In reply to Wall-e:
I was slightly older, but I did the same thing. The local paper would let you run free classified ads for items with a selling price under $100. I'd go to garage sales and buy old computers for $10-20, mostly Commodores, and sell them in the paper for $70-80.
Eventually, I saved enough for an RC10ST.
I'd had a Traxxas The Cat and a Schumacher Top Cat before that. I had this idea that having these oddballs was cooler than the dozens of RC10 owners.
I was wrong.
That RC10ST took so much abuse. Where I would need new parts at every run for the other two, I don't think I ever actually needed a replacement part for the RC10ST at any point in my ownership, save tires. The RC10ST had the heavier, but glue-free three piece wheels, and I'd bought some Pro-Line 2.2" street tires. I'd run it in the wet and in the dry, and the mechanical speed control didn't care.
Later, I owned an RC10 Worlds that I bought second-hand from someone who was moving up to whatever the new car was - an RC10B2 I guess. I had the same experience - the aluminum RC10 is a tough design.
I had a Yokomo YR-F2 stolen from my RX-7 (the one time I failed to hold the handle while locking the door) back in 1996. I miss that oddball. Basically a front-drive pan car sized for 190mm bodies. I remember the front tires would get hot during a run, and it liked carpet more than unprepared concrete, like a pan car. They show up on eBay sometimes...
Maybe the next challenge should have a make shift RC race too
I still have my RC10LSO and Trinty revolver 1/12th scale on road cars plus a second hand Losi XX.....
Fastest rat hole to throw a few thousand dollars at... Makes real cars feel cheap.
I sold all of my old R/C stuff about 13 years ago, and while I made a modest bit on it I definitely wish I'd held onto at least SOME of it. I think I still had a Maxxum FF, a 1/12 road car, and whatever the really popular 4WD from the late 80's/early 90's was (had originally been chain-drive, converted to belt when the kits became available). The FF was my favorite since it was something of a Unicorn, though it wasn't particularly competitive since it had to run with the 4WDs when racing.
Ashyukun wrote:
I sold all of my old R/C stuff about 13 years ago, and while I made a modest bit on it I definitely wish I'd held onto at least SOME of it. I think I still had a Maxxum FF, a 1/12 road car, and whatever the really popular 4WD from the late 80's/early 90's was (had originally been chain-drive, converted to belt when the kits became available). The FF was my favorite since it was something of a Unicorn, though it wasn't particularly competitive since it had to run with the 4WDs when racing.
The chain drive car converted to belt was probably a Kyosho Optima (rear motor, chain drive, aluminum square tubes for bottom chassis rails). I still have one of those.
JamesMcD wrote:
Ashyukun wrote:
I sold all of my old R/C stuff about 13 years ago, and while I made a modest bit on it I definitely wish I'd held onto at least SOME of it. I think I still had a Maxxum FF, a 1/12 road car, and whatever the really popular 4WD from the late 80's/early 90's was (had originally been chain-drive, converted to belt when the kits became available). The FF was my favorite since it was something of a Unicorn, though it wasn't particularly competitive since it had to run with the 4WDs when racing.
The chain drive car converted to belt was probably a Kyosho Optima (rear motor, chain drive, aluminum square tubes for bottom chassis rails). I still have one of those.
Yup, that's it- it was definitely an Optima.
Here's my project Optima. It was converted to belt drive long ago with the original kit.
motomoron wrote:
I quit racing RC cars cold turkey to go road race motorcycles, as it would be cheaper. A couple years later I brought the whole load to Mimi who ran the track, told her what I needed to make off it and she unloaded all of it.
I kept a Losi XX buggy, and suspect I'll buy a modern 2.5 gHz radio, brushless motor and LiPo batteries for it from someplace cheap like Hobby King. Buggies are great play cars.
Dude!
I raced at Mimi's a good bit over the years. Especially with all of the guys from "The Gate" in cleveland. We would travel to all of the big races down there.
David Spashett (sp) also used stick controllers.
