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moffman

Which manufacturers motors do you think are the best

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Because I've been concentrating on hop-up parts rather than kits of late I'm taking an interest in older parts especially old brushed motors and I can't help thinking which manufacturers had the best motors of the day looking and performance? Back in the day I only had experience of kyosho but mostly tamiya but I always liked the look of the kyosho le mans motor cans! Just a light hearted opinions and experiences:D

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Suspect the answer depends on era

Mid 80s and Kyosho‘s Le Mans series were v hard to beat 

The 240S in old Optimas was epic - and later variants tweaked a classic 

Tamiya Technigold came a close second - with more punch but less top end - and later Pink Acto a bruiser 

Beyond that a load of US origin, timing qweens made sensible comparison almost impossible + I left the hobby for nearly 30 years 🙄

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2 hours ago, moffman said:

Because I've been concentrating on hop-up parts rather than kits of late I'm taking an interest in older parts especially old brushed motors and I can't help thinking which manufacturers had the best motors of the day looking and performance? Back in the day I only had experience of kyosho but mostly tamiya but I always liked the look of the kyosho le mans motor cans! Just a light hearted opinions and experiences:D

Depends what you mean by best. Trinity, Reedy, Team Orion and many others all sold motors. I don't know how many people actually made them, vs branding them. I have some Street Fighter branded motors I bought in the early 2000's and they seem comparable. The best I owned was probably a Race Spec (Trinity I think) 14x2, not the lowest wind, but out performed many motors with lower winds when I was racing. Ran it until there commutator had worn past the copper. Lots of sets of brushes, cleaning and skimming of the com to keep it in top shape though. 

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Just the best brushed motor you ever remember having? The motor that sticks in my mind was the tamiya black motor endurance simply because it was my first ever hop-up motor and I put it in my Ford ranger which inturn speeded up the destruction of the body:unsure:

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I have a thing for brushed motors,

 

I have run Technigolds, 01R.s, 02H.s, Acto pink, Acto  touring, Kyosho Spa 240s, Yokomo's and trinity's in the last 5 years, the best motors I have run are a Trinity D6 machine head, it's only a 12 turn double but on 8.4v spins over 45,000 rpm and a Reedy Tri Sonic, 14 Turn triple,  nothing special but it just goes very hard.

Best bang for buck is the  Tamiya Super stock series motors, $36 US at RC mart

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1990s was Novak for brushless!

They even built them themselves inhouse. 

Sadly now Bob's retired. 

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Best looking brushed motors have to be LeMans gold motors. The gold aluminum endbell is gorgeous. I was lucky enough to score a very fresh 480G for my Salute.

The best performing motors always seemed to be Trinity or at least Epic based for mod. The fast stock motors came from various tuners, often fairly local, although whatever the newest Trinity was was always consistently fast.

Kinda off topic, but I found a letter from Mike Reedy to Joe Sullivan submitting open endbell motors for ROAR approval while cleaning out an old hobby shop. Joe runs a local hobby shop still, so I made sure that he got the letter back.

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There were lots of Motors I desired back then: LeMans, Technigold, Trinity, Twister, even “ Pretty Puny Sissy Little Wimpy Motor” (anyone remember that one 😂). I think today it’s the LeMans Motors that I’m most interested in. These are my Motors currently not fitted into any chassis’

48729792653_cff1111266_k.jpg

 

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15 minutes ago, mtbkym01 said:

even “ Pretty Puny Sissy Little Wimpy Motor” (anyone remember that one 😂).

Wow, I remember Wimpy motors! Been a long time since I've heard them mentioned (probably pre-internet). I always lusted after the Tamiya Technigold of course and begging my folks for one as a birthday present. IIRC, they were about $50 back then, so that wasn't happening. I wound up with a Speedworks Buggymaster. Speedworks was Trinity's more budget-friendly brand. They had some good motors in that range for fair prices, even the Monster Mash 1 and 2 for twin motor trucks like the Clod Buster. 

I guess in my locale, Trinity motors were tops with a few Twisters thrown in. Honestly didn't see alot of Kyosho motors about although I do remember the 360ST being a good monster truck motor. IIRC it got re-named as such when Kyosho started re-branding it a "Mega" series motor. 

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1 hour ago, mtbkym01 said:

There were lots of Motors I desired back then: LeMans, Technigold, Trinity, Twister, even “ Pretty Puny Sissy Little Wimpy Motor” (anyone remember that one 😂). I think today it’s the LeMans Motors that I’m most interested in. These are my Motors currently not fitted into any chassis’

48729792653_cff1111266_k.jpg

 

That's a really good collection you have their mate👍👍

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Mabuchi....there I said it!

Too many silver cans, have done too many miles for his to be untrue. 

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For appearance, nothing can touch the LeMans motors, that's for sure. They just looked so special, and so different from anything else. Back in the day, I boguht a 600E for my Grasshopper, just because I had to have a LeMans motor, and that was the cheapest one. They're one of the things I wish I had had the presence of mind to collect back when they were just "old" and not "vintage."

The other series I always thought was cool was the Trinity "Speed Gems" line. I've had a fair few of these over the years; the Ruby and Sapphire (16-17 turn...?) were great for cheap speed. I currently have an Onyx (14x3) in my collection, which isn't as cool, because it's just black.

I also have a few Trinity stock motors left over from my racing days, Green Machines and Midnights (mid '90s), and one of the original Monster Horsepower stock motors.

But for running vintage cars, these days, it's all silver-can, all the time.

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21 hours ago, markbt73 said:

For appearance, nothing can touch the LeMans motors, that's for sure.

Definitely!

Now I can not claim I know every single motor out there back in the day, but there are some that stand out in my memory as I was reading and thinking about it.

I never had any problem with stock Mabuchi motors. As a matter of fact I happen to love them! But of course, there were some motors I remember I would have loved as they were ferocious when running. Rich kids got them.

First the 1987 Trinity Monster Horsepower motors. Clod Busters with them and the oh, so nice Novak Super Rooster ESC kicked all a*s known to men!

s-l300.jpg

 

tmp-cam-2074503189-jpg.94232

 

But the ones that made any other RC motor ever made look totally SISSY, are the golden Astroflight ones. Top fuels were super hot, but those pullmaster, wow, speed & torque was totally wild!

EyNEhGF.jpg

astro-flight-pullmaster-vintage-motor_1_

And here the Top Fuel Astroflight motors:

hhlVdns.jpg

:wub:

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Wow, I remember those ads in a lot of RC Car Actions. The picture of the flamed pulling Clod is drawn from an actual feature truck. It looks like its dragging the beefier (than the Aristocraft sled anyway) AJ's Challenger sled. The article made note that the Clod pulled a 1:1 Jeep CJ7 a short distance before grenading a gearbox.

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Interesting thread 

Am I wrong in thinking anything pre 86 were largely timing qweens ?

Or did the aftermarket manage to beat a Technigold / Le Mans 240S ?

Fully accept clever speed controls and internal trickery changes things 87+ 

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16 hours ago, SuperChamp82 said:

Interesting thread 

Am I wrong in thinking anything pre 86 were largely timing qweens ?

Or did the aftermarket manage to beat a Technigold / Le Mans 240S ?

Fully accept clever speed controls and internal trickery changes things 87+ 

Dunno where you grew up racing in... each country had their own classes I suppose.

 

In Australia afaik the common classes were 540, 27T stock, 16 Triple then Mod.

TechniPower/Gold/etc were called Mod so they're useless for racing; they'd barely even compare to a good 16x3. 

Timing only came into the equation in (fixed endbell) Stock, anything higher with free endbell you can set whatever you wish anyway. And the crazy 36/39deg timing only followed when nicads gained enough excess power to waste... after 1700mAh era, when Sanyo gave us 2400!! 

 

Not long after timing wars came Rebuildable Stock... Trinity P2K!! (And it's green cousin, I forget his name...)

Parma, Reedy were big. Also lots of local brands, downunder we had Barry Putty with his Ozcharge brand everywhere.

All motors mentioned above are US centric... apart from Technigold & Kyosho, no love for others Jap? :) Yokomo had a pretty wide range but more stock specialised. There's also ABC, AYK, M&Y, HPI Uno...

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ahh... trinity Green Machine... Revenge of the Monster Horsepower... Paradox... which begat P2K

Team Orion & Fantom also big names on the race field.

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What nobody mentionned the orion sv2 motors with the V angled brushes !!! They were and still are fantastic ! 

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I had fun with Reedy stock motors with advanced timing.  They were not the best, but I felt they were equal to Sport tuned, if not better.  Half a dozen used Reedy stock motors I got were usually about $10 each.  Cheap and fast, they made good basher motors.  After bearings installed, they'd run almost as long as the silver cans too.   

2sEmhnr.jpg

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15 hours ago, t3garett said:

What nobody mentionned the orion sv2 motors with the V angled brushes !!! They were and still are fantastic ! 

Team Orion V2 Revolution was neat, it extended intervals between motor rebuilds... so was fantastic for bashing with a mild mod say 10-15t. Weren't cheap when they first appeared though, bit dear for average basher I'd think.

But at the racetrack the mod racers were already accustomed (& tooled up!) to do regular comm cutting, plus rectangular brushes could be custom filed into desired shape & most racers had their favourite brush springs etc etc.

V2 didn't make much dint there afaik & before long brushless came along.

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6 hours ago, Juggular said:

I had fun with Reedy stock motors with advanced timing.  They were not the best, but I felt they were equal to Sport tuned, if not better.  Half a dozen used Reedy stock motors I got were usually about $10 each.  Cheap and fast, they made good basher motors.  After bearings installed, they'd run almost as long as the silver cans too.   

2sEmhnr.jpg

Any stocker should be miles faster than even the best SportTuned..?! :) 

Are you sure you're not bogging it down by overgearing? 

 

Chose Cardinal Ernie over Brother Mike so I ran Trinity... P2K revved higher, Monster was torquey. Geared each one differently, often 2-4 teeth (48dp!) difference. 

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1 hour ago, WillyChang said:

Any stocker should be miles faster than even the best SportTuned..?!

You got me curious...  What does "stock motor" mean?  I always thought "27t" motor.  Just advanced, in case of many Reedy stock motors.   Did I get that right, or does "stock" mean something else?  

 

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4 hours ago, Juggular said:

You got me curious...  What does "stock motor" mean?  I always thought "27t" motor.  Just advanced, in case of many Reedy stock motors.   Did I get that right, or does "stock" mean something else?  

 

Going off this list, it would look to be the case.

https://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?t=18586

Although, I'm sure I ran a Trinity stock motor, but there doesn't seem to be one there, could be a reason I did ok with it 🙄😬

 

I ran LeMans 240st (mainly as they came with some kits), a Trinity stock. Reedy where always the motor I wanted, but it was the esc that just couldn't afford on paper boy wages, maybe why I jumped at the chance to get Reedy brushless motors, now I can 😁

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