The front wheels are actually Ballistic buggy 'new' old stock items which my local model shop dug out for me :D Shame he didn't have a few chassis kicking around too !

The shocks are Team C big bores, I hung on to them when I sold my Team C cars just in case...

They look like the perfect length.

I'm rebuilding my super astute. I'm going to wait until my fibre lyte carbon parts arrive before settling on a shock choice, but I have ordered a set of hi-caps from japan. It's annoying that the front shocks are that much shorter.

The front shocks are a little long to be honest but they'll be ok, and I've tweaked the suspension now (front: 30w, TLR LF silver spring & rear: 30w, TLR Pink spring) & it feels good, somewhere to start from anyway.

I decided on using just the one battery for the Revival so I have a 4500Mah 45c stick pack arriving hopefully Tuesday along with the low profile TLR wheel nuts which I need for the rear wheels & a 0.6 mod 23t RW pinion.

Today I've fitted a front top deck using a modified carbon top deck from my old Ansmann x4te. This has boosted my confidence somewhat as it's eliminated all of the flex which was worrying me, all that flexes now is the front shock tower !

http://i1369.photobucket.com/albums/...psdindffai.jpg

http://i1369.photobucket.com/albums/...psgzynpbhp.jpg

Not much time to tinker today but did manage do get the new shell cut & ready for masking up:

http://i1369.photobucket.com/albums/...pst89yfevp.jpg

http://i1369.photobucket.com/albums/...psa9tbe7lc.jpg

http://i1369.photobucket.com/albums/...pslozjma2b.jpg

Looking forward to actually giving it a whizz around the garden, when it's dry of course :D

New chassis
 

New chassis in the for sale section if you keen

http://www.oople.com/forums/showthread.php?t=178888

This looks awesome - so much more purposeful looking that the original car, you can tell just by looking at it, that its going to handle well!

'Never Give Up' is an apt title to this thread.... which is a very enjoyable read ;)

Cheers Dan, appreciate it.

I had to remember the "Never Give Up" attitude today ! I finally got to run the car in the garden, this has highlighted a few issues.

The gearbox has a noise similar to when we used to peg a bit of plastic to the frame of our bikes to flick off the spokes :lol: even though I can't figure out why. Secondly, the diff does slip (not too surprised) but I already had 2 x 0.05mm shims fitted. Lastly, the ESC is acting a bit.. odd ie, car stops dead when I come off the throttle but not always...

So tonight I fitted another 2 shims to the diff & it feels ok, though yet to drive it. I've since noticed another victim of thread lock attacking old plastic, the rear shock tower mount is cracked where the ball studs are screwed in :mad: Luckily I have a spare which I've now fitted.

Anyway, I'll persevere (I have to, I've spent a small fortune on it !)

Retro RC, I saw that chassis fella. I have a brand new chassis spare so I'm counting on not requiring another. Thanks anyway :)

The transmission plastics were never that great to begin with... I've decided not to even bother trying to use my super astute gearbox with anything more potential than a silver can 540.

Instead I've ordered the A&L belt drive transmission with a beefier slipper clutch.

There are quite a few thorp full replacement gear sets on eBay USA that would probably keep yours going for quite a long time too.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tamiya-Astut...QAAOSwR0JUQ9sC

Keep in touch mate I'll bring the parts car back to the UK on May 5th with me and send it to you.

Im just a bit concerned how much I'm ploughing into this car... for one day's racing :o I'm going to take my chances with the standard box & see what happens.

I have sorted the ESC issue & given it another run around the garden (I was gonna take a video but the camera battery was flat) The diff is certainly better, it'll definitely slip with a hard'ish launch but hoping it'll be ok with some sympathetic driving :lol:

The gearbox noise seems ok, all I've really done though is added another O ring into the outdrives to reduce lateral movement of the dogbones :confused:

So all good (until the next disaster lol)


Thanks Dan, that'd be much appreciated mate :thumbsup:

Great thread, well done for sticking with it:thumbsup:

I always wanted a Mad Cap when I was a kid..:)

Really strange the chassis breaking like that, even though the plasic is old, i wouldn't have expected that when it hadn't been used up to point of breakage..:eh?:

Thanks fella.

I'm now certain it's the thread lock. I'd read a few other MadCap project/build threads elsewhere where people reported certain screws (self tap into plastic) working loose & to recommend using thread lock. This has cost me dearly as every plastic part which has been in contact with thread lock has reacted with it & cracked, this includes the chassis, rear hinge pin blocks & rear shock tower mount. These parts I had spare luckily but they're getting quite rare so it's annoying to have used up the spares just because of thread lock :mad:

On a (hopefully) positive note, the slightly slipping diff (for which I had no more 0.05mm shims) is now sorted. I managed to locate some 0.20mm 'washers' I thought I had 2 x 0.05mm shims in each side of the diff but there were 3 :lol: So I've removed those, fitted the 0.20mm shims & now it feels nice, plus I now have 6 x spare 0.05mm shims for if it starts to slip.

One thing which did happen was after running the car for 2-3mins I noticed one front & one rear hinge pin had unscrewed themselves :confused: so I need to either fit proper hinge pins/e-clips or just hope it doesn't happen again...

Just need to get the shell sprayed now (hence no more pics yet) then find an opportunity to try it at a track.

This is all part of running an old Tamiya I guess... they were never the toughest cars to begin with! My KF2s are absolute tanks in comparison.

I think by the time I'm done 're-building' my Super Astute (I used single quotes because by the time finished the only original part on the car will be the centre steering link) there'll be practically nothing left of the original apart from the rear bumper :)

I just hope it handles once It's all back together :woot:

Dan check your email mate need your address to send you the parts car.