[Closed] Resurrecting old (early 90s) RC cars

Nice! I wish I still had my Kyosho Laser ZXR and my Schumacher Cougar. Some toe rag nicked them when I moved house a few years ago.
I still want to get one again!

I have just thought of a problem - if I break anything I guess I'm likely to struggle to get any replacement parts (wishbones, etc), aren't I? 🙁

I had the cougar and a manta ray. They are probably still in my mum and dads attic

The Manta Ray was an odd but great looking car 🙂

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Nothing will ever beat the Avanti for massive over-engineering but being a thing of technical beauty.
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I was just wondering this yesterday.

here at the house I have:

Schumacher Cat 2000ec - needs a new wishbone as it's not been used since a friend crashed it into a wall in 2002.

Associated RC10B2

Losi XX-CR

Back in my mums loft I have:

Schmacher Procat (my first car)
Shumacher Bosscat
Kyosho Lazer ZX-R
Associated RC10 Team Edition

and enough spares to 90% build a stock Cat 2000EC as the one above is loaded with carbon fibre, aluminium and titanium as it was a team car.

Got loads of old brushed Corally motors, Orion SCRCs (all dead now i expect), M-tronics, Novak and LRP speedos as i was sponsored by the importers at various stages at my early teens.

I remember by 10x3 corally motor that nothing could touch on the straight at southport. It could only be used a few tracks on the calender.

The speed of modern cars with brushless motors and lipo batteries is scary but they just seem to be all about speed these days. The car tech doesnt seem to have moved on much.

ooo, fond memories! I had a schumacher cougar with a Reedy Mr T. (11x3), lovely performance but would kill a battery in a bout 5 minutes!

To the OP, I would consider buying something you're 5 year old can bang off walls while he learns to drive and save the collection for when he has the hang of it.

If you go the lipo route you need compatible esc plus the right charger and then a motor and car that can handle the power! I'd stick with NiMh I think. Most popular connector is the Tamiya type (not sure if it has a real name) but most batteries come with that type as standard.

I don't know about kyosho/schumacher, but the last time i needed to get bits for my old tamiya rc (manta ray chassis with short wishbones/suspension for road car bodies) the parts were available onebay and far cheaper than I remember them being!

Very cool. Brought back some memories seeing those. When I was a kid I used to race rc buggies pretty seriously. My dad and I used to do a lot of travelling racing all the nationals. Was a great hobby, really loved it.

My absolute favourite buggy I'd ever owned was the yokomo super dog fighter works edition. It was a thing of carbon beauty but was an absolute pig to build and maintain, nothing like the the super easy to build buggies you buy now.

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Brings back memories, in the loft at my dads are the following,

Bolink Pro10 car, Schumacher Pro-Cat, Cougar 2000, Cat 200ec and my Bosscat, last raced by Dave Spashett before he went on to win 3 world titles in one year, The first Tamiya Astute in the uk, and a Tamiya Egress with proper independent suspension, one of 3 team cars built for the uk, and a Tamiya King Cab Nissan with a body painted by Dallas Matheson (In the 80s/90s if you knew r/c you knew Dallas).

favouredimage, I too spent many years travelling the uk and Europe with my dad racing at BRCA Nationals, and the Euro"s, friendships were formed that are still around today.

Southport was an awesome track, really fast and always beautifully prepared. Missed the A final there by 1/100th of a second, trying to recall all the places we went too now, Aire Valley (Leeds) was good, Eden Park was hard to master, but great when you did.

Good times.

I used to race at Eden Park. I was rubbish though 😉

Funnily enough, my sister's just moved house to almost next door where it used to be so I was back there a couple of weeks ago.

Crikey, I had a Cougar 2000 and a Bosscat too!

Anyway... Not sure where the Bosscat is now, but the Cougar 2000 is in my mates attic. Not been driven in about 18 years, but still mechanically sound. I can dig it out if you want it potentially as a spare?

Monster Beetle FTMFW. 🙂

My monster beetle used to round the ends of driveshafts all the time, it was running 7 cells and a Tamiya Technigold motor, as that was the done thing in the Tamiya Challenge at the time!

Eden Park was a real car breaker, my best shunt there was at a 2wd national, at speed into the pit under the rostrum, I clipped the apex on the way in but ran wide, when the car came into view, both left hand corners were ripped off!

Although my claim to fame was at the Touring Car Euros in Germany 2006, early days of brushless, and the motor caught fire going down the back straight, cue loads of smoke and laughter, but it kept going for 2 laps, even had a good turn of speed still, it finally came to rest at the feet of a marshall who was too bust laughing to do anything with it..

Great thread 🙂

A few months ago I brought my Tamiya Bearcat home from my parents with a view to resurecting it. I never raced it but had great fun in my youth with my mates just driving them around. Must sort it... something in the gearbox has stripped as theres no drive.

Interestingly the charger has died and the 7.2v ni cd battery packs will be goosed now. Just noticed someone up there talking about 7 cell packs... has anyone tried running theirs off an 8.4v bike light pack?

Mine has BEC so the receiver electronics are powered off the main battery and it just uses a servo driven 3 stage speed controller through a resistor, rather than the more elaborate electronic speed controllers.

Ah.... happy days 🙂

Great post. Lots of memories. I had a Terrascortcher:

Always wanted a Midnight Pumpkin. Not sure why

Great thread! Never really a buggy racer myself but owned a Tamiya Grasshopper, Mardave Meteor and Traxxis TCX over the years. Remember doing a Southport clubnight once at the indoor multi-surface track?

Was mainly a 1/12 scale driver and had countless cars over the years - Kawada, Corally, Trinity, Woods (never had an Associated for some reason?). Did National Series, Euros etc.

Mountain bike now and again with Jamie Booth of buggy R/C fame.

Jamie Booth was a bit of a hero back then, wasn't he. Big news when he signed for Tamiya (1992ish?) as I recall.

It seems that there's several good RC racers who are now mtbers. Interesting mix given the very different natures of the sports - maybe it's the technical aspects that link them?

mboy - thanks for the offer but I'm assuming that there's still some value to your car and I'm not really looking to spend lots on RC cars (yet... we'll see once Clubber Jnr (and me) get going 😉 )

It seems that there's several good RC racers who are now mtbers. Interesting mix given the very different natures of the sports - maybe it's the technical aspects that link them?

I think its the years spent squirreled away in workshops, leisure centre sports halls, and gazebo's. It's like an awakening to the outside world! And fitness 😆

bit of a hijack but in the off chance that anyone wants a 27mhz controller i have one that i bought recently for my nitro RC car that never made it back to life. I can't mind the brand but its basically in as new condition and i think it has 2 red crystals with it.

cool thread btw, although this hobby seems to eat money more than MTB!

27mhz transmitter you mean? I might be interested though I've no idea what they cost now.

And back to my OP, are the charger/batteries that I suggested OK?

yeah sorry clubber, its a transmitter. i can't for the life of me remember what it was but i'll find out and let you know.

apologies also for the hijack too, but i'm afraid i can't answer the question on your OP 🙂

Hi Clubber, its an Acoms techniplus transmitter like the one in the link [url= http://www.wonderlandmodels.com/products/acoms-techniplus-2-channel-radio-27mhz/ ]here[/url], but its only the transmitter and 2 crystals, no receivers or servos etc.

my email is in my profile if you want more info, i'll not take up any more of your thread!

favouredimage, I too spent many years travelling the uk and Europe with my dad racing at BRCA Nationals, and the Euro"s, friendships were formed that are still around today.

Yeah, it was a great hobby. I really miss it. Haven't raced or owned a buggy in about 10 years. You'll no doubt remember all the names from that era - Drescher, Kinwald and Matt Francis etc. My highlight was racing at the IFMAR Worlds in 95 in Japan. I was 14 and that was a week I'll never forget. In the end though the pressure of the whole event got to me and I didn't drive anywhere near as well as I'd hoped for.

There are quite a few YouTube vids from the early 90's of various events including the worlds in Basildon in 91 I think. Worth a watch, for the day-glo pink Reedy caps and jackets if nothing else.

