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wtcc5

wtcc5's FF-01 addiction

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These FF-01s are fantastic! I have a VW New Beetle. Eventually, I'm going to swap the body with something more sporty. The hardest upgrade for me to find was the motor heat sink. I have those cool red shocks too and I'm using the standard ABS chassis. I've also widened the track by using some HPI wheels with a different offset. I think that helped the handling a little. I think it looks nicer too.

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A New Beetle... what a coincidence B)

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Oops, I did it again... It is my third FF01 now. I couldn’t resist, because it is unscratched and shiny. Even though the New Beetle has its charm, it will become something else.

As always it starts with a disassembly:

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Picture storm incoming!

As this will be maybe the last time that I build a FF-01 from the ground up (not cleaning), I decided to make it a fotostory. You won't be dissapointed, as it is a "Upgraded Special" (58151) chassis build like the manual suggests ;) This chassis was the New Beetle once, so I just continue:

 

All parts clean again:

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Differential and gears assembled. Attachment of the turnbuckles:

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Gearbox assembly:

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Front suspension:

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Rear chassis and suspension assembly:

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Front and rear damper:

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I continued with the motor and heat sink attachment:

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Then it was time for the chassis:

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The steering rack was just cleaned. I will replace the ballstuds in the coming days, because the brass oxidized:

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Coupling of front and rear units with the tub chassis:

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coupling of front and rear units

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Time for the tires. Some posts before, you saw, that I was lucky to get the Calsonic Primera wheels. Lets use them!

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... and the finished "Upgraded Special" chassis:

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I know, us purists now will say, that it has no blue heat sink. And unfortunately they are right. Well, be patient. It will come.

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Blue Heat Sink or not - that thing is SHARP!! I know the Wheels are basically Unobtainium... But where did you get those Tires!?? 😁

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Where the heck do you find that FF01 heatsinks nowadays? :lol: Lucky guy!

Would take the silver one right away, no matter what color...

But again really, really nice looking already!

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Ebay sometimes has some. Maybe not the German Ebay, but .com and .co.uk should be included in your search.

@Carmine A The tires are Tamiya slicks with very expensive (ouch) Calsonic Nissan decals.

 

Right now I am a little unsure of how to continue with and/or complete the "Upgrade Special" chassis to a full car. Getting a another Primera body and the blue heat sink is nearly impossible. I mean the (FF-01) luck is on my side for some weeks now. And it continues to this week when these little treasures arrived:

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Then my long time friend, who also caught the FF-01 fever, did the impossible and got his hands on a blue heat sink. I was sooo excited when he told me. And he even offered it to me. I mean, that is not friendship anymore, that is something superior. That offer made me very happy. Now, after two days thinking about it and learning more about the two "Upgrade Special" kits, I think that I would not deserve his friendship if I take it. For simple reasons:

From the beginning he fell in love with the Honda Accord body (while I was living through my Primera fever). Some days ago he bought a Jaccs Honda Accord body kit. At the same time I build the Calsonic Nissan Primera "Upgrade Special" chassis and learned, that the Jaccs Accord was also one! I told him, and it is practically inevitable that he needs to build a "Upgrade Special" chassis for this body set, too. Until today I thought the Accord "just" had a silver heat sink, but deeper research today proved that I was wrong. It is blue. That means, he can build a full complete "Upgrade Special" car, while I just have Calsonic Primera wheels. So he needs to keep it!

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That's some true Friendship there!! There seems to be a lot of it going around this Forum!! 😁

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It continues to amaze me that there is still new in packet FF01 chassis parts. Particularly the front gearbox. 
 

I tried to restore my old FF01 I had when I was 13 about 3 years ago but ended up building a new FF01 from parts and hopping it up. Consequently it ended up being a shelfer. I should really rebuild the original as a runner one day. 

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My shelfer Primera got some little updates today.

I discovered the golden damper housings in a german R/C shop. After they arrived, I checked if Tamiya has done, what I would think Tamiya would do :P And they did:

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All internals of the TRF shocks fit! So the shelfqueen has now ultrasmooth golden dampers with the aluminium spring retainer HopUp 53595:

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Before and after:

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And then I installed the universal shafts 53172:

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It is a shame that the Primeras are soooooo rare. They look absolutley stunning, but are only allowed to be stationary in a shelf...

