oOple.com Forums - My Yokomo 93WCS Masami tribute build

Well there seems to have been alot of discussion on here about Yokomo YZ-10s so I thought i'd share some pictures of my pride & joy & long term project - a 93 WCS YZ-10, that I have finished off to represent the car that Masami Hirosaka used to win the 93 4wd World Championships that was held here, in the UK at the TEMAC track in Basildon.

This car has been a labour of love for the past couple of years since receiving this car from Tamiya Club member Gazan.

This is how I recieved the car;
http://www.tamiyaclub.com/getuserima...10163026_1.jpg

On stripping the car down it became apparent that the car had at some point had a hefty shunt which had left the chassis cracked;
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...n/DSC00127.jpg

Some strip-down shots;
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...n/DSC00122.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...n/DSC00125.jpg

I have replaced the chassis with a new one made by Fibrelyte - to my own CAD drawing & to a mould that I made to create the front kick-up (a YZ-10 feature that 1st appeared on the 93WCS) The chassis on the car in the photos is the 2nd one I had made incorporating some tweaks to get the correct look, including a textured finish to both faces to emulate the original, created using formica laminate as the top surface on the mould.

My mould - (at this stage I hadn't added the laminate)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...S/DSC00213.jpg

The parts were given a thorough clean & the car re-built around the new chassis, including a few new/good used parts, including a front bumper which was missing (thanks Matt;)) A new top deck is also fitting - again a part cut by Fibrelyte but out of white G10 material that I had to source myself.

Bead blasted magnesium parts (the star shaped wheel hubs I believe are unique to the WCS model)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...S/DSC00247.jpg

On researching these cars & posting my build pictures on RC10Talk.com it has become apparent that this car may have been actually used during the 93 Worlds held here in the UK, by a Yokomo team driver (unknown) - at the very least this car is a pre-production model as it wears some parts that were altered for the kits but match up with the car Masami Hirosaka drove to the 4wd victory.

As a tribute to Masami's victory I decided to dress up this car to look like his original winning car. To achieve the Masami look - I have added the pink wheels (white ribbed dyed pink) & red wheel dots with the correct Proline Stubby tyres mounted, Orange moulded Yokomo wing, correct colouring of shock parts (white spacers, black spring seat & white ball ends - also green springs rear - silver front) a few white Losi nylon nuts & most importantly the Mr Lexan Pavidis shell that I sprayed to match (the best I could) to Masami's colour scheme - all finished with as many of the decals that I can find that appear on the original car too! This car is not 100% finished - I'm sure it will evolve as I find more parts to enhance the Masami look but its almost there. Due to the original/unique nature of my car I didn't want to make any irreversable changes that would make a more accurate replica of Masami's car (his had lots of drill holes in bulkheads & trimmed down peices for lightening) but I wanted the 'look' - so this car is a 'tribute' as opposed to a 100% replica.

A recent shot of Masami's original car from his Facebook page (hope you don't mind Masami?)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...27789676_n.jpg

Cutting the wheel dots;
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...S/DSC00337.jpg

It must be said that this is also a tribute to all the people who have contributed with parts etc - I have made many friends a long the way from all over the globe, which for me is the best thing about restoring these old cars, especially as one as interesting as the 93' WCS. Special thanks must go to Matt (username YZ-10) who supplied many of the little odd bits (screws, front bumper etc) & Tony Evdoka of Rudebits who blasted/cleaned the magnesium parts for me.