Breaker, breaker for the Bandit!
Model: (Click to see more)
58528: Subaru Impreza WRX STi
Status: Project
Date: 23-Jan-2013
Comments: 23
Status: Project
Date: 23-Jan-2013
Comments: 23
Original plan was to tune up my Subaru Brat, but have seen sense and have realised it's best left stock. Thus my focus was to have a modern chassis but still love Tamiya builds, so when I read the reviews for the new XV-01 chassis I knew I'd found my new tuneable project car!
Ditching the stock 540 motor for a 10T brushless motor and going to fit a 5000mah lipo battery. Hoping for a serious turn of speed.
Going with the stock STi body in the short but plan on getting a variety of bodies including Lancia Delta Integrale and Pontiac Firebird (if the ever get back in stock!). Going to start build tomorrow, so will update with build pictures as I progress.
New stealth mounted body and lettered tyres
Stickers finally complete!.
Oh dear. Think this could take a while......
Oh yes! Integrale time!
And a fabulous rear too!
Stealth mounts and lettered tyres
I've also fitted the light buckets this time
Next item to address is added LEDs
Trigger lives again (without nasty body posts)
This battery JUST fits in the battery compartment
Comments
Chanco
Although not photographed yet, the rear transmission plus dog bones and drive belt assembly is now done. More photos tomorrow. I've also managed to secure a Bandit edition Trans Am shell from Germany.
Chanco
Drive train and shock towers now in place. Unfortunately, the wiring between the engine and ESC is too short so first job today is to lengthen them. Annoyingly, the back plate for the motor can't be removed so going to have to perform a double join rather than a neater single join. Grrrr
Chanco
Chassis almost finished. Extending the motor/ESC cabling was a bit of a pig. Unlike a lot of combos the wires to the motor are already soldered to the motor. Not only that but they are soldered inside the motor and there doesn't seem to be anyway to remove the back plate without causing damage. Therefore, I had to cut the wires to add the extension (whilst keeping the bullet plugs to connect to the wires from the ESC. All good apart from the wire used by the motor just refused to 'tin' so I had to abandon the plan to use neat solder connections and resort to using heat shrink butt connectors. It's not quite as neat as originally planned, but at least I can still separate the motor and ESC by simply unplugging them.
Chanco
Now that I know the 77 Trans Am is on the way I need to investigate the wheel situation. HPI Racing have some mesh wheels that do a good impression of the snowflake wheels but only do them with an offset of 3mm when I really need 6mm. There is a similar wheel that they do that has the required offset. I'll order both and see which works best.
Chanco
The chassis is finished (Add pictures soon). Still waiting for Rx to be delivered. Had to have a rethink on the wheels. Neither of my original choices will be big enough. The chassis is only 180mm wide (with standard wheels), but the HPI Trans Am body is 200mm. Therefore, I've ordered 'non snowflake' wheels. They have a gold centre (good) and a chrome surround (good) and a 9mm offset (almost perfect). So whilst they're not the right style, at least they're almost the right colour (gold and chrome) and most importantly, will fill out the body shell width. For the minute I'm about to start the masking exercise for the standard Scooby body shell. Collecting the paint for this (and the Trans Am, plus the TA wheels) tomorrow. Hopefully TA body will arrive from Germany this week, although the snow probably hasn't helped..........
Chanco
Trans Am body arrived yesterday so I spent this afternoon measuring and measuring and measuring again to get the drill holes in the right place. Next job is painting and the decals. Whilst the front wheels are a perfect fit, the rears good do with being a few mm wider. Unfortunately I just can't seem to find a matching set of wheels that give me the desired different track front to rear, so I'm going to just have to live with the current setup for the moment. At the same time I'm also in the middle of painting the Impreza body that came with the kit. Between the Scooby and Trans Am body shells I got a LOT of decals to apply.....
Chanco
Well the Trans Am is almost complete. The only thing left to do is sort increasing the rear track. I've ordered some hex extenders. I may have to change the wheels (reduce offset) to compensate. Front track is spot on. I'm about a third of the way through applying the stickers to the Scooby body. I'm also going to fit some LED's to the Scooby. To allow neater finish when interchanging the bodies I'm going to order some new body mount posts. The Scooby shell needs them tall but the T/A needs them short, thus two different sets required.
