RC10 Oval Car Project

[Jacobey]

Here is my RC10. I picked it up from a hobby store about a year ago for $20. I just took it off the shelf about I month ago and decided to run it instead of my T4.









We race at a couple different tracks. During the summer we run on an asphalt oval. It has 75 foot straights and is 25 foot wide with a 350' runline. This year I ran my T4 most of the season but also ran the RC10 later in season. I think for the next few races I want to get the RC10 running a little better and retire my T4 for a while. I have the car all ripped apart right now cleaning it up, ready to get it race ready.

I had an idea to make a new chassis for it just to save the gold pan and thought I'd make it a little more oval worthy. I made the chassis so the battery is mounted on the left side for weight. I saw pictures of AGI Jammer conversion and kind of took an idea from that. I decided for the front suspension to mount a Bolink Legend front end. Does this sound like a dumb idea? I wish I had my L3 and I would of put that on instead but all I've got is a Legend. Here is a picture of what I did so far and was wondering if this looks good or if there is something else that could be done.



I was looking at Custom Works and saw that some of their cars have there motor mounted in the middle of the chassis. I took the transmission apart and turned it around and am going to hopefully make a motor plate too (to save the original from the dremel) I'm good at SolidWorks and my dad programs a laser at work so he can cut the chassis and motor plate out there

What I still need is a body and some wheels/tires. I want to save the body, I know its not in that great of shape but its an old and pretty thin body thatI thought I'd save. I would like to have some kind of old stock car body but I don't know what would fit on it? The tires on it are old and cracked, and the one is coned real bad. I could get foam but I would like to get rubber. I am planning on running it in a limited latemodel class and they require rubber tires. I would like the Custom Works street trac tires but don't know what rims would fit on the car? I would like to stay away from dish, really would like something to fit with a stock car body (if thats what I end up with), maybe something like RPM revolvers but they won't fit. They also need to be buggy rims, wide in back and narrow in front.

Thanks for any suggestions!

[markt311]

Custom Works has wheels too, you will have to go to the newer style 3/16" rear axles though. Not sure about bodies though, I'm not a dirt oval guy.

[Jacobey]

I know that Custom Works has rims but all I seen from them are black or gray dish rims. Do they make anything that would fit an RC10 that look like real latemodel or stock car rims?

Yep, I'll have to get newer axles for the car. Thanks for the suggestion.

[PBR Allstar]

You don't have to upgrade the rear axles if you don't want to. TM racing makes a wheel for the 1/4" rear axle bolt it on and go:

http://www.tm-rc-racingcomponents.com/2%20inch%20buggy%20FrameSet12.htm


If you are going to upgrade the wheels to a current style 2.0" foam tire there are a couple tricks you're going to have to do.

first is to obviously go to the 3/16" axle.

second you will need to either cut down the hub carrier and relocate the ball stud a little lower
or run custom works rear hub carriers (this is what I do on my cars)

run a .125" custom works wheel spacer

Even with the spacer the wheels are inboard pretty far so I mill the first shock mounting hole off of my A arm, with the RPM arms it will just clear.

here's a pic of the modified rear arm with the custom works carrier and wheel spacer:



If you do end up running new style 2.0 wheels and tires you can choose from:

custom works,
RC4less.com (these are the foams I usually run, best price out there)
tm racing
John's BSR tires

and lastly if you want the wheel centers to look more realistic, use a modern 2.0" tire/wheel and go to one of the many rc graphics companies and get some wheel dots like this:

http://cheapdecalz.com/wheeldots.html

[Bent]

Jacobey, If I was you I would run the custom works wheels with a McAllister racing body. Just my 2 cents though.






PBR thanks for the decalz link.

[Jacobey]

PBR Allstar - I like your idea, I think I will go with the 2.0 wheels. I have a whole bunch of rear hub carriers so I will cut them down and use them. I don't have RPM arms but I do have Andy's arms, do you know if they will clear?

Bent - I will eventually end up with a McAllister body for the winter, but do you know of any old school looking bodies on the market today? I would like one of Bolink's stock car bodies but they are too narrow.

What do you guys think of the Legend front end, dumb idea or you think it might work. Its only going to be run on the asphalt oval, with a 350' runline so its a big smooth track. I'll have dad cut the chassis out at work on Tuesday, its going to made of scrap aluminum so no big waste if it doesn't work.

Thanks

[Bent]

Me personally I would stick with the rc10 front and not run a ledgends front but thats me. As far as old looking they have what they call street stock bodies one is a 78ish camaro the other is a mustang fast back and they have a cuda. here is a picture of the Camaro. )My brothers WIP.)

