VQS (2020) in Tamiya's pipeline.

[huasze 24]

On 10/2/2020 at 9:13 PM, GTodd said:

I wouldn't do this if I were you.  If would be very expensive, and with The Egress, Avante, and now Vanquish obtainable I'm not sure what the gain would be.  To make an Avante 2001 all you need is an Egress, TBG Body, and MCI decals. 

This is correct. Only that the Egress undercowl doesn't fit under the 2001 body. So either  the TBG body with no undercowl, or source a Tamiya body which comes with undercowl.

[ruebiracer 617]

No problem to mount the Hicaps to the original shock tower.

But Tamiya doesn´t give us anymore the X-shock tower. In the last batch of Hicap Minis it was included for free as a carbon version for Avante and Vanquish. Back in 89, only an FRP version of the same tower was included, especially for Vanquish and Avante. It raises the mounting points slightly up, to be able to let the chassis bottom out. By adding internal spacers, you adjust then the droop you get on the axle. If the manual recommends 5,5mm especially for VQS, why not start from there and look at the axles at full droop, check the driveshafts angles and steering links, and decide after that. From my feeling, less spacers is probably possible, as @mud4fun thinks. For my Vanquish, I cut me an FRP plate in the original U shape including the x-tower mounting points and the original Vanquish/2001 positions. So it´s easier to mount the body, and you don´t have to cut the front sides. (never could bring me to do that even in `89).

Hopefully Tamiya brings out a batch of X-towers separately for the Avante owners. Without it´s probably hard to get Hicaps on the original Avante...

[Avante2001R 293]

Buy them from Fibrelyte 

[ruebiracer 617]

5 minutes ago, Avante2001R said:

Buy them from Fibrelyte 

Do they make the original X-tower? I think only the Egress one. For sure they could, if they have the template...

[ruebiracer 617]

Only have this bad pic, but here you can see the original 2001/Vanqish positions below the x-tower positions for the Hicaps. So you get an idea about the geometry difference...

[mud4fun 1392]

10 minutes ago, ruebiracer said:

No problem to mount the Hicaps to the original shock tower.

But Tamiya doesn´t give us anymore the X-shock tower. In the last batch of Hicap Minis it was included for free as a carbon version for Avante and Vanquish. Back in 89, only an FRP version of the same tower was included, especially for Vanquish and Avante. It raises the mounting points slightly up, to be able to let the chassis bottom out. By adding internal spacers, you adjust then the droop you get on the axle. If the manual recommends 5,5mm especially for VQS, why not start from there and look at the axles at full droop, check the driveshafts angles and steering links, and decide after that. From my feeling, less spacers is probably possible, as @mud4fun thinks. For my Vanquish, I cut me an FRP plate in the original U shape including the x-tower mounting points and the original Vanquish/2001 positions. So it´s easier to mount the body, and you don´t have to cut the front sides. (never could bring me to do that even in `89).

Hopefully Tamiya brings out a batch of X-towers separately for the Avante owners. Without it´s probably hard to get Hicaps on the original Avante...

Just a word of warning about the x-towers, I managed to barrel roll the Avante2001 today and then slid about 10 feet down the tarmac - it snapped the front shock tower mounts on the gearbox because the x-tower only uses the top pair of holes on those gbox tower supports whereas the original avante2001 shock tower uses both pairs of holes and is thus more rigid and secure. The extra height imposes extra stresses in the event of a crash.

In my case, the sheered joints thankfully left enough material in place such that I managed to run some tie-wraps around the snapped supports/brace and get it firmly held in place to do another 5 mins race. It was flat tarmac so not much stress on it when running the correct way up LOL

The shock setup was perfect, lovely handling and supple front end BUT I will revert back to original shock tower once I have the carbon version being made by a friend.

I will fit new gearbox parts tomorrow and try to modify the broken parts so they can be re-used, I think I can screw a metal brace in place. Oh well, the Avante2001 once more proved that it can't last more than an hour without breaking.... I thought the alloy hubs had resolved my problems with it but it looks like it found new ways to cause me grief 

[mud4fun 1392]

PS. The Avante2001 set the fastest lap of all our buggies on our postal race runs today while running with the tie wrapped front end! 

[ruebiracer 617]

That was really bad luck with your roll! But happened to me in the old days, too.

That was another reason I built my own on the U-design, using both holes on the gear box. And I only used 2,5mm FRP, hoping that the FRP will break before the gear box. I just cut another one from my big material sheet, as the gear boxes are hard to get at the moment...

[mud4fun 1392]

10 minutes ago, ruebiracer said:

That was really bad luck with your roll! But happened to me in the old days, too.

That was another reason I built my own on the U-design, using both holes on the gear box. And I only used 2,5mm FRP, hoping that the FRP will break before the gear box. I just cut another one from my big material sheet, as the gear boxes are hard to get at the moment...

Thanks, I'm not too bothered, this buggy has a long history of breaking and costing me a fortune within just 1 hour of actual driving time since it was last fixed. Incredibly this time it broke even sooner, total runtime was probably no more than 40 mins since its recent rebuild, just a few GPS speed tests, practise sessions yesterday plus four 5 mins races...... sigh.

However, I still hate love it, it is just such an exciting car to drive with a hot motor in it that I forgive it.

But just to rub salt in my wounds, my youngest daughter managed to catapult her thundershot at least 2 feet into the air, landed badly and then barrel rolled into a concrete curb before bouncing another foot into the air and landing on all wheels on the grass bank. Admittedly she was probably only doing 16mph at the time but the distance covered of the crash was nearly 30 feet and her polycarbonate shell cracked around the front and one of her body pins was a mangled twisted bit of metal which shows the force of her impact with the concrete..... and yet.....her damned thundershot chassis was completely undamaged AND she actually carried on driving and completed her race! All three thundershots and Terra Scorchers had big crashes today but all survived largely unscathed other than cracks and scratches on the shells. 

[xray mark 181]

Guys!. I’m starting to think I have made a boo boo!. I decided to put a rere 2001 shell on a new egress chassis!. Got fair money for the full bodyset and wheels and tyres ( 170 but now I’m boxing it up to post I’m crying lol!

 Anyway.. I just realised my 2001 rere tbg set does not come with undertray and I compared the tbg 2001 shell to the egress undertray smd at a rough look it seems the egress undertray is wider than the 2001 shell!?. What do I do!? Will the egress one fit?. Do I buy a tbg 2001 undertray?, will that fit the egress chassis!?. 
 What I really want to do is sell the tbg shell and get the proper tAmiya rere 2001 set but it’s soo hard to find, found one but it’s £160! 
 Ps.. I’ll buy another egress kit when one comes up To build as an egress so let me know if anyone has one for a fair price . 

[ruebiracer 617]

17 minutes ago, mud4fun said:

Thanks, I'm not too bothered, this buggy has a long history of breaking and costing me a fortune within just 1 hour of actual driving time since it was last fixed. Incredibly this time it broke even sooner, total runtime was probably no more than 40 mins since its recent rebuild, just a few GPS speed tests, practise sessions yesterday plus four 5 mins races...... sigh.

However, I still hate love it, it is just such an exciting car to drive with a hot motor in it that I forgive it.

But just to rub salt in my wounds, my youngest daughter managed to catapult her thundershot at least 2 feet into the air, landed badly and then barrel rolled into a concrete curb before bouncing another foot into the air and landing on all wheels on the grass bank. Admittedly she was probably only doing 16mph at the time but the distance covered of the crash was nearly 30 feet and her polycarbonate shell cracked around the front and one of her body pins was a mangled twisted bit of metal which shows the force of her impact with the concrete..... and yet.....her damned thundershot chassis was completely undamaged AND she actually carried on driving and completed her race! All three thundershots and Terra Scorchers had big crashes today but all survived largely unscathed other than cracks and scratches on the shells. 

I remmber my mates Fire dragon back in the days, we always motivated him to do jumps we were afraid off. His car did silly things, but always kept running somehow. In the end it had so many beginning cracks everywhere, but still he could run it. My guess is, the flex more than the 2001 parts infused with glass fibre...

[mud4fun 1392]

8 minutes ago, xray mark said:

Guys!. I’m starting to think I have made a boo boo!. I decided to put a rere 2001 shell on a new egress chassis!. Got fair money for the full bodyset and wheels and tyres ( 170 but now I’m boxing it up to post I’m crying lol!