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Very nice.

So are you doing a Jaccs accord? I couldn't figure it out from your posts.

I wish someone made the old BTCC "Super Touring" Honda Accord. That thing would look awesome.

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Mmh... I am definitely thinking about it. Then it would become a Honda Accord Jaccs shelfqueen with „Upgrade Special„ chassis, because of the Tamiya body becoming rare and expensive. L&L has a copy, that would be good for racing.

 

But right now I really should calm down :o I got three chassis and five bodies, with a fourth chassis in Nib spare parts and a sixth body in the box...

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I am back from a very hot day. My friend and I had a lot of fun with our FF-01 runners today.

We ran at the same schoolyard again. I arrived early and drew a demanding track layout:

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We hid our equipment in a shadowy area this time:

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Body wise, there are not many fwd types left, that we don‘t have:

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It was great fun! At one point I attached the GoPro to my cap with tape and recorded a little video of us fighting for the lead:

 

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Thank you ^_^

 

This post today is written with one laughing eye and one crying eye :wacko:

The good news is, that I now have a blue FF-01 heat sink. Very cool! Thanks Michi :wub:

 

The bad news is, that it is in a not so good condition:

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The previous (japanese) owner must have had some crazy tuning ideas and felt the need to shave of material and widen the hole. From my point of view a stupid idea. Oh well, it is still a genuine blue one and will go on the „Upgrade Special“ chassis. 

 

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Must have been a nice afternoon!:D The Mondeo looks quite well balanced, seems the Civic was a little left behind! or just some different battery states or motors?;)

Great fun, it seems I must restore my FF01 too for some Sunday relaxed driving fun...

Kind regards,

Matthias

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@wtcc5 That's a rare trinket! At least you got one... If you know of any place that does Anodizing, I think it might be more satisfying for you - at least until a WHOLE one comes along. 😉  And hey! It will at least do its job as a Heat Sink!!

Thanks for the Video. That was fun to watch. I'm definitely getting SOME FF Chassis..... after something that I've waited 20 years for finally happens.

A dear Friend of mine, Mark Bryan, recently got the FF-03 Civic. That was my first time ever seeing one. It was FWD, and my first impression was... "With that BIG Lump sticking out in front of the front Axle, that COULDN'T handle very well" 

WAS I WRONG!!! It was amazing!!! And he only built it bog standard. I've wanted one since. It's AWESOME seeing what you've done to yours. 👌👏👏👏👏👏

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10 minutes ago, wtcc5 said:

@ruebiracer: Please do it! :D 

Mine is nothing special,

just a left over chassis from my team after completing an 24h endurance run with FF01. Just has an old Carson cup beetle shell on it. No tuning, just CVA´s. But even in this state it´s a well performing chassis. Remember those endurance runs with a lot of fun.

I think we did it 2 times with the FF01 chassis.

Best joke ever: at one race we agreed, that the building has to be done within the 24 hours. So every team got the body before the race for painting it. Building of the kit had to be done as quick as possible, because if you could get some laps befor the other teams, this would be a nice advantage.:lol: Actually my team finished first, but as we wanted to start, the beetle body did not fit, wheelbase was too short! We never build a FF01 before, so my team collegue was judging our friend, who organized the race, that he gave us a too short chassis!!:ph34r::P

Well it cleared quickly, and the old sentence came out from page 1: Read before building! Luckily the LWB could be reached in the end. But those stories you´ll never forget... 

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What I forgot to say: The L&L Mondeo looks really good, from that pics I can´t spot any difference to the Tamiya bodies. Even the windows look very clear! Can you recommend them?

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The body itself is good. Not Tamiya quality, but good. You can see the light breaking because of a little structure due to the not perfect tool.

For a runner these bodies are very good and I am happy that L&L offers these bodies for us enthusiasts! Just make sure you get the MCI decals also. The ones coming with the body are not good (enough).

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