Mark_C

Thanks for all the replies. I'll check out surpass.

Has anyone used these ? Modelsport sell them so assume they can't be complete junk but can't find much about them. Obviously chinese, but what isn't these days https://smddirect.co.uk/collections/smd-brushless-combos/products/jbr365039c-v2-brushless-combo-3900kv-60amp-esc Any other suggestions for an inexpensive 3S combo ? Was thinking about Gool but seems the ESCs commonly have stuttering issues and saw a picture of one the other day that decided to set fire to itself, so not keen... Going in an on-road car. Thanks!

It seems de-solv-it graffiti remover is no longer available. The bottles I can't find anywhere and everywhere online is out of stock of the spray can. B&Q have it on their website, it says no home delivery and "our stores do not stock this product" but it does let you click and collect, however if you order it they cancel the order and refund you. Strangely my local store does have a space & ticket on the shelf for it, but no stock. Any other ideas? I have some Revell Paint Remover that smells a lot like acetone, but I've seen in modelling forums people seemingly using it on plastic with no issue.. Does anyone know if its ok on ABS bodies ? I'd rather not melt the thing!

@RCbutcher If you haven't purchased a wheel yet I am told that Argos are running a deal until July on the G29, if you buy the shifter as well the price drops to £200 total. The problem with Argos is finding the damm thing in stock, but its worth a look.

This may well be worth a look if you're in to the GT3/GTE type racing: https://505games.com/assetto-corsa-competizione-racing-to-playstation-4-and-xbox-one/ The first game played well if I recall. I do like GT Sport but think the vision cars and some of the group X stuff is gimmicky.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2317376 If you look a few pages back, I had the above printed by 3dhubs.com Since then they've changed their business model and now stick a big (like £60+) surcharge on small orders. I am currently having some stuff printed by www.thirty6.co.uk who are not as cheap as 3dhubs were and have a £20 minimum order. One of those parts is only going to cost a few quid. Do you know anyone with a 3d printer ? maybe you can find a cheap 3d print service ? or worst case get some other stuff printed to make the order up to £20..

Just a note on a couple of the above posts - G27 wont work on a PS4 without a drivehub (or similar), likewise the G920 is the xbox version of the G29 and also won't work on a PS4 without a converter. So if you find a cheap one, you'll just have to fator in the extra cost. Would be worth reading up as well, just to make sure it'll all work.

Using a wheel is better than a controller because its much more progressive, on a controller the throttle trigger moves say 10-15mm, the pedal moves maybe 3" ? that means if you want to apply part throttle or hold a bit through a corner you can - much more difficult to do on a controller. Likewise the with steering you can apply just a little lock if you need it and can apply lock smoothly as fast or slow as you need - again diffciult on a controller, you usually have to steer, release the button/stick and then re-apply. The bad side of a wheel is when you first start using one its easy to do what most people first do on a track in a real car - lots of big movements, slam on throttle / brakes, get to a corner, throw on loads of lock, elbows are up as you battle with it - you might feel like a racing driver but its much slower. Gentle, smooth movement and especially with steering the least amount that you need to, this stops big weight transfers and thus makes it easier to go fast. Watch some videos about driving real cars, the same principles apply to sim racing. Forgot to say, in the G29 I swapped the clutch & brake pedal springs because I found the brake too soft. You can get aftermarket springs to change the feel but I found the clutch one was much stiffer, so just swapped them.

The problem with the G29 is that someone (logitech?) are price gouging at the moment. As I write this the G29 is £296 on amazon. Here's the camelcamelcamel tracking page, https://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/product/B00YUOVBZK which shows its usual price is about £175 but has been as low as £125. I got mine for about £160-170 a while back. If its not price gouging there must be a huge demand.. If you want to go belt driven I think the cheapest one is still the Thrustmaster 300, wihch has always been around £300, its still around that now. From my research a while ago the T300 is regarded as a good wheel but some were unhappy with reliability, given that it was almost twice the price of the logitech at the time, I opted for the logitech. There is the Thrustmaster T150 which is gear driven, this is usually £150ish but has also seen a price increase. If you do go for the T150 pay the extra to upgrade the pedals, apparently the 2 pedal ones aren't that good, but the upgraded ones (T3PA) are really good so its worth paying the extra to get these with the T150. Another mae got a T150 direct from thrustmaster for £140 a couple of weeks ago with the better pedals, so worth keeping a look out. I have a playseat challenge, no qualms over build quality, I find it quite comfortable to sit in. I think I paid £150ish ? again a few years ago. I did try a wheelstand pro and just sitting on the sofa and its a horrible solution, the centre post gets in the way and on my sofa at least I had to sit on the edge because I couldn't get the stand close enough to reach everything if I was sat back, was awkward to use. It might be better using a chair from a dining table, but its more hassle and its not much cheaper than a playseat. Finally, if you happen to come across a cheap wheel for xbox etc it won't work on a playstation and likewise PS wheel on xbox won't work.. there is a solution, look for a device called "drivehub". This sits between the wheel and the console and ensures compatibility. There is a DIY solution using a raspberrypi (I forget the name at the moment), what I'm thinking is if you saw a secondhand wheel that was cheap you could get it working - worth doing a bit of research on the device.

Just been looking for the club that used to run at the track, long gone of course - the URL was www.srcmcc.co.uk, the wayback machine has a few captures and I found this picture of the track in its heyday, this is taken from the far side of the track to my pictures, you can make out the scaffolding for the viewing platform on the right: There are result pages in the wayback archive, wonder where all those people are now. From what I can see the website wasn't updated all that often - a capture in early 2003 advertises the next summer race as being 2nd May that year, the same page exists in a capture for December 2003 and in fact a capture from March 2004 shows the same page. A June 2004 update notes that they cannot run a night race due to a complaint from a local. There is also a link to http://www.slccup.co.uk in 2004 which was the Southern League Challenge Cup according to the archive, they ran the following schedule in 2005. Round 1 Aldershot April 10th Round 2 Southampton May 22nd Round 3 Tolworth June 19th Round 4 Barham July 10th Round 5 Bashley August 21st Round 6 Bisley September 18th That site is now dead too, I wonder if any of the other tracks are still there ? The wayback machine has several captures between 2005 and 2008, but none are viewable for some reason. The earliest capture in 2009 has a note on it that the track was closed due to falling numbers and rising rent, one or two more captures in 2009 (with no changes), then the next capture is 2012 which is just a domain holding page. So somewhere between 2005 and 2008 it all fell apart it would seem. By 2008 the league cup where going to Eastbourne, Yateley, Yeovil, Kemble, Bashley and Hillingdon (West London). This is the last year there are any captures for that site too. The Bashley track is still active - see http://www.wannarace.co.uk/

No idea at all why it failed, there was a track a few miles away on the shore, as mentioned by the article - that says they got chucked out because of noise complaints but as far as I remember they got chucked out because it was all built on, maybe a bit of both. The old track had been there for as long as I can remember, so there was enough support, the article says they had 58 members which is a fair number. I wonder if anyone here remembers either this or the old track ?

Happened to be passing today, so stopped and grabbed a few pictures. I'd guess its been out of use for 10 years, maybe more ? Local news story when it opened http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/5629545.Model_car_club_back_on_tracks/ Strange they were able to raise such a large amount of money but the track fell out of use so quickly. I can remember there being a viewing platform to the left and a 20ft container (which presumably held the equipment) on the far side. Last year this piece of land and the surrounding fields were subject to a planning permission application to build 48 houses. The application was withdrawn, probably because they are going to amend it to work around issues/objections.

Seems people use any excuse to try and kick Tamiya. They are and always have been a gateway to the hobby grade stuff. Sure. you can buy more technically advanced products, but they also cost a lot more.

strip it with de-solv-it and start again ?

I have started painting the Subaru NBR shell. need to get better at cutting out wheel wells for the next body if there is one. Soldered a switch back on to the TL-01 ESC. The WR-01 Double Blaze turned up, stripped and cleaned, currently still in bits as I'm going to order bearings for it (24 of them!). Also need a esc with twin output, so probably will get a Hobbywing 860. The battery (3300mah nimh) that came with WR-01 was completely dead, put it on the charger and it was at 4.4 volts ! Stuck 5 amps through it and it only charged to about 110mah, set it on a discharge and then charged again and it took 3800mah - how long it lasts in a car is another story of course. Fleet is now up to: CW-01 Lunchbox, CW-01 Midnight Pumpkin, Monster Beetle, Blitzer Beetle, WR-01 Double Blaze, DF-01 Manta Ray (FRP chassis etc), DF-02 Plasma Edge, TT-01E Nissan GTR + Subaru NBR shell, TL-01 ITC Alfa Romeo With the exception of the Manta Ray all bought on ebay, cleaned up, fixed and made to run again. I think thats more than enough and should probably sell some on, but its fun to get them going again.. am running out off storage space though!

Remember we said there was a rumour about the 934 kit re-release ? Turns out to be a Tamico special, a bunch of options added (FRP chassis, aluminium propshaft etc). 333 kits available, so one for the collectors! https://tamico.de/index.php?a=220470-1

Wheels from this ? P/N 10445925 (alt 445925) Front P/N 10440610 (alt 440610) Rear Listed here (parts tab): https://tamiyabase.com/tamiya-models/58571 An image search seems to confirm they are the right part numbers. You also need a parts sprue for the wheel centres. You can see them in this thread: https://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?/topic/71806-shodogs-58571-porsche-911-carrera-rsr-builds/ Tamiya USA lists part number 9335704 https://www.tamiyausa.com/product/item.php?product-id=9335704 ( parts listing here https://www.tamiyausa.com/product/rcpss.php?command=parts&kit_id=58571 ) Meantime, my TL-01 turned up, somewhat grubby but after stripping and washing all the parts its come up very well. Mini CVA oil shocks, bearings almost everywhere (just not on propshaft), Schumacher Formula motor and an RCLine ESC. Only issue found was that someone has cut the switch off the esc and soldered the wires together, I have a switch to put back on it, just waiting for some heatshrink to cover up the join. The body has a bit bashed around, but the plan is to put the GTR body from the TT-01 on this and that wear a Subaru NBR body - which I've masked up ready for paint. Only fly in the ointment to this is that the rear body mounts are L-shaped and go backwards, this stops the TT-01 body fitting (see chassis pic), they need to go more or less straight up from the chassis mounting point. Do any TL-01 (or other kits) have such a body mount? Chassis cleaned up: I was idly watching ebay (terrible habit as my purchase history shows...) and there was a couple of wild daggers - bit expensive for their condition so I passed. A Double Blaze (same WR-01 chassis) got listed, so I was watching that and another one appeared (these things are like buses..) much shorter listing - won that one for £43, the first Double Blaze finished yesterday for £95 so pretty happy with that!

There is a rumour that the 934 kit is going to be re-released: Rumour Good luck for today guns.

Did you see this escort ? unpainted shell, so it'd be as new once on your shelf https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tamiya-Repsol-Escort-Cosworth-WRC-4wd-Extras-Spares-TA0/232854258296 If you're feeling rich there is a michelin livery one too, still as a kit : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TAMIYA-MICHELIN-PILOT-FORD-ESCORT-RS-COSWORTH-58125-TA-01-NEW-IN-BOX-KIT-VINTAGE/113152931746 Yeah its the original one rather than the eco or v2, thanks anyway. I've bought a Subaru NBR body for the TT01 along with some MST wheels, just waiting for them to show up, body will probably be here next week, wheels are from rcmart, so goodness knows when they will appear.

Thats interesting, because the only instructions/infrmation I could find suggested the ESC is not programmable, can you share the link you found ? Thanks

Pick a budget and go from there. Take a look at this thread : https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/8vdpzl/purchase_advice_megathread_what_to_buy_who_to_buy/ which concerns itself with recommendations based on requirement and budget. I'm kind of tempted to try an Ender 3 as they get decent reviews and are pretty cheap, I believe a revised & improved version has just been released too. What stops me is that I don't really have a need to print lots of stuff (I could easily find stuff to print though..) and don't really need yet another gadget to sink time in to. I have had a few little bits printed at 3dhubs.com, which is really cheap compared to sites like shapeways and 3dhubs have given great service so far.

