Slyda 183 Posted October 14, 2018 The Tamiya Brat is the only Subaru I have ever wanted to own and 6 months after buying one it is finally up and running. There are some small detail paint stuff that still needs to be finished and some up-grades that need to be done. While constructing it I suspected that the steering gear might give me some issues and that improvements need to be made. My local outdoor track open for the summer today so I took it out for a run and yup, the steering was certainly and issue with the RH arm getting bent like a banana right at the end of the session. The rear shocks are currently way too stiff also and combined with a fast steering response it was a very twitchy beast to drive indeed. The body and bumper center's were sprayed with Tamiya TS rattle cans with all the other colours including the semi-gloss black (which you can't really see) and silver, also Tamiya TS paint, are hand painted. It is basically built box stock with the addition of one piece alloy wheels, alloy front suspension arms and an alloy motor mount/heat-sink by T4works who are currently planing to add more dress-up parts for the Frog/Brat chassis. The sticker set is by MCI Racing. Along with the steering upgrades I am looking at adding a front coil over shock setup at some point too. 12 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fuijo 880 Posted October 14, 2018 Mmmm! Nice. I'm not normally a fan of the Brat, I thought it looked kind of awkward on the ORV chassis. But I'm revising that opinion now. I think yours looks ace. 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
njmlondon 570 Posted October 14, 2018 I agree I never was a fan of the Brat as a kid, but it is really growing on me as a design now and yours looks awesome in black. Do have a question re the Brat and wonder if you can help... are the offsets on the front wheels set so that the front track is wider than the rear or are both total widths the same? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Terz1 745 Posted October 14, 2018 One of the nicest Brats I've seen. The black body with the alloy wheels really set it off and those decals give it a nice 70's retro feel. You can see the time and effort you've put into the other cars too, very nice. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pablo68 1049 Posted October 14, 2018 On my ORV's I've mounted the steering servo in the center, put in a kimbrough servo saver and after market tie rod thingys, cups and balls. Works much better than stock and is stronger. I fit TRF shocks to one (my Monster Beetle) they fix everything. A decent set of shocks will make a huge difference though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Country Mike 120 Posted October 14, 2018 Brats are beautiful. Nice job x 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Yalson 514 Posted October 14, 2018 That is another lovely model, @Slyda. The Brat was always going to be twitchier than the Frog, what with it having thar big hunk of ABS mounted high up above the chassis and not having the big monster wheels and tyres of the Monster Beetle to provide a low-level weight to counteract it. The alloy rims may help a little in that respect, though, although the extra unsprung weight may have contributed to your steering arm issues. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Slyda 183 Posted October 15, 2018 18 hours ago, njmlondon said: I agree I never was a fan of the Brat as a kid, but it is really growing on me as a design now and yours looks awesome in black. Do have a question re the Brat and wonder if you can help... are the offsets on the front wheels set so that the front track is wider than the rear or are both total widths the same? On my one the front track is approx 115mm and the rear is 125mm +/- 1mm. The different offsets do look weird and it would be nice to have the deep dish wheels all round but that would increase the differential in track widths which is probably not desirable. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Slyda 183 Posted October 15, 2018 13 hours ago, Yalson said: That is another lovely model, @Slyda. The Brat was always going to be twitchier than the Frog, what with it having thar big hunk of ABS mounted high up above the chassis and not having the big monster wheels and tyres of the Monster Beetle to provide a low-level weight to counteract it. The alloy rims may help a little in that respect, though, although the extra unsprung weight may have contributed to your steering arm issues. I think crashing into the rope at a hairpin corner may have had something to do with the bent steering arm. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Slyda 183 Posted October 15, 2018 16 hours ago, Pablo68 said: On my ORV's I've mounted the steering servo in the center, put in a kimbrough servo saver and after market tie rod thingys, cups and balls. Works much better than stock and is stronger. I fit TRF shocks to one (my Monster Beetle) they fix everything. A decent set of shocks will make a huge difference though. The thought of centralizing the steering servo does appeal to me, I did think of it at the time of assembly but I decided to leave it in the original position as I wanted to put the esc next to it to try and keep the weight central, low and even. There is space to move the esc and I am definitely going to upgrade those steering arms so I will look into at some point but I have three more cars to assemble first. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nicadraus 6199 Posted October 15, 2018 Your Brat looks great! My second RC was a hand-me-down Subaru Brat from my brother back in the mid-late 80s. It always flipped sideways on the off-road track because of the heavy body. I eventually converted it to a buggy with Frog body and slim front wheels from the Fox. I also changed the one-way gear to differential as well as the rear shocks to CVA. It performed so much better. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DrewZ 188 Posted October 15, 2018 Nice work, that is a beautiful Brat! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
njmlondon 570 Posted October 15, 2018 9 hours ago, Slyda said: On my one the front track is approx 115mm and the rear is 125mm +/- 1mm. The different offsets do look weird and it would be nice to have the deep dish wheels all round but that would increase the differential in track widths which is probably not desirable. That is the right way around at least. On my Lancia, the Front was wider than the front. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Grotty Otty 868 Posted October 15, 2018 The Brat had never appealed but I must say yours has changed my mind, really nicely done. Great colour scheme. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Theibault 1535 Posted October 15, 2018 Love my Brat! I've had 3 in my lifetime, 2 OG and my current re re. Nice paint job too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
scoobybooster 248 Posted October 15, 2018 Very beautifully made Brat ! Black seems to suit the car really well - actually amazing that you see so few black Brats. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Slyda 183 Posted October 15, 2018 2 hours ago, scoobybooster said: Very beautifully made Brat ! Black seems to suit the car really well - actually amazing that you see so few black Brats. That's why I went with black in the end, plus I had an inkling it would look good with those stripes. It came oh so close to being metallic green with the glod/black box supplied stripes which would have looked nice. The polycarb body will also be done in a colour combination I have not seen yet too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Capucine 53 Posted October 28, 2018 I have a Brat that I finished with the polycarbonate body. My Brat came also with the hard body ( not done yet) . Wait a minute. I decided to install an extra body from Tamiya. The Land. cruiser 40 body. Fits perfect on the Subaru Brat. Could not install bigger tire because of the configuration of the front wheels. Wheel fits directly on the bearing. Anyway it still looks pretty good with the Brat wheels. I installed leds light in front, rear and the roof rack light bar. Have a look! 4 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Frog Jumper 3661 Posted October 28, 2018 3 hours ago, Capucine said: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Land_Cruiser_(J40)#/media/File:1980_Toyota_Land_Cruiser_(FJ40)_hardtop_(26042130985).jpg Looks pretty good! Terry Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Capucine 53 Posted October 28, 2018 Thanks Terry for the pictures. I see that all of them are mostly from New south Whales. Very nice place there. My brother used to live in Queenbeyan near Canberra for a number of years. He had a Mini Moke folowed by a Land cruzer pick up truck like one of the pictures You provided. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites