Hot Trick Hot Shot x 2

[LurkingCAT]

Back in the days I had one Hot Trick car. My Tamiya Fox got a full Hot Trick conversion, resulting in a dramatic change of appearance, a debatable upgrade in driving characteristics - and confusion of threads in my screw box. Today I have several Hot Trick conversions where two are runners – a Fox and a Hot Shot.

Most of my Hot Trick projects have been long lasting, but I will post a little summary of some of them. Starting off with my Hot Trick Hot Shots – one shelfer and the runner. I am trying to stay time correct with my shelfers, and a bit more pragmatic with my runners, where modern rubber, wheels and re-release parts etc goes into the bundle.

So after collecting for a while (was actually years) it was time to find the box marked “Hot Trick Hot Shot”, systemize parts and starting a more or less parallel build of a runner and a shelfer.

One of the cars I used for this project had an interesting piece of work by the previous owner. Not that it is well done, but he will get one for the effort! “Ops, the front arm snapped. OK - I MAKE a new one"

Parts cleaned and sorted. I am very much in favour of using used old parts if possible, but some parts had to be scrapped. Think there will be some spare parts as well. Good to get some direction on projects that have been around too long!

Starting off the rebuild:D

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By the way, there are MANY ball bearings that goes into a Hot Shot! On two cars, it is 44 to be exact + 4 thrust bearings. Pace is slow when I use old bearings that are picked apart and packed with grease. That goes for the ones in the gearbox. Easily accessible bearings get a good clean followed by Mobil 1 oil bath.

Also, a little heads up which I have not been aware of. I am using re-release gearbox housings on the runner, and the ball bearings between diff to outdrives sits deeper (ie further out towards the wheels) compared to the originals. This is to make room for the new solution with e-clips on the outdrives, as compared to the old locking solution with c-rings. I use the original c-ring outdrives, and the difference is so big that the gears goes out of grip. I always shim the Tamiya diffs anyway, but thus even more with this combination.

I was lucky on one chassis. Only a couple of extra holes and it cleaned up very nicely mixing in the best chassis alu parts in the bundle. Good basis for the shelfer.
I had two used and a new chassis front end. The two used ones were both twisted and the right kick up angle was off, so there had to be a round with a plastic head hammer on the anvil. The used ones go on the runner, with one reserve, and the new one for the shelf.

Another problem is the screws for the support struts on the chassis. Hot Trick uses a good deal of threaded plates rather than screw and nut. In other words, it is fairly fragile and jumps gets risky - you would rather not strip the threads in the plates... These screws are very short (4-40x3/16) and since none of the regular hobby houses had this dimension, they were ordered from Diablo Tuning in the US.

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Many of the Hot Trick sets were meant to be completed with parts from RC10. This goes for shocks, tie rods, cups/ballstuds, and the chassis is predrilled for the battery cups, nose plate and RC10 bumper. Even if HT had their own steering kits one could just as well use the bellcranks from RC10.

In addition to being era-correct, the AE bottom loaders are perfect to fine-tune the right length for the different Hot Trick platforms. With the options of 0.56", 0.71", 1.02" and 1.32" housings in combinations with respective shafts one can always mix and get a good fit at whatever ground clearance you're aiming for.

For the shelfer I opted for You-G - some delicate fine units.

There are a number of steering blocks available for the Hot Shot. My options were the original red, TMS (Trade Model Supplies, think these are the first in aluminum for Hot Shot - late 1985), Thorp (lower left), and modern RCdamper ones where the anodizing is stripped.

On the runner I wanted a robust and precise steering with readily replaceable parts, so ended up with Dhawk Racing bell cranks and the RCdamper steering blocks.

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Shelf car summary

Front end with the You-G mono-shock set up, Parma adjustable upper arms and Thorp steering blocks.

Hot Box propeller shaft splitter by ODS Racing and Development, Ishihara

Hot Trick golden steering - cool, unstable and generally a rickety rackety unit...

Hot Trick lower and adjustable upper arms, Thorp dog bones

Hot Trick wheel hubs and Phoenix wheels. Parma adjustable upper arms and heavy duty roll bar

Complete front and rear end

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Ready for shelf

[LurkingCAT]

The runner - made for vintage racing.

Preliminary assembly to find the right shock set up. The relevant tracks require a ride height at +/- 20 mm. Ending up using 0.71 up front and 1.32 at the rear end.

To add some rigidity between the longitudinal aluminium struts, and achieve the height for 1.32 shocks I made a rear tower in 3.2 mm fibreglass.
The adjustable upper arms from Hot Trick are fragile and rare, so the originals are only reserved for the shelf queen. The alternative for the runner comprises titanium turnbuckles (3x38mm) from 3Racing and 3mm rod ends from G-made with 6.8mm balls.

Front end with 0.71 bottom loaders, A-arm stabilizer from CRP, and JG bumper for RC10 - both protecting from impacts and matching the Hot Trick red.

After a while, I swapped the RC10 turnbuckles and cups with Schumacher hardware to get a more robust steering system.

My current set-up, ready for the track
And for a Hot Trick this one drives very well!