I made a mistake - although it makes more racket when going backwards it is actually faster going forwards. I also found that I had to already reverse throttle to make it go forwards. So: with motor wires colour matched and throttle channel in reverse the car goes faster forwards than backwards, but as soon as you let go of the throttle the motor stops, causing the car to skid to a stop. With motor wires swapped and the throttle channel in normal the car will roll to a stop when you let go of the throttle, but it is slow (faster backwards). I guess that is how its meant to be, the auto brake seems weird though. I'm only running this with a nimh pack (3000mah) but a fresh charge has the blue led flashing almost right away, which according to that manual indicates a low battery. Maybe its only suitable for lipo packs ? I wonder if that has some bearing on the auto brake thing somehow. Flipping fangled new stuff, I know where I am with brushed motors

If they don't dry out you can probably buy the rings and replace them. I've done grill elements before, they were just connected with spade terminals.

Been away over the weekend, but the TT01E turned up, it has a aluminium driveshaft and bearings and a 20T hpi motor, so thats good. Also my brushless esc and motor turned up, couple of questions as I'm not used to all this fangled stuff. The setup works, fan kicks in on the esc, motor runs. If you make it run forwards and then let go of the throttle the motor stops instantly. If you go in reverse it just slows down and stops like any other motor. Is this normal ? Maybe related, it goes faster backwards than forwards by some margin. This is an Absima A10 Thrust, the manual is not helpful : http://www.produktinfo.conrad.com/datenblaetter/225000-249999/239490-an-01-ml-1_10_BRUSHLESS_MOTOR_THRUST_BL_de_en_fr.pdf Seems you can't set anything on the esc, there is no button or any jumper pins. This is the unit: The motor has yellow, blue and red wires to I sent blue to blue, yellow to yellow and orange to red. Can I swap these around to make it go faster forwards ? Any ideas ?

There's one on ebay, but from USA so post is a bit expensive https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-TAMIYA-BLITZER-BEETLE-Body-Plastic-Set-with-Decals-TZ2/132671449561 If you have to buy in bits the decals (if you want them) are very expensive for some reason. Also strange is that just the body is twice the price of the monster beetle body - as far as I know the only difference is the colour, so if you're painting it anyway you might consider getting the MB one. The nose is different between the two though, so make sure you get the right one of those. Cheapest Blitzer body that I can find (inc post): https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Tamiya-Blitzer-Beetle-2011-Black-Main-Body-Spare-Parts-19335623-9335623/401542988685 MB body: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tamiya-58060-Monster-Beetle-58618-2015-0335076-9335752-19335752-Body-Shell-NEW/292624132301 Nose & chrome parts (cheaper than ebay) https://www.modelsport.co.uk/tamiya-blitzer-beetle-mask-wipers-and-q-parts/rc-car-products/28522 Note, that picture shows original chrome parts, its missing the mirrors - refer to manuals below. I linked this because just the nosecone is £8 on ebay. Driver, lights & roof insert: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tamiya-58122-Blitzer-Beetle-9115051-19115051-P-Parts-Driver-Figure-NEW/392045335223 Decals : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Tamiya-Blitzer-Beetle-2011-Decals-Stickers-Spare-Parts-19495689-9495689/312143215188 Glass parts: https://www.timetunnelmodels.com/live/catalog/tamiya-19115330-9115330-parts-58502-blitzer-beetle-58618-monster-beetle-p-50568.html It might be worth contacting tonystamiyaparts or jk-rc on ebay to see if they can source the parts for you - both are decent sellers, or maybe tamico ? Manual on this page if you want to look up part numbers. http://tamiyaweb.com/manuals/download (original) or here: https://www.wonderlandmodels.com/media/manuals/19677/manual.pdf (re-release). Note: anything you buy new now will be a re-release part. Differences on the re-re: No rear window in the glass (they just make 1 part for sand sorcher, MB and Blitzer). Body has holes for door mirrors Two holes in the front of the body for the mount (difference between the three chassis). You need 3 2x6mm screws to hold the glass in to the body, one each for tail lights and another for the license plate surround. Also 1 3x12mm to hold the nose to the main body. Edit: the cheapest solution is a kamtec body, they 3 or 4 different beetle ones, see the bottom of this page http://www.kamtec.co.uk/epages/BT4645.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/BT4645/Categories/Body_Shells/Tamiya_Repro