Not strictly vintage but...

[Dandare]

I thought long & hard regarding my choice of 'old' racer, something to take me back to my younger days, & to participate in a local series with which accepts both vintage cars & Re-re Tamiya's.

Route 1: Buy a genuine vintage competition orientated buggy without spending a fortune, or..

Route 2: Buy something which is nostalgic to me, something which i was unable to get my hands on back in the day, something not necessarily good on the track, lol...

So route 2 it was, purchased last thursday in kit form, hoping to build (properly!) ready for racing sunday (yep, 2 1/2 days) !

Thursday afternoon/evening. Can yer guess what it is yet... :lol:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/DanAli/IMAG0097.jpg

Friday afternoon/evening,

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/DanAli/IMAG0101.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/DanAli/IMAG0099.jpg

Finished at 12:45am sunday, done it ! Trackside,

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/DanAli/IMAG0102.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/DanAli/IMAG0106.jpg

Fitted with the standard 540 silver can & using NiMh's (series regs), apart from the dogbone popping out on the first corner of the first heat, it otherwise done ok :thumbsup:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/DanAli/IMAG0271.jpg

I'd put on some shocks from an Electrix Boost buggy for the sunday but still had too much trailing arm droop causing the driveshafts to keep popping out (design fault, also as per the original !), all i could do on the day was remove the spacers to make it sag a little & take it easy on the bumps.

Following race day i spaced the shock shafts using fuel tubing to limit the travel thus reducing maximum trailing arm droop.

Today i bought some cheapy FastTrax alloy 75mm shocks, used the short eyelets supplied & hey presto, they're exactly the same length as the ones i previously modified !

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/DanAli/IMAG0277.jpg

Thats about it, it's not worth tinkering/modding with tbh, i've ballraced it & fitted inserts into the rear tyres to reduce the bounce effect, oh, & i may fit some modern 2.2" wheels/tyres to reduce the awful understeer.

All in all quite good fun to race against other 540 powered machinery in a slo-mo kinda way, roll on the next & final round :woot:

[tramp]

Brilliant, i love frogs. When I first got into rc's i wanted a frog but didn't want to pay out for it, so I bought a reproduction hornet instead - which was great, but i bashed it into the ground & ruined the body shell. I still have it but it looks very sorry for itself, i do like all these vintage tamiyas

[super gripper]

Tamiya do UJ's for the Frog, solve your popping out problem.

http://www.stellamodels.com.hk/53908-frog-2005-assembly-universal-shafts-p-2380.html

There is also a front suspension conversion from CRP

I cannot find a link for you but look at the CRP parts for the Frog on ebay

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Team-CRP-Vintage-RC/041-Frog-/_i.html?rt=nc&_fsub=8110537&_sid=1075567&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1513&_pgn=1

hope some of it is useful info for you

[Dandare]

Cheers, i have seen the UJ's, though i thought i'd see if i can fix it using the shorter shocks to save on spendng more on it.

These guys do some nice alloy suspension upgrades too:

http://www.junfac.com/shop/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=Frog

The problem is, my way of thinking is that when you start fiddling too much (especially the front suspension arrangement on a Frog) you're starting to defeat the object of racing something 'in the spirit of the period' & you just end up spending money on trying to drag an old design up to modern standards. Even fitting grippy 2.2" wheels/tyres i can envisage the extra strain on hubs, tiny steering arms etc to wear or break tbh.

Apart from what i've done, it's pretty true to he original so i'll just continue bouncing around the tracks pretending i'm in 1983 :lol: