PB buggies. Post your pics.

[Bormac]

Its a full time job trying to remove all that house paint from the chassis- LOL!

[Incredible_Serious]

Its a full time job trying to remove all that house paint from the chassis- LOL!

Well matey, if you spent less time talking about it, and more time doing it, it would have been done weeks ago!!!!

Sheesh, and they have cheap shots at me......



Alex

[Mad Racer]

.

[vintage racer]

Mark your Mini Mustang would make a great runner.I can help you run it if you like

[Mad Racer]

Oh thats nice of you.

I get it running so we all can thrash it with my 6.5 brushless and the biggest 2 speed pinion combo.

Dont think so. LOL.

like i said if i had another one i will cause i really hated them back in the days..

Cheers.

Mark..

[vintage racer]

Sounds good Mark.I love the shock tower flex.atleast they would never break.Do they all track to one side when you apply power?Mine did.This is why I sold it.I raced one back when I was a kid and dont remember having any problems.I raced and thrashed it for around 3 years,nothing ever broke.

[RETRO R/C]

As Jason mentioned, I actually drove for the importer in Australia for these cars for a while BITD. I have to be honest and say that I never was really in love with the car. I was always getting beaten by C.A.T.S and Yokomos at the national/state finals level.....The Mustang was a pretty good club level car however - as it was very simple once you got a few bugs out of the way to improve perfromance and reliability.

I have a few mods on this car that we used to run. JG shock towers or their home made equivelant are absolutely essential. The standard shock towers are made out of plastic that is more like "cheese" Honestly - there is more suspension action from the flex in the towers and the arms than in the original shocks! Speaking of shocks, the original shocks were very much hit and miss...more miss than hit! Also fitted to my mustang are the Kyosho Option House shocks - many used RC10 or Schumacher shocks....hell - a ball point pen spring was better than the standard units.

One essential mod was to make the belt tensioner that sits inside the chassis larger. We used Hirobo wheel bearings (2 side by side) on a custom shaft placed in the same spot as the standard unit used to be. This made the "grip"of the belt on the top pulley not only tighter - but also it spun alot more freely because of the bearings.

Whilst the two speed held a certain fascination for a while - they were eventually outlawed.....to be honest, were never really used in serious competition as it was to hard to get the car set up for the masses of understeer or snap oversteer that the car would go through when it changed into second gear on full throttle. The single speed gearbox was whole lot better to drive.

One thing we did do all the time is BOIL the plastic parts before we used them. This appeared to releive some of the moulding stress in the crappy plastic they used. We would shatter arms and plastic parts in winter - and then in summer - they would bend and flex alarmingly! So boiling them helped to stop breaking the parts in winter - didnt help with the flex though!

I have only skimmed over the car here - please feel free to shoot any questions - I will do my best to answer them. Hopefully I will be able to run this one again soon - it still has the mud caked on it after its first run at the very wet St Ives farewell meeting a couple of months ago. The car was freshly restored for that meeting. I must say that the car actually felt excellent in those conditions - however it also felt VERY heavy - something I will have to address with a LI-PO pack to be sure.

Please excuse the mud - I have been so busy - I havent had a chance to dust her off yet! (I tried to make the old body look good - with pinstriping and decals - came up ok). I might strip it and hit it with my old racing colurs.....

[Bender]

Well I'm glad that Darren has spoken up about the true performance of this car, as I was just about to go on and on about how bloody awful they were

Besides from the small issues that Darren mentioned, I seemed to remember the whole suspension flexed like mad, and every one I ever raced against had very rusty ball-joints and driveshafts! Then there's that supposed "quick release" battery system, which would get so caked with dirt that it made it almost impossible to get the batteries out

I also seem to remeber that the backbone/spine of the car wasn't sealed, so dirt would find it's way in between the servo, the cells, and anywhere else it could to really make a mess of the drivetrain, and finally the R.I.S.E system (roll induced steering effect) which was PB's way of saying "massive toe-out bumpsteer" Tamiya should have used that terminology for the Hotshot.

Ah yes, great cars those PB's I fondly remember thrashing the pants off them every fortnight at the Ryde club with my trusty Big Wig!

[Incredible_Serious]

Well I'm glad that Darren has spoken up about the true performance of this car, as I was just about to go on and on about how bloody awful they were

Besides from the small issues that Darren mentioned, I seemed to remember the whole suspension flexed like mad, and every one I ever raced against had very rusty ball-joints and driveshafts! Then there's that supposed "quick release" battery system, which would get so caked with dirt that it made it almost impossible to get the batteries out

I also seem to remeber that the backbone/spine of the car wasn't sealed, so dirt would find it's way in between the servo, the cells, and anywhere else it could to really make a mess of the drivetrain, and finally the R.I.S.E system (roll induced steering effect) which was PB's way of saying "massive toe-out bumpsteer" Tamiya should have used that terminology for the Hotshot.

