Metal One

Well... I tried to get some video. Unfortunately, I don't have enough good footage to total even a minute of video. I hate to say it but my g/f is absolutely useless when it comes to shooting video. I've tried multiple times now but I won't ask her again. How she manages to screw up iPhone video, the easiest device in the entire world to take a good video with, is just beyond me.

fyrstormer

iTrader: (1)

Not caring, most likely. As long as that isn't the only reason you're dating her...

Metal One

That's what I thought too, though she insists that's not the case. Put a regular camera in her hands and she goes nuts taking great pictures of everything. Videos though... nope. I've got all these cars but no way to capture a good video that isn't from my GoPro sitting on the ground and aimed in one direction the whole time. I need a clone of myself, just to follow along and shoot videos of my cars.

Metal One

Alright. Ordered another round of Tamiya rally block tires and a set of HPI Work Meister S1 star wheels in 2mm and 9mm offsets to be painted yellow for the Stratos. For those times when the Pirellis are just TOO grippy.

fyrstormer

iTrader: (1)

I forget, are the white wheels dyeable?

longuylander

iTrader: (7)

I really thought that sentence was going to finish, "girlfriend."

Metal One

LOL. Nah. I've had this one for too long now, plus she lets me have way too many cars and a few planes and quads too.

I would think white wheels would be dyeable. I've never dyed an RC part though, only shirts. That would be so much better than painting them. The selection of 5 star wheels with 9-10mm offset for the rear is somewhat slim. The Ride wheels I'm using now were black and the WorkMeisters are green, which may look alright on the Stratos. We'll see. I'm picking up another can of Tamiya Yellow today anyway, just in case.

Metal One

Hey, what is this crap? Every set of tires I have ever bought... EVER, since the beginning of time, included the foams but not these rally blocks. If I order foams now, the shipping will cost more than the foam. Argh... this sucks. Maybe I've got an old worn out set of HPI's that I can salvage the foams out of. Grumble... grumble... something... something.... grumble.... thanks, Tamiya.

Now, the green and gunmetal wheels don't look too bad but I think they would look better yellow so it's painting time again!

Edit: Nope. No foams. Not of that hardness anyway. If I want it to handle like it did, I need hard foams. Man...

fyrstormer

iTrader: (1)

That's because the Rally Blocks are too hard to need foams, hypothetically anyway.

I like HPI's medium foam inserts. I use them in all my touring-car-size tires.

Metal One

They were very squishy without them and the kit included them. I've bought so many sets of HPI wheels and tires over the years, the thought never crossed my mind to buy foams for the Tamiyas. Ah well. Here's what I did. I crawled up into my attic where my old model airplane foam is stored and found some 6mm EPP foam. I cut 4 strips to fit perfectly between the beads and trimmed them to the necessary length to fit tightly inside the tire. Then I glued the foam to the tire with UHU-Por, which is a contact cement for foam. It's good stuff. I used to build planes with it. The Tamiya tires were extremely tight around the HPI wheels. I don't remember the stock XV-01 wheels and tires being so difficult to glue. I had to use a small clamp to hold the tire away from the wheel whilst I squirted the glue in there. Which reminds me, I need more glue.

Here's something I've been using a lot lately. It's a black, rubberized CA glue called IC-2000. We get the Scosche brand at work but I found it on Amazon too. I've used a lot of "tire glue" over the years and always end up having to re-glue my tires after a while. This stuff... I have yet to re-glue a single tire since I started using it. Even the monster ballooning tires on my Yeti XL are still holding strong. It is awesome.

http://www.amazon.com/IC-2000-Rubber...3&sr=8-3-fkmr2

Anyway, ran the XV-01 this morning with the rally blocks and EPP foams and it feels exactly like it did before. A little drifty but still plenty of grip for circuits. Man, I love this car. I'm going to take it to the LHS today and say "Now look here. This is the best freaking rally car... in the world... and you need to stock this." We'll see what happens.

Edit:

So I took it to the LHS and blasted around his parking lot, which is even rougher than ours at work. The XV-01 handled it like a champ and the LHS owner was very impressed by the design so... again, we'll see what happens. All I know is he's got 6 Neros on the way so... woooboy! I'll get to check one of those bad boys out soon.

Billy Kelly

iTrader: (9)

Could mount camera on controller. Seen camera on hats. Hanging from shirts. I learned to drive one handed. Some vehicles are easier then others, but it can be done.

fyrstormer

iTrader: (1)

Odd, I recall the Rally Blocks being way too hard, but I might just be thinking of the tread blocks, not the carcass they're attached to. Anyway, good idea using foam you already had.

Good luck getting your hobby shop to stock Tamiya kits; I've tried at my shop before and they're not interested, because spare parts take too long to ship from Japan, or something like that. They have no problem stocking Mugen kits and parts, though. I think what it really comes down to is that shop's customer base consists of mostly Traxxas and Associated fanboys and older guys with $10000 model airplanes with real jet engines, a few crawler fans, a few 1:5-scale fans, a few hardcore track-car fans...and me. I can go there and pick Traxxas, Associated, and Losi parts off the wall all day long, but most HPI parts I might need will have to be ordered, and I'm on my own if I want Tamiya parts. Although, the resident touring-car guru recently bought a couple Tamiya F1 cars for people interested in running them at track days, so maybe there's hope.

The Nero looks like a pretty cool truck. If I didn't already have a Summit, and I wanted something that can go as fast as an E-Revo, I'd definitely consider it. Maybe I'll at least be able to test-drive one at my LHS when they come in.

Metal One

I'm kind of in a rare situation here. My LHS recently changed owners, changed its name and was completely remodeled. New website too. No cars on it yet but they are coming, along with an online store to purchase or check stock on every item he has inside the store, so that'll be neat. What used to be mostly aircraft of all shapes, sizes and ages is now lots of new quads and multi-rotors because that's what will keep the lights on. He has FPV car and quad demos, courses and workshops on weekends and is really doing a lot more to get people interested than the previous owner, who just wanted to retire. He's building a crawling area too.

The selection of planes is now much smaller. New boats and cars have been added and his selection of vehicles and parts is growing quickly. Mostly Horizon stuff so far. Vaterra, ECX and Losi but Horizon also sells a good selection of Tamiyas so there is hope. I grabbed one of the little 1/18 ECX Ruckus monster trucks for a hunski just to support the guy. It's a fun little truck but I'm already going brushless with it.

Aarma is a Hobbico brand so it looks like he kept the Great Planes account as well. That means I can still get HPI through him should HPI ever get their act together and start shipping stuff again. Not that I need to with Tower only 2 days away but I do whatever I can to support the LHS.

Here's the thing. Thunder RC Raceway is 10 minutes down the road from him and he's the closest shop to the track. The previous owner didn't really stock cars at all. Maybe one or two. He's got an opportunity here to do... something... anything to help support the local racing scene and maybe get new people into the store who simply have had no need to go there for the past 10 years.

passionrc

Hi everyone!! I bought this car some moths ago, and use it for first time yesterday, rallycrossing!!! I love this car!! Soon vids...

fyrstormer

iTrader: (1)

Finally painted a good-looking runner body for my XV-01TC-R:



After some re-gearing, I got it up to 45mph today:



Also, the paint is glorious in bright sunlight: