Hello from Scotland.
Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2022 5:19 pm
Finally posting on this forum after just recently joining. I am not new to rc cars however you could say like a lot of us I’ve had an extend break from the hobby. I collected and read rc car magazines and catalogues religiously in the 90’s. As like any youngster I could only dream having one of these proper racing cars. Obviously my parents wouldn’t justify spending any sort of money like that on my new hobby at the time so I would end up getting a hand me down from my uncle, my first rc car(Tamiya Hornet) then I was hooked. It seemed to be getting fixed more than it was being used but I guess it was a good way to start and I enjoyed learning how to strip things down and rebuild them. A few year later on my birthday my parents took me to my local hobby store for and bought me what I thought at the time a fairly decent kyosho for bashing on a make shift track we had at my grandparents house, it was based on the laser alpha chassis in the form of an Escort Cosworth. Being a brand new rc I was buzzing, I will never forget that feeling! I was scared to use the highly detailed body that my uncle spent hours sorting the paint and sponsors to absolute perfection. I can remember him tinting the windows and even brush painting some fine details like the front splitter and so on, it looked amazing. Needless to say I would run it mostly with the body off if racing and the body would be on if I was just running it on my own. It was night and day from my battered old hornet and was one of my favourite cars ever. As my skills improved I done a few upgrades just basics back then, full set of bearing a better battery and some spike tyres up front for more turn in grip on our make shift dirt track, it seemed to give my uncles nitro cars a run for their money! I eventually traded this in for a Kyoso Sandmaster ST, as my uncles ran nitros it seemed like the natural route for progression and them having kyoshos as well I thought, if it breaks they’ll keep it running and show me how to tune the engine etc. Unfortunately this was one of the most unreliable cars produced or I was very unlucky! The gearbox must have stripped every other week through no fault of my own, the spur gear seeemed to wear and mesh poorly even though the engine was fixed with thread lock etc, the car rolled a lot and the engine had a habit of stalling even though it was a GX12 considered to be a better engine than its predecessor. I’m sure I mangled the pull start too lol! It was a pitty as it looked the part but I got fed up repairing it. I let it go and took a break from the hobby. A few years back I was browsing for a kyosho Escort Cosworth and couldn’t find any, so I looked at the Tamiya ones and got a fright! The prices were and still are crazy. I looked into a few good rally chassis from the era when I was running my Escort Cosworth and noticed the mention of Tamiya TB-01 a lot, so after browsing on eBay I ended up with a TB-01 fixer upper project that’s now complete and had a whack of upgrades thrown at it and I have a load of spares for it too it’s running an Impreza body. This is now being kept for my son for when he’s older so I can get him hooked lol. I also have a Tamiya TRF201 that I absolutely love it’s as close as I can imagine to an RC10 however it’s still isn’t. My wish is to obtain one as a project. I came across this sight hoping to get some ideas and info on a resto project that I’m looking at, now that funds aren’t an issue. I’m hoping to get and RC10B2/3 to how I would have had it back in the day. And I may also do a Sandmaster ST tribute based on the more reliable Associated platform. Thanks for reading, hope I haven’t sent anyone to sleep.
Sean
Sean