RadioFlyer's garage

[RadioFlyer]

Props to OSRC for his Fun with Tiny Cars thread which inspired me to start this one. We are mostly here for our "Crawler" rigs but some of us are older than the crawler genre and have roots in earlier or other forms of RC. At nearly 50 I am definitely in the "older than crawlers" camp but even if I wasn't I think I would be into all the other forms of it anyway.
Back in the day I used to race off-road and on-road (parking lots) during the summer and carpet during the winter, and by BITD I mean 30+ years ago.
As such I have a pretty good collection of RCs with roots all the way back to the early 80s.
In the past I have traded or sold a (very) few of my models and now it's a definite regret as I wish I had them all still in my posession. As a result I am fairly confident that everything that falls into my grasp nowadays will remain with me until someone pries them from my cold dead hands so here is a bit of a peek on my limited collection.

[RadioFlyer]

First up is what started it all for me. It was Xmas 1985 and I was 15. I had showed interest in a Marui Samurai that was advertised in (RC unrelated) magazines. My dad talked to his buddy who's store could order almost any hobby grade RC of the time. I had the Tamiya and Kyosho catalogs of the time and as much as I wanted all the models in them, the one that called to me was the Tamiya Hotshot. It just looked so cool and the promo videos at the LHS just had me hooked.

On Xmas morning I sat down for a 13 hour assembly marathon and it was done before I went to bed.

It got bashed for a few years, then raced off-road for a few more until it was well-worn. By then carpet racing was a thing and I didn't have enough money to replace all the broken front-end parts so I built it into a RWD car with some aluminum door sill sections and hardware store fasteners for a front end. Against RC10s and Ultimas I actually did well with Andy's RC foam rear tires (unheard of for the buggy class at the time ) and rock hard ribbed front tires. it just handled good and I won the championship with that chopped HotShot.

Fast-forward to last year and I went looking for my old HotShot at my mom's house. I had left everything in some boxes but for the life of me I couldn't find them. Turns out my mom had cleaned a lot of stuff out after my dad passed away and my RC stuff appears to have been part of the purge.
I was pretty bummed, so bummed that I went online to see who had any re-re kits left in stock. I knew I couldn't afford an original NIB 1985 kit but if there was still a decade-old 2007 re-re out there that I wanted it. I found nothing until I stumbled on RCMart and they had two kits left. I bought them both.



Of course I built one and the other will likely remain in the box until I'm nothing more than dust.

In the excitment of Xmas of 1985 the original stickers were lost, presumed thrown out with all the wrapping paper. This would not be repeated in 2018.
Because of this the new build was never intended to be a faithful replica of my original buggy so I went ahead and ordered a full complement of RC Channel alloy suspension parts before they were no longer available and I also added some alloy wheels shod with contemporary JConcept Dirt Webs.

[RadioFlyer]

As for the 2nd entry, it's only fitting that it would be my my 2nd hobby grade RC, and the first one I bought with my own money.

What I REALLY wanted was an RC10 but at the LHS the kit was $400. Meanwhile the Traxxas Radicator was "only' $200, so that's what I bought.
This model was raced only a few times off-road and it did ok but it wasn't really a race-worthy kit compared to what Associated/Losi/Kyosho were putting out at the time. Still though this buggy had no equal in strength and durability. I remember driving it head-on into a brick wall multiple times without consequence. (of course with a 27 turn stock brushed motor)
Over the years This buggy had surrendered parts (interchangeable front suspension with RC10) and had been chopped up some. Just last year I found a partial for sale and picked it up to try and complete what was left of my original kit.

This is what I have sofar.





The astute older RCers among you will notice that the front shocks are late 80s Losi bottom-loaders and maybe some of you will recognize the rear shocks as plastic Axial units. Unfortunately it's really hard to find original shocks for this buggy.
Also, the front wheels are original as are the COMPLETELY worn tires but the rears are not original at all. So I'm still on the hunt for rear wheels, front and rear tires and an original body.
The original buggy looked like this...

[RadioFlyer]

When I started racing carpet there were several classes to choose from. By far the fastest and most prestigious class was 1/12th pan car. That's where all the cool cats (fast guys) hung out and I wanted in. If you haven't witnessed 1/12th racing you owe it to yourself to at least check out some YT vids. In our case of 4-cell NiMh and 27 turn stock brushed motors that was 8 minutes of the fastest cars that ran on the track. If you can react as fast as a .05sec servo and not blink for 8 minutes at a time then 1/12th pan car is for you.

Eventually I jumped in with with a Trinity Magic Carpet Ride. This car was perfect for our track as it would get rolled up after use every weekend. This meant that it always had ripples that could never be completely eliminated on race days. The Trinity MCR had a unique suspension designed to deal with tracks that had a lot of surface irregularities.





That is what the car looks like today and those worn out tires on it would be about 2-3mm too tall for a modern carpet track. BITD the car looked more like this...



4-cell NiMh, 27 turn brushed and Novak 410 HPc...



