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toyolien

Super Duper Hotshot with Carbon Chassis.

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This car has been a long time coming for me. In 1987 (I was 10) I received my first Tamiya kit for Christmas. It was a Boomerang. I ran it loads with my brother (who also got one), and this started my passion for RC and Tamiya. Along with it came a 1987 full colour catalogue, which I began to thumb through. Although I loved my Boomerang, I was in awe of the Supershot. Fast forward 35 years, and here I am, about to embark on a lovely Super Hotshot build.

I live quite close to an RC club that races 10th off road on a purpose build astro/multi surface track. I've raced there on and off since the mid 90's, but haven't do so for about 2 or 3 years. I popped in a few weeks ago to watch a race meeting with the intention of buying an RC10B6.3 to do a few races with. But there was a heat or two of vintage buggies that looked much more fun. So, I decided to finally build up the Super Hotshot I bought during the first lock down, and take it to a race or two. I'm not looking at competing with the various Top Forces etc, but am keen to give it a go.

Here's the beautiful box art.

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I then spotted this lovely carbon chassis on Instagram, contacted the guy in Singapore and placed an order.

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The other good feature is that it came with a Yeah Racing M-05 steering set up to get rid of the un-equal length steering arm. It also helps with the bump steer.

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As usual the build begins by separating out the parts bags.

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I got carried away with the rear transmission and forgot to take progress pics, but here it is completed. I'm going to try this TLBM-02 15.5t motor with a 17t pinion.

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Here's the front transmission. I'm using AW grease in the diff gears, and Tamiya Cera-Grease on the rest of the gears.

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I've never been a fan of using the black steel screw in suspension shafts so opted to use Tamiya's stainless steel shafts instead. The were two issues to over come. Firstly, the shaft lengths in the M-05 or TL-01 shaft kits are a little long, so I've had to use some spaces to fill the extra length out. And, secondly on the outside of the rear arms there is a bracket for the lower damper mount. This would be held in place by the screw of the steel shaft. So, here I opted to use a stainless steel hex bolt.

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This allowed me to tighten the bolt up to get the perfect tension to hold the bracket in place. Lastly, I slightly closed the bracket in the vice so it was a tight fit on the arm to remove the slight amount of play.

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On the rest of the car I was able to use stainless shafts.

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Next up, the steering knuckles. I've tried, where possible to use stainless hex hardware, and managed to find some m2 bolts for the knuckle plates.

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Also added some DF-02 universal shafts in the front.

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Front and rear transmissions compete.

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Savox servo borrowed from my TT-02 drifter.

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There's not a lot of space for the electrics in here so I'm going to have to get creative with the space available.

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And, here's the chassis with the transmissions mounted up.

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The esc I'm using is the trusty Hobbywing 10BL60. As usual I'll remove the mutli-coloured wires and replace them all with black.

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After having a play with positioning the receiver and ESC, I settle on mounting the esc on the chassis side. But, I didn't want the self adhesive servo tape collecting dirt through the chassis cut outs so marked the areas to add the tape to with a pencil.

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Spot on.

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That's all for now. Thanks to taking a look, and apologies for so many pics...

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Looks very cool, do you have a link for the carbon chassis? Is the chassis a performance or aesthetic improvement?

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2 hours ago, jupitertwo said:

Looks very cool, do you have a link for the carbon chassis? Is the chassis a performance or aesthetic improvement?

It's a bit of both to be honest. It's much stiffer than the stock plastic one. It also allows the use of a proper bell crank type steering set up with means you can use equal length left and right steering arms. It also shaves a chuck of weight off the kit set up. And, it looks great. It's from a guy on Instagram called "@phangsterer"

 

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Superb thread, thank you for taking the time to document your build.

The HS2 imo modest option is the best looking HS 👍

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Great build, I love the "old" designs and this chassis change does not detract from the original style.Would like to find out more about the chassis,being a old fart I do not do any social media stuff. Is it rude to ask how much it is? if its within my funds I can ask my son to track the guy down,thanks

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2 hours ago, Frog Jumper said:

Super duper indeed!

:D

3 hours ago, Grumpy pants said:

Superb thread, thank you for taking the time to document your build.

The HS2 imo modest option is the best looking HS 👍

No problem. I quite enjoy doing build threads. 

1 hour ago, Gazzalene said:

Great build, I love the "old" designs and this chassis change does not detract from the original style.Would like to find out more about the chassis,being a old fart I do not do any social media stuff. Is it rude to ask how much it is? if its within my funds I can ask my son to track the guy down,thanks

Thanks. To be honest I don't really do social media either. However, I have an Instagram account just to keep up on new stuff etc... Don't bother with it other than that though. He's actually listed them on eBay now:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/184847537915

Although I contacted him through Instagram and he did free shipping. It is a direct replacement for the kit plastic chassis but I have had to be creative in a few places... particularly the electrics to get it all in. And I've had to use different length bolts in places also. But, if you've got a few spares left over from other kits it's not a problem. I've not had to buy anything else to do the chassis swap.

