some pics of my onroad car getting closer to running time. New body, etc...

The paint job on the body is lacking but was fast and simple, and looks better in the sun, due to it being a 2 coat deep metalic black with a candy blue coat in there for effect on the hood area.

Not bad, I see I'm not alone in the R/C world.

I personally own 2 R/C planes.

One's a Right Flyer 40T (it's a trainer, i know. Hey, i'm just learning...)
The other is a Tiger Sport 40L (had a little mishap though, moving stuff around in the garage, accidentally put an american flag right through it's wing.

I still haven't built the trainer, I should get to it eventually.

this has lay dormant for a while but one more quick question, how does the OFNA hyper 7 pcr compare to the OFNA violator and OFNA ulrta lx pro, recent e-bay auctions nib ultra lx were going for 250, but the hyper 7 pcr with some upgrades are going betweenn 400-450, the hyper 7 is looking pretty tempting to me...

Woo, let's spice this up.

Update for tmaxx lovers: You're not the king of the hill anymore. Even traxxas has out done the tmaxx with the revo. Plus the tmaxx is SUPER fragile. I dont have one myself, but an emaxx. Sure, it's electric, but the nitro cant beat the torque. Anyways, it would break so often.... Plus is poorly designed to handle power (not really an issue.... it handled the original .15 TRX engine back in what.... 1999? Now take a look at all the new monsters on the block....

For trit187: Still looking for a R/C car? Are you REALLY gonna get into this? They can turn into a REAL money pit. Plus, I don't think the buggies will handle mud that well...... Unless you skim over it at 40 mph. :P

A lil update from my R/C stuff:

My HPI RS4-3SS has been racing almost every weekend this summer. Its not a top shelf machine in terms of suspension geometry, but its doing good at holding its own against some nicer cars with the same engines.

Upgrades that Ive put on it since, is the 3mm Carbon Fiber shock towers (the plastic ones were warping due to the strong springs I am using) , Aluminum rear hubs (because if I tapped a wall I would break the plastic, atleast these dont break like glass). I also changed the wheel base of the car to about 1CM longer front to back.

Its sporting a new spiffy Mazda6 body also.

Some pics fo my recent racing fun can be found here:
http://clegg.procooling.com/Den-Track/8-21/

in #31 (big image 900k) my car is the one with the orange glob design blending from red/purple/blue in the middle of the line up.

The blue EZ-Up is mine, adn the dude by it is Neil, my Arch enemy and pit mate hehe we are buds, run the same engine, and different cars... its a total grudge match.

Last week after a 40 lap race with him and 6 others, I won by .64 seconds. Man is it a rush!!

But I am buying a Kyosho FW-05R come spring to race next season. The HPI will go on the shelf in a Show car capacity.

My addiction can be found at:
http://isoar.ca/~andrewm/rc/
Heck, my forum user name and DNS name prove it!

You might find my RC bookmarks interesting:
http://isoar.ca/~andrewm/bkmks/

This bird alone goes for $1375 USD + shipping, and then I have $700 USD of radio gear in it ... no wonder I'm afraid to fly it eh! Luckily I have others :D

http://isoar.ca/~andrewm/rc/tsunami/..._tsunami_1.jpg

Wow I thought gliders were supposed to be cheap!

I met a guy yesterday that has retractable gear
little mechanical marvels

:(
say it isnt so joe!!!
selling the type ss for a ....kyosho fw05
much better car but...there is a certain satisfaction
upgrading the rs4-3ss to run with the big boys...
I too have almost completed my type ss renovation
with hardly anything left from the original kit...
Car runs great with an OS .18 cvrx. Next spring we will
be racing and they have a limit of .15 small block...so out
with the .18...a few questions:
1) what type of springs are you running???
2) what is your pinion/spur combos?
3) what type of clutch are you running?
4) have you tried a centax clutch???

Well I am not selling the SS. I am keeping it as it is a KILLER car. its as perfect as a RS43 SS can be for racing. I raced a good bit with it over the summer and I would still use it next year if it wasnt for the fact the rear end has too little configurations for it.

Springs I am running are the "med" HPI Proceed springs on the front (Orange) and the stiff ones on teh rear (Blue). yes these are the springs for the HPI 1/8th scale ;)

I am running a tall gear set, I will need to look but I think 37/41 for the spurs and the gold 1st gear and purple 2nd for the pinion.

I am running the HPI racing clutch on the closest hole to the pad (latest engagement).

I dont think a Centax will fit on the RS43, but it would be nice to try.