HI All,

I found some stuff in a box in my cellar yesterday.

If anyone wants some bits of a Tamiya hotshot - Suspension arms / chassis / body etc then let me know.

I would prefer someone on here to get them rather than have to ebay

Don't forget Oakley Mumbos!

davidrussell - thanks think I'll hold off for now until I see whether Clubber Jnr enjoys it enough to make it worthwhile me getting a second transmitter.

What happend to Craig Descher - he was a child prodigy, wasn't he?

Or Hirosaka (spelling?) and his Yokomos.

Didn't Tamiya do some smaller motors (for the Grasshopper and perhaps the Hornet) - 380's instead of 540's?? Something like that...

Would they fit and be more suitable in terms of lower speeds and less crash/smash/bash action.....

Yes - 380 sounds right. Good idea - will look into that.

Ha ha, yeah I had a 380 in my first grasshopper. It had no BACS circuit in the receiver, so used to go haywire when the battery voltage dropped 🙂

Hirosaka raced at my local club once (CARS in Clay Cross), we held an on-road worlds warm-up event.

Apparently Craig Drescher's still going:

http://www.teamassociated.com/news/race_results/1221-Craig_Drescher_Wins_BRCA_18_Electric_Buggy_Championship

1/8 electric - didn't know that existed!

"Found" all my old RC stuff a while back during a loft clear out. Pretty much found as it had been left about 20years ago. Stuck it on ebay and even though it was all pretty knackered, i was amazed by what it eventually went for! (Kyosho Optima Mid and loads of spares / radio etc)

Anyone used to race 1/8 IC circuit on here? I did! In my teens used to travel round the country with my Dad doing the BRCA rounds, towards the end used to quite often win them too. Last ever meeting I did was at the now long-dead Bournemouth circuit and I won the open final both days. Anyway, enough bigging myself up, this thread has made me want to get my old car going again. Wonder if my 2.5 year old daughter would be interested!?

On Topic: I had a Tamiya Blackfoot back in the day, great laught

Semi Off Topic: Recently got back into RC and now race "Mini's" which are the Tamiya M03/M05 chassis at a local outdoor circuit. Weekend before last I did my first indoor carpet event, less run off, ended badly with broken front suspension and a missing driveshaft lol

Ah, I was wondering what minis were - so are they only Tamiya? like Tamtech from years back?

I used to race at Worksop club - Jamie Booth used to race there too.

I did a few regionals, and also went to some national team thing down south with Worksop club.

All my stuff is still in the loft at my mum's - half thought about getting it up and running again, but the cost of new cells etc put me off.

Those batteries I linked to are only £14 for 3300mah!

Ah, minis - they're actually mini cars not mini scale 😳

I think HPI made a similar one but its basically Tamiya only where I race [url= http://www.eecc.co.uk/downloads/MiniRules2013.pdf ]http://www.eecc.co.uk/downloads/MiniRules2013.pdf[/url]

A lot of faff potential out of the box, camber, toe, all other suspension etc, got mine off ebay and just added a decent Lipo and new tyres

The outdoor track is near Hailsham in East Sussex for anyone interested [url= http://eecc.co.uk/ ]http://eecc.co.uk/[/url] copy and paste this into Google Maps 50.864745, 0.241092

Indoor one is at Tonbridge [url= http://www.wkrcc.co.uk/ ]http://www.wkrcc.co.uk/[/url]

Both cater for Mini's and Touring cars, Tonbridge one also does the rwd only World GT cars or whatever they are called. Theres also another outdoor track over by Brookland near Rye which does larger scale

Lipo's worth 0.5-1 second on my track, bit more top end over nimh, you will need a new charger about £25 off ebay for a 12v balance one and a £5 lipo bag. They are lighter which helps a bit...

People that run the track I go to also run this online shop, think my 4000mah Lipo was about £22 [url= http://www.pit-bitz.com/ ]http://www.pit-bitz.com/[/url]

My "Mini"

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Any grease or oil maybe used to replace the kit supplied grease. Substances having a consistency similar
Blu?Tack and/or not being sold as diff grease or oil may not be used.

people trying to fit solid rear axles? 😀 I guess they're understeery by nature?

