HPI RS4 Evo 3 Tommi Makinen Evo VI Rally Car.

[monkeyracer]

I've been in love with WRC for a looong time, and I remember watching when Tommi Makinen pulled off the first 4-in-a-row WRC championship.







Since then, I have always wanted to build a replica 1/10 version, but for some reason or another the build kept getting put off indefinitely... Until I picked up an HPI RS4 roller from a trade on this forum. Here's what was sent to me:



It wasn't in a totally abused condition, but it was missing quite a bit of parts and the chassis was bent beyond repair. The previous owner(s) tried to modify the arms to get more travel out of the shocks as well as trim the rear axle stubs to allow the travel, but it was done roughly and I wasn't confident in the durability. I tossed a bunch of parts into the spare pile, and started making a list of parts I needed for it.

First on the list was the electric conversion. On my RS4 Rally Truck, I just mounted the electric motor in a heat sink mount and meshed it with the stock RS4 transmission. For this build, I wanted everything to be balanced and need to move the motor to the back of the chassis to make enough space to place the battery and electronics nicely in the chassis. Upon opening the rear axle housing, I found some sintered metal gears (on the right side of the pic below) and a missing pinion bearing, along with some unknown sludge of a grease. So in go the HD steel gears (on the left) and the new pinion shaft (from an Exceed drifter) that the gear will mount to:







These are the same gears I use in my Rally Truck, and I think they will last much longer than the vehicle itself. Got the gears greased up and installed in the cases:



And mounted the 60T 48p hardened steel spur gear. (are you seeing a pattern? all gears are hardened steel for durability) I need to get a couple more washers for shims for the gear, but for now it will work just fine.



Now, the front axle receives the same hardened steel gears and keeps the stock axle input shaft/cup. Also, picked up a new chassis for it, as well as new rally wheels and tires, new rear axle stubs, body posts, and new arms front and rear. I borrowed some shocks from my Exceed drifter to get initial ride height figured out, here's the initial mockup:



This pic isn't great, but it shows that there is plenty of ground clearance:



Some of this clearance might come back down to keep COG low, but I'll have to mount the body to see how I want everything to sit.

For the motor mount, I ordered a spare mount from the Exceed drifter, but I'd need to cut too much to make it work, so I am probably going to hand-cut a mount out of delrin.

Also started painting the body (no pics yet) and the drivers figures (from the MTDT)

So, there's still plenty of work to do, and I still need to figure out electronics. I have a 2848 size 3125kv brushless motor (380xl) that I am not doing anything with that might go in this, but I am wondering if it will be enough for this car. The whole car will end up pretty light, but I've never run this motor before. If it's not enough, I'll probably borrow the 3300kv 3650 motor from my basher monster truck to see if I like that motor.

Stay tuned!

Questions, comments and feedback are always appreciated.

[monkeyracer]

I got some paint done and initial mockup for the body:









I'm really liking how this is turning out.
This is not at ride height, this is only to check the body post holes and make sure the wheelbase looks good. I might have to open up the wheel wells a little more to get the tires to clear. Also this is without the spoiler side wings.


I started painting the inner body (no pics), but some of the paint bubbled up on me, probably because I didn't wash the inner body. I kind of rushed it, so it is totally my fault, but it can be fixed. I just need to wait for the paint to cure, and I can spray more paint. I will probably have to paint the top side of the underbody to cover the mistake.

More soon...

[DeweyCJ5]

that looks good

[binaryterror]

Being a Rally car, unless you are only doing tarmac, you need to raise the body to make use of the suspension.

[monkeyracer]

Originally Posted by binaryterror

Being a Rally car, unless you are only doing tarmac, you need to raise the body to make use of the suspension.

I don't think I would even run it that low on tarmac. From my post:

Originally Posted by monkeyracer

This is not at ride height, this is only to check the body post holes and make sure the wheelbase looks good.

It will definitely be raised up a bit. For my previous cars, I usually compress the suspension and set ride height so the tires are just barely into the body at full compression, but with the amount of travel this has, I will have to see if that looks ridiculous. I snapped a couple quick pics from my cell phone of the body at what I think ride height will be, but I won't set final RH till the body is fully trimmed and finished.

In the second pic, it's pretty obvious I need to trim some more around the wheel well to allow the tires to clear the body while the steering is turned.

[nascarkeith]

So far so good. Eagerly awaiting video to see the gravel fly.

[binaryterror]

Got it, I run my DF03-RA on multiple surfaces, like real rally, so there are times the body is slammed and times it's a bit higher for clearance over the softer suspension jumps.

[Gula]

Looks like a cool and innovative build for sure. I dont know what happened to my first few pictures, but here's my build:

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

It's finished now and out here in Afghanistan with me. Already broke it once. Arms are not very strong. But fun on 2s and insane on 3s.

[monkeyracer]

@nascarkeith - can't wait to get this done so the gravel can fly. I'll try to get some vids, but that's hard to do while also controlling the vehicle.

