91 Masami Stealth replica (Photo Comparison Uploaded)

[Phin]

One of these should be built and sent to Masami as a gift.

He's got an original.

One should be made to put on eBay just to see how much it sells for.

[vintage AE]

One of these should be built and sent to Masami as a gift.

Where would he put it?

Looks like he would have to hold it...above his head, with a big smile

[fredswain]

Is the front kick the correct angle on this? It looks like 25°. Unless there is an illusion, pictures of the original measure out to 20°.

[TRX-1-3]

Well, I'll be jigged. Y'all done did it!

I am fascinated.

Mark

[Seabass]

The front kick up on this car is 25 degrees. The car was initially built with a 30 degree kick up and we decided to change it because it was off. We were able to source a 25 degree mold and had our carbon fiber laid up with that mold. You may or may not be correct on the 20 degree kick up as we may or may not be correct on the 25 degree kick up. We can both agree it is definitely not 30.

[GoMachV]

We were able to source a 25 degree mold....

did you have it made? I still need to have one bent up for the Bullet chassis.

[jbmeyer13]

25 and 30 degree molds are available from multiple shops but 20 degrees is not. Fred and I are in the process of having a 20 degree mold fabricated for our chassis. We both thought it was initially 25 degrees but after extensive photo analysis we determined it was in fact 20 degrees. The main benefit is on power steering and I'm sure Fred could better speak to how the geometry characteristics effect handling than I could.

[Rootdown4594]

do you guys ever plan on making a runner of one these buggies? would be interesting to see how they compare to their modern counterparts.

[jbmeyer13]

do you guys ever plan on making a runner of one these buggies? would be interesting to see how they compare to their modern counterparts.

I plan to make one shelf queen and another as a runner. For the runner I may use some more modern parts (shocks) since the ones from the early 90's are hard to come by. I believe Niki said that the control arms could be reinforced to improve the strength if need be.

[Charlie don't surf]

There is a member here that owns an original. He can attest to the kickup rate if he chooses, and you are aware you are measuring off of a drawing...right? Also, I'm very familiar with thd composite producers in this country, and no...kickup panels are not available anywhere, nor are any other version specifically...since its dead technology and useless in every other application. Why do I know? I produced chassis in 2005-2008 that were 20* . Also, you guys tout a lot about "your" car in this thread...don't you have a thread started already? because I haven't seen these guys posting in your thread about their car...

[fredswain]

What's with your crap attitude towards us? You didn't do the work on that car anyways so don't act like a God. No one here certainly gives you any credit for it.

We've got some of the car modeled up. We've posted a few pictures along the way. Seeing this car done with the parts slowly being made available, why continue with it anymore? Our end goal was the same. To get a repro made that others could enjoy. Others did it first. I'm certainly not going to complain.

Why bash us for measuring a picture? Wasn't that car built off of pictures? If it was from direct measurement of the real car then that's awesome but trial and error sure implies it was off of pictures. I don't see why it's valid for one to do it but not others. We aren't criticizing. We are asking a question based on observation. You seem to have a problem with questions.

[jbmeyer13]

There is a member here that owns an original. He can attest to the kickup rate if he chooses, and you are aware you are measuring off of a drawing...right? Also, I'm very familiar with thd composite producers in this country, and no...kickup panels are not available anywhere, nor are any other version specifically...since its dead technology and useless in every other application. Why do I know? I produced chassis in 2005-2008 that were 20* . Also, you guys tout a lot about "your" car in this thread...don't you have a thread started already? because I haven't seen these guys posting in your thread about their car...

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm aware that I'm measuring off of a drawing

We are all trying to produce as accurate replica's as we can using the same methodology of photo analysis. I pointed out something relevant to the conversation and everyone can decide for themselves how they want to utilize that information. I have already congratulated both Niki and Jake and was one of the first to purchase the parts on Shapeways so it's not as if this is some type of competition with millions of dollars on the line. Hopefully, the forum member who owns one could share this information with us. I'm sure we would all appreciate that.

We are all just a bunch of hobbyist trying to make a replica of a car that we wanted as a kid

[aeiou]

Amazing work, guys!

[Seabass]

The decision to go with the 25 degree kick up resulted from two things. The first car we built was on a 30 degree kick up and when we started comparing the differences it was blatantly obvious it was wrong. The other factor was the B5 had a lot of the same technology and came with a 25 degree bulkhead as well as a 30 degree option. Both Niki and I discussed this issue and decided the 25 degree was the way to go. We wanted to build the car with the ability to be as close as possible as well as provide a stable platform that could be raced successfully. There are going to be options available which one of those options is readily available now. The car pictured has a 25 degree bulkhead on a 25 degree kick up. I also have a 25 degree bulkhead for a 30 degree kick up here at my house that we used while we waited for the 25 degree mold to be machined. Yes we had to specifically request that mold since none of the reputable RC CF companies had a mold.

The bell cranks on this car used the 10T hardware which is very difficult to come by. As I built the car, we ran into a couple problems which still exist with getting the 10T bellcranks bolts to tighten properly in the CF chassis. The solution was to make an optional ball bearing steering assembly that used the same geometry and also fixed the mounting problems associated with the 10T hardware.

It will be suggested that those who want to build the car to be run, use the ball bearing steering assembly and those who want to build a shelf model use the 10T hardware version installed on the car in my pictures. There may be a 30 degree bulkhead option available for the car to help in fine tuning for those who want to run the car as well as other options such as different shock towers and different arms. The Shapeways arms are very durable but do have a good bit of flexibility due to the thin walls of the arms. The "Race" arms will be machined from nylon 6/6 and will share the exact same geometry but will have a visually different design simply to add strength for the purpose of putting this car on the track.

Can you race with the SLS arms? Absolutely and it has already been proven. Just more options to come allowing someone to fine tune the car to their specific needs.

[jbmeyer13]

The bell cranks on this car used the 10T hardware which is very difficult to come by. As I built the car, we ran into a couple problems which still exist with getting the 10T bellcranks bolts to tighten properly in the CF chassis. The solution was to make an optional ball bearing steering assembly that used the same geometry and also fixed the mounting problems associated with the 10T hardware.

For those interested, the 10T tube, spring and nut for the servo saver are part# 9158. By dumb luck I walked into a local hobby shop last week and went through their box of old parts and found one.