Chanco
Took the car out for its first run today (with the Subaru body, the T/A is the shelf queen body). All I can say is WOW! This is my first brushless car and the speed is phenomenal. It's running a 10T motot with a 5000mah 2s lipo. Needless to say, the Scooby body is no longer factory fresh after one or two barrel rolls......The hex extenders arrived for the rear wheels to the T/A and the good news they sort the wheel offset perfectly. The bad news is the axles aren't quite long enough, so my next search is to find some longer axles for the rear and then I'll have the perfect setup that allows easy swaps between Trans Am for the shell (and running in very very open spaces!) and the Scooby for general bashing.
Chanco
For those of you thinking of getting the XV-01 chassis I heartily recommend it. It's a really fun build, as is the body painting and decal application. It's definitely one for those who like to take their time. Because the engine is at the front it has a real nose heavy bias and that results in a more drifting handling setup. Plus the standard chassis setup is quite soft (it's a rally car don't forget, not a circuit racer). With the low ground clearance it's not a buggy, so don't expect to drive it that way (i.e. it's not really meant for jumps). But the drift style handling is an absolute riot (think Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift). Can't wait to take her to the beach tomorrow.
Chanco
Just for those thinking of building this fabulous chassis, a few considerations. The Rally Ready Edition (mine) includes a standard Tamiya silver can 540 motor and it DOESN'T include an ESC. If you buy the Pro Chassis (same price) it doesn't come with an engine or a body (but includes some hop up parts). I had no intention of fitting the silver can, so can't comment on what 'stock' performance is like, but it's not a desperately light chassis (especially with battery fitted), so I can imagine the stock performance will only be enjoyable for absolute beginners (on the plus side, impacts with solid objects will be at less terminal speeds!). As a note of caution, the front engine, rear ESC configuration means that careful consideration is required for the wiring. If you plan to run a sensored engine you will need a 300mm sensor wire. Also, you may find the wires between the ESC and motor aren't long enough, especially if they're pre-soldered (as mine was), so be prepared to have to cut and extend the motor/ESC wires. I've currently got an Etronix Photon 10T brushless (unsensored) motor and this needed to have the motor wires cut and extended (Radshape RC kindly provided the extra wire FOC). The motor wire needed to have the coating on EACH strand of wire stripped by scraping with a razor blade before soldering, otherwise the solder doesn't adhere. For the price (£70 including a programming card) for the motor/ESC combo I'm very impressed with the speed (it borders on being too fast). However, The wire extension job is nowhere as neat as I would have liked. I wouldn't recommend the Photon for this chassis unless you're on a real budget and are prepared to phaff about with extending the wiring. Lesson learnt, I've got a Fusion Exceed 10T sensored brushless motor (and sensor wire) on order (what I was originally intending to fit before being swayed by the cheaper Etronix....).
Chanco
Another consideration is the size of battery. When I was researching this chassis I noticed a lot of queries on various forums about the size of battery that will fit. For those that don't know, the battery compartment is accessed from under the chassis, NOT by removing the body. This massively limits the size of battery that can be used. FYI, the battery compartment measures 165mm x 54mm x 25mm. I've posted a photo of the Turnigy Lipo battery I'm currently using. This battery only just squeezes into compartment with the battery wire doubled over within the end of the compartment. It's very much the maximum that'll fit (dimension wise, not capacity wise), but I highly recommend it. It has a good run time and a real punch. Any more power and I feel the car would be borderline undriveable. Plus it was only about £20 which I feel is very reasonable.
Chanco
Took the Scooby up to Whitby today. Man she went like stink across the sands and drew quite a crowd. Couldn't believe how fast she could go. Unfortunately, she seem to eat her entire body weight in (so much so, that the steering jammed....) so I had to break out the toothbrush and compressed air canister! Got the worst off and she's sat in the boot of the car for the last couple of days until my return home. This evening I've gave her a minor strip down to clear the last of the sand out of the nooks and crannies.
Chanco
I've ordered some longer axles for the rear, so hoping that'll solve the track issue when the Trans Am body is fitted. Need to find a massive tarmac area where I can run the Trans Am body (and grippy slicks) safely without any chance of damaging the body. I don't mind the Scooby body being bashed to bits, but not Trigger!
Chanco
Whilst getting carried away with some drifting I managed to smack the car at high speed into the kerb, rear on. This broke the lower rear suspension mount. I've temporarily fixed it with tyre glue and have ordered an aluminium replacement. Lesson for the days was not to get too cocky when trying for those big drifts......
Chanco
The new rear axles arrived today (Blackfoot axles FYI) and these sort the rear track problem for the Trans Am body perfectly. The lock pin hole on the Blackfoot axles is much further out meaning there's a big gap between the pin and the hub / bearing. I've seen that some people have filled the gap with O-Rings and washers but I've found that a standard bearing fills the gap perfectly (you could use a plastic bush instead). As can be seen from the photo the rear wheels finally reach the edge of the bodywork. Result! There's even a bit of scope with these axles to push the wheels out a few mm more if required through the use of a slightly longer hex adapter.
Chanco
New Flash! For anyone who owns this chassis or is thinking of getting it, don't buy the Fusion Exceed Race ESC. It doesn't fit in the water resistant compartment. Luckily, that meant I had the perfect excuse to go out and buy another car (TT-01E) to fit them in.........
Chanco
Finally got round to ordering a Martini edition Delta Integrale body (perfect for a rally chassis). Will post photos when it arrives and then when painted.
Chanco
Delta Integrale body arrived and I've painted her and need to apply the decals. Unfortunately I've created a problem for myself by trimming the body mount posts for the Scooby and Trans Am bodies. The posts are now too short for the Integrale. I've ordered new posts for use with the Integrale (standard posts are waayyyy to long aesthetically for the Trans Am). In order to fit the Integrale body I've also had to trim the foam bumber. Good news is the standard Scooby white rally wheels work with the Integrale body. Pictures will be posted soon.
Chanco
Completed the Integrale body and she looks a beaut! A very enjoyable body to paint and detail. You just can't beat the classics.
Chanco
At last! Notification received that the replacement rear suspension mount has been shipped. Have tried running her a couple of times with the existing mount glued, but invariably the glue gives way after a few minutes. I've been having withdrawal symptoms of the XV-01's particularly drifty driving style!
Chanco
Took the T/A shell out for a run the other day and disaster, a near invisible lip on the road caused a flip and a barrel roll. This has split the front air damn and scuffed the pin stripping around the roof. Thus shell is now a normal runner. I've bought another T/A shell for shelf life and a set of stealth mounts. Have had to improvise a new mounting point for the front mounts as the standard posts are mounted too high for stealth mounts. Have only just finished painting the new shell today and now have all that pin striping to apply......I'm also going to attempt to white letter the tyres. Pictures to be uploaded in a few days when I've finished.
Chanco
Completed replacement Trans Am. The T/A was always meant to be a shelf queen shell, so the mount posts sticking through always irked me. Took that as an opportunity to take the original shell out for a blast (which ended badly for the T/A.....). With the shelf queen shell I've added the light buckets in anticipation of adding LEDs. I've also white lettered the tyres to try and get closer to that authentic 'Trigger' look. Looks so much better with the stealth mounts. Fitting the stealth mounts required a bit of rethinking as the front mounts on the top of the shock towers were too high up. Luckily I had some spare mounts from my DF-03Ra (which screw from the bottom. This allowed me to attach them to the front bumper mount. Problem solved.
Chanco
Added a light kit (Ansmann MultiLight) and pleased with the results. The kit supports indicators but the T/A doesn't (unless I strip the paint behind the side indicators, which I'll investigate). The kit comes with set of front, rear and side indicators. I need two sets for both front and rear. Modelsport only had 3mm spare LEDs when the kit uses 5mm ones. I've therefore ordered some addition 5mm front and rear LEDs via eBay and will post pictures when I've fitted them.
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