Some Bullet Racing/Raborn Racing nostalgia

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fredswain
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Re: Some Bullet Racing/Raborn Racing nostalgia

Post by fredswain »

The EDM and Airs bodies are the only ones that I've got.
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Johnboy72
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Re: Some Bullet Racing/Raborn Racing nostalgia

Post by Johnboy72 »

Wow. I have a set of rear arms and the LTO chassis. My chassis is well used and probably has tweak. But let Barry know that last season I was barely off pace. Record when I stopped was like a 64 or 66 lap with a direct drive Murfdog chassis. My LTO was running an RPM 2.65 and all old stuff. Not even new bearings and such. Used tires I got off someone and a Tekin Gen2 Spec esc. I really would love to find a NIP LTO chassis after the holidays and build it with new stuff. I think I'd have something if I didn't have so much slop, warp and aging bearings!

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Re: Some Bullet Racing/Raborn Racing nostalgia

Post by fredswain »

Which LTO chassis do you want? I have a 2 left for the RC10, 1 for the Ultima, and about 15 for the JRX. I can also have them remade if necessary.
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alien3t
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Re: Some Bullet Racing/Raborn Racing nostalgia

Post by alien3t »

seeing all these parts, dont know much about this car. but seeing parts makes em want to buy parts from you and buuild a car just because.

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Re: Some Bullet Racing/Raborn Racing nostalgia

Post by Incredible_Serious »

Wow..... what a haul!

:shock:

Alex
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Johnboy72
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Re: Some Bullet Racing/Raborn Racing nostalgia

Post by Johnboy72 »

Image
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Last race, bumped up from B Main. Started last and within first couple laps, moved into second behind the Murfdog!
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Re: Some Bullet Racing/Raborn Racing nostalgia

Post by Johnboy72 »

Image
Looks to be the one on the far right and possibly the one on the far left. I really like the modified bodies too. Unfornately I'm on the radar due to my RC spending this past week. Holidays and the drive back to Mo, I'm not able to pick up anymore RC items until after the holidays. But if Barry or you have extras and the price is in my budget, I'm all over it. My plan is to run my RC10 Street Stock and RC10 Nastruck. I'd like to run the EDM class however my RC10's already have a hard time keeping up with the direct drive cars!

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Re: Some Bullet Racing/Raborn Racing nostalgia

Post by fredswain »

The 2 chassis styles on the left are Ultima. The 2 in the center are JRX. The 2 on the right are RC10. The 7+4 RC10 that you want, I've only got the one left. I'd kind of like to keep at least one of everything as basically a museum of what was there. I can however have it remade again by the same person who made them originally. You'd never know it was a remake since it would just be a later production run. In this case much later. I can even bag it with an original Raborn header card. It would be cheaper if I was to have him make a run of them rather than a single.
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Re: Some Bullet Racing/Raborn Racing nostalgia

Post by fredswain »

While my goal is to re-release the Invencer, there are some big hurdles to it. As you can see molded parts aren't a problem. Carbon parts aren't either. It's the machined parts that are going to be tough. I don't have very many hinge pins left and these are the old style with e-clips. This isn't that big of a problem but is an issue to contend with. The big bag of axles that I have it turns out don't go to the Invencer. I figured that out when I tried to assembly one in a rear hub. I don't think Barry has any either. The axles that work with the Invencer are from the JRX. The next big issue is the shocks. These were Delta style shocks. I've got hundreds of shock bodies. I don't have anything else to them. I think I may be able to build 1 or 2 cars with the shock parts that I have but that's it and even that is a maybe. The final hurdle is the ball diff. I've got a bag that contains one of the halves but not the other. I may have 2 or 3 complete ball diffs. Maybe. It was machined from titanium and then anodized purple. The screw that went through it was a custom piece that was slotted so you could adjust the diff with just an allen wrench without taking a driveshaft off. It was the first diff to have this feature. A 4-40 can be modified to work with some filing though. The guy that machined all of these parts originally is dead so there's that problem. An old incomplete car isn't going to sell very well.

Having these parts machined again today by no means is impossible. It's very doable. The problem is that today's pricing is 10X higher than what it was 20 years ago and that's even accounting for inflation adjustments. In order to get costs down I'd have to order large quantities. That's a small price per part but a large amount of money up front. What I've got is proof of what can happen when you spend lots of money for large orders and then don't sell them. These are really just boxes of Meir's money that I've got. It is hard to tell if any new production run is worth it at all right now since I don't know if the car would have a chance of selling well or if it was only a handful of collectors that would be interested. I suspect that car would still be competitive though. If it ended up costing me $250 to complete a car kit then it probably wouldn't be worth it whereas $50 a kit would be doable. There's lots to think about. I know this is stuff that companies all go through but I essentially had a company loaded into my car at lunch yesterday so I wasn't ready for this. I thought I was going to be helping Barry get a dozen or so car kits back out there and that was it. Boy was I wrong!

Meir admits a big mistake they made originally was not giving 10 or 12 cars away free to serious drivers around the country. He said that would have been a big difference maker in the company surviving since the exposure would have generated the interest. They generally just sold direct so no parts or cars were in hobby shops for others to see. They survived on local sales and adds in RC Car action. It was really before the internet took over. Meir had the money and the expertise in knowing who to contact to get things made. Barry had the strength for design and engineering. Neither had the marketing skills.
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Johnboy72
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Re: Some Bullet Racing/Raborn Racing nostalgia

Post by Johnboy72 »

Good luck Fred. Tough decisions ahead.

On the chassis for my project, after the holidays I'd be down for a couple reproduction chassis'. I'm not concerned if it's Old stock. I'd still tell everyone it's a Rayborn and obviously it'd have the RC10 parts.

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Re: Some Bullet Racing/Raborn Racing nostalgia

Post by fredswain »

Slowly going through inventory. I have all of the molded parts necessary to build at least 100 Invencers at a guess. I've got 67 chassis but there's a catch. There was a different chassis for the truck and the car. I've got 2 car chassis. The rest are truck chassis. Again, no big deal since I can have them remade but the question is should I? I've got enough shock sets for 2 cars. I'm building a display truck and car so that rules them out. I found 5-6 diffs but I did notice that in the parts list there are a couple of cross reference Custom Works numbers so I need to follow up on those. I've bought some storage bins and have started organizing parts. By the weekend I should have the entire stash organised which will only take up a few feet of floor space.

I've had this stuff for 36 hours and I've already got 10 hours into messing with it. I do have a full time job too.
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Re: Some Bullet Racing/Raborn Racing nostalgia

Post by LTO_Dave »

Good Lord!!! :shock:

I've been searching for years to find a used roller and you have boxes full of NOS parts. :mrgreen: :lol:

And I honestly never knew of the Ultima chassis...that would be killer with a gold JCAR hangin' off the back. Was there a telescoping drive system with rear arms available for the Ultima?

So the XT and EM-10 used the 4+3 chassis, and the X-10 used the 7+3 chassis? Are there more motor plates than chassis or is that pic deceiving? :?:

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Re: Some Bullet Racing/Raborn Racing nostalgia

Post by fredswain »

I have no parts list showing a telescoping drive conversion for the Ultima. I have also never seen any arms for it. The only ones that were officially made were for the RC10 and 10T and I have tons of those. They obviously also worked for the JRX. However, the bag of rear axles that I have that don't fit the Invencer (it used JRX axles) appears to be for the Ultima. I'm not 100% sure yet but they seem to be. They are specifically for a telescoping system. Perhaps they intended to do it but never did? I don't know. Hopefully I'll learn more about them soon.

I'm going through the stash remarkably quickly. I'll have it all sorted through and organized by this weekend. Then I can start inventory. That part is going to suck!
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alien3t
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Re: Some Bullet Racing/Raborn Racing nostalgia

Post by alien3t »

AWESOME WORK IN THE LITTLE TIME YOU HAVE. and yeah hopefully if we can get an idea of a shock close in size ot fit. enough minds here can make rolling chassis. im kinda on the fence on wanting one just because it be fun. another project i dont need but just want.

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Re: Some Bullet Racing/Raborn Racing nostalgia

Post by fredswain »

I've already potentially got a source to machine everything again. I've got tons of shock bodies but nothing else to them. If I can get the machine shop to play ball, I'll be able to complete shocks again. I'm pretty sure that Associated TC shocks will work. I'll buy a set after the holidays to see for sure. I'm also talking to a wheel company about having new rears made since they were foams but were pin drive. Pan car style front foams work fine so it's the rear that I need to work out. I'd also need to work out truck wheels. I'd like to include wheels like kits used to have. I'm lining things up pretty quickly. At work our engineering slogan is, fail fast. That means get contact made or ideas out there now, as in today. If they don't work, you didn't lose much time. You failed fast and moved on. If they do work, you're good to go. I'm used to working at a fast pace and juggling priorities anyways. I'm trying to figure out if this whole endeavor will ultimately go anywhere as quickly as possible. If I can make something happen, I want to do it pretty soon and not let it drag out. If I can't make it happen, I want to move on from it soon.

One thing I do want to do is to keep Barry and Meir involved in some way. It was their time and money that went into all of this and it's only right that the proceeds go back to them. As long as I can just make it worth my while, I'll be happy. This isn't a parts or kit giveaway and I'm not considering this my own personal gold mine. Those guys have been my friends for almost 30 years and I want to thank them for the childhood memories that their shop and products gave me.
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