My cars are getting bigger....

Having spent some time trying and failing to get a Blackfoot from Ebay, I was about to embark on a new build Blackfoot Extreme, but changed my mind at the last minute to build a Twin Detonator instead.


This one has ballraces (of course) and stainless steel suspension pins. Also it has the Carson shocks originally purchased for the Baja Champ, but which were too long for that car, with the Detonator springs on them (the Carson springs were a bit too long and I think it will handle better with the stock springs).


I have also wired an ESC for it, having followed some excellent tips provided by Novak on their site. I didn't want to spend £100+ on a special twin motor ESC, so this method worked out better, costing less than half that (It's not a Novak, its an Mtroniks). It's had a run around the garden, and the ESC didn't blow up, so hopefully it will be man enough. I won't really know for sure until it gets taken out for it's first proper run with some hilly ground and longer runtimes.


Couldn't decide on a colour to paint it, Candy Blue, or Tamiya Black.... so I painted it Candy Blue at the front, with Tamiya Black behind the flame decals. (The Candy is a bit lighter than it should be cos I was almost out of paint, so I thinned it to make it cover. It's come out a light bluey silvery mettaliccy colour, which looks nice). The wheels were primed and painted with metallic Antique Gold to match my other runners (enamel painted, and this time I primed them first so the finish should last longer than it did on the Baja Champ!)


It's now ready for Snetterton Spring 2004, and I might even pop a couple of neons inside it before then, as it will look pretty ;-)


UPDATE: 22nd Feb 2004: I've been playing with LEDs and ballpoint pens today, and have made up some neons. I've tested them out in the Detonator, and they look very cool. Well happy with them, total cost is 50p per 'neon', better than the £35 for a set of 5 ready made ones :-) See the pics to see how it looks. The blue ones will probably end up in the Midnight Pumpkin though, I'm doing some orange ones next which I think will look nicer in the Detonator. Also, I've got some colour changing ones, which cycle all the colours of the rainbow, cosmic!

Update - 12th June. The Kyosho Magnetic Mayhem motors which I bought from another TC member are finally installed now, I've left the kit 18T pinions in place. They fly, the truck now wheelies from a start so I'm well chuffed with that, and the top speed is dramatically better than before. And after 15 minutes runtime around the garden there was still juice left in the 2000 Sanyo Racepack, the motors and speedo were all cool.

Well, a year and a half later, the Twin Det is still running strong. I've just ordered some nice alloy parts for it, upper suspension arms to replace the plastic stock ones which have a tendancy to keep falling off, and depositing the dogbones in the most difficult to find places. I would like to get alloy replacement parts for all the suspension bits, but they are quite pricey so will be purchased a bit at a time I think. The body is looking a bit worse for wear now, but for a truck that's a couple of years old it still looks remarkably good (from a distance). One of the rollbar lights has gone for good, got broken off at Kidderminster, glued back on but alas a day with Matt at the driving seat and the light was gone. But I'm thinking of putting some Clod lights on, or maybe just getting a replacement shell. This is still one of my favourite basher Tamiyas though, it just keeps on going and going and going. Great truck :)