Tamiya Firedragon

[topher2009]

Dont tell the wife! OK, so the first "decent" radio control car I had was a firedragon, just for bashing around the garden it was great, I was about 10 at the time. I remember taking out the rear drive shafts so that it was front wheel drive "because front wheel drive cars were better in snow" and thrashing it in snow in the garden!

This car has many memories so I have bought one in kit form. I am going to build it as soon as it arrives and use it for fun! I have ordered a ball race set for it but my question is about motors and more specifically how much grief can the drive train take?

My options are brushed with a modified motor - 15 triple or brushless with a 10.5 turn. Anyone tried anything hot and done damage to theirs?

Thanks
Chris

[Si G]

I got away with using a 15 double in my terra scorcher for a while, but a 12 double destroyed the spur gear. In my club's vintage class I think someone was using brushless in his thundershot (not sure what turn, bluepinky might be able to confirm if he reads this).

[Jonesy]

Chris,

Please let me know how you get on! The Firedragon was my very first car in 1990 and I've recently seen one in a local model sho pand I am so so so tempted to get it for old times sake!

I'd love to be able to give it a go and get one up and running but would be interested on how you get on!

[topher2009]

I think it may be brushless and 17.5 turns just to be on the safe side, not sure yet!

Andrew, I will certainly let you know how I get on, as soon as car arrives, I will start building it.

I wish I knew what local modelshop you had seen one in! I scanned the web and couldnt find one in a modelshop so had to order from abroad. Kit + Postage was £100 which I think is the UK rrp. I cant wait to build it, have ordered the paint and ball races.

I remember when my father took me to a modelshop in Castleford, a tiny place, stacked floor to ceiling with models. I thought a Hornet was the option but my dad just made me the happiest little boy when we got to the shop and pullet a Firedragon off the shelf! We took it home and a family friend, Bill, (a great engineer but never done a model) helped me build the car a week before Xmas (it needed to be sent back to Santa I thin kthe excuse was!) well he built it, I watched. Unfortunately Bill passed away suddenly last year and the first thought I had was of how kind he was in donating three nights of his time to build my car for me, RIP Bill.

I am sure if all of us go back to the first car we had, we get the same nostalgia feelings, thats why I have bought this!

Anyway, off to cry now as a sign of respect of my child hood! I cant wait till Harry (now 12 weeks old!) is old enough to go to the model shop for his first car!

[panch]

Would love to see it when its fully built and sprayed, Although my first car was a Hotshot also had a Terra Scorcher and my two cousins had Fire dragons :thumbsup:

Pic below from a trip to Eastnor Castle Circa 1988/89 !! Good Times :thumbsup:

http://i838.photobucket.com/albums/zz310/leepanchbhaya/MyoldKits.jpg

My Two on the right, paint jobs wernt up to much , Racing Green Hotshot and a Pink Terra Scorcher !!

Maybe you can have yours Custom Blitzed :thumbsup:

[JohnM]

I've had a LRP X11 7.5 in my Hotshot for the last couple of years, no problems so far, apart from being almost too fast for the suspension to cope:thumbsup:

[topher2009]

I think I will wait a month then order a spare gear set anyway just in case. I want it now! Why do we have to rely on post, cant we have teleporters yet - in fact that would be ace, then I would not have to dig the car out from a foot of snow!

[terry.sc]

My options are brushed with a modified motor - 15 triple or brushless with a 10.5 turn. Anyone tried anything hot and done damage to theirs?it will handle just about anything reasonable, as long as you never use the kit pinion - the soft alloy pinion is the fastest way to destroy the spur gear in them, the alloy wears fast then the sharp points carve chunks out of the spur gears teeth. Replace it with an RW steel 0.6 module pinion and it will run forever.

[topher2009]

Thanks Terry, will look into ordering one of those right now!

[neiloliver]

Chris,

The Firedragon was my very first car in 1990

Jonesy your so young! that was the year I stopped racing first time around!