In reply to JamesMcD:
I thought those Optimas looked cool but no one in my area sold Kyosho so the only time I saw one was in the Tower Hobbies catalog.
Wall-e wrote:
In reply to JamesMcD:
I thought those Optimas looked cool but no one in my area sold Kyosho so the only time I saw one was in the Tower Hobbies catalog.
I had three Kyosho cars and they all came from Tower. I guess I didn't factor in the benefit of local parts support, but fortunately the cars were robust enough that I didn't need to replace many parts.
As it was no one carried Associated so anything I needed involved a long distance call, patience, and a money order. Kids today have no idea how good they have it.
Wall-e wrote:
As it was no one carried Associated so anything I needed involved a long distance call, patience, and a money order. Kids today have no idea how good they have it.
And, this RC10 is cheaper in numerical dollars than they were in the 80s. That means adjusted for inflation, it's cheaper than a stick of seven 1200mAh batteries!
And that is even before you figure that half the features on this model were super expensive upgrades, and the rest didn't exist yet. (Three speed transmission? No way!)
Knurled wrote:
Wall-e wrote:
As it was no one carried Associated so anything I needed involved a long distance call, patience, and a money order. Kids today have no idea how good they have it.
And, this RC10 is cheaper in numerical dollars than they were in the 80s. That means adjusted for inflation, it's cheaper than a stick of seven 1200mAh batteries!
And that is even before you figure that half the features on this model were super expensive upgrades, and the rest didn't exist yet. (Three speed transmission? No way!)
Three gear, not three speed. It's just the regular Stealth transmission.
Aw, way to ruin it for me.
Man, the memories. I was really into RC as a teen myself, though it sounds like a few years after you guys; the local club raced trucks and touring cars indoor, so I had a Losi XX Graphite Plus and a HPI RS4 Pro I had picked up secondhand for cheap. Built a Tamiya Mini Cooper for fun at one point too (FF-01 chassis?)
I occasionally think about getting back into it to scratch the racing itch, since I'm currently taking a break from the car hobby, but then I remember how much everything actually cost with RC racing...really not that cheap of an alternative.
Losi! I totally forgot about that JRX2 I had for a while... With the Lunsford trailing arms that really turned it into a point-and-squirt-mobile... (they replaced the parallel trailing links with a single forked link that pivoted up front where the upper parallel link had; we ran them with turnbuckles where the Losi's lateral links had been for Mondo Toe-In) Were the Lunsford titanium pin and turnbuckle kits mandatory for other folks, or was it a regional thing? It got to where any new car was purchased with the Ti kit...
I started with a Kyosho Raider ARR which literally burnt up (12 turn motor and mechanical speed control didn't mix). Then it was a RC10 Team Car, Clodbuster, and eventually an RC18T. Sold everything a few years ago. Wish I still had the Team Car.
Ashyukun wrote:
I sold all of my old R/C stuff about 13 years ago...I think I still had a Maxxum FF...
I wanted one of those so bad...by the time I could afford one, I couldn't find them anymore.
About 3 battery packs. Speed control melted..motor was OK though. I think it was a Reedy Mr.H?
I bought one of the re re worlds cars last winter. Actually kind of combined it with a rc10 championship edition from my childhood. Basically used it as a parts donor, and used the original gold pan from my youth. Fun stuff! I've actually been restoring a few early short arm six gear gold pans. Also restored a worn out tc3, and cleaned and freshened a kyosho raider, and tamiya grasshopper 2 super g. Ooooo, and I converted a rc10gt to brushless. Mid motor, and faster than crap!
Joey
Cool! I had a rc10t and then an rc10gt as a teen. I got the gt running a few years ago and promptly crashed it breaking a bunch of parts. Back into the box it went...
2002maniac wrote:
Cool! I had a rc10t and then an rc10gt as a teen. I got the gt running a few years ago and promptly crashed it breaking a bunch of parts. Back into the box it went...
Let's get them fixed and back on the road!
