Tommy R's Drifter....Take Two

[Tommy R]

I had a build thread on this car, but it somehow managed to turn into a "show and tell" for other people's rigs so I'm starting over here. First, a brief summary from the other thread.

I picked up a used Hot Bodies Cyclone here on RCC to start with. It had a couple upgrades, but nothing too fancy. It included a ball front diff, rear spool, and a locked center diff. Several other goodies were included, as well.


Had to make a few tweaks to put the spur gear in. The larger spur was needed because I couldn't get the pinion and spur close enough to mesh.




I had to also clearance the chassis plate and the center diff bulkhead to make clearance for the motor.


Here's how it sat initially. Castle Sidewinder and 4600 kv brusless combo (sensorless), Losi rx from my old MRC, and a cheapy no-name servo. The battery is 3s which is overkill, but it's what I had.


Painted up an HPI Silvia body and got new wheels/tires. I'm not much into the "import scene", but since this is a drifter I wanted it to look the part. Wheels are +6 and +9 offsets.




Overall, it drifted fairly well, but was I struggling with it and was quickly gaining an appreciation for those who can drift well. It wasn't as easy as it looked!

[Tommy R]

We had our first drift meet not long after it was completed. Here's some pics...




Then a bunch of drunk hillbillies drove in and parked on our rides!!


Cory (STANG KILLA SS) put together a great video from the event:


I made a few tweaks to the rig, including new HPI Titanium springs, Tamiya TRF dampers, CVD's, aluminum bits, suspension tweaks, etc. I also tried a center one-way diff to try to get it to turn in better. It helped, but at the next event I stripped something in the drivetrain. There the car sat for nearly a year. But here's some pics of the goodies I'd just installed.

I built a styrene cage for it.


Super expensive suspension bits!








Ran into an issue with the tie rods. At droop, they rub the toe block up front. I had to grind down the block to get proper clearance.

[jcrosby]

Always really liked the idea of drifting RCs ... and yours looks awesome for sure.

How long did all the mods take as it looks like there is a lot of custom work on that?

[Tommy R]

So here we are nearly a year later and there a few more local crawling guys who've picked up drifters so we all have a renewed enthusiasm for them. Time to dust things off and finally make the long overdue repairs! I also had test driven a friend's car which was running a front one-way diff and a locked center diff. I picked up a center one-way so I could give it a try, too.

During the disassembly last night I realized I'd stripped a center pulley. I don't have the right size to replace it and neither did the LHS. Looks like an order will need to be placed online, methinks. I swapped out the front ball diff for the one-way only to discover the front spur gear was larger than the rear. This means I've been drifting with a countersteer setup all this time! No wonder I was struggling! I elected to put it back to stock, but again....no parts. I was fortunate that Stormer Hobbies had dang near everything I needed in stock. So I placed the order last night and hopefully will have everything by Thursday...just in time to run it at the meet this Saturday.

Here's some pics as it sits now. It looks like it exploded!


Front one-way next to the disassembled ball diff.


I'll have more of an update hopefully before the weekend.....

[Tommy R]

Originally Posted by jcrosby

Always really liked the idea of drifting RCs ... and yours looks awesome for sure.

How long did all the mods take as it looks like there is a lot of custom work on that?

Thanks! Honestly, the best thing to do if you're starting out is to just run a stock rig with some drift tires on it. The mods can be done in smaller stages down the road because many of them don't really seem to make that much of a difference, IMO.

[jcrosby]

Well, I remember seeing a video of one a few years back and then forgetting about them ... but your post reminded me about drifting.... I will add one to my "buy list" after I get my SCX10 up and running

[JeepinDoug]

A little tip on the HPI front one-way.
Remove the one-way bearings one at a time keep in mind their rotation.
Reinstall them with some locktite, red or green being careful not to get the glue in the bearing part. Only glue the outter race in to the aluminum. Do both bearings.

Reason? The one-way bearing outter race will spin inside the aluminum diff ends making them completely useless. Very poor engineering on their part but really easy fix for a $30 part.

[justinart24]

Nice rig, I love the camber.

[Duuuuuuuude]

Looks good. Makes me want to get another one...

Originally Posted by Tommy R

Honestly, the best thing to do if you're starting out is to just run a stock rig with some drift tires on it. The mods can be done in smaller stages down the road because many of them don't really seem to make that much of a difference, IMO.

x2

My first drift car was a Tyco Drift King, super easy to drive and had a suprising amount of power for a car from Target.

