Vintage Tenth Technology Predator 1st Gen 1994

[Dave77]

Thought you guys might like to see some pics of my Vintage first gen predator.

This car is just a hash up of spare parts and was never raced as we did a fair bit of destruction testing at the beginning, hence the single colour shell. I raced from 88 - 94, and used a predator in the British National Championship (along with Kevin Moore, Richmond Rogers, Ben Sturnham and Rob Gammon) in 1994 before retiring.

The original carbon tub chassis is lovely. Just dragged it off the shelf at my folks where its been gathering dust for the last 15 years.

I have had my interest rekindled and just bought a B44 to start racing again.

Cheers
David

[Cooper]

AWESOME !

[Dyna]

Luverly that - You dont see many early ones in that condition these days

The original carbon tubs just look the business. I'd love to know where the first couple of prototypes ended up though... the ones with machined aluminium f&r gearboxes and other detail differences that were also in the pre-release T-Tech adverts of the day.

[Dave77]

I ended up with the spare chassis as this one (the original in the kit) we thought was twisted or "not straight" as it kept stripping rear diff gears, but it turned out we werent spacing it in the gearbox correctly.

Neglected to tell Richard at the time so he sent a new one.........

I still have the original Box for the car as well, but ever so slightly tatty.


Some more pics.

[DerbyDan]

These were such lovely-lovely cars, especially these early ones with that moulded carbon chassis When they were released it really felt like F1 technology had reach out model cars.... I just can't believe how long ago it was now!

[Welshy40]

I remember these, did one event with one of the first release and after one race it went in the bin. Looked great but wasnt. Wasted my money on that.

[Dave77]

Originally Posted by Welshy40

I remember these, did one event with one of the first release and after one race it went in the bin. Looked great but wasnt. Wasted my money on that.

Agreed, we had 3 or 4 false starts with ours too, when the Yokomo Works 93 was dragged back into service.

We found that the Pred was, fragile, and either exceptionally good, or complete and utter rubbish. So difficult to set up, and the back end wouldnt behave on the bumps. Modified anti-squat, and that improved things. I had not only my best BRCA Nat. result with it, I also had my worst too....

Cheers

[samd]

Ah i loved mine, cant remember finishing many races but i still loved it.

[Matt Airbrushing]

Originally Posted by samd

Ah i loved mine, cant remember finishing many races but i still loved it.

I remember racing the early predators when I still had a bosscat.

One particular regional B final my dad said to me, "dont worry about that predator, he probably wont finish the race"
Sure enough the pred passed me in the first laps and began to build up a lead.
A few minutes from the end I passed a front wheel in the track, half a lap later I pass a three wheeled pred The poor guy had collected a backmarker and lost a wheel.

I always felt a bit guilty when I tangled with a predator when I was driving the bosscat.. there was only even one way that was going to end. It was like hitting an apple with a brick.

[brooksy]

I had the first ever incarnation of the pred all those years ago,I bought it second hand and the problem for me was getting the spacing correct on the drive shaft with those thin gold spacers. When I got it right the car was the best I've driven(UNTIL I BOUGHT MY DEX 410 THAT IS),especially indoors. Unbelievable speed.

Edit

[isobarik]

Never had one and havent run one either but just got to say they still look awsome....i have seen one at a race ones and it brooke still ...it looked awsome ........

mvh Isobarik

[93works]

bit of a fan here also! out of all my cars its the one my mate's always pic up !! new built 95 pro with serial number! if anyone has a body let me know




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[Bungleaio]

Here's my 95 pro, currently sporting the chassis from a National. I really need to rebuild this and get the CF chassis back on it.

[SHY]

Sexy!!!

[DanB4]

Nice to see you on oOple David!

I won't be at the next off road meeting to race but hoping to pop down with the family.

Cheers,

Dan

[Dan Holmes]

Awesome car!!

I got one when it first came out.. So far advanced for it's time, Remeber doing the Reedy Race of Champoins at Marstons in 98 or something and I think every pred won it's final..

A few reliability issues like chassis snapping and them flippin shims on the diff housing moving all the time...

But when they went well nothing could touch em.. Nice to see the design hasn't changed that much..

Now I just got back into RC cars again I am tempted to get a pred for me 4WD.

[sldmodels]

I remember the original ones, you could always tell who was running one as the noise they made was horrendous. When I cam back to racing after a 5 year gap, I had wanted a pred TC, but they stopped making them didn't they? Anyone know if there's any plans to bring one back?

[Dyna]

Originally Posted by Dan Holmes

A few reliability issues like chassis snapping....

[isobarik]

I still have the car action issue where kinwald drove the international to victory Derek furutani was third also with a pred.....

i did see an add in an later mag from 97 ish where they presented theire new shell for the pred ...............the one they still use ....

mvh isobarik

[Nick Goodall]

Originally Posted by Dan Holmes

Awesome car!!

I got one when it first came out.. So far advanced for it's time, Remeber doing the Reedy Race of Champoins at Marstons in 98 or something and I think every pred won it's final..

A few reliability issues like chassis snapping and them flippin shims on the diff housing moving all the time...

But when they went well nothing could touch em.. Nice to see the design hasn't changed that much..

Now I just got back into RC cars again I am tempted to get a pred for me 4WD.

That was 1996 - Still one of the best meetings I ever did, i've still got the print outs somewhere from the race, but Mark Francis and Jason Ruona came over for it which was cool... Best thing though was Rory Cull turning up to have a play, i had never got to see him race as he'd packed up just as i started, someone lent him a load of gear but he hadn't raced for ages and it showed.... The Preds were going well though, i remember that much - i had a couple of 2nd places with my Cat 2000 EC so was pretty happy with that at 14, i wish they'd done more of those events.