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My weekend of testing my monster trucks on my track and getting dimensions finalized took a hit thanks to Henri's spitting rain on us most of it. Bummer. So I decided instead to work on my RJ Speed Nitro Funny Car build...this will be a long post with a lot of steps and commentary.
After some drag racing last weekend, as I mentioned in my other thread, I wanted to get one of these things. I really like having two of everything I race. So I ordered it, and some other items I needed, and I already had a ton of spare parts and engines to use. It came in a few days, and I had already devised a logo and paint scheme, so not long after I unboxed it, I had the logo afixed to the inside of the body.
My immediate reaction when I opened the box was, this looks pretty cool, and a lot of fun. Very different from your typical kit - it's very spartan, and uses a number of "tricks" so to speak to accomplish things from standard parts. I read through the instructions, some things seemed a little daunting at first, but really they were not. RJ Speed is a very small American company, and I loved how the kit felt like that.
I was going to try and stuff a Kyosho .26 in there, but very quickly saw that would not be possible given the width of the vehicle. That's ok - because this thing is pretty small, despite it having a 13 inch wheelbase. It's very narrow, and very, very light (more on that later).
I got everything organized, and started running through the steps. Pretty soon I had a chassis started.
From this pic you can see that I broke the flange on one of the bushings that hold the axle. Those were, by design very difficult to press in. The chassis is made of lightweight fiberglass parts, completely. Everything was very precisely cut I must say! (except one thing, which I'll mention). As for the bushings, I really have to ask why? I've already ordered bearings from Boca that are direct replacements. Clearly I'm not the only one wondering why use bushings when bearings are readily available. The idea is to get power to the pavement, not waste it on resistance from metal on metal.
The rear end wasn't hard to assemble. I'm not sure how it'll hold up though, because the hubs are held on by set screws onto a smooth stainless steel axle. I've also noticed that RJ Speed sells upgraded hubs and axles, so that's likely on my list. The upgraded parts are all aluminum, and use a clamp.
I fitted the engine, and left on the rotostart. Soon realized that the rotostart had to go - as the wheels would not fit with it there. Bummer. Well this is a "mule" engine anyway, so for now it's gonna have it's OWB shaft exposed with no cover. Not a big deal I suppose. I say this engine is a mule because I don't think it's a good choice - again, I'll explain later.
The rest was a little trickier. The gas tank confused me at first, but got it figured out. Not real sure how good a seal the rubber stopper makes, I guess it was decent enough. The steering, hump pack, radio, all held down with the servo tape they provided. The steering linkage uses collars on two linkage bars to adjust - kinda "hacky" but pretty cool actually in that "raw kit" way. Does make it easy to adjust. Now, now sure how long that servo will stay, I do have an aluminum bracket that would work very well there. The throttle servo was a bit harder to work with - I had to dremel the hole out significantly to make it fit. That's my only major complaint with the kit - otherwise the fitment was all incredibly precise. I don't have a balancer (yet) - but I think overall I got the car pretty balanced with the hump pack and servo offsetting the engine.
I put the wheelie bar on (that was ordered separate from the kit), and fitted the body. Right away I realized that the spoiler would require some standoffs/posts.
I didn't have an exhaust yet, because I really wanted to see how things laid out first. So I figured I'd test by using the one from my nitro Slash to see if that shape/style would work. (That was also the style recommended in the manual). It most worked - but as the manual mentioned, you might need the optional engine shim kit to raise the engine a little. As it was, I needed it to be a hair higher, as the manifold flange was rubbing very slightly on the tires. This would also allow me to angle the pipe downward slightly. I will have to cut away some of the rear of the body of course to make room for the pipe, but it should be fine and look pretty cool I think. I went ahead and ordered an exhaust from RD Logics for a nitro 4-Tek car, which looks like it'll fit perfectly.
Next it was on to painting. I wanted to do a burgandy/brick color, with ghost flames.
It came out a little duller than I was expecting, I should have used a more vibrant red base, and should have hit the flames a little harder with the white backing in the front of the car, but overall I was at least close, and know what I'll do when I paint the next body, lol (I am certain I'm going to go through bodies like candy).
So now I'm just waiting on the exhaust, the engine shims, and bearings. Guess I'll need a starter box too Will continue on the next post...
Overall, I really enjoyed this simple little build. It was cheap enough, and I think it's going to be a very, very fast car. Surely it's only good for outlaw classes and such, but it'll be cool to shock some of these guys running monster electric outlaw setups. The videos of these cars I've seen are insanely fast. The car with engine and exhaust weighs in a "whopping" 2.5 lbs! I'm sure I'll have to add weight to get it to hook up.
That also being said - the engine - the Dynamite .19 is not really ideal. I'm just using it because it was either that or a TRX 2.5 I had to get this thing set up, and an idea of how it'll run. The .19 is going to probably be way too torquey, and not enough high end. If this car runs straight and well, and I really like it, I'll splurge for an O.S. Speed .12 which is a serious high end screamer with about the same peak HP as the Dynamite .19, but much, much more of a top end powerhouse.