My second was an otherwise stock TC3, and it was a handful, even with a 27t motor, 6 nimh cells, and abs tires.

It really doesn't take much to make a drift car.

[Tommy R]

Well, it's a long story, but I sold the Cyclone to a friend of mine. I got tired of chasing parts compatibility issues. But I replaced it with something pretty nice, IMO. I picked up a used XRAY T3. It's a 2010 model and best I can tell, it's the Euro Spec Edition. They also offered a US Spec Edition that was slightly different. It arrived yesterday so here's some pics...






It came with a spool front and ball diff rear. So I put the spool in the rear and will put a one-way in the front. Only XRAY doesn't sell a one-way, they sell what they call a "multi-diff". The multi-diff can be configured to act like a front one-way, a center one-way, or a spool. Pretty trick! I ordered a multi-diff, but didn't get all the parts I needed so another order will be placed today.

These cars come very well outfitted: CVDs front and rear, tons of adjustability, aluminum bulkheads, etc. This one also came with an Exotek LiPo chassis and lots of spares. So far I'm very impressed and it's been quite easy to work on. I did notice some excessive play in the RF axle shaft so I took it apart and found the driveshaft pin pretty wallowed out. The rest of the axle looks fine so I'll just replace the pin.


Lastly, the Silvia body will be retired. It'll be replaced by an AE86 Levin Coupe by Yokomo.

[STANG KILLA SS]

beautiful!

[Tommy R]

Installed a 48p spur gear, swapped in some HPI Titanium springs, installed the servo and motor, and decided to trim and pop some holes in the new body. As it sits now, it will easily tuck +3mm offset wheels up front and barely tuck +6mm rears (will need a touch of camber). I may end up running +6 all around, though. The body sits too low right now so I'll need to get some longer body posts. I want the bottom of the chassis even with the bottom of the body.

[Tommy R]

The multi-diff arrived yesterday and I installed it as a front one-way. Went in nice and easy. This car is so easy to work on!! Anyway, I haven't been feeling too well so it kept me inside most of the weekend. What better way to pass the time stuck inside than working on RC crap, right? So I painted up the body and did some more detail work to it.....which took forever, but was fun.

The color in this pic doesn't look right. But it shows off the purty front light buckets (no LEDs yet).


This is a cruddy pic, too, but it shows the color better.


I decided not to run lots of camber on this car because I want nice, consistent tire wear. So as cool as it would look with +6 offsets front and rear with some camber, I'll stick with +3 offsets with just enough camber to keep the tires off the body under compression.

Still need to finish painting the rear tail light assemblies with transparent paint, install the interfooler, order LEDs, get more wheels/tires, etc. I also still have to put my CC Sidewinder in it so I can do a test drive.

[Krawler Konceptz]

One license plate ordered up

[STANG KILLA SS]

not a traditional trueno color. i like it. very unique.
what ya got planed for wheels?
cant quite tell, is the hood black?

[Tommy R]

Originally Posted by Krawler Konceptz

One license plate ordered up

Two plates, please!

Originally Posted by STANG KILLA SS

not a traditional trueno color. i like it. very unique.
what ya got planed for wheels?
cant quite tell, is the hood black?

No, it's not. And to be honest I'm not really sold on it. I wanted a dark metallic red, but the LHS was out. I had this metallic purple for awhile and figured I'd give it a try. It's growing on me, though.

I really like these gold HPI wheels, but will likely pick up some others. I need to place another order with Genki soon. They've got the best selection by far. Too bad shipping takes forever.

Yes, the hood is painted black. I wanted it to have a carbon fiber look, but with the heavy contours of the hood, it would've been impossible to apply CF looking decals. So I just painted it black instead. There's some really cool details in this rig, but they're mostly in the rear.

[Tommy R]

Did some basic maintenance, set up the suspension, and got the body mostly done. I don't know how much more "stickering" it's going to get. Not sure how far I want to go with it. Anyway, some pics...

[STANG KILLA SS]

looks amazing. i see you got rid of most of the camber you were running on the cyclone.
i like the understated look. chip foose style.

[Tommy R]

Thanks, man! Running lots of camber and barely tucking the tires is a cool look, but kills tires too quickly. I'm only running -2* now so it's not too bad. I'm running +3 offsets right now, but I'm thinking of raising the body and running +6. We'll see..

And yes, I do prefer the understated "Weekend Drifter" look as opposed to the all out competition look.


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[STANG KILLA SS]

im diggin the +3 tucked look ya got going now. but more lip is never a bad thing either



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