Brian Kinwalds Cars from the Cactus
 

Just thought I'd drop some photos of the cool custom things Brian is doing on his cars.

Paul Sinclair kindly showed me some of the detail work Brian has done on the X cars while i was at the cactus.


http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/2066/imgp2466sk6.jpg
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/7554/imgp2464kc2.jpg


http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/7705/imgp2465hu3.jpg

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/8153/imgp2462sp7.jpg

http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/5264/imgp2463ml7.jpg



The amount of detail work on his X6 was simply amazing from the tunnels he had drilled for running his wires through, custom carbon fiber brace, motor plate and front shock tower.
:drool:

If Paul or Brian can shed some light on the custom stuff on the X5 squared it might help as it was a lot. Including running the transmission open at the top .

I'm sure you will all agree with me that this evolution and detail to the cars is what makes me so trilled to run X factory cars. Keep it coming guys.

:thumbsup:

The word goodies doesn't even sum it up.

I'm afraid the image hosting site is gash, the front pic comes up about 2 inches big and the rest not at all.

His car looks great! But that image hosting site is aweful - took an age to load.

....

It looks like he is running a very large spur gear that won't fit under the cover, hence the modification.

I really need some of those alloy rear a-arm pivot blocks as I have snapped a ton and have ran my spares down to my last set. Does anyone know where those can be purchased?

a arm alloy blocks
 

i think you need trinity part tk901 xxcr rear pivot block
you need to cut off the 2 cross members then it will be a perfect fit

looks to me thats what brian has done

good look on finding part though its a relic now!!!!!!!

Not sure if it's just me, but I wouldn't like having the on/off switch poking out of the chassis. It looks far to easy to turn off. :o

This is the perfect example of Brian's attention to the tiniest detail. That's the "anti-Chazz switch mount." Seriously...

Brian wants the shell fitted on his car perfectly. He actually spends 60 - 90 seconds putting it on every time the car hits the track, even for practice. Regardless of how carefully I re-mount the shell after turning Dirt's car on, I never seem to get it perfect; Brian put the switch there so I don't have to remove the shell to turn on the car.

Why do I have to turn on the car? Once Brian finds his spot on the stand that is the only place he will be. (More of doing everything to perfection.) At a major race like Cactus where there is a half-hour or longer wait during practice, Brian will often have a significantly longer wait for his spot.

Therefore, someone on the Team must turn on his car and set it down. The anti-Chazz switch works just fine!

has he never had problems with the switch being hit during a race, switching off the car??

I doubt the actual switch comes through the chassis more than 1mm and with the width of the velcro etc, i doubt it would be knocked, its angled forwards as well so that part of the chassis could never hit the ground inless he ripped the wishbone off, but its game over then anyway.

I think the car looks ace!!:thumbsup:

Chazz: Why does he spend so long putting the shell on, its not like you could put it on backwards or anything:confused:

cool pictures, are there any more?

its ace looking at BK's cars, he always has some of the coolest little tricks going on.

Yeah some of his work is awesome... and he's a fantastic driver... but I wonder why he has modded his X5 to only use 3 wheels and a snapped tower... ;):p:D

Im not fussed on the x5 front tower either, not upto his usual standards:lol::thumbsup:

Those pics were taken after his 4wd main at the Cactus. Somehow during the race his left front wheel nut fell off, and the tire along with it... The front tower was broken attempting to do 3wheel backflips off the step up jump :lol:.

Thanks! I just went to trinity web site as well as a Google search and couldn't find any info on them as they're not listed anywhere:confused:

In my experience so far this seems to be one of the weakest points in the car(even more then the shock towers IMO). I've broken 3 now and it seems it doesn't take much for them to snap. I'm down to running a right sided pivot block on the left side shimmed to fit.

Is this something that others have had troubles with or am amongst the minority here? Does X-factory have a solution in mind, perhaps a beefier piece with more material around the screw hole?

Also, what size spur is Brian running? It looks huge:D

Yeah, Losi makes a brace to go across the rear hingepins.. are you running that?

# LOSI A9951 Rear Brace, 3 deg, xx-4 & X - 5, blue alum, $4.
http://www.xfactoryrc.com/storelosi.htm

Atomic Carbon also makes a rear brace, though you have to notch the back of the chassis a slight bit to make it fit - see Jimmy's X - 5 review.
http://atomic-carbon.gforceimages.net/products.htm

The rear braces can be a pain to keep on, so there has been some discussion (a while ago) about different solutions. What I've done is replace the rear hinge pins with shock shafts, oriented so the threaded end is out the back, and put a lock-nut on them which captures the brace (I don't run a rear bumper). Another solution, well-written up, is here: http://www.one-ten-rcforums.com/4wdr...ic.php?id=1329

Hope that helps some.