The reason I am getting away from HPI is they ****ed me on 70$ worth of ball diff's... the ones they sell for the RS4 3 suck and when you need to rebuild them.... YOU NEED TO BUY A NEW DIFF! grr. But Its all good.

I got my Kyosho FW-05R built w/ hardened parts, clutch, pipe and header from a hgih end racer at the track for 140$ (hes got a 600$ investment in it but buys/sells cars almost monthly). It will be a solid platform for racing next summer.

Also I have a new R/C hobby I am into now. I have a RC12L3 1/12th scale pan car for racing onroad carpet. I am running 4Cell Stock brushed class. (this is my first time dealing with a brushed motor, or doing lots of soldering on a R/C... sort of a reality shock compared to nitro). These 1/12ths are land missles that are on rails. Very incredible lil machines. and CHEAP. I got into the hobby complete for under 300$. ( I buy everything used in R/C now... you get stuff that has all the weakspots already repaired, and generally is in solid shape for a fraction of the new price).

Also I was running the HPI .12R XS plant which is a higher reving and different power band than your engine. Also I set my car up for the specific track running on foams with a prepared surface, so your milage may vary.

my new lil car
 

RC12L3 Chassis - w/ team rear diff components. (used)

TRC wheels (Purple Front, Gray rear compounds)

Novak Atom ESC (Used)
Sanyo, and GP3300 batts (3 sets of matched 1.7+v GP3300 cells and 3 beat to hell Sanyo practice packs)
Futaba FM Reciever
AMB Transponder
Trinity Monster Stock Pro Motor

Charger - LRP Pulsar Competition
Radio - Futaba 3PK

It's practically my life's ambition to own a classic Tamiya 1/10 electric buggy. Either the Holiday Buggy, Sand Rover, or the absolute holy grail the Sand Scorcher. Anyone know about those models?? :cool:

Great...keep the faith
I just put in a NovaRossi RR12L3 1.54hp@ 40,800rpm
killer motor so far but not fully tuned in.
I got the HotBodies centax clutch but I have not installed it yet
I have the NTC3 3-shoe flywheel/shoes and they wok great so far.
The wolkpack 2-speed works 100 time better than the HPI junker!!!
I too am using the proceed 1/8 springs with the black "medium" front
and red "soft" for rear. My car looks much like yours with woven graphite shock tires. I got the woven graphite front arms on both the front and rear to make
the wheelbase a full 260mm. All the HPI bodies now fit without magor surgery
aswell as easily using a rear exhaust engine.

My son will be parking lot racing with this car next spring and I think it can be competative. The car is setup more for acceleration as I am using 43/39 spurs
and 17/21 pinions.

Should I get some ball diffs?? I really do like the low maintenace so far
from the gear diffs and I think ball diffs would not give any advantage for
the short parking lot type racing that we will be running next year.

I am using the HPI sway bars but I think they are crap. I wish there was a way
to fit blade type sway bars so i could tune the suspension a little more.
Even with these crappy sway bars, the threaded shocks more than make up for
it as the car really corners like its on rails once its setup correctly.

and most of all...the car is solid like a rock!!!
Fantastic durability so far. Yes all of thoe "pro" cars are better but
hopping up this rs4-3 to make it faster has been grat so far. I think I am
going into my third g-note and thats without getting any great electronic
stuff yet...
Next week i get my digital camera and I will show you some pics.
I painted my car just like the black status you had as I think that was an
outstanding color combo!!!

Very nice! Yeh the RS4 is NOT bad for racing at all. But when you start to push it hard you need some rear end tuning abilities more than the 1 or 2 Deg toe in options wiht the VERY weak and VERY flexible rear uprights.

Yes the HPI sways are a joke I would take them off cause all they are is weight. Also with the springs being as strong as what you are using, none of those bars could do any weight shifting against those.

I have my Kyosho here and really the HPI looks more bad ass :) but the Kyosho is a wonder to look at, engineering took first importance on it it seems. Very cool car. Not perfect, but very cool. Cant wait to fling this thing around the track next summer.

Yes the ball diffs are nice, they give some great tuning and ability to control the car. The fastest I have ever had the HPI was with 2 ball diffs. But they both torched themselves in ONE race day. and you cant buy replacement diff gears or most of the parts. the HPI ball diff's are a waste of money IMHO. I got screwed out of 60$ on mine.

Looks like I will stay with the gear diffs then. Any other hopups to
speed up the car for parking lot type racing??? More concerned with
acceleration than top speed...

What shock fluid/piston sizes do you run and did you ever try
the one-way diff?? Only rear braking and would probably not be good
for tight parking lots.

I was thinking of adding a paralel camber link in the rear to help
stabalize the rear hubs a little more...

Hmm additional camber links. Didnt think of that. There is a few weak spots on those rear hubs that will break easily if you tap a wall wtih the ass end.

And with the motor you have you are geared too low. Get a higher gearing in there. Acceleration isnt much of a concern with a plant like that with how small of the ratio change is. Also the final drive in the RS4's is quite low geared like 2.97:1 I think.

I was running the #3 pistons (teflon) with 60 weight fluid all around. the shocks on the car are beautiful, the aluminum body super shocks, vented hats, MIP Blue silicone o-rings, stiff bladders, Ti Nitride shafts, and the Proceed spings. very hot looking. and bullet proof. Never had one leak or get air in it.


One ways are good only if you have a consistent high grip track, and know how to drive the car fast without front brakes. Its a bit different feeling for the car. I dont know many people who run front one ways much at all since you loose brake'n quite a bit.

Yeah, I already have aluminum rear hubs and we have yet to bust anything on the suspension...but since I am using the carbon graphite
front arms as rear arms aswell, I think I need to stiffen the rear a little more. The rear hubs still seem to squirm around too much for my liking.

I was running teamcrc outlaw foams 30mm front/ 35mm rear.
Car was planted but rear tires started to chunk within an hour.
The fronts lasted much better (35 shore f+r).

I just ordered some 1/8 foam adaptors and want to see how
on road front 1:10/1:8 on-road foam tires would make the car handle. The club we race at is open on the size of the foams we run.
Hopefully they will still fit under Status body I am running (7416).
GQ products makes bot touring foams and 1:8/1:10 on-road foams
too...

I like low gearing for the short staits and early shifting into second as well as powering thru corners. The track we are running is too short for any taller gearing as increased top speed is useless.

A little harder to control but very fast car as long as suspension is hooked. I am using a Kyosho steel brake from the mp6 and braking
is fantastic with no fade. Had to glue them and I use the optional firm
Kyosho brake pads.

This car was originally setup to run OS .18 cvr. VERY fast engine and now that I have the .12 engine, I think handling should be even better
Spring cant come too soon now!!!

I also just ordered some ceramic nitride bearings. Hopefully the drivetrain will run a little smoother. What about using aluminum
mip cvd bones from the rs4 pro2?? They are the same length as the
rs4-3 mip dogbones. Maybe this would lighten the drivetrain a little...

Just talked to HPI regarding the ball diff parts. It looks like they sell all the parts required individually instead of as a rebuild kit

yeh you are deffinitely running outside of any normal class spec in almost every way. I ran 26mm front and 30mm rear and those were more than enough to keep the car planted pending the car was setup well.

The aluminum rear uprights are what killed the season for me.. They claim 2 Deg toe in... yet when I checked toe... they are 1 Deg at the most. adn 1 deg just sucked for a semi grippy surface on a car with a wheel base that long. Also weight ballance on the car was something I also found upsetting. THe car is heavily ballanced to the engine side and quite a bit back from center in the car. making it able to take a hard turn one way with a certain charactaristic and the other way would be something different.

May want to look at ballast weight to ballance the car.

Also watch for the center dog bones to develop twists wtih teh new clutch. I found when I had some drive line lash I would snap the rear center dog bone all the time due to the instant torque that would be applied with the lash. (I also sheered a CVD head off twice with lash in the rear drive trane after a season. Its better now with more hardened parts in it but still not that well designed. (one of the major selling points for me is that the Kyosho w/ regular steel bearings, has 0 lash on the entire drive line and if you spin a wheel the all 4 will spin after you take your hand off for a few seconds.. theres that little drive line resistance.

One word of caution is those Graphite arms are VERY brittle I went back to plastic so they wouldnt shatter like the graphite ones did. if your lot/track uses walls of somethign hard, the graphite will break easily. Also I found that graphite parts wear bad, and develop lots of slop on the shafts and holes over time. Dunno why, just how it developed on mine.

The Graphite front hub/knuckle set is one I HIGHLY reccomend though, removes a great deal of the movement from the front.

When I talked to them they listed the main spur as discontinued.

