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A couple years ago I got this very very sorry state plazma on yahoo auctons Japan. Missing the body ofcourse and I believe at least part of the upperchassis. Tires dry-rotten and cracked, wheels warped and enamel laquered (half chipped off ofcurse).
Got it cheap and with the intention of turning it into a M-chassis. The disappointing state made the project soon got stown away in a drawer. Till middle of last year , I finally bit the bullet and prepared it for some indoor racing.

Not been the easiest job: I had to change the wheelbase and trackwidth: both front and back to make it work with the M-chassis proportions.



Non original parts include
- heavily modified Tamiya F1 wheels with trimmed 1/12 spongees on them
- center steering setup with built-in servosaver; from an obscure vintage carpet racer (I think it was from mugen?)
- general issue body posts
- nylon standoffs (basically just tubes)
- copper tubing (= last resort repair for the graphite drive axle)
- HPI M-sized new beetle body (with a little too much trimming from an earlier project)
- trimmed and bent nylon bumper
- 3mm kyosho turnbuckles and bigger ball-cups






It's quite a bit different driving experience from what I'm used too : very nimble and way too fast; even with the spec moter of 23 turns. The drivetain is super-efficient and silent. Really need to use the brakes to slow it down or it just keeps going when I let of the throttle. The geardiff is a bit worn and doesn't run all that free, but ok.
On its first time out I hit some trackmarkers with the rear weel and the old graphite axle just twisted ight off where the left wheel was clamped onto it with a setscrew.
I' ve repaired it using some brass/copper tubing: sawn the axle in 2 parts and used the tubing to make an extention at the middle: back to "original" length
I've tried finding a repacement , but without luck. So it now i just sits on the shelf with this fix: good enough for display and a carefull drive in open space , but no longer race-worthy.
Pitty

(In case you're wondering: the fluo and reflective white decals where intended for the race. It was gonna be run in the dark with some black-lights)

Cool project.

Do you have a picture of the original rear axle? Some people I know make their own graphite Pro10 axles by taking an old axle, removing the alloy part from the axle, and screwing the alloy part into a piece of carbon fiber tube. Maybe that works here too.

Also, slippage at the clamping hub can usually be solved with a thin layer of super glue on the axle where the clamping hub attaches (but don't glue the hub to the axle!)

Nice rebuilt Erik!

Not gonna lie, I am loving that body.

Been thinking of making my own axle... but if it fails I 'll have destroyed the one I have now.

The acle had been pretty badly damaed by the previous owner, so it was only a mattr of time before it would snap really.

Thanks guys

One of my buddies 's been trying to convince me to run in Mardave class over the winter. So I went along last week to check out the track and run the YR-4 a bit.
I also took this M-resized Plazma along to see if they would let me drive it in the Mardave class (seeing they opened up to shumacher Supastox too)... Yes!

So: out went the ESC and receiver from the YR-4 and into the Plazma. Running this again was Big Fun, till the repaired axle gave up. Fixed it again and ran for 10 minutes but then it broke again.
I've tried a better repair for tomorrow's race, added shims under the suspension to lower the center of gravity and put the shorty in: hoping these mods will make it roll-over less easily.

I bought a replacement axle on ebay, but the seller refunded my money as he couldn't find the part anymore . Damn, bad luck.

Although I'm not a Bug/Beetle fan, I like the chassis modding. Making a wheelbase and track width work with a particular body is no easy matter. Nice job.

I was looking at fitting a Mc-Laren body earlier this week. I had even already stretched the wheelbase by 10mm to make it work.
But I went back to the beetle yesterday: because it's incredible strong and 9 times out of 10 the car rolls over and ends back on its wheels.

The race was fun: the changes I made in preparations helped a lot and I made further improvements over the day decreasing my average laptimes with several seconds (large track I admit)

600 Mah's per 6 minutes run: in contrary to the other drivers : typically around 2500 Mah! This thing's so smooth.
On the negative side my: rear axle got destroyed 3 times over 6 runs.
I really need to find some-one who can make me a replacement.
5mm rod with a 2mm cross-drill, 3mm reduction at the end, and a 3mm thread to finish it off.

New rear axle ordered.
And here's the thread from time I bought it = with a picture from the seller
http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=4081

Time for some pics of the current state: New are the 5mm steel axle with SG Prosso rear wheels and the spur bolted direct on the wheel. The spur is pretty much standard but 64dp just because I bought a bunch of pinions by mistake on yahoo auctiuons years ago. Pitty I had to loose the diff (be it geared) but now I won't have troubles sourcing new cheap spurs at least.
I also used the SG front wheels to get a matching look: on 1/12th steering knuckles and axles from an unidentified Schumacher. Disadvantage: no more bearings in the front, but the longer arm on the knuckles helped taming the steering response down a bit.
The speed demon also helps taming things down to a level I can keep (more or less) from hitting the walls too often. How does a speed demon help, you ask: just check the winding marked on the can.
The moter spacer helps to bring the weight of the moter just a little closer to the center line. But I still had to add some lead to the opposite site too to get a more even pressure on both rear wheels.
The low profile shorty is also moved a little off center: the connector side being lighter and all... yeahyeah, I'm trying to do the best I can; even with this 25, or so, old girl.

The top reinforcment rods were replaced by a thick strip of FRP on the chassis: closer to the original design. And the wheelbase was re-adjusted for the new body of course. The foam bumper was added to protect it a bit better: Mardave class can get pretty rough... worse than my bumper could remedy I found out soon enough.
The body I had carefully stripped from paint both on the in and outside, and repainted, is already cracked badly in several places.
The old lexan is way thicker than the beetle shell but the age seems to have made it brittle. Possibly the dot 4 threatment hasn't helped and 'dried' up the lexan, but that's just a guess.