IIRC Brian is running a 110 spur, which is pretty big when you look at it.

The switch BARELY sticks out from the chassis. Just enough to feel the ridges. Plus, there is velcro on both sides which pushes the body away even more. In a side impact, the switch wouldn't even get touched. I turned the buggy on several times for him and it is not easy to find it some times.

So why is the switch on the X5 in a really stupid place? its pointing inwards toward the slipper adjuster. This must be a right pain in the arse to get to?

LOL, I see what you see, but its an illusion. The switch is on the chassis so it can be flicked through the unused battery slot - like Chazz said, its so Brian can prep the car 120% and then nothing gets changed.

So Chazz cant find it, he doesn`t even offer to turn that one on:woot::lol:

Yup, he opened up the battery slot a small bit so you can stick a finger up in it to turn on the car

Never seen so much interest in where a switch is but i think it's pretty cool where he's put it on the X-6 :)

it's not just a switch. It's a switch that's got the be operated by Chazz :woot:

I see from the pictures that his X-5 also is running with the rear diff open and is using a black belt.

The black gear is a stock gear - its just the colour of the material which changed, i think the material has a little less silicone in it now from memory but to me it seems identical to the white gears.

The black belt is the touring car X-long low drag belt, the yellow touring car belt is too short to use with the dual pulley unless the slots are extended forward for the adjuster. So the only difference between the black touring belt and yellow buggy 3209 belt is the width, the black one is 1mm more narrow.

I have been using the buggy belt for a while now, but I am about to try the shorter/narrower touring car yellow belt with my slots extended & the dual roller. It all fits together fine still, will let everyone know if it is better/worse/same as before.

Chris

Chris,

From what paul was saying about the gears Brian was running that may not be the case... Brian had cut the back case and was running different gears. I'll let Paul shed some light on it....

Ah okay. He is known to experiment afterall :lol:

You can use the xxx-cr rear pivot block with the ajoining plstic bits cut off the EA3 is slighly stronger and they are cheaper to but yea get a brace.

A

Brian is running pulleys from his X - Ray touring cars in his X - 5. Its something he's experimenting with to get a lower internal ratio in the car; the diff pulleys are 34 teeth I'm pretty sure.

CL is correct about the belt, though; its the XXXS black belt, which is slightly longer than the regular yellow XXXS one.

Yes, I was running the rear brace. But, like others have reported, I'm having a very tough time keeping the thing on as it seems to always wiggle loose and come off. The bumper does not do a good job of keeping it in place. I remember this used to be one of my biggest headaches on my old xx-4.

Your idea of using a shock shaft with lock nuts in place while deleting the rear bumper sounds great!! I have some extra shock shafts laying around and would like to try that. My only question is how do you keep the shafts from sliding out without having the bumper in place? Do you use c-clips on the other side to hold the shafts in place? If not what keeps the shafts from simply sliding out? I know there would be lock nuts in place but what holds the actual shaft back from sliding out with the nuts on?

Thanks for the ideas, but If i could implement the shock shaft idea like you have, I think this will be ideal for me:thumbsup: I'm finding the rear bumper to come loose rather easily as well so if I can delete that even better!

I finally finished off my last rear pivot blocks last night so I'm placing an order for some new stuff today from X-factory. Can't wait!

Thanks again!

sweet, good to know! Thanks

Yeah, I use E-clips on the shock shaft at the front of the arm, in the groove for what would be the top of the shock piston. I find those E-clips stay on perfectly fine, as they're well protected; its just the E-clips on the back that get hit and pop off.

and FYI, the shock shafts take a 5-40 nut, not 4-40.

Yes you put a e clip on the otehr end of the shock shaft.

Something i haventtried but have heard from phil sleigh is that the cr rear hinge pins are the right size to go though the rear arms and the rear hinge pin brace of a xx4 and x5 and they have e clips on each end.

paul beat me to it :p

A

Awesome!! Thanks guys:thumbsup:

I have seen the brace held on with the top of a battery post screwed into the rear bumper in the middle that pushes against the rear brace holding it on.

That carbon motor plate is cool! What do the gear box screws thread in to ?

I think if you look closely you'll see there are some small blue nuts between the carbon fiber plate and the transmission case. The screws then thread into the CF plate. Those nuts help keep the tension on the case correct and prevent the carbon fiber (which doesn't hold threads well) from bearing the load of the screws.

Andy, if you fancy doing it, id suggest countersinking the CF, use a longer screw and nutting the side away from the spur.

Cheers Guys:)

On Alex's superlight X-6, we are running a 3mm CF motor plate. Our motor screws screw directly in to the CF with no backing nuts. First, we threaded the holes in the CF and then just screw them in. They are holding well and if any get loose, we put a drop of CA in the hole and it holds just like there was a nut.