Also the quality of materials (balls and diff plates) are ASS. I built one, and rebuilt it, and rebuilt it to get it smooth. I had someone who is a old pro and builds diff's all teh time build the other and we were in agreement that the diff's just arent good enough to last long. Not only did they slip like all hell when new, they unscrew themselves constantly (the thrust bearings dont do that great of a jobin this car compared to other cars I have owned).

I would think the ball diff's would need to be rebuilt after every race weekend atleast.

First thing I was going to do was replace the balls with ceramic nitride balls from acer racing. I think a ball diff rebuild after every race weekend is normal. Many of the NTC3 drivers up here do it a regular maintenance when racing every week.

Yeah we can run to roar specs or club specs and I thought I would try
to get a little advantage by running the 1:8 front foam tires. Still experimenting until race season starts again.

When we first go the rs4-3ss, crack the front suspension arms twice
and that was with the 12ss engine. After installing ALL rs4-3ss suspension goodies
(you name it... graphite front hub carier/steering knuckles, suspension arms f&r, woven graphite show towers f&r, woven graphite upper chassis, 3mm super chassis, stainless steel screws in chassis, titanium screws in suspension, alloy nuts for show, f&r sway bars, titanium turnbuckles, flanged ballends...) nothing has broke except cvd pin on rear engine side.
We have not done any serious racing though so we still have a lot to learn.

With ride height under 5mm, car does not flip around and has very controllable oversteer. I layered the shocks by attaching them directly to the diff cases front and rear with an alum rear brace attached aswell. With layered shocks, suspension is very progressive
and for short tracks is great...

pictures coming soon...

Joe, RC cars used to be my hobby till i got int overclocking. I had a los NXT (got stollent). That baby had every hop up part from trinity that was made. And I had the airtronics servos in tehre too. Tehre .09 response time one and then the 180oz torque one for steering. Its been so long I cant remember the name of the radio manufacture. Wasnt futaba, jr, or airtroncis. It s the other one. anyway I had their top end model.

Also had a T-Maxx, (where my name came from), and E-maxx, TC3, and a kyosho Mp6 for a short time. All lots of fun, but I had to sell them all because it was costing me too much money. I would run them in the backyard and they would break every day. It was just too frustrating. So I got into a hobby that is just about as risky and costs even more... Genuius arnt I.

Oh, and my first car was a duratrax (should be renamed to duracrap) nitro stadium truck. Cant remember the name of it at the moment, but it was a total load. And my first hop up for that car was a tuned pipe from OS engines.... Good stuff.

question: im lookin to buy my first nitro car 4wd on road. probally with a .15 engine. any sugestions?

You looking to race? or just drive around in parking lots and streets? (bashing we call it for obvious reasons)

If you are looking to race and want to get in at a very good and easily upgradable car, the Kyosho FW-05T is VERY good for starting out.

The Associated NTC3 RTR is also very good, cheaper, and easier to get parts for. The associated is a bit more delecate than the kyosho which is a bit more sturdy IMHO.

a .15 isnt always good, at some tracks you cant run a .15 since .12 is the spec for most racing series. thats one key item to keep aware of.

Tower hobbies carries all the parts you need for the Associated making it easy to order stuff, Kyosho parts are hit/miss on Tower making it sort of a pain to get replacements at times.

BTW here is a pic of the Kyosho FW-05RR (a 05T can be upgraded to an RR for about 300 - 350$, which at that point just buy a new 05RR ;) hehe)

http://clegg.procooling.com/rc/nitro...rbycar2005.jpg

I would also go with the NTC3... I would also go with a .12.. the .12's are usually more powerful as they are used for racing. the .15's are kick back engines for the more toy like cars. Because of this the .12's are much more finely tuned and give SERIOUS power.

Personaly I would not go wit han RTR. you will end up having to replace parts and work on the care (becuase we all crash them) and its a much better idea to have built it the first time yourself. It makes you much more competitin (sp) and confident when you are working on the car... If have a high pain tolerance, you can get it done in about 6 hours from starting out to having it totaly put together. But your fingers will be raw most likely from the allen wrenches...

joe thats a nice car.. kyosho sure has stepped up recently with their onroad gas offerings.. before they were garbage.

oh and another car to check out is the trinity. Not sure what its called anymroe, but i used to have one and it rocked. it was built like a brick and was designed almost entirely by serpent.

is this a decent first nitro car?http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0161p?&I=LZ0769

what im basically looking for is this: a good entry level nitro car that handles well and is fast. it will mostly be for bashing and such with light racing at times. im a TOTAL noob at this and need some advice. thanks to all that replied.

looks fine to me. hpi makes good rtr's akaik