 Anyway.. I just realised my 2001 rere tbg set does not come with undertray and I compared the tbg 2001 shell to the egress undertray smd at a rough look it seems the egress undertray is wider than the 2001 shell!?. What do I do!? Will the egress one fit?. Do I buy a tbg 2001 undertray?, will that fit the egress chassis!?. 
 What I really want to do is sell the tbg shell and get the proper tAmiya rere 2001 set but it’s soo hard to find, found one but it’s £160! 
 Ps.. I’ll buy another egress kit when one comes up To build as an egress so let me know if anyone has one for a fair price . 

I have just ordered two TBG Avante2001 undertrays because I made same mistake and ordered the shells without thinking about the trays.

The TBG Shells are great BUT they are slightly shorter than the originals so you need to be careful where you drill the body mount holes.

Egress tray defo will not fit under an avante2001 shell - my daughter has just got a brand new shell for her Egress (from kamtec which includes the tray) so we compared that already.

 

EDIT: Note, as you may have read above, our  buggies are used hard so having TBG repro shells is more than good enough for me, no shelf queens in our house

 

[ruebiracer 617]

6 minutes ago, xray mark said:

Guys!. I’m starting to think I have made a boo boo!. I decided to put a rere 2001 shell on a new egress chassis!. Got fair money for the full bodyset and wheels and tyres ( 170 but now I’m boxing it up to post I’m crying lol!

 Anyway.. I just realised my 2001 rere tbg set does not come with undertray and I compared the tbg 2001 shell to the egress undertray smd at a rough look it seems the egress undertray is wider than the 2001 shell!?. What do I do!? Will the egress one fit?. Do I buy a tbg 2001 undertray?, will that fit the egress chassis!?. 
 What I really want to do is sell the tbg shell and get the proper tAmiya rere 2001 set but it’s soo hard to find, found one but it’s £160! 
 Ps.. I’ll buy another egress kit when one comes up To build as an egress so let me know if anyone has one for a fair price . 

The 2001 undercowl will fit, as it is the Vanquish / Avante carbon chassis kit undertray just cut in a different way. Egress undertray is unique to Egress body.

[ruebiracer 617]

For your 2001 shells from TBG: I have one and it´s great. I also have the Rere bodyset for my shelf queen 2001, but you definetely should not invest the £160.

I have a strong feeling, that Tamiya will do another batch in the next 2 years, as all Tuning parts for this buggy line were released now at least 2 times. E.g. the torque splitter set, and the black special. I bet my last pants, that the 2001 body will get another run, too!

[xray mark 181]

Yeah I think your right but Tamiya is like crack . 
did you paint your body?. Got any pics? 
if you didn’t can I take a mortgage out and buy it? 
good advice tho 

[xray mark 181]

29 minutes ago, ruebiracer said:

The 2001 undercowl will fit, as it is the Vanquish / Avante carbon chassis kit undertray just cut in a different way. Egress undertray is unique to Egress body.

Thanks bro!. Are u in the U.K.? I don’t suppose you can sell one on so I can get cracking? 
 Waiting for Tbg kills me man 

 seriously tho thanks for all the great advice all you guys 

I’m confident going ahead with “ super Avante” now . Just need to cut that first blister.....

[xray mark 181]

One more thing ( just remembered) 

decals.. there is a guy selling reprints in ebay £15 . Anyone tried them or shall I stick with mci? 
the 2001 rere had lovely bright decals . I’d love to get some that nice again

btw.. I just found pics of the last time I find this with an egres kit in 2013.,,

[mud4fun 1392]

28 minutes ago, xray mark said:

there is a guy selling reprints in ebay £15 . Anyone tried them or shall I stick with mci? 

Yeah, my basher Avante2001 shell used the RC Decals UK decals, I also have them in different colours for my other shells.

They are much thicker material than genuine decals and don't bend around curves as easily and tend to lift a bit too easily around the edges from handling and driving (probably due to the thicker material being more easily caught.

However for the price they are great for basher/runner shells and can be had in a good few colours to suit any paint scheme.

