Pb Mini Mustang Survivor

[dinglem]

Back in the late 80's I was invited to join a team from one of my local clubs to race in a Jimmy Davis-sponsored 24hour charity race at the (UK-famous) Donisthorpe track. The club was Perry Common Buggy Club and at that time, in around 1986-7 the car to have (indoors on carpet) was the Pb Mini Mustang. I had only been racing for around a year at that time and was still running my black Mardave Meteor, and I was very chuffed to be invited onto the team of 5 drivers.

One of the older guys on the team offered the use of his Pb Mini Mustang for the event, and that remains the only experience I have of driving a Pb. It was very neutral but ran well and I think we ended up coming 5th out of the 10 teams entered, and when you consider the fact that the likes of Team Schumacher and Team Yokomo were there it wasn't a bad result.

All these years later the itch for a Mini Mustang was still there, mainly out of nostalgia from my earliest R/C days, so when a member on this page mentioned he had one in his loft I jumped at it. It was relatively complete, but was missing the bumper and the rear shock tower. After asking around on the Vintage Pb Fb Group I managed to locate the correct rear tower parts, a fibreglass rear body mount and an original front shock tower brace bar. I already had a new bumper sat on my as yet unrestored Maxima, so i pilfered that for this build.

When the car arrived I noticed it had a few mods, including a lovely chunky front pair of aftermarket Brimod rebuildable UJ's and what looks to be a pair of blue Boomerang steering hubs. The steering lock is impressive as a result! The shocks are also Brimods.

There is also a small home-made fibreglass plate across the rear of the car which serves to brace the rear of the transmission - a known weaker area on the car, i guess from repeated bottoming-out and rear end shunts. This plate stops the rear transmission housing from splitting open into the halves.

I have cleaned the car up in the last week as well as fitted a new belt at the same time (probably wouldn't have been possible without the online help of Mike Willis as i had no instruction booklet to hand), and it has come out surprisingly well. The original 'Stiletto' shell is in well-used shape, but after a wipe-down it has really started to grow on me. I have ordered a new replacement from Penguin, but i think for racing I will use this original as it is a part of the history of the car, and will get another funky shell design painted up for when not running. I still haven't finished cleaning all of the nooks and crannies yet, but as this is a survivor/runner I am not being too anal about that. I love it

Certainly for the British contingent, this car should represent a real trip down memory lane from the late 80's

[dinglem]

Back in the day, which was slap bang in the middle of the British 'heatshrink ESC' era.... this would have almost certainly have boasted a Demon King or Proking ESC, stuck down on top of the transmission tunnel, and had a Demon red label motor powering it. These will be what is going into it as soon as I get on to the electronics.

[Mike73]

Great car, superb period Brimod shocks and Gisom alloy wheels are a real bonus and really set the car off. I had the PB Eco as a kid and raced indoors just before getting an Optima Mid, brings back great memories, I always preferred this shell between the MM and Eco, may have to buy a Stiletto shell. Looking forward to seeing the electrics going in , a new body / paint scheme and hopefully pics of it running....

[Dadio]

My Mini Mustang is probably my favourite car to drive , can't wait to see yours finished !

[winner_evo]

Nice, with some cool parts & more Brimods.

I actuallly raced one for a meeting BITD when a mate & I did a swap for the day & remember them being nice to drive. My mates car had a Pro King too. He sold it in the end because it was constantly breaking plastics.

When I got mine I wanted to change the shocks because I thought the plastic ones were a bit naff but after rebuilding them they are surprisingly smooth.

[dinglem]

Yeah I admit even i didn't clock the faded and battle-scarred Brimod stickers on the black flanks of the rear wing when the original owner sent me pictures of the car and shell. You can just about make them out on the pictures if you look closely. The Brimod UJ's were a lovely surprise, that's for sure. I think I have posted up the advert for those before, but for reference, here it is again.

Have you spotted the unusual gold Brimod shock set on the MMS RC10 thread i posted up a few days ago??

[winner_evo]

I hadn't seen your other thread until now but I saw the car on ebay with the gold Brimods. I did think about bidding on it but am not really looking to add any cars to the collection as it's at 17 now & any more will cause me storage issues.

Great that they ended up with you.