This last week I have been tinkering with remote control cars again. Driving them is fun, but tinkering with them is a lot of fun too. Now I have to admit to not really knowing what I am doing but giving it my best shot. I have at present 2 cars, both are 'vintage' Tamiya's and both have needed a little (or a lot) of TLC in order to get them to run properly.
The Boomerang
The first car is a Tamiya Boomerang that used to below to Sarah's dad. I started tinkering with this for Fathers day last year but with it being quite old it need quite a lot of work to get it going well again. A lot of the plastic parts had become quite brittle or cracked through the years of garage time and then me bashing it! It started of as stock but has been modified with the following:
- Modelsport ESC – Replacing original speed controller
- Ansmann Racing Clash 28T motor
- New 27Mhz Transmitter / Receiver (Crystal 1)
- New front & rear shocks
- New Rear Wishbones
It now works quite well although is still a little brittle where using the original plastic parts, it could do with some new tyres too.
The Mad Fighter
The second car was bought for parts, spares, radio gear in order to make sure that the first one was working as well as possible for a 'special project' more details of which will become apparent soon(ish). It is a Tamiya Mad Fighter. When it arrived though it was in such good condition that it would have been rude to canabalise it for parts. All it really needed was new shocks as a couple of them were cracked. It is still running on an old school speed controller and the stock motor and could do with some new tyres. As it is only a 2WD system rather than the 4WD of the boomerang it is a lot simpler inside, but doesn't handle quite as well as a result. It is still a lot of fun to drive.
£££$$$$££££
Turns out that remote control cars can be a fairly expensive hobby. I've probably spent around £100 – £150 fixing these 2 up but looking at newer models there is a fantastic range of expensive ways to burn your hard earned! I'm not interested in a nitro model … they sound a little too much like hard work for me, but I would love to get my hands on one of the modern brushless motored models running on some LiPo batteries such as this or this. Maybe one day!