My RC hoard - Tamiya & Schumacher
Discussion
Seen a few lock down type threads so thought i'd pop some pictures of my small collection of RC cars. I've posted in age order.
All started 30 years ago when I was 12, had a Tamiya Clod Buster for Christmas. It was used for hundreds of hours over the next 4 years, and then it was just really put away. It was a mess, chassis cracked, body very battle scarred - but it was in one piece, and I had tons of spares. It survived 4 house moves, and ended up just on top of our dryer in the garage where we live now. At that point my kids were 3 and 5, and quite often asked why it was so wrecked.
Couple of years ago I decided to see exactly how bad it was, was it salvageable? Indeed it was, being all complete helped - found a guy on Ebay who sells Tamiya spares for a living and ended up only about 20 miles from where I live so the sorry looking Clod was fully stripped and a list made.
Over the next few months it was all rebuilt, many parts were cleaned up and resused - great thing with this one is that it's an original "bow tie" Chevrolet one, they lost permission to use the trade mark after two years. This is how it ended up:
It does all work, it's running the original silver can 540's but it is all ball raced now - gets used from time to time, just have to transfer a radio receiver and a battery into it.
Two years after having the Clod Buster, I was nagging my parents wanting something faster - I was a fan of the Michelin Escort Cosworth, so I got the Tamiya one for Xmas in 92'. Same story as the Clod Buster, went all over England with us on dozens of holidays and ended up pretty much worn out. The original body only lasted 2 years, back then you could get replacement body only kits. This car also survived like the Clod Buster did, again with loads of spares so once the Clod was done I turned my attention to this one. Again all ball raced, but it's fitted with an old school modified turn motor and the Tamiya "Skyline" gear set.
Only thing I was struggling to get was a replacement set of wheels, got some recently which is why it's on a tray - got new tyres, just need to clean up the second hand wheels and fit them. One for during the summer.
Next up is a Schumacher Mission "1" chassis, result of a drunken discussion one Saturday with my brother when we thought it would be a good idea to get another RC car each (aged early 20's). So we purchased one of these each:
It's partially stripped in the images, it was totally apart in January as on it's last run it had a bad failure of the main drive belt which caused loads or drag/load which in turn fried an ESC. I replaced all the gears, belts and a couple of ball races - just need to finish it off in the summer, looking to get a fresh boody for it too.
I knew I wanted my son to have a decent look at RC cars, so after remembering how much fun the Lunch box was as a kid (my mates had them) we decided to get him one - wasn't expensive so if he didn't take to it then no harm done. Whilst he doesn't use it quite as much as I used to use mine, he has taken to it.
It's been all over the place with us on camping trips, the images below on the beach are from mid-West coast of France.
We upgraded the shocks for adjustable oil filled ones at Christmas this year (The shocks remove the bumbling kind of nature of it), and I have another modded motor to go in too.
That brings us to the last one. I mentioned in passing at some point to my wife that it'd be a laugh if I had a new one... I forgot i'd said it, but last year this arrived:
I never built it as stock though, again it's fitted with oil filled adjustable shocks and also a crazy brushless ESC/Motor combo, along with full ball races:
To be honest, it's too fast - totally uncontrollable even with the motor/ESC on softest settings. BUT it's a right laugh to see it go, something so cumbersome and ungainly shouldn't move like it does. It can be running half throttle, press 3/4 and it'll pop a wheelie straight away!!
So, there you go - 30 years of RC. There have been a few others along with these, but they were sold.
My son has just started building a Tamiya Dark Impact, that's having the same motor/ESC combo as the Pumpkin - i'll update when he's built it.
All started 30 years ago when I was 12, had a Tamiya Clod Buster for Christmas. It was used for hundreds of hours over the next 4 years, and then it was just really put away. It was a mess, chassis cracked, body very battle scarred - but it was in one piece, and I had tons of spares. It survived 4 house moves, and ended up just on top of our dryer in the garage where we live now. At that point my kids were 3 and 5, and quite often asked why it was so wrecked.
Couple of years ago I decided to see exactly how bad it was, was it salvageable? Indeed it was, being all complete helped - found a guy on Ebay who sells Tamiya spares for a living and ended up only about 20 miles from where I live so the sorry looking Clod was fully stripped and a list made.
Over the next few months it was all rebuilt, many parts were cleaned up and resused - great thing with this one is that it's an original "bow tie" Chevrolet one, they lost permission to use the trade mark after two years. This is how it ended up:
It does all work, it's running the original silver can 540's but it is all ball raced now - gets used from time to time, just have to transfer a radio receiver and a battery into it.
Two years after having the Clod Buster, I was nagging my parents wanting something faster - I was a fan of the Michelin Escort Cosworth, so I got the Tamiya one for Xmas in 92'. Same story as the Clod Buster, went all over England with us on dozens of holidays and ended up pretty much worn out. The original body only lasted 2 years, back then you could get replacement body only kits. This car also survived like the Clod Buster did, again with loads of spares so once the Clod was done I turned my attention to this one. Again all ball raced, but it's fitted with an old school modified turn motor and the Tamiya "Skyline" gear set.
Only thing I was struggling to get was a replacement set of wheels, got some recently which is why it's on a tray - got new tyres, just need to clean up the second hand wheels and fit them. One for during the summer.
Next up is a Schumacher Mission "1" chassis, result of a drunken discussion one Saturday with my brother when we thought it would be a good idea to get another RC car each (aged early 20's). So we purchased one of these each:
It's partially stripped in the images, it was totally apart in January as on it's last run it had a bad failure of the main drive belt which caused loads or drag/load which in turn fried an ESC. I replaced all the gears, belts and a couple of ball races - just need to finish it off in the summer, looking to get a fresh boody for it too.
I knew I wanted my son to have a decent look at RC cars, so after remembering how much fun the Lunch box was as a kid (my mates had them) we decided to get him one - wasn't expensive so if he didn't take to it then no harm done. Whilst he doesn't use it quite as much as I used to use mine, he has taken to it.
It's been all over the place with us on camping trips, the images below on the beach are from mid-West coast of France.
We upgraded the shocks for adjustable oil filled ones at Christmas this year (The shocks remove the bumbling kind of nature of it), and I have another modded motor to go in too.
That brings us to the last one. I mentioned in passing at some point to my wife that it'd be a laugh if I had a new one... I forgot i'd said it, but last year this arrived:
I never built it as stock though, again it's fitted with oil filled adjustable shocks and also a crazy brushless ESC/Motor combo, along with full ball races:
To be honest, it's too fast - totally uncontrollable even with the motor/ESC on softest settings. BUT it's a right laugh to see it go, something so cumbersome and ungainly shouldn't move like it does. It can be running half throttle, press 3/4 and it'll pop a wheelie straight away!!
So, there you go - 30 years of RC. There have been a few others along with these, but they were sold.
My son has just started building a Tamiya Dark Impact, that's having the same motor/ESC combo as the Pumpkin - i'll update when he's built it.
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