My RS4 nitro on road to electric, rally, drift conversion

[Gula]

So this is my conversion of a 1/10 scale RS4 nitro to electric and it wil be a dual purpose vehicle for rally and drift duty. Here are a few pictures of where I'm at.







I'll post more pics as parts come in. I'm still waiting for shocks, a mod1 pinion, my body, and I still have to buy body posts

I may take some plate aluminum, copy that chassis and shift that tranny over so i have a little more room for my battery holder.

[cbp27]

Looks good! What motor/esc are you using?
Instead of searching for the old HPI SNR body posts parts tree (A374), you should be able to use this: HPI #85032
It has those long body posts with the hex shape at the bottom. Hope that helps.

[Gula]

Drift tires and wheels came in. Still waiting on the body. The eBay seller I bought it from has some very slow shipping service. I also got my front shocks in. For those I just added all of the limiters inside and rebuild the rears the same, now it sits level and about a inch off the ground. Already got paint (pactra metallic blue) wheels are hpi's te37 3 mm offset front and 6 out back in bronze color. Also picked up some body posts that should work fine. I still have to mount the battery holder then also wait for the SW-V2. To come back from castles repair program then it's go time.

new level stance, also new tires and wheels

Rear shot

Battery holder is a chopped up emaxx chassis. You get two of them out of one chassis.

[Gula]

Well everbody on ebay is out of the HPI Mitsubishi EVO-X body and the ford focus body, so I decided to get the Skyline GTR body and the 01 WRX for rally duty. I'm using traxxas slash body mounts for the rear (super short ones) and some dubro ones for the front.

[nandrewjackson]

I have the nitro MT2 (rs4) and I love it. I had to work out several kinks from the RTR setup, but overall HPI makes some darn good stuff.

[Gula]

Originally Posted by nandrewjackson

I have the nitro MT2 (rs4) and I love it. I had to work out several kinks from the RTR setup, but overall HPI makes some darn good stuff.

Yeah they are awesome. I had one too, well still do somewhat. Need any Nitro
parts I have a bunch left.


As MT2 with Nitro

As SC truck

[rybredd]

i'm not seeing any pix of the rs4.......

is it still pretty much an rs4, just electric?
i just pulled mine outta retirement and was wanting to trade it for an electric to run with a local club....

do you think it would be competitive?

[Gula]

Originally Posted by rybredd

i'm not seeing any pix of the rs4.......

is it still pretty much an rs4, just electric?
i just pulled mine outta retirement and was wanting to trade it for an electric to run with a local club....

do you think it would be competitive?

Yeah , sorry I moved the pics in photobucket and need to re-link them. It has the same lay out as the nitro RS4 with the motor being on the opposite side. thats it. You selling the RS4? shoot me a PM I may be interested. I havent driven it yet, but I think it wil be pretty fast

[slash23]

i really like the shortcourse look

[rybredd]

Not sure.....Id like to keep it if i could run electric, and it still be a touring car.

[Gula]

Skyline:


Scooby:



I'm going to put the ESC on top of the servo. I will also use some tie-rods instead of a top deck. Still have to drill holes for the steering servo, mount the electronics, glue tires and apply the decals to the bodies. Oh yeah also need to get a 5mm to 1/8 reducer sleeve for the pinion since I stole that for my SER build.

[Gula]

Well I mounted the servo, but I had to turn it arround due to clearance issues. I didnt have the stock upper deck that holds the steering servo and didnt think one off a RS4 MT or MT2 would fit, because thats all I have. I'm quickly running out of room on that chassis too so I may have to do a small top deck to mount the ESC on after all. Also the front and rear wheel wells dont line up with the tires that good, so out came the curved scissors and I made them look a little better. The front brace that connects the body mount to the shock tower had to get chopped a little bit too because I didn't realize the shocks would interfere.

Little bit of shock tower trimming was needed to fit he bodies. Rear is using the smalles mount I have ever seen, front needs to be this long so the body clears.


Clear shot of motor mount.

Rear Wheel well:

Front wheel well:

Servo position:


kind of worried about this one since it's a dual sport (Drift/Rally) and don't want that servo get knocked off by a rock or so. I may have to make a guard for it.

[cbp27]

Lookin good Can you try flipping the steering servo over so it's not hanging over the chassis? It might clear the drive shaft, then the servo arm can hang over the chassis if needed.

[Gula]

Originally Posted by cbp27

Lookin good Can you try flipping the steering servo over so it's not hanging over the chassis? It might clear the drive shaft, then the servo arm can hang over the chassis if needed.

Yeah I repositioned the servo and drilled a new hole. Will have to post pictures when I get home. I need a new chassis soon with all these new holes in it it's starting to look like swiss cheese.

New pics:
Electronics Placement


New servo position



I will most likely remove the motor wires and plugs off the ESC and solder the wires directly to the motor. Then just use Shoo Goo to mount the ESC to the servo. I'll do the same for the receiver. I also have this awesome braided sleeving which will stash all the wires to clean it up some

So for now it's 90% complete. Still to do is trim wheel wells on the rally body, apply decals and make a front brace or get some tie rods, and trim rally wheels and glue tires to them.