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It was my intention to wait until I had progressed a little further on the car to post anything, but after several requests to see pictures I could no longer hold out. Obviously the pictures are attached, but what really makes this great is the story behind this car. Here it is:

I posted a thread in the WTB section of another forum asking for a Pro Radiant. As we all know, they are very hard to come by so the thread went unanswered. Fast forward a few weeks and I get an email from a guy saying he had a Pro Radiant he was willing to part with. After contacting him I learned that he and his son race and were looking to switch to brushless motors. I also learned that his son raced a Slash, but that they were loyal Associated racers. We talked back and forth a bit (turns out he was a great guy) and worked out a trade for my SC10 and some brushless stuff. In our communications he told me that he lived in Georgia and had purchased the car in the late 80's after watching a couple guys at a regional race near Atlanta dominate with their Pro Radiants. I sent him the link to the Ask Mike Dunn thread with the photos and asked if anything looked familiar. Here's what he said:

"Yeah I looked at the pics. I also read that thread. Very cool stuff. I am 100%
certain that was you I watched race. You and Team Race Prep are the reason I
bought that car, so its only fitting that you ended up with it. I was a big fan
of Race Prep motors back then too."

While this may not be my original car, it is pretty cool to know that the car was purchased as a result of having seen my car run. How cool is that??

The pro looks great Jeff, and the way you received it is crazy that kind of thing just does not happen in the real world. I am looking forward to this build it should be epic

You know, if I wasn't living it I'd swear my life has been a dream lately. Finding a Pro Radiant that's in great shape and then the story behind it combined with my parts haul is almost too good to be true.

I failed to note it but the bottom 2 pictures are after I stripped the car, cleaned it and put the Associated shocks on it like I ran back in the day. The photos before those are how the car came to me. Oh, in the last 2 shots the tires are actually new, but with the new tire powder on them.

This is going to be awesome . Restoring / rebuilding a replica of a pro racers car of back in the days and built by the actual Pro Racer.
This is looking good Mr Harris, thanks for sharing.

it must be like walking into a hobby shop at your house j, cant wait to see the buggy all sorted rtr.

Miguel,
Building a replica of my car is the easiest replica ever. As crazy as it may sound, I ran the Pro Radiant pretty much stock, except the shocks and the Robinson 48p spur gear. The electronics were nothing special either. I used the TR-8/TF-8 tire set up and I turned my wheels silver by spraying them with hairspray. So, taking a stock Pro Radiant, cleaning it, changing the shocks and adding a 48p spur has me just about done. Once MrLexan gets the bodies molded it will look like 1988 again in the Harris house!

As for my house looking like a hobbyshop; yeah it kinda does at the moment. It's not really how I want to keep it though. Between my current race vehicles, kids vehicles, retro cars and current builds for the kids it's pretty busy. It also looks like a post office with all the USPS priority mail boxes I have going out. I have a 3 car garage that I look forward to getting back.

Jeff your story is truly inspirational mate. You definately deserve all the luck you've had lately. You've joined up to help those of us who asked and in turn the good Karma returns to you ten fold. Im stoked to see such a great new member and a true pioneer of the AYK product amongst us here.
I'll get these spares sorted out this week and get you on to your way with a second Pro Radiant.

I finally got 5 minutes to think about the modern wheel issues. After some modifying, here's what I came up with.....

JHarris wrote:I finally got 5 minutes to think about the modern wheel issues. After some modifying, here's what I came up with.....

Wow! What wheels are those? I guess you widened the hole on the front weels to fit the one way bearings but how did you fit them in the back? This is neat...

The front wheels are Kyosho RB-5 wide front wheels. My middle son races for Kyosho so when I saw these just sitting there I figured he wouldn't miss them! They already have the hex so all I had to do is drill the mounting hole bigger. Perfect fit!

The rears are B4 wheels. Again, SLIGHTLY enlarge the axle hole and they fit! Of course you need to scrap the cheesy phillips head rear wheel screws and replace them with hex head motor screws so you can tighten them properly. They look better too!

Thanks thats great

What tires are those? If you don't mind someone in Canada using the same tires and wheels

I've never been one to keep stuff secret or get all bent about someone using the same setup or tire as me. There's no need to re-invent the wheel! The front tires are Kyosho tires that Ruffy gave me. I can look at the sidewall to see if they say exactly what they are. They just happened to be 4wd fronts and close by after I mounted the wheels so I put them on for the sake of having tires on it. The rears are JConcepts Double Dees, green compound. They are like the Holeshot, except better! I took those off my blue RC10 since they had a little wear on them. I like my 4wd cars very loose so I don't mind the used rear tires. In fact, when I run the B44 I usually put tires so worn out on the back that they look like slicks.

Great thanks...

Are you planning to run this car or just shelf it? I'm trying to get mine back to running (bashing) condition... I just hope I could get CVDs for the front. Thanks for the info.

gold wheels come on mr harris

marui hunter 73 wrote:gold wheels come on mr harris

I didn't run the wheels gold back in the day. I sure wouldn't run them that way now! I was super happy when I learned that hairspray took the gold off and left the wheel silver. I probably did that before the car was even built!

Once I get my hands on a right one way the car will be finished and put on the track. To answer the question about running it; YES! Anything I build will be run. I have never been one for shelf queens and never will be. This car will ultimately see very little track time once I get a more modernized Pro Radiant built, but that could be some time before it happens. In the meantime, I plan to run this car everytime I'm at the track.

The other missing element right now is a body. Mrlexan is working on a repro, but like most of us he has a real job that takes the majority of his time. So I got to thinking; what would work until I can get a repro body.....

Much like the wheels I "borrowed" from my son's Kyosho stash, I found a body for his RB-5. After staring at it for a while I grabbed the scissors and exacto knife. It's not perfect, but it will work just fine until the real body is completed.