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AYKBOBCAT wrote:This is a nice thread

I have a question. I've got quite a bit of mad cap parts I was hoping to use one of these days to make myself a home brew buggy. I'd like to make a chassis out of aluminim. I'm missing the diff gear set though. Does Tamiya have a car right now that uses the same diff as the Astute/MadCap?

Astute, king cab and toyota hi lux (monster racer) all used ball diffs. Mad Cap and Saint dragon used bevel gears. Should be easy to get either on the bay , but you will pay a price for the ball diff parts.

The original Astute ball diff was a bit of a pain, it suffered quite badly from slip due to warping of the diff case after a very short time. If you decide to run the original trans stick to 27 and 19 single turn motors (shouldn't slip to bad on stock power), if you want to run modifiers you're going to have to run the TTC trans from the Super Astute which comprises slipper and gear diff.

Either option the cheapest way to get hold of one is to buy a full runner donor car, these models don't get parted out very often and putting a trans together from new parts will cost you a fortune if you can find them.

Anyway the resurection of this thread has reminded me I still haven't run this model yet (got to get my finger out )

fakiee wrote:Astute, king cab and toyota hi lux (monster racer) all used ball diffs. Mad Cap and Saint dragon used bevel gears. Should be easy to get either on the bay , but you will pay a price for the ball diff parts.

I'm sure the Madcap came with a ball diff, not bevel gears. My friend tried to race one back in the 90's & had to replace the ball diff moulding every week as it melted itself with a 12x2 Reedy motor. I'm sure he raced a standard car as he refused to spend any money on his stuff.....

No, it definetly has a gear diff.

I bought one from a friend loooog ago and it had a bll diff but he could have changed it before selling it to me though

bngiles wrote:No, it definetly has a gear diff.

Thought I was right - just looked at the Madcap manual (page 4 if you want to check it out) on Tamiyaclub.com and the Madcap definitely has a ball diff.... that or 12 very small round gears

I saw a mention early on about having purchased 35 Cars......what else you got lurking around? Or were those all for parts donors?

y2kgtp wrote:I saw a mention early on about having purchased 35 Cars......what else you got lurking around? Or were those all for parts donors?

Here's a link to my TC showroom in answer to the question:-

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom.asp?id=18028

It's a relatively small collection of models, most of them had some part to play in my childhood RC history.

Synergy wrote:

y2kgtp wrote:I saw a mention early on about having purchased 35 Cars......what else you got lurking around? Or were those all for parts donors?

Here's a link to my TC showroom in answer to the question:-

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom.asp?id=18028

It's a relatively small collection of models, most of them had some part to play in my childhood RC history.

Nice collection. My wife does not want me to relive my entire childhood, so I will pick and choose a few main vehicles

Very nicely done Synergy...I have been looking for one of these buggies for a while on and off and after reading ur post I am more determined than ever to find one...excellent pictures to go along w/ the explanations in ur posts

fakiee wrote:

AYKBOBCAT wrote:This is a nice thread

I have a question. I've got quite a bit of mad cap parts I was hoping to use one of these days to make myself a home brew buggy. I'd like to make a chassis out of aluminim. I'm missing the diff gear set though. Does Tamiya have a car right now that uses the same diff as the Astute/MadCap?

Astute, king cab and toyota hi lux (monster racer) all used ball diffs. Mad Cap and Saint dragon used bevel gears. Should be easy to get either on the bay , but you will pay a price for the ball diff parts.

EDIT Astute, king cab, toyota hi lux (monster racer), Mad Cap and Saint dragon all used ball diffs. None used bevel. My memory is playing tricks on me!

Sorry for mis-info