RC10 Graphite - Heavy Custom

[dinglem]

Ok, so this one probably isn't for the purists, but it's my survivor car from bitd. I have just written an intro piece in the new members section so this is my first real RC post.

By the time I got around to buying an RC10 I was pretty heavily into off-road RC, having raced at national level with some success the previous couple of years.

I am not entirely sure what is going on with this car as I have been looking into it over the past couple of days since pulling it out of the loft - a lot of the spec doesn't make any sense to me. I do recall being in the shop when we bought this (by that I mean my dad bought it) and I do recall some 'deal' being made with the guys in our local large RC shop changing things around in the box and smiling a lot and throwing extras in as they knew us pretty well and provided us with trick parts for our other cars.

I didn't really get on too well with the car out of the box - I hated the handling and eventually we scratch-built a hybrid car using the graphite RC10 chassis, added a Stealth gearbox and then grafted on cut down Yokomo Works suspension front and rear. It handled like a dream (it actually felt like a 4wd) and I had a lot of success with it in this format. I raced it at National level and made a lot of A-Finals. It was perfection in fact.

Now here's the thing. We never ever had the gold aluminium chassis with this car. It came with the graphite chassis in the box. It also had the darker purplish hard anno Associated shocks with it. We would never have bought a car without the full bearing set up either. I am currently trying to dig out the full suspension set up that we whipped off the car to check it all out and determine the spec, but I DO have the original box it came in, which is what I can't work out. At the time I didn't care about anything like that, I just wanted something quick to race and we made it that, but now I am curious as to what it is that I have...?

It says it is the basic kit #6000. My understanding is that this would have come with hardly anything, and I KNOW that if I had purchased a car with the gold pan chassis then it would have been put aside and kept unused and I would still have it today as I always thought that was an iconic RC thing, even back then. Nothing has ever been thrown out so this much I know. Can anybody throw any light on this? The box says Championship Edition on it also. I am guessing this would have been around 1990??

I am wondering whether my dad managed to only pay for the basic, cheapest kit but the Team guys in the shop threw in a series tasty upgrades because they knew who we were - we were getting good magazine coverage with the results by this time? I do know we also purchased a Stealth gearbox at that time as I still have the mint box for it, which has the original and unused standard gearbox and rear plate still in it. We used to get given a load of free stuff for the cars whenever we went in so this is a likely scenario I think.

Anyway, some pictures, boxes first...

[dinglem]

And here is the car, as found, having sat in the loft for the last 20odd years. Bit dusty, but you can see what it is and how it looks. Pretty unusual suspension set up, but it sure did work! It also meant many of the spares we carried were transferrable between this and my Works Yokomo which I will post up shortly in the required forum section.

Probably the best handling car I have ever driven.

[dinglem]

Front end.

[dinglem]

Found this online yesterday. The car gets a mention in the table pretty much as it currently stands.

[tamiyadan]

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[Trackingz]

This is awesome amazing looking buggy and great work on the conversion

[dinglem]

Yeah - it's a pretty neat and tidy conversion, and it completely transformed the handling. It also meant everything between this and my Yokomo could be swapped out making car changes and spares requirements much more simple. Even wheels and tyres could be swapped out very easily. I wasn't really too bother at all about beasting the original set-up back then, as all we wanted was a competitive car, which is what we got. The thinking was that the lightweight (magnesium?) Yokomo bulkheads when cut down to suit were very very light and strong, and probably better than the Associated plastic equivalents anyway, and the wishbones were longer too, probably explaining the handling improvements.

I am now considering using the suspension components taken off the car, and the original gearbox, to build up a standard RC10 as a shelf piece. All I would need is the golden pan chassis really I think, as I already have everything else pretty much unused and ready to bolt on. It has just sat there unused in the box ever since we had it.

I can't seem to find my original body shell (although I know it will be up in the loft somewhere). Once I find it I will add some more pictures of the car with it tidied up a little. I have some cool very lightweight alloys for it which need a skim/polish and then they will really set it off.

[dinglem]

Ok, the plot thickens (a little).

Now I have this hub available to me for research I have started reading through the history and timelines for the RC10, in order to try to work out what I have (or originally had). I was a little concerned that my chassis wasn't an Associated version, but you can just make out the Associated symbol on the picture of the car where it is pointing away to the left in front of the orange Novak ESC. So it is the real deal.

I know we purchased the car very early in 1990, and it came with that chassis. The timeline for that appears to be correct from what I have read.

Poor pictures I know, but from the mish-mash box of spares I can make out the following.

The front suspension we received is the wider track version with longer, in-line arms. The suspension mount also has the 'newer' 4 hole feature at the top for shock mounting.

From this (admittedly very poor) picture of one of the rear suspension arms what jumps out at me is that is has the 'new' UJ drive shaft set up.

I was mistaken when I said the car came with dark, hard anno shocks (I guess I switched over to Yokomo items looking at my car today) and we have just uncovered the original gold anno shocks. Well the fronts anyway - the rears look to be still attached to the rear wishbones in the spares box at the moment.

Also - we definitely purchased the Stealth gearbox upgrade separately as I still have the box for that, and the original larger gearbox.

So where does that leave me? Can any resident RC10 experts comment on the above and work out which model this is based on the parts shown and compared to the box it all came in? There was definitely no gold pan chassis with the car as purchased.

I will try to get better pictures of the suspension components sent out to me and will update the thread accordingly. I am considering purchasing another chassis to mount these suspension components on to create a 'shelf' car, and really want to source the correct chassis for them - be that a gold anno version or another Graphite so any comments or feedback very much appreciated!?

[scr8p]

What you had is a standard 6 gear RC10 graphite. But if you bought that 6000 kit brand new, you cut the factory seal on it, and that chassis and those universals were in the box, then there was a screw up at the factory during packaging. It should've had the gold tub chassis and dogbones.

[dinglem]

Thanks for the reply scr8p. Great info.

The more I look the more I see the Graphite car spec here. I can also see the adjustable turnbuckle arms on the front wishbones. I need to check the original transmission to see whether it has the black idler gears and also whether there are the additional top shock mounting holes on the rear shock upright next.

The car was purchased new and my father and I built it up together - we wanted the Graphite spec. I am still suspicious that the model shop in question (you can see the price and the shop name on the lid) made a switch for us to lower the price of our purchase. If that was the case then the box(es) must have been opened in the shop and the contents switched - seems a lot of effort when they could have just discounted the purchase. I do definitely remember a deal being made in the shop on the day but it is very very hazy.

It looks like we have the complete package, but the box doesn't match. I believe from what I have just read we have the #6025 spec car here??

I have everything from the original car. Were these shock uprights specific to the Graphite model or was there an orange tubbed chassis version with these also?

If I want to build a shelf-spec car with these components do I need to be looking for another Graphite chassis if this is the case?

[scr8p]

If your car had bushings it's a 6025 kit. 6030 with bearings.

Shock towers were the same between the graphite and gold tub CE. Biggest difference would been 1 piece tq wheels with the graphite kit, 3 piece wheels in the CE. And as i mentioned in the earlier post, uni's in the graphite car, dogbones in the CE.

[dinglem]

Thanks man.

I am slowly getting my head around this now.

I guess either way the box serial numbering is still incorrect for the spec and pieces we have.

Just noticed the turnbuckle on my car at the front end also.

turnbuckle.jpg (29.21 KiB) Viewed 2566 times

turnbuckle.jpg (29.21 KiB) Viewed 2566 times

So I guess this means I can build up either a CE car or a Graphite with the pieces I have left over. I assume both types of chassis rarely come up for sale in mintola condition (and I am guessing the tapered later Graphite chassis is even rarer still)?

Thanks for all of your help - really appreciated mate.

[dinglem]

Was the Stealth motor mount/motor cover plate at the back ever cut at a 45deg angle or were they always square? From the pictures mine appears to be at a 45deg. Not sure whether this was a dad special or whether it was always like that? I guess I can get him to look more closely at the gold anno to determine whether it was cut or not.

[jwscab]

right. Since the history is so hazy and you know there was some kind of deal being made, it's all kinda moot. The parts you have there lean towards a graphite car(the only gap being the wheels). You could find remaining parts to build a graphite car or gold tub, which would really be just the chassis and wheels.

[jwscab]

motor guards were always squared off, any cuts were hand made/aftermarket.

the tapered late model graphite chassis is too late for the parts you have, you need the earlier chassis.

finding either the tub or graphite chassis in mint condition is pretty iffy. when you do, they will be $$$.