Couple of pictures of my yellow avante shell with the RC Decals UK lime green version (and the offending x-brace that broke my gearbox)

 

[xray mark 181]

thsnks fir the tip, I’ll go for mci as I really want to make the best shell I can. 
That yellow 2001 is really nice mate!. Have you any pics of it with white lightweight wheels on?. That would be the cherry in the cake for me and woukd compliment the colours a treat!

 Ps.. what’s the deal with 2001 driver figure?. 
can I just buy an Avante driver?. I seem to Vaguely remember I had to chop a bit Off the cockpit or something.

i saw them in stock the other day on eBay for about a fiver From Japan but can’t find them now 

[ruebiracer 617]

13 minutes ago, mud4fun said:

Yeah, my basher Avante2001 shell used the RC Decals UK decals, I also have them in different colours for my other shells.

They are much thicker material than genuine decals and don't bend around curves as easily and tend to lift a bit too easily around the edges from handling and driving (probably due to the thicker material being more easily caught.

However for the price they are great for basher/runner shells and can be had in a good few colours to suit any paint scheme.

Couple of pictures of my yellow avante shell with the RC Decals UK lime green version (and the offending x-brace that broke my gearbox)

 

That looks really nice in these color combo!

But your x-brace is not the one that I refer to. You seem to have an Egress one, which was the highest of the chassis line. It has the highest leverage to break the gearbox. The original Avante x-brace is much lower and would save your gearbox more, although only screwed on the upper 2 holes.

[ruebiracer 617]

51 minutes ago, xray mark said:

Thanks bro!. Are u in the U.K.? I don’t suppose you can sell one on so I can get cracking? 
 Waiting for Tbg kills me man 

 seriously tho thanks for all the great advice all you guys 

I’m confident going ahead with “ super Avante” now . Just need to cut that first blister.....

No, I´m located in Germany! TBG takes it´s time, but worth the wait!

 

[mud4fun 1392]

3 minutes ago, ruebiracer said:

That looks really nice in these color combo!

But your x-brace is not the one that I refer to. You seem to have an Egress one, which was the highest of the chassis line. It has the highest leverage to break the gearbox. The original Avante x-brace is much lower and would save your gearbox more, although only screwed on the upper 2 holes.

Yeah, it is the egress one, I used it to give me the maximum suspension travel for use on our garden track which is very rough. However, since fitting the damned thing we've done nothing but race on smooth tarmac so I could have just stuck with the stock tower LOL

[ruebiracer 617]

If you are considering MCI decals, I´ve used them this year on my TBG shell. Found them really nice, and well enough for a runner.

Don´t know if you´ve seen it in my showroom.

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=135392&id=34024

I used an Avante driver with glued on side panels to mount them into the 2001 shell with double sided tape. 

[mud4fun 1392]

12 minutes ago, xray mark said:

That yellow 2001 is really nice mate!. Have you any pics of it with white lightweight wheels on?. That would be the cherry in the cake for me and woukd compliment the colours a treat!

 Ps.. what’s the deal with 2001 driver figure?. 
can I just buy an Avante driver?. I seem to Vaguely remember I had to chop a bit Off the cockpit or something.

i saw them in stock the other day on eBay for about a fiver From Japan but can’t find them now 

Thank you. No I haven't got a pic with the white wheels although I do have them, they are sat in a box unused. I no longer use vintage wheels as they are all odd sizes and difficult to buy tyres for. I just stick the same 2.2 inch wheels on all our buggies and use modern readily available and cheaper 2.2 inch tyres. eg. Schumacher, which offers a far superior range of patterns and compounds than Tamiya that suit our use.

[xray mark 181]

4 minutes ago, ruebiracer said:

If you are considering MCI decals, I´ve used them this year on my TBG shell. Found them really nice, and well enough for a runner.

Don´t know if you´ve seen it in my showroom.

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=135392&id=34024

I used an Avante driver with glued on side panels to mount them int the 2001 shell with double sided tape. 

I just looked!. That is exactly what I’m going for . I prefer egress chassis to Avante metal links but you can’t beat Avante shell with nicely done paint and driver figure!

 I found the driver. On eBay Avante z parts. £7 Just bought him. I seem to remember I somehow mounted my other cockpit to egress top deck with the screw somehow but I may be wrong. If so I will copy your technique! 
 I just need to buy mci decals and undertray and X shock tower! 
looking forward to this!