FWD 😉 Tonbridge place allows different er diff's/gearboxes as does outdoors one if you run a differnt motor, its all very complicated....!

Tighter diffs help traction out of the corners being fwd

Theres a lack of outdoor places round here, would love to try buggy racing ie with a car similar to the OP's post but current gen so no issues of parts availability when I total it lol

Ah, FWD RC car! that's a new one on me...

I did wonder if I'd be better off selling the old ones and just buying new cars - they seem cheaper now.

1/8 electric - didn't know that existed!

clubber - yeah, it was an offshoot of 1/8th nitro Rallycross which really boomed during this past 10 years or so. With Lipo cells being so good they started doing Rallycross electric conversions and now it's become a class all it's own (they originally mixed them with the nitro buggies but the electric buggies just ate them alive!).

Drescher basically just followed the trends and was successful in all of them from 10th scale buggies to touring cars to 12th scale then to Rallycross. Think he works in R&D for Team Associated. Amazing to think you could turn toy car racing into a career.

Semi Off Topic: Recently got back into RC and now race "Mini's" which are the Tamiya M03/M05 chassis at a local outdoor circuit. Weekend before last I did my first indoor carpet event, less run off, ended badly with broken front suspension and a missing driveshaft lol

Sounds interesting. I'm tempted to get back into some class of RC but no way do I have the sort of cash floating around to jump into an expensive class again. How does it fair up cost wise? Expensive class?

This is brilliant. I never realised so many people were into RC. I too still have all of my kit back at my partents house which I keep meaning to sort out.

I think I was racing a few years after most people here. I used to drive a Schumacher Cat 3000 and the Fireblade in 2WD. I used to race in the NE at the time when Neil Cragg was winning everyting.

Buying new is expensive, the M05 Pro kit like I have is about £130 (actually thats the normal one, my Pro one has some "hop ups" then radio gear I don't know, £70 odd, batteries etc....

I got mine off ebay, £100 for the car, full radio gear, 4 nimh's, 12v charger, uprated motor and some spares so pretty good I thought, probably worth more split!

£5 a night for racing outdoors, £7 at the indoor place.

Done about 12 meetings now and in that time spent £20 on new set of tyres, £22 ish on a lipo, £25 on a charger and a few pounds on things like body pins and new front hub after recent smash... There is enough time between heats to get by with one lipo topping it up although if I want to do a longer practise session at the start I use a nimh or two

The only problem with these types of cars if you need perfectly smooth places to run them as I only have a 5mm ground clearance so they are quite narrow use ie not much point unless you specifically want to race which I did. Both the local venues I have mentioned have loan standard ones for £0 or £5 a night rental so we did that first

If just wanting to mess around I would definately go the buggy route as you can use them in far more places plus if you want to race there are off road venues.

That's not a mini body on yours though, is it, dlr?

Buying new is expensive, the M05 Pro kit like I have is about £130 (actually thats the normal one, my Pro one has some "hop ups" then radio gear I don't know, £70 odd, batteries etc....

I got mine off ebay, £100 for the car, full radio gear, 4 nimh's, 12v charger, uprated motor and some spares so pretty good I thought, probably worth more split!

£5 a night for racing outdoors, £7 at the indoor place.

Done about 12 meetings now and in that time spent £20 on new set of tyres, £22 ish on a lipo, £25 on a charger and a few pounds on things like body pins and new front hub after recent smash... There is enough time between heats to get by with one lipo topping it up although if I want to do a longer practise session at the start I use a nimh or two

The only problem with these types of cars if you need perfectly smooth places to run them as I only have a 5mm ground clearance so they are quite narrow use ie not much point unless you specifically want to race which I did. Both the local venues I have mentioned have loan standard ones for £0 or £5 a night rental so we did that first

If just wanting to mess around I would definately go the buggy route as you can use them in far more places plus if you want to race there are off road venues.

