m4inbrain's unreasonably priced Yokomo SD 2.0

[m4inbrain]

Hey there, long time no update from me, mainly due to being slightly more involved at the drift club now. 

 

Following the trend of my two other threads:

 

and

 

We have now the unreasonably priced Yokomo SD 2.0. I won't go into as much detail since i'm writing this after the car is already built (and around 70% there in terms of set up already), but i thought maybe someone is interested in what a slightly higher end kit looks like. 

 

Lets get straight into it, here's what i ordered.

 

 

A Yokomo SD 2.0 (their newest kit, basically one step below their absolute high end), the "purple special edition". Together with a Scale Reflex Gorilla mounting system, and a rear ESC holder - both, of course, also in purple. I'll "reveal" how much i'm into this chassis at the end. 

 

Starting the build, it looks like this. 

 

 

Not particularly impressive. In fact, the one thing that struck me throughout the build is how, for the most part, "not special" it is. It just is very solidly cut/built - it's quality over gimmicks. Lets speed through this. 

 

A few steps later, you'll arrive at this point. 

 

 

I assembled gearbox and differential already, didn't take pictures since they were straightforward - the differential is a gear diff running 10000cst goop, and it's a four gear transmission (not as in four ratios, but four cogs, two idlers). You can set it up as a three gear transmission, too, but didn't fancy it. The difference is basically one idler added/removed, and it translates into different behaviours of the rear. On a very basic level, four gears promote the rear to squat down, three gears prevent squatting. There's no "better" variant, there's just preference, i personally like my car to squat because it makes it behave more like a real car. More on that in a bit. The transmission as can be seen is open, which is a bit weird, just added maintenance since i have to clean it out of dust every few runs, but here we are. I am currently running the standard gear differential, because i couldn't really get on with the centrifugal differential that i installed in the RDX - it made it harder to control, because i could never really tell when the diff was starting to lock. This is simpler, and while not as trick/competitive, for a sunday drifter like me, much easier to drive consistently.

 

 

Slide rack installed. My first slide rack. Also the last slide rack i'll ever install. I found a tool, pictured above, that'll help with the "install" of the next one. I don't know if this is particular to this chassis since it's the only one i've ever built with a slide rack, but christ - it genuinely took me 45 minutes to get it situated proper, i.e. not binding and running smooth. Absolutely zero fun and easily the worst "piece" i've ever assembled in any RC. Drove me up the wall.

 

 

Shock towers etc on, around this point it struck me what kind of gorgeous piece of kit this actually is. Very high quality on all parts. Not as nice to assemble as the plastic RDX, mainly due to the manual being rather old school and not being 100% obvious sometimes, but fitments were 110%. Which brings us to the shocks:

 

 

These are Yokomo Big Bore shocks, for many people the first upgrade part they ever do on their drifter, regardless of which make. They're reasonably priced (around £80), they're decently pretty (and purple!), they work really well and i've sold them immediately. I basically just assembled them to put them on the rig for a picture, that's it lol.

Of course i did build them like my own, with all O-Rings properly greased with 1UP etc. And finally:

 

 

Not setup yet, also not on the final wheels, just attached what i had for the picture. The shocks look saggy because i didn't add the bladders (the guy who bought them wanted the shocks dry, didn't want to damage the bladders by dry-rubbing them inside the shock), but as i said, i've never driven on these shocks. The front body posts also weren't trimmed at this point, because i had a new shell in the making and hadn't taken measurements yet. It's a pretty rig, no doubt. 

Now, for electrics, i basically threw my RDX electrics at it, with a few tweaks, as can be seen here.

 

 

Being an XD10 Pro ESC, D10 10.5t motor, Reve D RS-ST servo and Reve D Revox gyro, paired to my NB4. This is the first stage of setting it up, result being: 

 

 

Decent enough for the girls i am dating, so while i did adjust weight balance a little bit by shifting wires, it was nothing to write home about. You'll also notice that the stupendously expensive Overdose HG3 shocks are mounted to this, despite not being purple. Can't have it all. Now after doing all that, and getting a base line set up, of course i thought that a new motor was required, including a full rewire of the car, throwing everything off again - but the naked wires did annoy me, and the rear wire salad was too much for the shell to handle, so i gave "resoldering ESC side of motor wires" a go, with.. meh results. In my defence, the wires are actually not heat resistant (it's not silicone), so i couldn't do much there. Was my first try, in the future i'll get bloody wire that doesn't melt when you try to solder it (well, the sleeve anyway). The motor was changed to a 13.5t D10 (same motor, less RPM), this time in purple. 

 

 

Which is the current setup still. Now, the shell. It's a shell that i had for absolute ages, started building it either with the RDX or the RMX, can't remember - probably had it close to a year just sitting in the cupboard, finally got around to have it finished.

 

 

And i absolutely love it. Kustom Kulture of course being the drift club, it's "our" livery. 

 

As it sits right there, with the shocks and electrics, it owes me around £1300 now. Which is completely moronic, it's more capable than i'll ever be, but you know.. that's how the hobby goes. I'm happy, can't put a price on that. At least that's what i 'm telling my wife, and myself at night.

Lastly, here's how it drove last sunday. Keep in mind, first day with new wiring, motor and shell (which i only noticed afterwards, didn't sit proper, it's fixed now). Just look at how lovely and smooth it runs, as well as how amazing those shocks are. I do love it, i just don't think about the money i paid for it. Much. 

 

 

Thanks for reading: it's a shorter one than the others, but i "had to" build this kit within 6 hours, didn't leave much time to take detail pictures etc. 

[Stormbringer]

Does seem to go round the track well 

[m4inbrain]

45 minutes ago, Stormbringer said:

Does seem to go round the track well 

 

It does - it's not 100% there yet, but it's fully adjustable (as opposed to my prior chassis'), and i'm stubborn. 😄

[Stormbringer]

Youl get there 

[PraetoR]

How did I miss this? This is great! 

[m4inbrain]

On 02/05/2024 at 21:53, PraetoR said:

How did I miss this? This is great! 

 

Cheers. 😉

 

Small update:

not that it was necessary, the Reve D RSST Servo works well, but.. it ain't purple. 

 

£165 later:

 

 

 

.. sigh. Looks good. mind. 😄