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More progress.

 

I've replaced all the mutli coloured wire on the ESC for all black ones, apart from a single red one for the battery so I don't start a fire!

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There is not a lot of space in the chassis, so it took a little bit of head scratching to get the esc and receiver in place and out of the way of the centre shaft.

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Trial fit of the body and wing. It's starting to look good now, I think.

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I quite like the look of the yellow dampers, however, I know of the issue with the fronts not having enough travel which means the dampers bottom out before the chassis, therefore putting stress on the damper mounts. So, I knew that I'd have to look at other alternatives. Wanting to keep things Tamiya as much as possible I opted for the #54993 TT02b/DF03 dampers. After a little fiddling with the lengths they fitted perfectly. I'll need to have a play around with the oil and springs but initially they feel great.

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And lastly for now a test fit with the wheels.

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Next job will be painting the driver figure, and deciding on a colour for the body. One thing I'm sure about is that it will not be box art....

 

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Looks amazing. I too was sold on that carbon body. It is almost a crime to cover it with a body cowl. Very interested to see how it all comes together.

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Nice build with top parts.  Looks really great! :)

So has R5-D4 been helpful with the build? :lol:

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Where did you get the blue rod that connects the front and rear gearboxes? I didn't think Tamiya made one that fit the Hotshot, but it looks like I am wrong. It is faaaat!

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14 hours ago, Frog Jumper said:

Simply stunning!

Thank you.

 

12 hours ago, Nicadraus said:

Nice build with top parts.  Looks really great! :)

So has R5-D4 been helpful with the build? :lol:

Thanks. The Droid is just for security :o)

1 minute ago, cambragol said:

Where did you get the blue rod that connects the front and rear gearboxes? I didn't think Tamiya made one that fit the Hotshot, but it looks like I am wrong. It is faaaat!

It's from the TT02. I think it's a few mm shorter (or longer) than the kit one, but I just used some 'O' rings to space it. Fits a treat.

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Ahh, okay, that makes sense. Thanks!

I have the same carbon fibre body and was thinking of getting a Supershot skidplate for the bottom. I see that you added yours. However, the seller told me that to fit it you need to cut out some grooves to accommodate the arms/extensions for the battery. Is that what you did?

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10 minutes ago, cambragol said:

Ahh, okay, that makes sense. Thanks!

I have the same carbon fibre body and was thinking of getting a Supershot skidplate for the bottom. I see that you added yours. However, the seller told me that to fit it you need to cut out some grooves to accommodate the arms/extensions for the battery. Is that what you did?

He told me the same thing but I didn't need to cut anything. I did need to ream two holes to clear the bolts holding the steering arms on to the chassis. I'll take a pic tonight to show you. 👍

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@cambragol

 

Here's a few pics of the SHS under chassis plate. You can see here the two holes I reamed to clear the steering arm bolts.

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Here chassis plate in it's natural rest. You can force it closer to the chassis, and if it naturally sat like that you would have to file the sides to clear the battery tray. But, as it naturally sits, you don't.

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And here you can see that the chassis plate has a slight curve to the top. This is how it naturally sits and it clears the battery plate nicely.

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Hope this helps.

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Thanks for the pics toyolien! They certainly make everything clear. I am going to have to source a Supershot underguard/skidplate. Functional, and it looks great on your build!

Looking forward to seeing how yours looks in the end. The route there is interesting too. 

Hmm...I wonder if there were any metal/carbon third party skid plates made for the Supershot...

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6 hours ago, cambragol said:

Hmm...I wonder if there were any metal/carbon third party skid plates made for the Supershot...

Let me know if you find one.

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I certainly will. However, I seriously doubt there was one. I know the hotshot I and II had a couple. However, the Supershot's looks like it is the best version. Not sure how to improve upon it, except in materials.

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On 8/2/2021 at 1:14 AM, toyolien said:

 

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What length aluminum m3 rod did you use to connect the two front shock towers?

And....  how necessary is it?

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2 hours ago, DeadMeat666 said:

What length aluminum m3 rod did you use to connect the two front shock towers?

And....  how necessary is it?

I think from memory it was 83mm but i just measured between the towers cut some alloy bar i had from a previous crawler build then drilled and tapped a hole either end. Not sure how necessary it is but when i used to race my Wild One (astro track) I was always bending the alloy shock towers. So as this will also be raced I took this precaution. 

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Beautiful work, the chassis is obviously a thing of beauty and enabling use of the M05 steering assembly is a big plus. I also love your work arounds on the screw pins. Interested to hear your progress with the DF03 dampers, I’ve got a set on my boomerang and haven’t found a combo of oil and springs that really feels right yet. 

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How secure is the battery?

Might have to pick one of these chassis kits up if I can find one.

Nice work, looks fab!

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