RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

Share your favorite ESC from your collection vintage or contemporary. I'm not a collector, but in my quest for period-correct electronics I've come to appreciate them over the decades. ESC's never get reissued and there is something very timeless about them. Their technology made a big difference in both stock and modified competition. I have a few favorites, but from Japan, my KO Propo CX-11HF captures the spirit and color of the 90s the best! Click for higher resolution.

Great idea for a thread, and a really cool esc you have!

The LRP ICS and black Novak Cyclone are 2 of my favorites.

This was one of my favorites, hardly any information out there about them.

I could be wrong but from memory it was the smallest ESC of the time and pre-dates the Novak Atom.

Was my first legit ESC. 410-M5 Sport
Most elusive/lusted after/will never find/can't afford if found/not actively searching for/most lusted after:

TRX Pro XL-3

Pic courtesy of danielhr77, over on the traxxas.com forums
Crud I failed to read, "from your collection".....the Novak is in my collection (although pic is heisted from internet)...the XL-3, not so much

My Novak T-1X is the pride of my ESC collection. Other racers had better motors, better battery packs, peak chargers, PCM radios, faster buggies, and actual driving skills but I had this bad mo fo T-1X in my Turbo Optima so I could run way better motors than I actually owned. With my previous Novak 4, there was always the risk of blowing the fuse that protected it from meltdown, and sometimes the fuse did blow during a race.
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I'm kinda partial to my Futaba MC-109. Mainly because they aren't really common.

Great thread! Very cool to see all these posts. For me it's the 410-M1c and 410-HPc.....

Well, much like Frankentruck, my go-to ESC throughout all of my racing days was a Novak T-1X. I started out with it in my 870c in around 1988 and ran it right up until i stopped racing with my works 91 in probably about 1995. it never once failed me or let me down, remained competitive and i still have the same one in that car today. I have also bought two others ready for when i need them in other builds.

Over the past few years I have been looking through rose-tinted glasses at my earlier racing years, and with the passing of Nick Adams of Demon, his products, and the British heatshrink-era in general has really tugged at my heartstrings. I have quite a few Demons of various ages now (understatement), Lasers, a CS Rocket, an Intronics and a very very early Marfet - designed by Nick Marson before he started his famous Nosram brand. But probably the rarest and most unusual I have come across has to be my Penn Models Touchtronics VF8 (V-FET) from 1985 - 1986. It took quite a bit of digging to actually find out what it was.

This will be my slightly left-field answer to this question.

Not much to look at really, apart from the quite unusual FET layout, and the fact that for that time it is absolutely tiny. It has just had a test and rewire ready to go back on the track.

Those shrink wrapped ESCs are really excellent. My favorite ESC that I've seen on this site is Passifoo's home made ESC. To me, that is just so cool.

If you're after home-made... check out this witchcraft before your very eyes then.....

Ian Mullaney over in the UK has taken it upon himself to save space in his ProCAT for vintage class racing by building an esc into his chassis....

He just sent me the pics to post up on here. The guy is a genius.

That's a nice chassis even without the ESC built into it.

Great thread idea.

This is my holy grail ESC, that I managed to pick up a couple of years ago in new condition - a Century Systems OZIFET. I had one of these in the late 80's in my PB Mini Mustang... was my first ESC (you know what they say, you never forget your first!). I think these were made in Australia, so most in the world would not have seen them...
My other personal favourite is this Talking Electronics Xenon9... although, to be perfectly accurate, I should call it the Incredible_Serious Xenon9, as I built it! These were a kit ESC released by a local Australian electronics company called Talking Electronics, designed by Ken Stone, and featured in Aussie RC mag Dirt and Track issue 10. If and when I get into 3d printing and design, one of the first things I'll do is to create a custom case design for this.... would certainly be better than my one-cheek home-made job... You can still read about the Xenon9 build here: http://www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/Xenon/Xenon.html

I don't think I really have a "favorite" esc. Throughout my racing days I was pretty much a Tekin guy. 411p, 412p, P2, G9, etc. I did have a few Novak esc's like a T1x and a T4 in my early days that I picked up used.

As for esc's in my collection, I'd probably go with something that is on the rarer side. They're out there, but you don't see them every day. KO Propo CXIII. I picked this up brand new many years ago for a Masami replica.

Incredible_Serious wrote: ↑Fri Jun 03, 2022 7:54 pm Great thread idea.

This is my holy grail ESC, that I managed to pick up a couple of years ago in new condition - a Century Systems OZIFET. I had one of these in the late 80's in my PB Mini Mustang... was my first ESC (you know what they say, you never forget your first!). I think these were made in Australia, so most in the world would not have seen them...
OziFET.jpg


My other personal favourite is this Talking Electronics Xenon9... although, to be perfectly accurate, I should call it the Incredible_Serious Xenon9, as I built it! These were a kit ESC released by a local Australian electronics company called Talking Electronics, designed by Ken Stone, and featured in Aussie RC mag Dirt and Track issue 10.
Xenon9_1.jpg

If and when I get into 3d printing and design, one of the first things I'll do is to create a custom case design for this.... would certainly be better than my one-cheek home-made job...
Xenon9_2.jpg

You can still read about the Xenon9 build here: http://www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/Xenon/Xenon.html

That's very cool , I'd love to give that a try

Dadio wrote: ↑Sat Jun 04, 2022 3:39 am

Incredible_Serious wrote: ↑Fri Jun 03, 2022 7:54 pm Great thread idea.

This is my holy grail ESC, that I managed to pick up a couple of years ago in new condition - a Century Systems OZIFET. I had one of these in the late 80's in my PB Mini Mustang... was my first ESC (you know what they say, you never forget your first!). I think these were made in Australia, so most in the world would not have seen them...
OziFET.jpg


My other personal favourite is this Talking Electronics Xenon9... although, to be perfectly accurate, I should call it the Incredible_Serious Xenon9, as I built it! These were a kit ESC released by a local Australian electronics company called Talking Electronics, designed by Ken Stone, and featured in Aussie RC mag Dirt and Track issue 10.
Xenon9_1.jpg

If and when I get into 3d printing and design, one of the first things I'll do is to create a custom case design for this.... would certainly be better than my one-cheek home-made job...
Xenon9_2.jpg

You can still read about the Xenon9 build here: http://www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/Xenon/Xenon.html

That's very cool , I'd love to give that a try

The link has another link, where apparently the kit is still available.... go for it, mate!