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Hope he's got some I for and pictures he can share.

that's great news! sounds about right on the response time. LOL i waited just about the same time you did, for a response too. can't wait to hear what he says about the truck.

I heard back from Mr. Raceles today.

He confirmed that this is indeed his old truck! He seems to remember it well! I asked him if he would mind if I post his response here, I will post it as soon as I hear back. I doubt he would mind, he seems like a really nice guy. I will post my email to him below for reference. In his response he confirms my speculation about this being , basically, a pre-production "96 GTII". He also added that the arms may be a pre-production glass filled variant, and he definitely remembers sanding them down. After going back and looking again I can see the fibers in the arms. Were the "normal" original black arms filled? He said that the blue pipe and titanium turnbuckles are original, and probably also pre-production at the time. No surprise, the shocks are not original. He had ptfe shocks. I have the shocks for it. He said he had a CZZ in it, so I need to find another one of those, and an Airtronics CS2P radio.

Also, The1994 Florida Winter Champs was an electric only race. Chris Raceles was at that race, but obviously didn't race this truck there. He said he only raced this truck a few times, in the approximately 6 months after the Winter Champs, at the RC track in Hemet SoCal. Didn't say the name. He just had the number plates leftover and thought they looked cool. I think he was right.

Very happy.


Here is my email to him. Got a little long winded, but wanted to give him as much info go off as possible.

"Hello Mr Raceles. Thank you very much for getting back to me, I appreciate it. I have attached some pictures of the truck for you to look at. Hopefully with these pictures you can confirm that this was in fact your truck. I don't know if you can make it out in these pictures, but that is your name on the sticker behind the number plates. These are the only pictures I have uploaded at the moment, but I would be more than happy to take more if you want to see more.

I am a collector of RC10GT's, and was very excited to acquire this truck. The prospect of having an actual factory team driver sponsored/raced truck in my collection is exciting enough, but equally exciting are the non-production/prototype parts on the truck. What I can tell about the truck by looking at it is that it appears to be an original first generation rc10gt that has had its white parts dyed black. The rear suspension arms have been sanded down on the bottom, perhaps for ground clearance(?), before they were dyed. Other than that all the plastic parts appear to be standard fare. Where it starts to get a little more interesting is the body and shock towers. The truck appears to be a test bed for the first major update to the RC10GT, the "96 GTII". The rear shock tower appears to be a pre production version of the wide tower on the 96 GTII. The original 6131 body has been modified to fit over this wide rear tower. I have never seen one like this before. When Associated released the 96 GTII they also released a new body, the 6134, to work with the new wide rear shock tower. Also, the front shock tower is a non production unit that is different from any of the production units. The top of the front shock tower is wider where the shocks mount. Because of this the front of the body had to be mounted higher, and there are spacers under the front body posts. I also noticed that the body has been trimmed below the normal body line on bottom, presumably to offset the higher mounting position. The chassis nose plate has been trimmed down, and an aftermarket, or possibly home made, bumper/skid plate is in place of the original factory bumper. If any of this sounds familiar to you, and you can expand, or add any information to this, I would be very grateful. I would also appreciate any information about the 1994 Winter champs, especially regarding this truck and your race with it. I spent quite a bit of time on the internet searching for any information about that race but haven't found anything other than a few sentences referencing it. I do realize this was a long time ago now, and that I may be asking a lot here, but any information would be very appreciated.

I would like to restore this truck to as raced condition, but as you can see from the pictures it is missing a few items. By any chance, do you remember what engine and electronics you were running in this truck? Also, some of my fellow collectors and I did question weather a few of the parts on this truck are original. I'm fairly certain that the shocks are not original, as they appear to be brand new shocks from a modern RTR. I assume you would have been using the hard coated Team Associated shocks? I was also wondering about the blue anodized titanium turnbuckles, and the blue anodized tuned pipe. Can you recall if those are original to this truck? I have not been able to determine if they were available to the public circa 94, and was wondering if maybe the originals had been switched out at some point, or if you , being factory sponsored, had pre-production versions?

Well, I am sorry this got so long winded. I sincerely appreciate your response, and look forward to hearing back from you. Thanks again.

Justin Durand"

If you can find a new condition CZR non-ps ill trade you a new condition never started CZZ non-ps.

romulus22 wrote:If you can find a new condition CZR non-ps ill trade you a new condition never started CZZ non-ps.

I'll keep that in mind, although you don't see many of them anymore either.

excellent stuff. you should post up some close up shots of those pre-production parts and the rest of the truck. would be good reference material.

Probably not interested, but I have a really nice CZ-11 PS I'm not planning on using.

http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=33720&p=366057#p366057

littleVETTE wrote:excellent stuff. you should post up some close up shots of those pre-production parts and the rest of the truck. would be good reference material.

I will do a good photo shoot eventually. Probably after I clean it up and install the engine etc.

Sixtysixdeuce wrote:Probably not interested, but I have a really nice CZ-11 PS I'm not planning on using.

http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=33720&p=366057#p366057

Not for this truck, but I wouldn't mind adding that little gem to my collection. Can't swing it at the moment, though. See my Blackfoot thread. Lol....

Found the engine! Worked out a trade for a nice used czz.

Just in case anyone is keeping tabs I am still looking for another czz.

Great find! And cool that you got in contact with the driver...

I don't remember that style (notched) turnbuckle until after 2000-

1996-1998 era was still the full-square RCPS/AE blue, I don't think the Worlds B3 even had those-

Very cool piece of history!!!

justinspeed79 wrote:

littleVETTE wrote:excellent stuff. you should post up some close up shots of those pre-production parts and the rest of the truck. would be good reference material.

I will do a good photo shoot eventually. Probably after I clean it up and install the engine etc.

cool. you replacing the rtr shocks with your own teflon shocks?

Here is Mr. Raceles' email response about the truck.

 "Hello again Justin, thanks for the photos….that’s definitely my old truck!! Wow, it’s been a minute since I’ve seen that thing…haha!! J
 
  You are pretty on point with the things you have called out about the truck….some of the specifics I might not remember but that truck did have some pre-production parts on it which were only available to AE team drivers….like the body, shock towers, carbon rear shock/arm mounts….and I think the rear arms may have been early versions of carbon blend arms but I do not remember for sure…I definitely remember sanding them down. The shocks are definitely not original….originally I had the hard anodized Teflon coated shocks. The exhaust and turnbuckles look like the ones I got with the truck but I picked up the kit directly from Associated and they may have given me extra parts....again, probably parts that were not yet available to the public. I was sponsored by Airtronics at the time so I was using the CS2P transmitter with the corresponding receiver….I can’t remember which model Airtronics servo I was using in this truck….possibly #94151?? The original engine was an OS I believe….the one with the blue anodized head.
 
  In regards to the 1994 Winter Champs held in Florida, I did attend this race but it was an electric race only….I had extra number stickers left over from the race and thought they looked cool so I put them on the gas truck body. If memory serves me correctly I only raced the truck you have a couple of times at the Hemet track in So Cal….probably within a 6 month period after the 94’ electric Winter Champs.
 
  Well, that’s about all I can remember….thanks again for the photos!! I am glad that you as a collector have obtained this truck and can appreciate the special items it has. Cheers!!
 
Chris Raceles
BMX Product Manager | Haro Bikes

Man this whole thread was like a soap opera it is its not?? I made sure not to cheat and read every memebers post until I got to the end. Kinda like you cant wait to tune in every week to see what happens on the tube Great find and a piece of history, glad your happy and found something you can enjoy.