@binaryterror - The DF03 is a great rally car, but I didn't want to spend the money to get one. I was also considering the TB01 and TB02, but since they are discontinued, replacement parts might be hard to find. The RS4 is still a current model, and even comes in 190mm width if I was to get different bodies. I have a couple of them, and have had a couple before, and was never disappointed by them.

@gula - I've got a couple other RS4 based vehicles (you know of at least one): the Rally Truck which is an MT2 chassis with the Evo III arms and dogbones, and the MT2SC with the CKRC chassis, and tons of aluminum hop-ups. The MT2SC was sold quite awhile ago, and I still have the Rally Truck. The Rally Truck has been great, 3S with a few cartwheels, and nothing has broken other than the lexan body cracking.


For tarmac, I need some tires, but the body will be sitting lower than dirt/snow mode. I have been occupied trying to get my GT3B to program with the hack, and work has stalled on all my projects until I get that figured out.


Thanks for the comments guys, more coming soon!

[monkeyracer]

Update:



I got the body pretty close to being done. I just need to finish fine-trimming the wheel wells and body edges. Here's some more pics:













And also got the drivers done:



Still plenty to do on the chassis, so it's not that close to gravel flinging status yet, but getting closer.

[alexchen86]

Awesome where did u get the body and decals from? Doesn't quite look like a Tamiya body set....

[monkeyracer]

Originally Posted by alexchen86

Awesome where did u get the body and decals from? Doesn't quite look like a Tamiya body set....

It's just an HPI body. This one is the 200mm version, and the decals come with the body. There's also a 190mm version as well although I'm not sure they still make them.
The only Tamiya on this is the wheels and tires, everything else is HPI or Exceed RC.

[cameraman]

thats turning out really nice

[monkeyracer]

It's been a long time since I've updated this thread. Life got in the way, and the project was delayed, but it's not dead by any means. I've got some actual progress to show:

I finished my RS4 Electric Conversion Chassis for this car, and sent the files off to get cut. Once I got the chassis, I started transferring over all the components:







This is getting pretty close to being finished. I just need a driveshaft (on it's way from china), a motor (haven't picked one out yet), a servo link, and need to mount the electronics and the drivers figures.

This build is so nice, I might not want to ever run it though...

When I was having the chassis cut, I accidentally sent the file with the chassis mirrored from what it should have been. Whoops... Then, on the second try, there were a few dimensions just slightly off, so third time is a charm, I got the dimensions corrected and the chassis came out perfect. Since I didn't want to waste the other chassis', I used the mirrored one with my Exceed Drifter (which was mirrored compared to the RS4) and the second try went to revive my Rally Truck.



From Left to Right: Subaru WRX RS4-E Rally, Mitsu EVO VI RS4-E Rally, and the Exceed Drifter.

The EVO and WRX are identical other than the body, so this thread will show both when they are done. I figured since I have the EVO body for the main car, the spare car should be it's rival; WRX.





The paint for the WRX is less "Box Art" and will probably be what I use to race with. I don't have a body for the drifter, and it's wearing my spare rally tires until I get new rims/tires for it.

I love this chassis design; simple, lightweight, and puts the motor weight toward the rear, with a braced spine for rigidity. We'll see how it does once I get any one of these three running though.


More updates hopefully soon!

[xigtc]

Wow, awesome stuff man. Can't wait for what's to come!

[Sith Lord]

Looks awesome. I've got the tamiya evo 7 on my current build, was hunting everywhere for the tamiya evo 6 (used to own an original tb01) but couldn't find one, so I've got a NIB HPI evo 6 in 190 sitting waiting for me in the cupboard. Yours came up a treat, slim glad. Bought it

[chuckatruck]

I wanna see the rally truck

[Soulo747]

Great job on the livery/decals. It's an exact match!

[monkeyracer]

Originally Posted by tc4crawler

Wow, awesome stuff man. Can't wait for what's to come!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Sith Lord

Looks awesome. I've got the tamiya evo 7 on my current build, was hunting everywhere for the tamiya evo 6 (used to own an original tb01) but couldn't find one, so I've got a NIB HPI evo 6 in 190 sitting waiting for me in the cupboard. Yours came up a treat, slim glad. Bought it

I love the EVO body, and even though the Tamiya's are more realistic in some parts, the HPI fit the budget, and still looks great. I hope this time the rally bug stays and more awesome builds ensue.

Originally Posted by chuckatruck

I wanna see the rally truck

RS4/MT2 Rally Truck

Build is dead though since I used most of it for the WRX. Some of the leftover parts will go to my MT2 Tube Buggy that I am going to be starting soon.

Originally Posted by Soulo747

Great job on the livery/decals. It's an exact match!

Thanks! I tried to match the 1:1 as close as I could, almost all of the decals are from the HPI Body. One thing that was weird was the decals were not precut. I had to take some time to cut them all out with an exacto knife. The WRX ended up getting a custom paint with most of the stock decals (gladly all were pre-cut.) I love all the rally cars that have been posted, and most have some sort of custom paint to them (just take some time in the Colorado Rally thread, you'll see what I mean) but sometimes you just have to make it a replica.

[Soulo747]

Are u in Colorado? I'm in Colorado springs actually