"Wanna race?"
When I was younger, I used to love playing with remote and radio controlled cars. Unfortunately, I tended to be rather hard on them, and so they never lasted too long. The last car I had, probably about 10 years ago, was a Cox Bandido. It was a great car, but eventually things started to wear out on it. I ended up losing interest in it, and forgot about it. But, recently, I regained my interest, and decided to start with something of a little better quality.
So, in November '96 I got an Associated RC-10B2, in April '97, I got a Kyosho PureTen Mantis GP Volvo 850, and for Christmas '97, a got a Tamiya Volkswagen Beetle.
Here is the Volkswagen Beetle (obviously). It has the most detailed body of my 3 cars. It is modeled after the 1967 model year. It has chrome bumpers, mirrors, and wheels, and the running boards, lights (except headlights), trim, door handles, and trunk and engine lid handles are all decals. I even got creative and made a custom license plate for it. It looks super cool zipping around the driveway. The model is completely "stock" right out of the box, with
the exception of a Duratrax bearing set, and Futaba MC 210CB speed control with reverse. The radio I use is the Futaba Magnum Sport; simple but it works great.
The car handles great, and even just running the stock motor, it is pretty quick. It can go for about 30 minutes on one battery. Not bad at all. Having reverse is nice, too.
Click here for a picture of the chassis.
My Kyosho Mantis GP gets driven mostly just around the house, though I'm thinking about taking it racing in the Spring. I have been having a lot of problems getting it running well, and recently found out that Kyosho engines tend to have overheating problems, among other things. The car came with a Kyosho GX-12CR, which I guess I will have to ditch. Phil, my new friend down at my local HobbyTown USA, had suggested that I put in an HPI .15 engine. We decided that would be a bit too much, so I got an O.S. Max-CZ-RX .12 engine. I spent a lot of time breaking it in, and what a difference. It's faster, smoother and easier to set up than the Kyosho engine. The car drives completely different. I had estimated it would do between 50 and 55 mph with the Kyosho engine, and now I'm estimating it does 60 or 65, and that's running pretty rich still. So far, I've only managed to break two pieces, two of the body mount posts. I've added a lot of "hop up" parts to this car, besides the new engine:
If you're interested, here are the specs on the O.S. engine, as taken from the instruction booklet:
While I was disappointed I had to buy a new engine already, I was glad to find out that the Kyosho engine wasn't running right not due to my lack of knowledge and ability pertaining to gas R/C engines, and the O.S engine is such a vast improvement over it that I don't mind too much.
UPDATE
Well, after about 2 1/2 years, the body was starting to get rather beat up. So, in September, 1999,
I got a new body. I decided to stick with the stock Volvo 850, but this time did a more subtle paint
job. It looks awesome. Of course, now I'm afraid to run it!
The engine, on the other hand, still runs as strong and reliable as when it brand new. If you're
in need of an engine for your own car, I have no doubts an O.S. is the way to go.
Click here for a picture of the chassis.
I hope to eventually get into racing with the RC-10B2 also, but for now, I just use it around my house, and anywhere I can find some good dirt for it. Usually, I just run street tires, and run it around my neighborhood. When I set it up with my Team Kinwald 11-turn motor, it'll do about 80mph (so I've been told, anyway). Of course, this drains the batteries in about 5 minutes, so usually I run my Trinity Speedworks Jade 15 turn, which makes it do between 35 and 40. Still pretty fast.
Seems like I'm always breaking something on it, but luckily parts are readily available. I've also added a lot of "hop up" parts, including:
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