The car is pretty beat up but I make no excuses, my painting skills were truly horrible back then.



That Futaba PCM radio was the real deal in those days and I still have it, although now it runs at 2.4GHz thanks to a FrSky module.



On today's carpet tracks, the MCR is completely outclassed. The ride-height is too high, it weighs too much and it runs a T-bar rear suspension that would be like running leaf-springs on a Class 2 competition rig nowadays.
But BITD this was state-of-the-art and I nearly won a championship with it.



The car only won one main in its entire life but it came in 2nd more times than I can remember.

[RadioFlyer]

Here is an example of a modern 1/12th pan car, my CRC Carpet Knife XTi.



The tires on that roller would be throw-aways BITD but that is where they start at today. The lower the car, the better it handles. Mind you, these tires have better traction and last longer than those of 25 years ago so it's not a bad thing. Instead of 4-cell NiMh (4.8v) we now run 1S LiPo (3.7v, but really 4.2v nominal because of battery capacity) and of course instead of a brushed motor we run brushless. I run a 13.5 Reedy which is much faster on 1S than a 27t brushed on 4-cell used to be.





Here you can see just how low this thing is, barely any taller than the tires. Fooking fast does not BEGIN to describe it, especially when you consider some of the really fast guys run 3.5T motors in these cars. Slot-car fast without the slot.



My car has seen better days, here it is when the body was fresh and the tires weren't chunked...





And a size comparison to a stock Axial Bomber...

[Lobonyc]

Originally Posted by RadioFlyer

Props to OSRC for his Fun with Tiny Cars thread which inspired me to start this one. We are mostly here for our "Crawler" rigs but some of us are older than the crawler genre and have roots in earlier or other forms of RC. At nearly 50 I am definitely in the "older than crawlers" camp but even if I wasn't I think I would be into all the other forms of it anyway.
Back in the day I used to race off-road and on-road (parking lots) during the summer and carpet during the winter, and by BITD I mean 30+ years ago.
As such I have a pretty good collection of RCs with roots all the way back to the early 80s.
In the past I have traded or sold a (very) few of my models and now it's a definite regret as I wish I had them all still in my posession. As a result I am fairly confident that everything that falls into my grasp nowadays will remain with me until someone pries them from my cold dead hands so here is a bit of a peek on my limited collection.

So true....just turned 50 and im definitely in that same "Older than crawlers" club. I still enjoy the other categories of RC'ing but i give credit to the crawling category for bringing me back into the RC scene. I had stopped RC'ing for years until the release of the Axial AX10. That model sparked the interest back into RC.

I still love my crawlers (3 in my RC garage) but i also love my back in the day models (RC10GT and RC10DS).

So glad you still have your collection to share with us!

[RadioFlyer]

Originally Posted by Lobonyc

So true....just turned 50 and im definitely in that same "Older than crawlers" club. I still enjoy the other categories of RC'ing but i give credit to the crawling category for bringing me back into the RC scene. I had stopped RC'ing for years until the release of the Axial AX10. That model sparked the interest back into RC.

I still love my crawlers (3 in my RC garage) but i also love my back in the day models (RC10GT and RC10DS).

So glad you still have your collection to share with us!

Funny you should mention the AX10. There was a time in my life where I was also kind of just in limbo about RC. I was busy building real trucks and racing dirtbikes and my race RCs were all in storage. Then Axial released the AX10 Scorpion and brought me back in too.

The Axial OG in all of its anodized green wonder and the B-17 Betty body.



Mine started out pretty much stock (kit version) and I originally ran an 80 turn lathe motor (remember comm lathes? ) which gave it a top speed of like 0.5 MPH. But it was super crawly and fun to drive.

It has seen different configurations over the years but for the last few it has been kind of a buddy-truck with 1.9s and a Proline Tuber body on it. It mainly gets used as a loaner for friends or the kiddies that I don't particularly want driving my other rigs. It's kind of a beat it and put it away wet truck and it has never let me down. The drivetrain is completely stock and neither the transmission nor the axles have been apart in the 13-14 years since they were first assembled.

[RadioFlyer]

When I bought that AX10 my oldest son was 7 and the other two boys were 2 and 3. One by one they all got hooked and while we still do some racing on occasion it's the crawling aspect that gets us "out there". We are lucky to live only 5 minutes from some truly epic scenic trails (AY Jackson lookout in case you want Google some images) and during those lazy summer days we will charge up and spend the day chasing our trucks all over. They don't realize it but a few hours of doing this is actually a great workout since we are hiking up and down rock faces and waterfalls. I know my old knees get sore afterwards but it's so worth it to just hang out with my boys.

[RadioFlyer]

Here's an old beater that was given to me some years ago. It was pretty beat up but it was complete and was easy to get going.





Mechanically identical and visually similar to the Tamiya Striker...



...The Futaba FX10 would have originally looked something like this when new.



The chassis was solid and intact but the body needed some help.