After some drag racing last weekend, as I mentioned in my other thread, I wanted to get one of these things. I really like having two of everything I race. So I ordered it, and some other items I needed, and I already had a ton of spare parts and engines to use. It came in a few days, and I had already devised a logo and paint scheme, so not long after I unboxed it, I had the logo afixed to the inside of the body.
My immediate reaction when I opened the box was, this looks pretty cool, and a lot of fun. Very different from your typical kit - it's very spartan, and uses a number of "tricks" so to speak to accomplish things from standard parts. I read through the instructions, some things seemed a little daunting at first, but really they were not. RJ Speed is a very small American company, and I loved how the kit felt like that.
I was going to try and stuff a Kyosho .26 in there, but very quickly saw that would not be possible given the width of the vehicle. That's ok - because this thing is pretty small, despite it having a 13 inch wheelbase. It's very narrow, and very, very light (more on that later).
I got everything organized, and started running through the steps. Pretty soon I had a chassis started.
From this pic you can see that I broke the flange on one of the bushings that hold the axle. Those were, by design very difficult to press in. The chassis is made of lightweight fiberglass parts, completely. Everything was very precisely cut I must say! (except one thing, which I'll mention). As for the bushings, I really have to ask why? I've already ordered bearings from Boca that are direct replacements. Clearly I'm not the only one wondering why use bushings when bearings are readily available. The idea is to get power to the pavement, not waste it on resistance from metal on metal.
The rear end wasn't hard to assemble. I'm not sure how it'll hold up though, because the hubs are held on by set screws onto a smooth stainless steel axle. I've also noticed that RJ Speed sells upgraded hubs and axles, so that's likely on my list. The upgraded parts are all aluminum, and use a clamp.
I fitted the engine, and left on the rotostart. Soon realized that the rotostart had to go - as the wheels would not fit with it there. Bummer. Well this is a "mule" engine anyway, so for now it's gonna have it's OWB shaft exposed with no cover. Not a big deal I suppose. I say this engine is a mule because I don't think it's a good choice - again, I'll explain later.
The rest was a little trickier. The gas tank confused me at first, but got it figured out. Not real sure how good a seal the rubber stopper makes, I guess it was decent enough. The steering, hump pack, radio, all held down with the servo tape they provided. The steering linkage uses collars on two linkage bars to adjust - kinda "hacky" but pretty cool actually in that "raw kit" way. Does make it easy to adjust. Now, now sure how long that servo will stay, I do have an aluminum bracket that would work very well there. The throttle servo was a bit harder to work with - I had to dremel the hole out significantly to make it fit. That's my only major complaint with the kit - otherwise the fitment was all incredibly precise. I don't have a balancer (yet) - but I think overall I got the car pretty balanced with the hump pack and servo offsetting the engine.
I put the wheelie bar on (that was ordered separate from the kit), and fitted the body. Right away I realized that the spoiler would require some standoffs/posts.
I didn't have an exhaust yet, because I really wanted to see how things laid out first. So I figured I'd test by using the one from my nitro Slash to see if that shape/style would work. (That was also the style recommended in the manual). It most worked - but as the manual mentioned, you might need the optional engine shim kit to raise the engine a little. As it was, I needed it to be a hair higher, as the manifold flange was rubbing very slightly on the tires. This would also allow me to angle the pipe downward slightly. I will have to cut away some of the rear of the body of course to make room for the pipe, but it should be fine and look pretty cool I think. I went ahead and ordered an exhaust from RD Logics for a nitro 4-Tek car, which looks like it'll fit perfectly.
Next it was on to painting. I wanted to do a burgandy/brick color, with ghost flames.
It came out a little duller than I was expecting, I should have used a more vibrant red base, and should have hit the flames a little harder with the white backing in the front of the car, but overall I was at least close, and know what I'll do when I paint the next body, lol (I am certain I'm going to go through bodies like candy).
So now I'm just waiting on the exhaust, the engine shims, and bearings. Guess I'll need a starter box too Will continue on the next post...
Overall, I really enjoyed this simple little build. It was cheap enough, and I think it's going to be a very, very fast car. Surely it's only good for outlaw classes and such, but it'll be cool to shock some of these guys running monster electric outlaw setups. The videos of these cars I've seen are insanely fast. The car with engine and exhaust weighs in a "whopping" 2.5 lbs! I'm sure I'll have to add weight to get it to hook up.
That also being said - the engine - the Dynamite .19 is not really ideal. I'm just using it because it was either that or a TRX 2.5 I had to get this thing set up, and an idea of how it'll run. The .19 is going to probably be way too torquey, and not enough high end. If this car runs straight and well, and I really like it, I'll splurge for an O.S. Speed .12 which is a serious high end screamer with about the same peak HP as the Dynamite .19, but much, much more of a top end powerhouse.
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