dacheese

I'd like to start by saying that if anybody's going to slate the Kyosho Zaboon don't bother posting here. I realise it's about as entry-level as EP buggies go, but it's a reasonably entertaining piece of kit. This one had a fair bit of use several years ago, until one of the rear diff outputs worked loose and resulted in three-wheel drive. In need of something to do, I decided to strip down the rear end and managed to get the drive output secured onto the diff again. 'Testing' it outside's enough to put a smile on my face, but I've noticed that it turns much more tightly to the left than it turns to the right. Any ideas? It could just be a design fault; having taken most of the car apart this wouldn't suprise me as I don't consider the design to be especially well thought out. The servo could be faulty, of course. What I'm trying to say is I haven't a clue. Help would be very much appreciated.

Just considering my options at the moment Sibbo. Anybody got an e-mail address for product requests for HPI? Would be nice if they had one. I've looked but haven't found one yet. Anybody else like the idea of an 'EMT2' (MT2 with shaft drive but electric)?

Sounds good, especially seeing as I've heard the belt drive isn't much good on the RS4. Any specific parts designed for this conversion anywhere? Will keep looking.

Try some HPI offset TE37 wheels or similar. The HPI Sprint 2 uses 200mm shells-from the pics in the catalogue it seems they use 3mm offset at the front and 6mm at the back.

Only three things to say; when, where and how much?

I've not seen a blaze in action but my thoughts are that £130 or thereabouts is a tad steep for an 18th scale car. Racing in this scale sounds fun but I wouldn't spend that much. Plus the dish wheels are horrible. Planning on trying one of those Venom 370 motors soon. Anybody tried these before? Yet again I'm doing things on a budget but I've never spent more than £20 on a motor for my 1/10th scale cars and I'm not spending that much on a micro motor.

Not a bad idea but the RS4 MT's 4WD instead of 2WD. Thanks for the suggestion though.

I quite like the looks of the HPI nitro MT2 but can't be doing with the fuel, maintenance and overall cost. The next best thing then might just be the electric version of the original nitro MT, the RS4 MT. Anybody got one of these things and what does it go like?

This is possibly the opposite of any drift set-up you've ever been recommended, but it works (on a surface a bit like polished wood anyway). It was never intended to be a drift car, it just sort of happened: It's a Schumacher Mission with a HPI Impreza touring version shell. These pics are a bit old; the JC Ascari wheels have now gone to be replaced by Tamiya Castrol Tom's Supra wheels (my old TL01; chassis rubbish, shell beautiful), but still running worn yellow Schumacher 25mm minipins as you see here. 21d Venom Fireball motor, LRP Runner, Some form of Hitec radio gear. Apologies for quality of pics; must get some better ones with a proper camera.

I'd heard of Shumacher yellow cut and shuts a while back but that's too much work for me and it involves glueing them to the wheels. Also, I'd heard that the end result isn't always entirely round.

I know somebody with an xmt4 and it's not a bad piece of kit for the money. I've got an xmb4; the best looking 1/18th off road buggy you can buy in my opinion but isn't as quick because of the smaller wheels. They're identical underneath. They aren't as quick as some other micros but you get what you pay for. They can actually take a bit of filth, but aren't ideal for huge obstacles because of the low ground clearance. The bit about clicking gear diffs is true. The person I know with the xmt4 jumped it a few weeks after he got it and it started clicking. Ball diffs would be useful.

My brother's got one of these beasts. He runs it on full size 1/10th wheels with 25mm Schumacher yellow minipins because there isn't enough grip on polished wood with the small radial tyres. I watched a HPI RS4 mini on ebay that had proline 1/18th truck tyres stretched onto its wheels. This uses the same wheel size as the tamiya MO3. Does anybody know if this works? If this is the case, I could buy the new Suzuki Swift MO3 and run it with minipins.