[cjm_2008]

loving this nostalgia thread!

my mate got a thunder dragon for christmas in 1990. it was the first time either of us had seen a 'proper' RC car - up to that point, we'd spend the afternoons after school running a little non-proportional cheapo 2wd nikko buggy around his hallway with no tyres on, for entertaining drifts.

neither one of us could believe the speed on the thunder dragon, and this was with a standard silver can motor. I can't remember if he saved up his pocket money and bought the technigold motor... there was also talk of getting the hump-backed 8.4v battery pack :lol:

within a few months I'd managed to save enough pocket money to buy a midnight pumpkin and blackfoot as a pair from another mate. I'm not sure he really appreciated how much those cars were worth at the time, I think I managed to get them both for £25 inc radio gear :D

[Gaz_Stanton]

The Firedragon was my very first car in 1990

Snap! :o
Mine was brought for me & Jeff to share and drive it in alternate heats. That lasted all of 2 weeks before I had the Firedragon and Jeff went out and got a 2nd hand Terra Scorcher.

So we now know the origin of the single colour orange paint job. Except for I'm sure I remember the Firedragon had windows! :p

[topher2009]

Its coming, I now have the bearing set, the new pinion gear and the paint for the shell. The tracking number says the kit is in the UK so hopefully Monday I can start the build - just in time for the next session of being snowed in at home if the weather forecast is correct (fat chance!)

Regards

Chris

[topher2009]

Just arrived, how excited am I! Going away tomorrow though so wont start building it till next week.
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii304/chrisbriggs_SD1/20012010.jpg

[topher2009]

OK, its finished at last, it went together a treat, only issue really fitting all the elctronics but still being able to get the chassis top cover on and flat.
I can tell you she flies on the carpet in the hall way - standard gear ratio with a 10.5 brushless and LIPO battery! I know the photo is a bit naff but will take more when I charge the camera up! I would take her outside but we have a good few inches of snow at the moment so no point in getting it sokaing wet just yet!


http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii304/chrisbriggs_SD1/Image5.jpg

[topher2009]

I got the camera out this morning, so some decent pics now. I want to start a campaing to all wishbones made blue from now on - they look great! WIll put a link to a video when the weather improves and the snow goes!

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii304/chrisbriggs_SD1/Firedragon/DSC01120.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii304/chrisbriggs_SD1/Firedragon/DSC01121.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii304/chrisbriggs_SD1/Firedragon/DSC01123.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii304/chrisbriggs_SD1/Firedragon/DSC01125.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii304/chrisbriggs_SD1/Firedragon/DSC01126.jpg

[topher2009]

I meant to ask, anyone know what the "CoroCoro Racing team" refers to on the decal set? Is it a real 80's team or something just made up?

[Si Coe]

IIRC the Firedragon, and in fact most of Tamiya's futuristic RC shells from that period (Thunderdragon, Thundershot) were based on designs from a Japanese cartoon, or the cartoon featured cars based on Tamiya's designs. It was one or the other anyway.

[topher2009]

So I have to research old cartoons!

Anyway, video here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bl9hgJDIfw

[terry.sc]

CoroCoro Comic is a childrens comic which in the early 80s one of the stories featured a character called R/C Boy who (not surprisingly) raced R/C cars, thus leading to the Thunder/Fire/Super/Saint Dragon range of bodies and the R/C Boys range of basic R/C cars. The bodies were originally available as replacement bodies for the Grasshopper and Hornet, with all except the Super Dragon being released later as the 4WD chassis. I believe the hero of the story drove the Super Dragon. The black character with the open mouth on the stickers is the logo for CoroCoro Comic.

CoroCoro used to feature articles on the Mini 4WDs, showing children how to modify and improve the performance of them, as the children could afford to buy them compared with the very high cost of R/C cars. In 1986 due to the popularity of the Mini 4WDs the publisher of CoroCoro approached Tamiya to create a story in the comic featuring them, called Dash! Yonkuro, like R/C Boy it's about rival groups of children racing the cars. CoroCoro Comic also sponsored the Tamiya Grand Prix, originally an R/C event that lent R/C cars to children to run around. As a sideshow they included Mini 4WD tracks that proved more popular amongst the kids than the R/C cars, so it became a Mini 4WD event, attracting up to 70,000 (yes, thousand!) competitors in it's heyday. The Mini 4WD phenomenon grew so much Dash! Yonkuro became a cartoon TV series.

