To start this off, I would 1st like to congratulate Jay Halsey himself on winning the 1st ever IFMAR OffRoad Worlds in 2WD, and sending the RC10 and RC World into a spiral of evolution that has taken the RC10 to many subsequent World Championships!
Congratulations Jay!
I would also like to thank both scr8p and prp for their wonderful replicas and insight into the items they used and their final results as can be found in
scr8p's Halsey replica thread.
First off I took one of my old motorplates (yes a very old one I actually raced with back then) off of one of my old gold race cars. You can see how I had originally cut it at an angle which is how I commonly did it back then, but for this thread Jim and Jay Halsey did things a bit different back then with their motor plate and nose plate cutting, as you will see as this thread matures.
I used a thin sharpie pen to mark where I wanted to cut, and then using a dremel fiber reinforced cutting wheel and sanding drum to finish, shaped the replica's motor plate.
... and attached it to the chassis, which has yet to be cut along with the noseplate, as I intend to do this last after everything else is complete.
As you can see from the picture, I have already drilled out the shock tower showing the multiple rear top shock locations he tested during the '85 Worlds. I have also hand cut the fiberglass battery strap, and put together the upper link as Jay had it for this historic race. Note that the 4 bottom shock spring retainers I used are the ones without the slot cut into them, to keep them correct for this timeframe.
Note the upper control link for the rear suspension (picture above and below), something unique that Jay did for the '85 IFMAR World Championships.
Next I took a set of brand new rear rims and brand new Tamiya Holiday Buggy tires (PN. 153), to put together for the rear which are the tires of choice that Jay used during the '85 IFMAR World's race. keep in mind for future builders that a close replica of this tire, but made of a different rubber compound, is the AJ's/Twinn-K Inc. Off-Road Tire PN. 9719. I also acquired a brand new set of these but chose to use the real deal for my replica.
I actually used to race with this tire and also tried the AJ's tire back in those days. Both worked well, but the AJ's lacked traction when compared to the Holiday Buggy Tire which I believe was a result of the rubber compound the Tamiya tire had blended in the spike tread area, since both tires sported the same tread design.
If you take a close look at the Tamiya Holiday Buggy tire you can easily see it is made of two compounds. The sidewalls are made of a shiny, harder rubber compound like the AJ's tire (which is entirely made of this compound) while the Holiday Buggy Tire has the center area made of a dull softer rubber compound. I have always believed that the sidewalls are harder, to prevent sidewall flex in the cornering where you need the traction as the tire fights to keep the tread into the ground, while the spike tread area's softer compound was strategically placed here for traction and elongation or stretching under acceleration giving you higher top speeds.
This tire consistantly gave me better traction on any surface I ran it on (back in the day) versus other tires for years, and at least up until they introduced the new wheels for the RC10, that came with a slew of new, low-profile tires and softer rubber compounds that provided great traction. To this day, for me this was the defacto best tire ever for the original rims on offroad surfaces.
The Proline Knobby tire was one I used a lot back then, due to the available ribs tires of the time not providing much steering traction on the types of tracks we ran back then. The knobby fronts provided the most traction up front back in the early racing days, even though I never used the tamiya front wheels.
Up front on the car we have the Proline Knobby tires for 1.5" dia. rims, PN. 1003 (103-F). I have also already modified the front tower to add the extra shock mounting locations that Jay used back then providing him with more arm droop, giving him longer suspension throw and more ground contact.
Back in the day, I did the same thing to my own gold pan racers after I watched Jay race and noticed what he had done. After completing my own mod upon my return to my home, I immediately noticed better control, steering and less tail slides using this setup which provided for a more stable running vehicle. The car often looked "funny" as the front arms drooped farther down to the ground, and I can't tell you how many people used to ask me what was going on up front since my car looked different.
Next up front I also added the JG bumper, courtesy of m_vice and that really took me back as I had one of these on each of my racers back then. Thank-you Miguel, very much! M_vice and I go way back to the time when I was a teenager racing for various local hobby shops as a sponsored driver and Miguel was a lot younger and told me he used to watch me race. Those were good times my friend!
At this point I have also added the CRP rubber steering o-rings (PN. 9110) that stiffen up the stock servo savers preventing unwanted small movements for a more precise steering input for racing. I used these all the time from the time they 1st appeared until the Houge steering made it's appearance on the scene. The main reason is because it was light-weight and just worked well all the time. Towards the end I used tie-wraps in their place for even stiffer control.
, and nice screenshots from the "Winning Edge".