Relatively inexpensive then really. If I wanted to get back into 10th scale buggies now I'd be looking at the best part of a grand to get up and running with a 2WD (all new kit). Won't be doing that and going budget route isn't really an option I would enjoy all that much since I was racing Internationals up until 2001 so finding a competitive class that isn't all about money money money is what I'm looking for.

Clubber: No, supposed to be a Volvo C30 or something I think, came with it, quite a few different bodies, when I stop crashing I will do up a Civic EK9 one

Fevouredimage: You would probably want a bit more speed than the Mini class but you can pickup second hand Touring cars for £200 or less without radio gear. Ones at Eastbourne have a control tyre so less expense there etc. Most of the Mini runners have all sorts of different compounds/sizes, I just make do with one set of softs

At the indoor Tonbridge venue its the 1/12th scale Pan Cars that are mad, rwd only, heres a video I took weekend before last of the start. Was my first time racing indoor in carpet in my class, quite fun although lack of run off means have to be precise, no banging over curbs, you stop dead! [url=

At the indoor Tonbridge venue its the 1/12th scale Pan Cars that are mad, rwd only, heres a video I took weekend before last of the start. Was my first time racing indoor in carpet in my class, quite fun although lack of run off means have to be precise, no banging over curbs, you stop dead!

That's what I used to race - you ought to see the pace at national / world standard, its mind bending.

 

Benman, when you next see Jamie Booth, tell him Stylish says hello! he will know who it is,we raced together on the Tamiya uk team in 92/93, along with Steve Haynes, known the old bugger for years!

Clubber youre right about r/c racers turning to mtb, the best mates I have all came form cars, and slowly everyone caught the cycling bug, I was the last in 08.
Quite a few of the old racers still work in the industry and all ride,mostly around the midlands.

Back to the cars, you can now buy replica cars from the 80s, quite fancy an RC10, but I don't think the wife would be too keen!

The best thing about Tamiya Tamtechs were that the batteries were called Tampacks *titter*.

God this thread brings back memories. I so wanted a Super Dog Fighter when I was younger - always thought it was the superior car to the Cat...

Craig was the youg star in the UK when I started racing. Remember Jamie Booth and a few of the others.

I also remember when Neil Cragg started racing at our NW regionals. First time I saw him was at Ellesmere Port and we all knew he was going to be good. Used to race with (behind) him a lot as he would dominate the NW series.

My best success was 17th in the 4wd nationals (20 something at the end of the year) and winning the Southport summer series with my Losi XX-CR. I started out 4wd and always preferred it but 2wd had it's merits.

I can still remember my BRCA number.

the Euros at Southport were amazing experiences. I remember when the Americans came over one year (Brian et al). They were like superstars.

1079 was my BRCA number! Wasn't there a Reedy race at Southport too, can remember doing something there bigger than a national, The Worlds warm up at Basildon was a real laugh, the track was the location for the park and ride for the Olympic mtb race last year, I can recall spending a day shovelling hardcore down as the track surface was so wet, and nobody wanted to race! Then the sun came out, the lot dried like concrete and was so fast we had a real blue groove track for once!

great times, and laughs, mostly involving beer, ladies and fathers who were let of the leash for a few days!

I also remember seeing Masami Hirosaka driving his buggy with his feet, almost as quick as he did with hands at the worlds at Basildon.

Speaking of which-

That video is epic! Although I'm enjoying the tarmac/carpet stuff, I definitely want to try offroad

It certainly defines that era. But I'd also recommend watching a race from this years worlds just to see how things have moved on in the off road world -

There's been a few threads on this previously. Eg,

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/tamiya

... worth reading. I resurrected my old Tamiya Madcap on the back of discussions here, had ten minutes of fun till I ran out of electrons.

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Every time I think "I'd love to modernise it" though, by the time I've priced up a new Everything and remembered how awfully it handled in the first pace I've usually worked out that it's a false economy and what I really need to do is fix it with a new one. Which I'd do if I ever thought I'd do anything with it but the reality is that I had more fun building it than I ever did driving it.

Luckily there are no offroad tracks near me else bank account would be in trouble now 😀