[PBR Allstar]

Jacobey,

I would personally stay away from the Street Stock type bodies on your pavement car for two reasons: first, when you are all said and done with the 2.0" wheels on your car the rear track is going to come out at about 230mm, the front is going to be 240mm with the CE style arms or 220mm with the old style arms like you have. The mcallister bodies are 225mm wide. The second reason would be aerodynamics and downforce, they don't give you any.

Wind tunnel still makes some of the older wide 235mm stock car bodies but your tires arn't going to fit too well in the wheelhouse's of the body and you will have to run it kind of jacked up to clear the tires.

Personally what I would do is run a dirt latemodel body on the car, lots more room in the wheelhouse due to the flat sides of the car. you can get away with an 8-7/8 to 9" wide body if you don't run the .125" spacers in the rear of the car (to do this you will have to dremel the outer shock mount hole on the a arm a little) My personal favorite is the rocket body from Factory Works, http://www.factoryworks.com it's very slippery in the air and the downforce can be tuned very easily with rear spoiler height. heres a pic of one mounted on a car of mine:



I've run it on a concrete oval as well and had good success.

As far as your front end idea something similar has been done before by a company called AGI on a car called the "jammer" not too sure how well it worked? what I would do since the car is getting laid out and cut by your dad, have him put the mounting holes in it for a stock nose plate, if the pan car style front end doesn't work then just cut it off and try the stock front end. I think at the end of the day you'll have a much more driveable car with the stock front end, but I love trying out of the box thinking so I say give it a try. you're rear setup will be very important with the bolink front end though, and you will have to set it up like a pan car, adjusting the "tweak" so to speak.

Interested to see what comes out of this!

[Jacobey]

I'll keep the street stock body in mind, it might not handle the best or fit the best, but a mustang or cuda body would look cool on it

I know for sure that I will end up with a latemodel body. There are 12 different bodies legal in that class (the Factory Works Rocket being one of them). It depends what the width the car turns out to be and what the hobby shop has. It would also be nice if I could get one that would be the same width as a B4 so I can switch it from one car to another.

The AGI Jammer is where I got the idea from. I've been talking to a racer that dominated the gearbox class in 2006 and 2007? and he metioned something about this conversion so I thought I'd try to make my own version. Good idea, I'm going to add the different mounting holes in case the Legend front end doesn't work out.

I should kind of explain the tracks better. The summer track (big asphalt oval) has a gearbox class, 19 turn motor limit and must have a gearbox, that is basically the rules. I decided to experiment and make a chassis with the Legend front end. I was looking for an older style stock car body for here but it doesnt matter, I can run a latemodel body.

In the winter the track is a smaller clay oval (about a 165' runline). The class there is Limited Latemodel which is stock buggy with latemodel body, no modifications to the chassis, must run rubber tires, must be under 10 inches wide. So at this track I will run the stock setup with the original chassis and this is why I'm getting the latemodel body.

[Jacobey]

Dad took the file to work today but he said he might not have time to get it cut. I added mounting holes for the original RC10 front end so I've got a couple options on how to set it up.

I was able to fit T4/B4 rear hubs on the car, we had some extras sitting around. I had to drill the hinge pin hole slightly bigger in order for it to work. I have axles coming, hopefully they will work. I also bought a 4 bolt wheel adapter so I have the option of running Legend/pan car foams on the back of it.

[Jacobey]

Here is the chassis, it turned out real good.

[Charlie don't surf]

Not being critical, but if/when you go with carbonfiber for a chassis material you are most likely reshape the
right side of the chassis for more usable flex, both fore/aft & cross chassis.

Very neat project BTW

[Jacobey]

Here it is all put together.



I flipped the transmission around and made it a mid motor car:


Close up of the Legend front end:


Close up with the RC10 front end:


Can't believe it went together so easily. All I had to do was enlarge a couple holes and drill out the others so I could countersink the screws. Others than that everything lined up ok and went together great. Can't wait to take it to the track and see how it does!

Not being critical, but if/when you go with carbonfiber for a chassis material you are most likely reshape the
right side of the chassis for more usable flex, both fore/aft & cross chassis.

Sorry, but I'm not understanding what you're saying?

[Charlie don't surf]

I was just mentioning the shape of your chassis overall greatly changes the handling of your oval car, and
thought you might end up making it out of carbonfiber in the future--

And it looks sharp with the rc10 front end!

[Jacobey]

Ok I see what you're saying. I sure would like it out of carbon fiber, we'll see how I do with this setup first

That front end is pretty sharp: