not your every-day Mid-Motered 2WD

[mr. ed]

I have tried a couple different platforms already: wanting something to race without worries: strong, 2WD, decent slipper, 12mm hex wheels, long suspension arms and good shocks... and my TCP would have made a good candidate except: I don't have many spare parts for it and I would really have wanted something mid-motered as I find that so much easier to jump.

This is what came out of the box when I finally found the right platform = Traxxas Rad2.

The non-rad2 parts used are:
- STR15 topshaft, 10X5 bearing and slipper plates plus Losi slipper hydra-drive spring
- JG carbon chassis for the ultima (previously poorly drilled for an A&L Letheal weapon2 drive train)
- ultima2 front carrirers and steering knuckles
- hot trick axles for tamiya wheels on an ultima
- kyosho pro-x swept-back front arms (for medium wheelbase)
- Andy's straight front arms for ultima (for XL wheelbase)
- ultima outdrives and dogbones
- HPI rear axles
- ultima front bulkhead
- front brace from broken B44 topdeck half
- custom works sliding steering system
- alloy 12 mm hexes
- triumph front wheels
- lazer ZX5 rear wheels
- parma tomcat body for lazer
- losi pro-SE front shock tower
- medium and long kyosho gold shocks
- traxxas bullet servo mount
- some servo mounts and scrap pieces of caron for the battery holder
- STR15 front bumper
- front arm brace from scrap GRP
- yokomo wing wire mounts
- academy wing buttons and nylon wing
- another pair of servo mounts and 3 tamiya bodymounts
- Blue Eagle rear-axle carriers

[West Ridge Racing]

Vintage mid

Sweet initiative Remember those old gold shock well. Best of the best.

[Skidrow]

Sweet job Ed.where does it stand wheelbase-wise?

[mr. ed]

Thanks for the encouragement guys.

Wheelbase is the same as the the (non-vintage) Shumacher Cougar with the swept arms. I've put on the straight Andy's front arms last week after hearing the losi 2.2 has a longer wheelbase.
Will see how it does; hopefully we'll get nice weather so I can race it outdoors in another week.

I wouldn't mind doing a similar car non-vintage but vintage parts are what I have in my drawers to work with. And I do think the somewhat wider separted mounts for the arms inner hinges help making the car easy to run. As opposed to the narrow bulkheads of modern cars which make the cars more nimble.

Got a plan for a "4th gear" in mind... just collecting the material still.

[heretic]

Hello, nice project !

About the 4th gear, I have tried several things on my own mid motored B3 and the latest CR2 solution with the extra idler attached to the motorplate is by far the best solution I have found. Reliable, quiet, and if you managed to drill your supporting axle out of center (rather easier than dead on center ,when you have no lathe and just a drill press !) , you'll be able to adjust the gear mesh with the main spur, before adjusting the mesh between the motor and the new idler.

In order to gain space on the motor plate, you'll just need to re-drill a new elongated hole for the bottom motor screw, and use a slightly smaller spur gear than usual- I chose 75 teeth. The gearing window is still more than sufficient. J

ust my two cents, keep us posted. Should you need pictures I can provide with pleasure. My whole car is a total hack job but it works amazing ! :- )

[mr. ed]

Hey thanks for the advise.
I've got a way different solution in the make; already made a deal for the material but still need to go pick itup. Hopefully it will work in combination with the slipper.
I ran the car today but it didn't perform at half of what it did before
Main problem was I broke the wing a week or 2 ago and didn't have a replacement ready... and made the beginners mistake of driving without

The stronger servo saver seemed to work well but it was hard to tell.
I also extended the wheelbase with the andy's arms. Undecided on that point; need to see it in combination with the spoiler.

[heretic]

Sorry to read that...

About the handling, perhaps using Nickel batteries is part of the problem ? I have the same layout but use Lipos, and the front-rear balance is just an
about right. Maybe your heavy battery could cause too big of a front weight bias ? just suggesting. As for the 4 gear mod, I never ran mine without it, but those who have seem to agree that it makes a huge difference.

Good luck !

[mr. ed]

Don't worry: it was working well before I broke the wing, so it shouldn't be too hard to get working again. I'd like to get LiPo saddle packs and try a couple different layouts, but as long as these nimh's work fine I'll probably delay the investment : would need a charger, maybe abalancer and new ESC too then.

Someone came up to me and told me had seen the car here. He made a nice action shot later too; hopefully he'll post it here