Super Sized Subaru

[OldSchoolRC]

ouch, i know i'm inviting financial disaster since i have 2 tamiyas on backorder, but i saw this on the Bay and had to have it. It's an HPI Super Nitro Rally which i have been keeping an eye out for for years. If you've never seen one, it's basicially the chassis of a Nitro MTSS with the suspension of a Super Nitro RS4. Very tough and very scale looking.

This one is bone stock but listed as in great shape, and for a great price. Since it shares the chassis and driveline with the MTSS i have a boatload of parts for it, as well as bodies and wheels from my Kyosho Super 10 cars that i have since parted with. I loved those cars, but finding parts was a huge problem - since this is a more modern chassis, parts are easy to find.

Should be seeing it next week and hope to turn it into a "super size" on road car - I'll post pics along the way.

[pedeboi364]

looks sick!! i'd really love to have a rally car so i could drive off-road and do some touring/drifting when i felt like it!! great find!!

[Philderbeast]

How is the suspention on something like this? It looks as if it could take a few small air jumps without disurbing it too much. If this is something that can offroad similar to say a rustler...minus the very large jumps, I may need to look into one myself.

[OldSchoolRC]

not sure, I've never seen one in person. :) it has more ground clearance than a std. sedan, but not sure how much. I'll post up some pics. should have it next week.

[OldSchoolRC]

Sweet! got the car on friday - i was working on the monter mo' all weekend, so i just looked it over and put it on the shelf for now. Car looks like it was run hard, but it is in very good shape (except the body, that's pretty much trashed) Came with 2 full sets of worn rally tires, a new set of pro-line road rages sans wheels (nice!) full radio, glow starter - pretty much the entire package. I wasn't expecting all that, that was a nice suprise. it's not going to stay a rally, it's going to be converted to a full on-road sedan....got all the parts ready! The car shares a lot of its parts with the RS43 and MTSS so a lot of the parts are fully interchangeable. I hope to start stripping and cleaning this week.

[OldSchoolRC]

ok, took a break from monster mo' while i wait for some parts and started tearing into the super subie. All in all, the chassis was in decent shape. The drivetrain turns, but roughly - the stock spur is chewed up pretty good and the shocks have no oil in them at all, but everything else looks pretty good. Thankfully, i have a lot of parts (including a new body and tires) from when i had plans to convert my MTSS over to a super rally. I plan to strip it down and replace anything i can with new parts and keep the old ones as backups.

[OldSchoolRC]

I got some work done this afternoon, i got both the front and rear suspension assemblies re-done, and everything but the gears and the chassis is brand spanking new. Part of the reason the drivetrain was binding so bad is the gearcases were completely filled with grease. it was old and solidifying in there - nasty! i cleaned it all out and propery lubed them and they spin like a dream. While i was in there, i added a spring in the front diff to give the "limited slip effect" that the 1/10 hpi sedans use. It's the best i can do as the diffs are not sealed.

i added center universals and robbed the 2 speed from my 18SS as well, and regeared it for sedan duty.

[Steve.M]

Looks good so far, nice and clean looking :cool:

Keep us updated..

[OldSchoolRC]

thanks! That's enough work for one day, i think i am high on simple green fumes....:D

[OldSchoolRC]

How is the suspention on something like this? It looks as if it could take a few small air jumps without disurbing it too much. If this is something that can offroad similar to say a rustler...minus the very large jumps, I may need to look into one myself.

to answer your question Phil, about and inch and a half at full travel. the chassis is pretty solid, it could certainly take a few jumps!

[OldSchoolRC]

got the motor mounts tonight and started building her back up. Some of the build pics, getting very close to having her done! I added a lightweight flywheel and racing clutch on the HPI .18, should make for nice snappy acceleration. Ditched the stock header for a ported T-maxx header as well. Bottom pic is a comparison of the size versus a std 1/10 sedan. Super size is right!!

[bugz2002]

any update on this beast?

[OldSchoolRC]

she's coming along, tending to my auctions lately as i clean house (and buying everything in sight, lol, lots of cool projects coming) This is one of only 3 nitros i have left!

just down to sorting the shocks and painting the body. I'll get it done here in the next week or so.

[OldSchoolRC]

chassis is ready to go! i just stuck with the stock shock set-up even though it will never see any dirt. Body is scuffed and just awaiting paint as soon as i get a dry day!

[Daveo]

Why did you put a .18 in there? Isn't it designed for a big block?

[baja 5b ss]

any progress

[OldSchoolRC]

Why did you put a .18 in there? Isn't it designed for a big block?

Whoa, sorry I missed this - 2008!! Holy moly time flies.

no, this is the same chassis as the HPI MT just with shorter arms, so small blocks are the norm, though you could stuff a big block in it if you wanted to. It FLIES with this motor and the 2 speed, really no need for a bigger motor imo.


any progress

Sure, it's done, and been run and flung - I'll get some finished pics up. Guess I never did get any with the body painted. Nothing special, just gunmetal gray and decaled out.

Nice to see my old TC3 in there as well! :):)

[WrenchHead]

Slacker. lol J/K would be nice to see her all spiffyed up. Nice work as always OS. How about a small review on how she ran? and any thoughts about the build you enjoyed and disliked the most. Tanx. W.

[OldSchoolRC]

Sure Wrench, glad to expound.

It's a shame that these "1.9" scale cars fell out of the mainstream. I had a Kyosho SPG10, FW04 and a Super RS4 Nitro and they were all incredible cars. 1/10 nitro cars are fun to drive, but are usually on a knife edge of control - with the bigger footprint and wider tires, these bigger cars are super easy to drive fast.

So, HPI decided to make a rally version of it's super nitro series, but the belt drive simply would not work offroad, so they turned to the MT platform instead. Shaft drive with large, stong gears, it was a perfect platform to build a rally car. Only thing different is the center gear ratio, suspension arms and shock towers, and swing shafts.

Now, the truly cool thing with this platfrom is that the current Nitro3 1/10 cars share the same basic architecture, so you can mix and match hop up parts from each series - MT or Nitro3. I decided to keep this car true to its roots as a rally for parking lot running, but I also have the nitro3 shock towers so I can drop touring car shocks on and have a low lean racer as well. I picked up the 2 speed and extra gears from the nitro3 as well, stuff that wasn't around when the rally first came out.

So how does it run? Fast. The .18 is from the MTSS and with the ported manifold and pipe, it screams. Tried three pipes, and I like the stock composite one the best - seemed to have best balance of low and and high end of the three that I have. The super size HPI tires are are very sticky, and with the extra width, the car is very stable. The rally suspension compromises handling a bit, but it's in the same league as my old FW04, which was the best handling car I've ever owned, bar none. If I lowered it and tighened the suspension a bit, I think i could get there, but I love how it pitches and rolls a bit like a rally platform should.

They are somewhat rare, but come up for sale every now and again - if you like to run on-road, they are well worth the investment. After driving these, you'll not go back to 1/10.

[BAJA 1000]

chassis is ready to go! i just stuck with the stock shock set-up even though it will never see any dirt. Body is scuffed and just awaiting paint as soon as i get a dry day!

Cool car what size engine you there?

[OldSchoolRC]

Not to be a total jag, but did you read any of the above posts?

[BAJA 1000]

Not to be a total jag, but did you read any of the above posts?

Sorry my bad.

[jwaj2002]

what happened with the motor that was originally on it, was it any good?

[slashman21]

pretty cool car

[OldSchoolRC]

what happened with the motor that was originally on it, was it any good?

Dunno, never ran it. It's a basic HPI .15FE, have had them before. Solid running motor, but nothing spectacular. It's in my motor pile collectig rust I'm sure.