fastmax
11-11-2008, 02:48 PM
Howdy all. I've been racing minis on carpet in the winter for a few years now, and this will be my 3rd season running an RC18B. One of the tracks in my area will be running 1/18 on road classes on the same day as the stadium classes this winter, so I have decided to get involved in the stock touring class. I run open class (brushless/lipo) with the 18B, so this will be a total change of pace for me. The rules for stock are simple. You must run a stock motor. You can run your choice of 5 or 6 2/3A cells (no lipos) and your choice of body, and tires (rubber or foam). This was appealing to me for 2 main reasons. 1.) The racing will be very close, and 2.) The cost to be involved in this class is quite low, when compared to running open.
In an effort to keep costs as low as possible (dam economy) I decided to start by browsing the for sale section in the forums that I frequent for a good deal on a nice roller. After a couple weeks of looking at Recoils, (seperate class from 1/18) Micro RS4's, and M18's I came across what I considered to be a good buy, of a good platform. Here is what I started with, and at a cost of $55 shipped with Xray servo, and 6 cell battery I was very pleased with the price.
Pic from the for sale ad.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd78/fast-max/M18/P1070406.jpg
Now it was time to start the waiting game, and pace the floors til the mailman made the delivery. In the meantime I still needed to locate a motor, some tires, and decide on what body I wanted to run. So... back to the www http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/computer002.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org) for some more shopping around . After some more reading, browsing, and basic research I decided to go with HPI pro foam tires. I'll be testing several different compounds, and combinations on practice days, but for now it seems firm fronts, and soft rears is the hot ticket. I also managed to score a stock motor for $4 shipped, which was about 1/3 the average cost (budget baby budget). So now it was time to wait again.
A couple days later http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/chores025.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org) and I was a happy camper. http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/happy070.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org) I was pleasantly surprised to see a nicer roller than I was anticipating, and after a tear down and rebuild I was even happier to learn that it needed nothing in the way of parts to be ready to go. Here's a pic of the car up to this point.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd78/fast-max/M18/m18stg1008.jpg
So now I have the car, and it is rebuilt and ready for a motor, some electronics, and then tires and a body. I already had the elecs I planned to run except for an ESC that I had also already ordered, (AE XPS) so I reinstalled the servo, and mounted my RX... Several days pass and my motor arrives, but to my disappointment, still no ESC. Now at this point I have been looking at this car sitting here, and wanting very badly to take it for a test spin... Oh well monday is right around the corner, and maybe the ESC will show up then. So... Mon... Tue... Wed... Thu... Fri... Sat. once again, and STILL no ESC. Now I'm to the point where I don't want to wait any longer to drive this thing, and certainly not another whole weekend without being able to test it, and work on my setup. I reluctantly grab a Sportwerks Recoil ESC/RX unit that had been given to me in a previous deal, but had all of the wires cut off clean with the case, including the antenna. :blink: (I'm surprised I even kept it) Time to grab the soldering iron, and some wire, and get this car going, even if only temporarily.
After about a half hour or so of carefully removing stubs from the board, and soldering new wires in I finally had the unit ready to test. (No idea if it's gonna work or not lol) So I plug in the servo, stick in a crystal, plug in the battery... and nothing.http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/angry016.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org) But wait a second, http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/think005.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org) why isn't the light on my TX coming on? Doh! It has dead batteries lol. Quick trip to the corner store later, and we're back to try again. This time...http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/happy036.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org) SCORE!! It works. Now to mount it in the car and see how she drives. Here's a pic of the unit mounted over the servo.
YIKES! It's HUGE.http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/sad006.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org)
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd78/fast-max/M18/m18stg32002.jpg
Well needless to say it didn't take me long to realize that I was not going to like this setup at all. The balance was off, the chassis was too crowded etc etc. The good thing is I did get to rip it around the driveway for a few minutes, and was pleased with how well the car accelerated for being a stock 180 motor, and even on the slick seal coated asphalt it seemed to have decent traction. Now it's time to take it back inside, and see what can be done about the mounting location of the ESC/RX. What to do what to do? http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/think004.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org) Eureka! I'll remove the unit from its casing, and see how it fits above the battery. After some fiddling around with some positioning options and how I was going to run the antenna. I came up with this.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd78/fast-max/M18/escmtg005.jpg
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd78/fast-max/M18/escmtg004.jpg
I am very happy with how much this opened up the chassis, and now there is room between the servo and the motor for my transponder, which balances the car out quite well. I have a few bodies on the way, but am as of yet still undecided on which style I will run. What makes me happy is that the car is up and running, and I have had some time to practice with it, and play around with tire combinations. Here's the car as it sits right now. This is the finished setup aside from a body. I'll be sure to post updated pics as soon as I get a lid squared away.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd78/fast-max/M18/m18stg32003.jpg
For any of you wondering about the XPS, it still has not shown up. I have communicated with the seller and he assures me it will be here soon. Now I have to find something to put it in. Hmm, a Mini-T roller maybe? Or how about a BRP pan car, or Scalpel? LOL just what I need. A reason to buy another mini.
Anyway to those of you that made it this far. Thanks for reading my post. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I am enjoying the new addition to the RC family. My plans to have a 1/18 touring car up and going on a tight budget played out perfectly. For less than $70 I have a nice, running, Xray M18 with several sets of tires to run on a variety of surfaces.
Moral of the story. Be patient, do your research, spend wisely, and most importantly be patient lol and you will be amazed at how inexpensive it can be to build yourself a RTR mini touring car. Or any other RC you might want that seems out of your budget. ;)
In an effort to keep costs as low as possible (dam economy) I decided to start by browsing the for sale section in the forums that I frequent for a good deal on a nice roller. After a couple weeks of looking at Recoils, (seperate class from 1/18) Micro RS4's, and M18's I came across what I considered to be a good buy, of a good platform. Here is what I started with, and at a cost of $55 shipped with Xray servo, and 6 cell battery I was very pleased with the price.
Pic from the for sale ad.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd78/fast-max/M18/P1070406.jpg
Now it was time to start the waiting game, and pace the floors til the mailman made the delivery. In the meantime I still needed to locate a motor, some tires, and decide on what body I wanted to run. So... back to the www http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/computer002.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org) for some more shopping around . After some more reading, browsing, and basic research I decided to go with HPI pro foam tires. I'll be testing several different compounds, and combinations on practice days, but for now it seems firm fronts, and soft rears is the hot ticket. I also managed to score a stock motor for $4 shipped, which was about 1/3 the average cost (budget baby budget). So now it was time to wait again.
A couple days later http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/chores025.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org) and I was a happy camper. http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/happy070.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org) I was pleasantly surprised to see a nicer roller than I was anticipating, and after a tear down and rebuild I was even happier to learn that it needed nothing in the way of parts to be ready to go. Here's a pic of the car up to this point.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd78/fast-max/M18/m18stg1008.jpg
So now I have the car, and it is rebuilt and ready for a motor, some electronics, and then tires and a body. I already had the elecs I planned to run except for an ESC that I had also already ordered, (AE XPS) so I reinstalled the servo, and mounted my RX... Several days pass and my motor arrives, but to my disappointment, still no ESC. Now at this point I have been looking at this car sitting here, and wanting very badly to take it for a test spin... Oh well monday is right around the corner, and maybe the ESC will show up then. So... Mon... Tue... Wed... Thu... Fri... Sat. once again, and STILL no ESC. Now I'm to the point where I don't want to wait any longer to drive this thing, and certainly not another whole weekend without being able to test it, and work on my setup. I reluctantly grab a Sportwerks Recoil ESC/RX unit that had been given to me in a previous deal, but had all of the wires cut off clean with the case, including the antenna. :blink: (I'm surprised I even kept it) Time to grab the soldering iron, and some wire, and get this car going, even if only temporarily.
After about a half hour or so of carefully removing stubs from the board, and soldering new wires in I finally had the unit ready to test. (No idea if it's gonna work or not lol) So I plug in the servo, stick in a crystal, plug in the battery... and nothing.http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/angry016.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org) But wait a second, http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/think005.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org) why isn't the light on my TX coming on? Doh! It has dead batteries lol. Quick trip to the corner store later, and we're back to try again. This time...http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/happy036.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org) SCORE!! It works. Now to mount it in the car and see how she drives. Here's a pic of the unit mounted over the servo.
YIKES! It's HUGE.http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/sad006.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org)
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd78/fast-max/M18/m18stg32002.jpg
Well needless to say it didn't take me long to realize that I was not going to like this setup at all. The balance was off, the chassis was too crowded etc etc. The good thing is I did get to rip it around the driveway for a few minutes, and was pleased with how well the car accelerated for being a stock 180 motor, and even on the slick seal coated asphalt it seemed to have decent traction. Now it's time to take it back inside, and see what can be done about the mounting location of the ESC/RX. What to do what to do? http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/think004.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org) Eureka! I'll remove the unit from its casing, and see how it fits above the battery. After some fiddling around with some positioning options and how I was going to run the antenna. I came up with this.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd78/fast-max/M18/escmtg005.jpg
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd78/fast-max/M18/escmtg004.jpg
I am very happy with how much this opened up the chassis, and now there is room between the servo and the motor for my transponder, which balances the car out quite well. I have a few bodies on the way, but am as of yet still undecided on which style I will run. What makes me happy is that the car is up and running, and I have had some time to practice with it, and play around with tire combinations. Here's the car as it sits right now. This is the finished setup aside from a body. I'll be sure to post updated pics as soon as I get a lid squared away.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd78/fast-max/M18/m18stg32003.jpg
For any of you wondering about the XPS, it still has not shown up. I have communicated with the seller and he assures me it will be here soon. Now I have to find something to put it in. Hmm, a Mini-T roller maybe? Or how about a BRP pan car, or Scalpel? LOL just what I need. A reason to buy another mini.
Anyway to those of you that made it this far. Thanks for reading my post. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I am enjoying the new addition to the RC family. My plans to have a 1/18 touring car up and going on a tight budget played out perfectly. For less than $70 I have a nice, running, Xray M18 with several sets of tires to run on a variety of surfaces.
Moral of the story. Be patient, do your research, spend wisely, and most importantly be patient lol and you will be amazed at how inexpensive it can be to build yourself a RTR mini touring car. Or any other RC you might want that seems out of your budget. ;)