Unfortunately as the kids grew up the popularity waned in the early 90s, and Dash! Yonkuro disappeared. In 1993 Tamiya redesigned the cars, again promoted by CoroCoro Comic. The publishers released a new story called Bakusokyodai: Let's and Go. The artist for Bakusokyodai was used by Tamiya for the weird and wonderful Mini 4WD body designs we have had ever since, his sketches were converted into cars by Tamiyas designers.

You might notice a lack of anything R/C here, that's' because their popularity was limited amongst the young children the comics and TV cartoon were aimed at. The Dragon bodies were based on cars in the Dash! Yonkuro stories and were also made as Mini 4WD chassis.

A google for Dash Yonkuro will throw up plenty of information about the cartoon.

[JohnM]

Terry, is there anything you don't know?:thumbsup:

[topher2009]

Thanks Terry, great explaination! second video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eSVf6fZrH4

[terry.sc]

Terry, is there anything you don't know?:thumbsup:
How to earn enough money to pay for my r/c cars!


It was a cut and paste job from having written it out in an earlier thread on TC http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=46830 shortly after reading Shunsaku Tamiyas autobiography, so it was pretty easy at the time.:D

[Colinevan]

Great vid, car looks to go quite well as well ... I had a firedragon that i started to restore, the thing for me about the old tamiyas was painting the old shells up in the proper livery...

My dragon - mid restore...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v131/col.evan.mil/P3130191.jpg

Eventually i replaced virtually all the plastics and it would have been easier to just buy a new car because in theory thats what i did lol.

:thumbsup:

[topher2009]

Looks good, I agree they should be painted as per the box art although there is a green machine on another website that looks great!

[Power Surge]

I'm a big Thundershot chassis fan and have built a few of these cars recently, with my latest one being quite modernized in parts and design. I also raced the car at my local off road track, and quickly found areas of the car that needed improving.

To lessen the chance of having to replace parts on your car, I suggest the following:

Buy or make a brace plate to go over the A5 part. There used to be a guy on ebay that sold them, but you can make your own from some sheet metal.

See those blue solid upper control arms? Get them off there! They are quite hard to come by now, but try to find yourself a vintage Terra Scorcher upper arm kit. The gearbox plastic is very brittle, and the force of the upper arms moving front to back from good jumps and impacts will fracture the ears that the hinge pins go through. Switching to the ball end upper arm kits will eliminate that stress and save your gearboxes. Hell, you can probably MAKE your own uppers if you are handy.

Those are really the two main breakage spots on that chassis. The rest that I would suggest is all performance related. Not sure how far you want to take your car.

Here's my heavily modded "Terror Scorcher". It weighs 1550grams with a 3000 NiMi pack and was easily keeping up with B44s and Cat SXs at my local track. Well, in between breaking, that is :D

(BTW I have since changed out the rear upper arms, and also switched to a carbon fiber front shock mount)

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r119/PowerSurgePerf/RC%20Stuff/TerrorScorcher001.jpg

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r119/PowerSurgePerf/RC%20Stuff/TerrorScorcher003.jpg

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r119/PowerSurgePerf/RC%20Stuff/TerrorScorcher009.jpg

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r119/PowerSurgePerf/RC%20Stuff/TerrorScorcher008.jpg

[topher2009]

Thanks for the comments, I will look at the arm replacements. I dont think i will seriously race this car, I normally race a 2wd B4 offroad and quite enjoy it, but when it is wet, i dont seem to be competative, most probably due to the fact I have one set of tyres and one set only! I was thinking that when it rains, I may just join the 4wd guys for a race rather than not enjoy the 2wd, fortunately our local offroad club is outdoors on grass and we have a limited number of large jumps so hopefully will be ok but I will look for replacement upper arms just in case they are ever needed!

Your car looks great by the way! Obviously a lot of time spent on that!