It spent its early years with me as a loaner for the kiddies to beat on. With a Trinity Slot Machine stock brushed motor it wasn't really fast enough to break itself. And with the swing suspension being basically undamped springs it was certainly a funny thing to watch bouncing around like a shockless dune buggy.



So I patched the body, painted the thing all up and fit some vintage RC10 shocks. Also got rid of the goofy wheels and tires and fitted something a little more à propos.

[NoobCrawler]

Originally Posted by Lobonyc

So true....just turned 50 and im definitely in that same "Older than crawlers" club. I still enjoy the other categories of RC'ing but i give credit to the crawling category for bringing me back into the RC scene. I had stopped RC'ing for years until the release of the Axial AX10. That model sparked the interest back into RC.

I still love my crawlers (3 in my RC garage) but i also love my back in the day models (RC10GT and RC10DS).

So glad you still have your collection to share with us!

Count me in on the AX10 bringing me back. I was out for some time too, years before with a Traxxas Rustler & 4TEC. Unfortunately I sold them when I got over RC...which I have learned from.

I did however sell my crawlers, because the back isn’t playing ball with doing that kind of stuff. I do still have an HPI Sprint2 & the Traxxas Ken Block 1/16 Fiesta, neither of which I plan on selling.

[RadioFlyer]

A recent winter-boredom build, this Kyosho Tomahawk represents my desire to build some of the iconic early RCs I used to lust after when I was a kid. I built it pretty much box-art except for the roof lights.














Although it is a runner it will probably just remain a shelf queen.

[RadioFlyer]

Here's something I've had for a decade now. My (original) Slash 4x4 Ultimate.



It's been beat to death so the original body doesn't look so fresh anymore.



I think there's a whole tube of ShoeGoo and an arm's length of fiberglass ribbon holding the rear half together.



When I started bashing it on 3S I started twisting the drive axles so I upgraded to MIP HD shafts and they held up great. The norm became insane full-pin jumps, rolling wheelies and epic cartwheels that would have resulted in a yard sales had it been any other truck.

Then a few years ago I decided to try racing it on carpet and all the extra rotating mass of the MIPs was a handicap as was the regular chassis. So I got a LCG chassis and some stock plastic shafts along with a set of JConcept Goose Bumps (tires). After a bit of tuning I was running top-three in the 4WD SCT Open class and having a ball being the underdog against "real" racing trucks.

The original body was becoming an eye-sore so I painted up a Proline Desert Rat body I had in my stash... but didn't like the color...





So I covered it up with an outside coat of black and some UpRc Warbird stickers.





But no sooner had I finished it that Proline released the Ford F-100 body for the Slash and I had to get it.
So I reinstalled the regular chassis and some extended body posts to clear some 2.8 Proline Super Swampers. And this is how the truck now sits, or hangs rather, a temporary shelf queen until it's time to let it loose again.

[RadioFlyer]

It's not much to look at now but BITD this thing was a carpet rocket.







Starting life as a Tamiya 58105 this Williams Renault would have looked more like this...at least for the first few races.



Eventually that body got trashed and was replaced with I can't remember what (although it appears to be a McLaren MP4/8 ) and that one got hammered too. I remember painting it Kawasaki Racing green which made it absolutely hideous, though I could see it really well on the track in that livery.
The Tamiya F102 chassis was basically a long-wheelbase 1/12th car that ran on 6-cell. And with the same spec motor as the 1/12th class (that ran 4-cell) this thing ripped down the straights. It didn't quite have the handling of a 1/12th car however so it was marginally slower overall, especially on a tight track.
At one point I decided it would be a good idea to just murder it out and beat on it until it gave up the ghost. The motto back then was "Paint it black, hit the track!"
Well on its last track day I touched wheels with another car down the straight and it catapulted into the wall. The result was a separated endbell (on a non-rebuildable Roar91 stock brushed motor). The chassis survived admirably save for a bent T-Bar post, a testament to the outright durability of these cars.



Nowadays it just hangs on the wall as it was when last raced.



I have since replaced the motor and the electronics in case I ever get a chance to run it again, you know, for shits and giggles. I suspect however that the nearly 30 year-old tires would likely turn to dust in a matter of minutes.









After driving a 1/12th this thing was just so easy to drive all-out on carpet. I have fond memories of this car as it was weekly winner in local races.

[OSRC]

Gotta say I love that Hotshot with the RCChannel arms... Totally changes the look of the buggy!

[RadioFlyer]

Originally Posted by OSRC

Gotta say I love that Hotshot with the RCChannel arms... Totally changes the look of the buggy!

Thanks!

I think I first saw the RCChannel stuff while surfing pictures on Pinterest. They used to make an all-in-one package with all the parts you needed but I guess the re-re HotShot craze wanned after a while so I had to buy all the individual parts separately. They are very well made and have the mounts for making the suspension fully independent like the SuperSHot. In the future I plan to attack the parts with Autosol and a buffing wheel on my Dremel to get them all shiny.

But as good as the parts look I don't think you could get away with running them with any authority as one good hit would likely snap the arm mounts on the bulkheads, especially on the front.