870c - WASP conversion
Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2023 5:47 am
This conversion was advertised in very early 1990 in the UK RC mags, and it turns out the alloy chassis was provided by Racecraft (located just down the road from WASP). This is the only WASP lower chassis I have seen apart from in the old black and white mag photo. The drive train is also the full WASP XL coarse pitch set-up, including the very wide rear belt and in this case, alloy pulleys. The Pinkomo I have with the same transmission uses Tufnol pulleys.
This car actually came via eBay and has a host of other hop-ups, including some nice alloy front wishbones, Speed Model Accessories ball-raced C-hubs and alloy front bulkhead (internally lightened), set of 4 white SRM uprights, the rear bulkhead cover also has an alloy insert to replace the typical plastic body mount nipple and the front tower has a sandwich layer indicating that it may be Composite Craft. The shocks are Racing House.
A really really interesting car which should hopefully make for a cracking and unique build.
Since it arrived I have set about researching the WASP set up a little further, and it turns out that it used the Racecraft plastic battery trays. The documentation suggests that they were for UK 6-cell racing which is a little odd as there is a larger slot for 7 cells (4 on the one side in the typical Yokomo layout). My first issue was that i had never seen Racecraft trays before. I presumed them to be like Corally ones, but they are not. After some digging I located a pair of 3 cell examples and they are now coming my way. Looking at the subtle shadows of where the otiginal trays were fitted to this chassis i can see that it appears as though a 3 cell tray was fitted in the larger gap, and i can only presume that this was only attached at one end and being held down by the straps pushing down on the cells. The trays are thick and solid, unlike the Corally ones so this should be viable i think. Once they arrive i will test this theory out.
The car came on crusty old foams and so these will obviously get changed out. I also need a nice steering set-up for it.
The only thing I am missing is the WASP top deck, although to be quite honest the lower chassis is so thick there is virtually zero flex so it could possibly do without. The only issue is the lack of belt tensioner. I have stumbled across an old post from 15 years ago(!) by Toaster which shows a car he had with a blue WASP top deck... i contacted him and this was sold looooong ago. Does anybody on here have this blue top deck sat in a cupboard somewhere or have something resembling this?????
This car actually came via eBay and has a host of other hop-ups, including some nice alloy front wishbones, Speed Model Accessories ball-raced C-hubs and alloy front bulkhead (internally lightened), set of 4 white SRM uprights, the rear bulkhead cover also has an alloy insert to replace the typical plastic body mount nipple and the front tower has a sandwich layer indicating that it may be Composite Craft. The shocks are Racing House.
A really really interesting car which should hopefully make for a cracking and unique build.
Since it arrived I have set about researching the WASP set up a little further, and it turns out that it used the Racecraft plastic battery trays. The documentation suggests that they were for UK 6-cell racing which is a little odd as there is a larger slot for 7 cells (4 on the one side in the typical Yokomo layout). My first issue was that i had never seen Racecraft trays before. I presumed them to be like Corally ones, but they are not. After some digging I located a pair of 3 cell examples and they are now coming my way. Looking at the subtle shadows of where the otiginal trays were fitted to this chassis i can see that it appears as though a 3 cell tray was fitted in the larger gap, and i can only presume that this was only attached at one end and being held down by the straps pushing down on the cells. The trays are thick and solid, unlike the Corally ones so this should be viable i think. Once they arrive i will test this theory out.
The car came on crusty old foams and so these will obviously get changed out. I also need a nice steering set-up for it.
The only thing I am missing is the WASP top deck, although to be quite honest the lower chassis is so thick there is virtually zero flex so it could possibly do without. The only issue is the lack of belt tensioner. I have stumbled across an old post from 15 years ago(!) by Toaster which shows a car he had with a blue WASP top deck... i contacted him and this was sold looooong ago. Does anybody on here have this blue top deck sat in a cupboard somewhere or have something resembling this?????