Ah yes, great cars those PB's I fondly remember thrashing the pants off them every fortnight at the Ryde club with my trusty Big Wig!

Yeah, well, EVERYTHING seems bad if you remember it......

[Mr. ED]

wooow darryn, those hingepins look ready to spear anyone trying a bumper kiss. I never realised the arms were so flimsy; thanks for the close-up shots.

Basically it seems this car was a good concept but poorly executed?
I wouldn't mind giving a full re-design a try... just keep the chassis and motormount, replace everythin else and get a tube of silicon sealant

[Incredible_Serious]

Well, all.... yup, the arms were bendy.... if you didn't FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS and boil them.... back in the day, I never broke an arm. Course, I never drove like the Dazzler....

Course, with a chassis like that, you'd have problems with dirt.... if you didn't FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS and seal up the holes.... which I did, and which helped heaps. I had basic electrical tape on the motor and battery holes, and I had no dirt issues......

Then again, I only ever rany my Mini Mustang with a Technigold..... best I could afford!

Oh yeah.... quick release batteries..... worked great, if you didn't rely on the system to actually carry charge! I used them happily for years as a battery mount, just using the super-duper (at the time) Tamiya connectors to do the volt business.

But I shouldn't spend too long defending such a nice car against such bogans/neanderthals.... sure they would rather have their Nikkos...

Open the floor now to the heavy bootage....

Alex

[Bormac]

Alex, Alex, Alex....What can I say, you're one of a kind!
When it comes to the old cars I guess we all have our favourites and those we remember to be less than admirable. For me my vintage journey isnt one of rediscovering the very best car of its day but rather appreciate the models for what they are and from where the off road scene realy flourished. Wether they be good, bad or just plain ugly these cars all hold some kind of sentiment to many of us. Im confident that in the right hands many of the cars we have little confidence in come sometimes show promise and suprise even the modern day racer.

[RETRO R/C]

LOL Alex - you are a card mate! The arms did not get less "bendy" when you boiled them - boiling them made them less brittle in cold conditions.

My comments are based on someone who was actually racing cars back then - both at club level and state/national level too. Like my articles - I call a spade a spade...you cant polish a turd - all you get is turd on your hands and what you tried to polish it with!!

That being said - I have one of these because for me it is about the memories and having something different and out of the norm to actually race at these vintage events. The hobby is many different things to many different people. Some people/collectors here and on other forums raced, some didnt....what it is about is the passion for the hobby no matter where you came from...

Our hobby is complex and has alot of history . Like I have said many times over the last 12 or so years (for those of you hearing it yet again - sorry for the repetition)- our current cars can be traced back to these golden oldies - no matter how poorly executed they may have been back then - the ideas were there.... Thats what makes our hobby (vintage) so very rewarding if you are in it for the right reasons - not a cash cow..cause you are a fool if you think this hobby is an investment!

Do it because you love it - not because someone else thinks it is cool...if you like the Marui Samurai - run the thing and make it work. I know I did - and surprised more than a few people at the first major vintage meeting here in Aus. People were always ragging on Marui, even back in the old days when they were new. I always had a soft spot for them - so I took my new built and ran it..damn glad I did. The same will go for my Mustang above - it was pretty much a new built - and even though I never really loved the car - I do have some fond memories of it..especially I liked being the underdog at meetings - and still managing to make major finals....there is a satisfaction to be had from that.

Wow - where did that come from !! LOLOL

I will get some video of mine running at the next meeting - hopefully I can do it justice once again.

Cheers

Darryn

[Bormac]

Well said Darryn. And I thought you liked the Mini Mustang- LOL! But seriously I think the car has potential even in todays arena of vintage racers. Sure the arms and towers are a little flexi but 'FLEX' is what everyone is on about now days. Ofcourse Im still yet to get mine onto the race track but if its possible to put a Marui Samurai on the race track and turn out some nice laps then it shows anything is possible.
As you've mentioned Darryn, we all do it for different reasons. Wether it be nostalgia, future investment or keeping up with others at the race track I think we can all agree the old cars are worth a second look. Im just glad these models have had new life breathed into them and will see the light of day yet again.

[RETRO R/C]

Thanks Jason.

I do like the Mustang - just not as much as other cars - I have respect for what they were trying to acheive though - guess thats why I have one.

Anything has potential if you are prepared to put in the time and preparation required. It helps to have a bit of know how as well.....or the ability to get it.

Thank god for forums like these!

Cheers

Darryn