7 replies to this topic

[One_Track_Mind]

Hello everyone,

Check this OUT!

The upcoming 2008 R/C racing season is upon us, this is the new class of cars. Four-wheel drive buggy converted to a dirt late model.

My friend dropped off a body to me so I can do my least favor thing to it. PAINT! This mold was made from wood and formed on my vacuum machine.

It's going to be a few days before I can get totally into getting this together. (Notice deck construcion?) Just was so excited wanted to share what it is I'm doing at the present.

Check back later for updates.

Enjoy!

An unpainted body, the one I chose to run:



My friends car:



What one would look like painted:

[idare2bdul]

Actually I would have fun painting one of those. The real ones have a pretty wide variety of paint schemes and you could have a lot of fun with it.

I don't think I would enjoy cleaning the car after the race much though. I enjoyed dirt oval R/C but I raced electric.

[Phil Smith]

I use to race gas dirt oval. They had an 1/8 scale 4WD class where I raced. They're too hooked up and too easy to drive, so none of the good drivers raced them. I never raced them - even though I was not a good driver - because there was a stigma that went along with racing them. All the good drivers kind of looked down on them.

[idare2bdul]

Hmmmm... too easy to drive. If they are fast and if you have good drivers it would seem that it would still depend on the car-driver combination to get a win.

We had almost the opposite situation. People were fearful of the faster cars thinking they would be both expensive and hard to drive. Most people that raced modified raced very modified RC10s that cost more and went slower than the Dominator 4WD cars. It got to where you could only get a good race at a regional or higher race. Local racing died off.

I can't even imagine how cool that car would be with a modern brushless motor and Lipos.

[One_Track_Mind]

Finally!
It's been awhile, but I was able to get thru my least favorite thing to do. Paint!

Tried the lace, for the hood area. Got a little bit confused there? First off, I used the 3m 77 adhesive,worked great! then I fogged black over entire area, then removed lace and added a couple of drops of transparent blue and then backed entire area with white. I was looking to have the lace appear in black, but it didn't happen. More practice!!

the black and white checkers on the roof are all painted, I'll never do that again!!
















Hi Phil,
I cannot answer (YET) to how a 4wheel drive handles on dirt, but for on-road racing theres nothing better, just ask Paul Ciccarello or Josh Cyrul.

[Bill from NH]

Brian, I can see that car with my eyes closed! Nice job on the selection & use of colors. I need bright cars like that! Is the paint you used an acrylic or one of the solvent-based paints? What product did you use to "fuelproof" the body? A Canadian RC company called XXX-main sells checkerboard paint masks. Please don't tell me you cut & pasted your squares individually. Great job! Have fun running this car!

[Phil Smith]

Hmmmm... too easy to drive. If they are fast and if you have good drivers it would seem that it would still depend on the car-driver combination to get a win.

We had a 1/10 scale sprint car class that were mostly scratch built. All cars had adjustable wings, but a few of us, including me, had servo controlled wings that moved fore and aft. That's the class all the best drivers raced. I raced them in spite of my driving. One night, one of the really good drivers raced a loner 1/8 scale car in an 1/8 scale heat. He won the race and broke the track record by 4 laps.

I didn't mean to be disparaging about the 1/8 scale cars. It's just at the track I raced at, they were considered too easy. I never drove one, but with 4WD, I watched as drivers would screw up and the cars would correct themselves. If you get in trouble, just give it more gas. It was obvious you didn't have to be a very good driver to make laps with one.

But maybe if I drove one I would have felt different about it. I must admit, they kinda looked fun.

[Phil Smith]

Hi Phil,
I cannot answer (YET) to how a 4wheel drive handles on dirt, but for on-road racing theres nothing better, just ask Paul Ciccarello or Josh Cyrul.

Brian,

None of the 1/8 scalers where I raced had anything remotely close to as nice as your car. Very cool car!

MANY years ago, I tried my hand at 1/12th scale 2WD carpet cars. Very cool (the closest RC to slot cars in my experience), and for me, very hard.

We currently have a huge local indoor facility (check out their webcams on Saturday when they're racing: http://mikeshobbyshop.com/ ). They race 2WD and 4WD. Again, it's obvious that the 4WD cars are easier to drive. But I'm sure that's a good thing. As fast as they are now, I'm sure they need to be a little more forgiving. They are very cool! If I was a better driver, I might be tempted to give that a shot.