'91 WC Stealth vs B4

[Asso_man!]

Interesting thread and cool history. One thing I'm confused about though: why does that car say Yokomo all over it? Was it not an AE car? What am I missing?

Masami was both sponsored by AE and Yokomo at the time, Yokomo being also the official 4x4 partner of AE that didn't have any 4wd model.

[Rootdown4594]

The trans and chassis are the main differences, nose and suspension were all the same. The chassis was too long and the trans ratio was too low for a buggy so those items would be new pieces anyway. I feel like a B2 would and should have been a T2 style buggy but for some reason it never happened. We do build a lot of them around here tho and they are a sweet "what if"

The B2 was replaced rather quickly by the B3. I feel the B2 was an unfinished and rushed out B3. I think the B2 as we know it was rushed out in order to compete marketing wise with all the new fangled plastic chassis modular designs that were coming out(Losi XX). Maybe there was suppose to be a buggy using the T2 platform but AE felt they needed a plastic chassis modular model out as soon as possible to compete with Losi and completely skipped releasing a buggy based on the T2. MAYBE haha.

all this stuff was so fascinating to me as a kid. it's nice that the internet has allowed information to be shared and things confirmed to what was a fixation as a kid in middle school/highschool.

[Rootdown4594]

"We race what we sell" might have had something to do with it. Those cars were developed for a specific track and while the rest of us drooled over it we could not buy one. It's good marketing to show that your current car is capable of winning

I just figured they would have released a new production buggy. Maybe something like the buggies some of the guys build here out of T2's but with the truck noses to allow for longer front arms. Weren't the T2's out before the B2's and around the same time as the worlds car? It seems that the buggies are always released like 6 months to a year before the trucks are. If a T2 type buggy was released a year before the T2 it would have coincided around the same time as the worlds car, no? my memory could be totally off because I was just a kid then. but it does seem like T2 buggy was suppose to happen.

[scr8p]

i asked curtis about it one day (if there was ever a t2 based buggy in the works after the worlds car) but didn't really get a response. so it's a mystery. but as jeff said earlier, it gives it a cool "what if" factor.

[Rootdown4594]

the fact that he didn't give you a definitive answer tells me it was a yes. or my yes than no. haha

[fredswain]

After some measuring, the single shock mount hole on the Stealth car front arms corresponds to the inner location on the current car arms.

[jbmeyer13]

After some measuring, the single shock mount hole on the Stealth car front arms corresponds to the inner location on the current car arms.

Yep, that's what it looked like to me as well

[fredswain]

I just thought I'd throw this out there as a teaser.

[Seabass]

Pretty interesting stuff going on in here. Looks great!!!

[fredswain]

After modeling it up and working on the front bulkhead, I can in fact confirm that the arm length, shock mounting location, and even inner hinge pin to inner hinge pin distance on the bulkhead are in fact identical to the current car. The inner hinge pin from the RC10T and the outer RC10 rear hinge pin are used on the Stealth car front arms. Very cool!

[Rootdown4594]

How do you know the dimensions of the stealth car?

[fredswain]

You look at pictures of different views of the car. Certain things like hinge pins and e-clips and screws are known to be a certain size so you've got some scale reference. A big help was a Cliff Lett interview where he mentioned that the modern AE suspension geometry and shock mount points were first used on that car. This allows you to verify your measurements and in turn verify his statement. The odds of getting everything absolutely identical is extremely slim but it should be close enough and be accurate where it really counts. There will be a couple of very small details that I'm going to change from the original but they'll be improvements. Remember, those cars were hand built so some things were a bit improvised.

[tiger1]

Very interesting stuff Nice work fredswain

[edwin pibal]

I just thought I'd throw this out there as a teaser.

duuuudeeee.... that's just mean!

ed

[GoMachV]

I wonder how close your arm is to the injection mold that Jake was making...

(Taken from this thread...http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=24084&start=60 )

Got a ton of work done last week. As I stated earlier the chassis and top brace was cut from 1/8 kydex so I could have something to build the car as I go. I also drew up the front shock tower and cut it from the kydex as well.

I started machining the molds for the arms and ran into several problems. I eventually figured it out and was able to get the molds done. I am very experienced with casting but injection molding is a bit new to me. I still need to polish the inside of the molds but I should have them ready to send out in the next few days. The guy doing the molding for me is using a 20 ton press to inject the arms and we are still not sure his machine can handle the volume of nylon 6 I need, we will see. I did not put any vents in the mold and the guy told me he wants to try it without the vents first. If that does not work he is going to machine the vents in the mold for me.

I am placing another material order today so I can machine the front bulkhead and rear castor blocks. From there it will be putting the car together and making changes to the final drawings, then cutting the material for the final car.

As I get more done, I will be sure to take pics.

Jake