Mirahamm Hobby Laser - Rare or just uncommon?
Status: Runner
Date: 4-Aug-2007
Comments: 5
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This is my third RC-Car and the oldest one I own that it is still able to run. And it is running very good, I mostly drive it against my son's Desert Viper (Desert Gator with Sand Viper Body), named 'Brain' and my daughter's Super Viper (Super Fighter G with pink Desert Viper Body), named 'Pinky' and it never lost. Its durability is incredible, in about 16 years of bashing I only broke three parts of the car: both carbon-fibre shock towers (front and rear) and one front rim.
But now something about the Lasers history. I bought this car in 1991 in a small hobby shop, that mainly sold planes, in fact this was the only car they had in the store. But it looked fast on the cover and it was not too expensive, so I bought it, because my other buggy died some weeks ago and I wanted to drive again.
But while building the car I encountered some quality problems with the parts for the steering linkage, they did not fit right and the whole steering took too much power to move it. And this power was only there, when the battery was full. So I crashed the car after 3 days because of a not responding steering, destroying the front shock tower and killing any further motivation to keep on driving RC-Cars.
But ten years later, after I came back into the hobby with some Tamiya Models (Monster Beetle, Mini Cooper Monte Carlo, F-150 Trophy Truck), I found the remainings of the Laser stuffed into a big box, where I left them after the crash. At this time, I had no buggy at all, but somehow I missed the feeling of driving a fast 2 WD Buggy, so I started to restore the Laser. I just replaced the broken shock tower with a selfmade one out of aluminium and modified the steering to a direct steering system. And suddenly the car was fast and reliable.
In 2006 I managed to get hold of a complete steering linkage for a Kyosho Ultima Clone, which was a perfect fit for the Laser. I then rebuild the upper deck out of aluminium, because I had to remove the plastic one to make the direct steering fit.
To make things perfect, I saw that TC-Member 'mynameisneo' bought a spare part lot for the Laser on ebay and offered to sell the parts he didn't need. Obviously I bought what he offered me and therefore was able to change the front shock tower back to the carbon-fibre type.
The last modification was a new body, and as my son and my daughter both wanted a Sand Viper body for their Super Fighters, I took the Desert Gator body and used it for the Laser, again a perfect fit, ok, almost perfect.
Now for some technical data:
2 Wheel Drive with rear mounted motor;
Ball differential, belt driven (very efficient and smooth);
Fully ballraced;
Kyosho Le Mans 360 PT Motor
Gold alloy Oil shocks;
Desert Gator Body;
Dyna Blaster Wheels (Street Fighter Set) or Desert Gator Wheels with front Desert Gator tires and rear Multipin tires
Afaik Mirahamm Hobby has a partnership with Anderson / Duratrax. So maybe the Laser is the grandfather of the Evader? Unfortunately Duratrax is not yet common in Germany and there are only few dealers that sell Duratrax, so I do not know if this is true.
Update:
I modified the Dyna Blaster wheels to make them look more like Buggy wheels. I used my home-lathe (drilling machine fixed on a table) and cut down the arches. Now the front rims are nearly half as wide as they were before, the rears are about 2/3 of the former size. As the chrome was damaged by this I sprayed the rims grey (zinc spray) and put some clear laquer over this, fitted ARP Street Paw tires in them and off we go. Looks good now and the car handles better with these wheels than with the original Dyna Blaster wheels (in fact, it is not a Stadium Truck, so it should not have Stadium Truck wheels after all).
Oh, yes, before I forget: The shock towers of the older Ultimas fit! But not the ones of the first Ultima, these are to short, although they could be mounted. Best source for this shock towers and other spare parts are the Kyosho onroad models that use the Ultima chassis, they are easy to come by (also sold by Robbe and Prafa and whoever with only minor modifications).
Update: I got hold of a Tamiya Dyna Run Super Touring motor and mounted this on the Laser, after I modified the gear to accept a standard slipper I took from a spare part lot for my Cool Racer. Now it runs great, eating up rear tires and other spare parts, until now only one of the front shocks started to leak (already fixed) and the wing mount broke (replaced with spare part from Cool Racer), after I hit Pinky at nearly full speed, crashing into a solar powered garden light (which was destroyed completely).
Only one battery pack later the original drive belt blew up, too much power from Dyna Run Super Touring Motor or just too old? I don't know, but I have new belts, slightly wider, but same pitch and length and, most important, capable of transfering more than 200 Watts, brushless-ready! So if I get the slipper working sometimes I can get this baby flying deep.
The Laser in all its beauty.
Disguised as Stadium Buggy
High power eletronics
The rear end.
Just restored after 10 years in a box
Very standard and low budget electronics
After some slight modifications
Electronics got better
Upgrade to stage 3
Belt driven ball diff
If you liked those pictures, you should see these...
Mirahamm Hobby Laser - Lightning does strike twice
Comments
mynameisneo
I knew it has potential!!
Good to see the parts in good hands (and use).
mynameisneo
The shock towers are (nearly) similar to the kyosho ultima, if you need spares again.
masterbsax
I knew, no I assumed this before, because I had a front shock tower of a Ultima clone before I bought the carbon-fibre one from you. And at the first run with the 'new' shock tower I broke the rear one, luckily I bought both from you. But since then no more mechanical failure. The biggest problem now is the esc, because I am using a big 3500 mAh battery pack now, which is twice the power the battery packs had at the times the Laser and its esc were bought.
Road Burner
Any chance you have another spare belt? I may have asked before, sorry! I tried to fit an Ultima gearbox but the Laser chassis motor guard interferes. Thanks - Jim
masterbsax
The gearbox of the Robbe High Perfomance RC Car is a perfect fit, I use it on my Monster Laser Conversion, rock solid thanks to a planetary diff inside of it.
Otherwise you can try to get a replacement belt, Optibelt ZR60XL (the stronger one) or Bando 60XL (original one).
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