99999: Misc. from wldnas showroom, Latrax, the Rough Rider that Isn't

Model: (Click to see more) 99999: Misc.
Status: Project
Date: 2-Aug-2006
Comments: 4

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**PLEASE READ THIS** for anyone looking at this model displayed in my showroom and wondering if I will sell it? PLEASE DON’T ASK!!! I get numerous requests from TC members wanting to buy cars displayed in my Tamiyaclub showroom, and to be honest I get very annoyed when people ask to buy something that is clearly NOT FOR SALE!! This car is part of MY COLLECTION and as such I want to KEEP IT!! So please don’t Email on the off chance that I might sell it to you, if I want to sell any of my cars I will put them up for sale in my TRADE ROOM, so look there to see what cars I am prepared to sell otherwise don’t bother asking cos the only answer you will get is NO!!! thanks for reading this disclaimer. Regards wldnas.

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Now with my propensity for acquiring Clone car type RC’s I could not pass this one up ;) offered to me by Mr Tamiyaclub himself (Chris Netsmith) it’s a very old car that bears a striking resemblance to an earlt Tamiya buggy that we are all familiar with ;)

It’s called a LATRAX and I think it was sold by some company called Brilliant industries? For whom I have never heard of before, but in doing a little digging I have found that the Latrax brand name was used on a number of other RC cars in the early days of Radio control, It’s an intriguing machine? I'm not too sure how old it is exactly? But judging by the fact that its a Rough Rider clone must make it very early 80's at least? I know that the original radio system was one of them old Futaba wheel types so that puts it in the late 70's early 80's age bracket, some other Latrax cars that I have heard about are a Porsche 935 and Chevy Corvette body styles, I’m assuming that they all used the same basic chassis but this one appears to be the “Off-Road” type.
Now on first impressions it looks just like a Tamiya Rough Rider, but this is a car that flatters to deceive :S first off when you put it along side the genuine article it’s smaller in scale? About 1:11th is my guess, then you notice that the body is not hard plastic but a thin flexible almost Lexan type shell, it has some platic detail bits bolted on and is attached front and rear by pairs of body posts, the front one coming off the top of the steering servo mounting posts, the body on this car is a little worse for wear but I knew that before I bought it as Chris had told me as much.

The chassis underneath is vaguely similar to that of the SRB except the suspension and transmission layout have been grossly simplified, the front end has similar style side frames but there are only single aluminium trailing arms on each side, they are sprung by some weak plastic shocks with internal coil springs, the rear end is even more basic with a solid drive axle running inside brass bearings fitted to a fixed motor mount with a direct drive onto the rear axle through a single step down ratio, it is fitted with a 540 motor and it has the mother of all heat sinks zip tied to the top of it ;) but then the rear end has more in common with an old school pan car chassis than an Off-Roader?

There is a black plastic cage guard thing around the rear transmission assembly that is similar to the one on the SRB, except it has integrated body mount posts sticking out of the top bars, in the middle of the car is a black plastic equipment tray that is designed to take the batteries and radio transmitter, this car is meant to take 6 cells arranged into 3 cell packs and one sat in each side of the tray, the Radio receiver sits in the middle and on the front of the box is a mounting tab with the on/off switch and a charging jack, the steering servo is direct drive onto the wheels via a crude and weak servo saver, and the whole lot sits on an FRP plank similar to the one on an SRB :)

Now the electronics on this car is surprisingly considering its probable age, its fitted with an Early Electronic speed controller, it sits over the battery tray and is slotted into a large heat sink that sits just in front of the rear transmission, the box itself is quite bulky about the size of two large receivers sat side by side, this speedo takes its power from the main drive battery and feeds the receiver through the servo cable (much like a modern ESC) the on/off switch is wired through the battery and switches the power off at its source, with that in mind this car runs a Battery Eliminator Circuitry system (B.E.C) long before the system was rolled out on more modern cars in the mid 80’s

I’ve tried to get the radio to work as is but connecting a battery is tricky as the original connectors are totally different from modern ones and the steering servo does not seem to want to return to neutral setting when the transmitter does? I've also taken the drive train apart as the main drive is really notchy and found that the main drive gear on the axle is a modified 46 tooth Schumacher ball diff unit (I suspect off one of their early Pan cars) but is solid bolted onto a hex mounting boss onto the rear axle and its got quite a few teeth missing (hence the roughness)

I managed to get it working (of a sort) and went to try it in the street, first off the steering was all over the place, second the drive was making funny noises under load and was very juddery (I assume that is due to the toothless drive gear) but the biggest fault was the front suspension, its far too soft, and when you drive forwards it just caves in and when you try to turn a corner the wheels are getting pushed over because the steering geometry has been compromised thanks to it being so soft and collapsing inwards, I can see that this car is going to need major modifications if its to be made into a workable car.

The chassis is a half way house between an old school pan car rear end and semi-offroad front end, you would probably need to fit some form of suspension to the rear end and severely stiffen up the front end to prevent it collapsing, the original tires although virtually the same as Rough Rider ones will need replacing as well as they are starting to perish, you could fit new modern radio gear, re-mount the battery side ways so that standard racing packs could be used, but I can’t be bothered to do all that to this car right now.

I mostly bought it as curiosity for my collection and because I like to collect Clone cars, but in a way this car is more than that given it advanced electronic design and its obvious age It is worthy of a place in my collection just as it is, Just so long as I don’t run it ;)