much better now. Quick response and a bit softer than before. So what is the oil useful then?

Below a photo after todays excursion. Needs good cleaning now... lots of sand and dust everywhere...

Tim

[Baddon 860]

Don't wire a second batter into car (its the heaviest part and there is no room for it, it will wreck the handling and lift the C of G) get a 2nd battery with possibly a higher mAh rating. Though I am surprised you find a 3300 is to short for you. You should get near 20 minutes flat out with that.

If you want dampers to work faster then increase the hole size in the dampers OR change to a lower viscosity damper oil.

The first things to do (if not already)-

Ballrace the full car (lowers friction reduces wear and increases run times)

Get a modern set of radio gear with a new style ESC (all lighter, smoother power delivery, longer run times and a lighter better handling car) this will eliminate the batteries in the car u may have for older RC gear.

Then get a hotter motor (can be got in combo with the ESC - this is a complex topic on its own and there are many posts on here about it)

 

Easiest way to lower the car is to add an 'o' ring to the bottom of the damper so the piston cant go all the way to the bottom of the stroke. Easy to do if your in there changing the oil.

 

Oh and Welcome back - its about to get expensive, lol.

 

[Maverick74 63]

Welcome back!  First of all that’s a little goodie you have there.  The Falcon came out in a time when there wasn’t computers or tablets or cell phones to keep you busy.  All you needed was dirt or gravel and you would get lost .. haven’t been able to put it down since.  Now I have my children into the hobby and hope they get the same enjoyment we did as kids.  Don’t be afraid to spend a little cash. Tamiya designers were way ahead of their times and as long as you maintain them you will have it for another 30 years.  Even today I would much rather restore a classic vintage model over a RTR with all the bells and whistles.  What’s the fun in that?  There’s no greater feeling then to take a youngster to school when he/she has their 600.00 rig and you are still running the old.  Over the weekend I watched an old school RC-10 topple the competition during our local meet.  It’s all about gearing and motor selection if you ask me and oh an experienced trigger doesn’t hurt lol I just budget myself and a lot a small portion of my earnings to go towards hop ups.  Good luck and nice looking Falcon there

[interocitor 4]

Thanks a lot Guys. 

i did lower the suspension yesterday by about a centimetre, it was to high with the new bigger wheels.

Also I removed the oil of all dampers. It's much smoother to drive now... no idea why they chooses oil dampers...

Also I am wondering if any tuning can be done to the original motor with simple means...

Here are some images of the falcon with the lowered body.

[NWarty 1332]

Nice Falcon and she looks pretty complete. 

My Falcon was far and away the most expensive restoration I've done to date, and I only have driven it twice. Oof. 

[SNAKEBITE 40]

Lovely looking car!

It doesn't look too beaten up either, a real bonus.

The Falcon was the car I had back in the day and I loved it, shame I got rid of it.......

 

The reason they put  oil dampers on there is to improve the handling and reduce the bounce of the car. By removing the oil you are reducing the handling capabilities of the car.

[Juggular 5189]

Oil dampers are considered a luxury.  But I get you, interocitor.  

In my opinion, the rubber o-ring friction damper suit Hornet just fine.  Falcon being almost a light as Hornet, I might remove oil myself, if I had Falcon.  Two o-rings in each CVA may work exactly like the Hornet friction damper.  I would consider Fox a sister-vehicle of Falcon, and it uses only one CVA.  Two might be a bit too stiff for the front.