"Never Give Up!"

[Dandare]

I lurk on this section without a murmur but here's a start to 'Project Underdog'

Having stupidly sold my 1st race buggy a few years ago, a Cougar Club 10 & having recently found (what is left of) my old Boomarang in my parents loft clear out I now had the need to find something to race at the Revival Saturday, but something which a remember well in my younger days.

So I found this useable Madcap on eBay complete with bearings, metal motor plate, CVA shocks & improved steering linkages.





Then (this is where things got silly ) someone was selling a spares or repair car with a broken C hub, a missing rear wheel & no wing. This, annoyingly was in some ways better (& a lot cheaper!) than the first one. My plan was to use this as spares. This is it now, along with a few other parts a gathered during the 'spree'



I've also gathered numerous parts/upgrades including new shielded bearings, Tamiya Hop Up ball diff kit, turnbuckles, some new old stock Ballistic 2.2" front wheels dug from the depths of my local model shop & a spare set of team C shocks.



So this should've been it for now, but then... this came up:









I don't really know why I needed this

It's had precious little use, it came with a wall charger & Futaba Attack radio. The front tyres were a bit worn so I fitted new rears (which came with the first car I bought) & I have some brand new front tyres on the way.

I may keep it, sell it, I'm not entirely sure yet. The only thing I know is that I won't run it.

So the plan is to strip the 'racer' chassis, clean & re-build using the best of the spare parts & uprate to a race worthy state.

I don't actually have any brushed motors/esc's but I do have a spare 13.5 & 17.5 brushless motor & esc along with a good servo, 2.4Ghz etc.

I'm more excited by this project than the 22 3.0 I've just built for this season

[daz75]

welcome to the mad ...... cap house

[xfactor]

Lovin it matey.

Glad Im not the only one who keeps buying the same buggy.

Cant beat the old Tamiyas for vintage youth. I think nearly all of us at some point had a Tamiya or owned a tamiya....

Nice to see the mad cap again.

[Retro RC]

Lol and it begins...... I can't stop buying the same buggy or parts for it either 1 day I might even gets some pics on here lol

Keep it up let the addiction take control

[cjm_2008]

The madcap was my first proper buggy

I saved several weeks' worth of paper round money to ballrace it.

The following Cristmas my parents got me a Super Astute

I still have it in bits in the loft!

I'd be cautious about running anything hotter than a non boosted 13.5 - the gearbox is a weakness, especially the counter-gear that runs off the spur.

[Dandare]

Originally Posted by cjm_2008

I'd be cautious about running anything hotter than a non boosted 13.5 - the gearbox is a weakness, especially the counter-gear that runs off the spur.

I've read about the counter gear, or more to the point the counter gear support, of which i have a few spare (& spare gears) I had my eye on the alloy upgrade support (made by Thorp?) but it was about £40 + shipping !

I could really do with the Super Astute ttc gearbox, if only i could find one

I think i'll try the 17.5 & see how slow it is, it may be fine.

[cjm_2008]

Originally Posted by Dandare

I've read about the counter gear, or more to the point the counter gear support, of which i have a few spare (& spare gears) I had my eye on the alloy upgrade support (made by Thorp?) but it was about £40 + shipping !

I could really do with the Super Astute ttc gearbox, if only i could find one

I think i'll try the 17.5 & see how slow it is, it may be fine.

I actually have one of those, practically NIB, missing two bearings.

I bought it to restore my super astute but never got round to it. It's been sat in a box in the garage ever since.

[Dandare]

Originally Posted by cjm_2008

I actually have one of those, practically NIB, missing two bearings.

I bought it to restore my super astute but never got round to it. It's been sat in a box in the garage ever since.

So what your trying to tell me is.... ?

[Peakey]

Originally Posted by Dandare

So what your trying to tell me is.... ?

It's yours at the right price

[Peakey]

Originally Posted by daz75

welcome to the mad ...... cap house

I second the lame comment made by this numpty

[cjm_2008]

Originally Posted by Peakey

It's yours at the right price

Basically 😊

[Peakey]

It's a box of plastic so it's got to be worth £10 all day long 😜

[Dandare]

Well.. and I quote Mikey off American Pickers "Hey man, I can't buy it and sell it!"

Give me a price, i'll either say yes or no

(I think a pm would be wise, I don't want everyone knowing the bargain price and beating me to it)

[daz75]

Originally Posted by Peakey

I second the lame comment made by this numpty

[cjm_2008]

[JamieB76]

The Tamiya Madcap was my first ever RC car and the one which got me into racing. I knew soon enough to be competitive at my club I would have to buy another car which led me to the Schumacher Cougar.

I don't own either any more. All left in a garage when I did moved out. As well as a Cougar 2 Works I kid you not!

I do however have (from memory) a box for the Madcap at my Mums house full of Gulf War 1 newspapers.

I have seen a couple of these come up on ebay recently, I even bought a copy of an old magazine to read up on them again. Nice car and from what little memories I have retained good fun and one that started my on my RC car journey.

Never Give Up!

[Dandare]

So, I had a few hours today to start stripping & inspecting the chassis I'll use for racing. Overall it wasn't too bad for 27 years old. There are a few things though, firstly this:



This had already been repaired in the past via long grub screws being screwed into the posted (both of them) but this one had obviously snapped in half. I'll look into this later.

The other thing is the gearbox, the rear screw mount was broken:



And, the two plastic mounting posts had previously been glued into the gearbox but didn't looked cracked. This was a problem as I only had one other so I needed one of these so I managed to dremel one out:



There are some Super Astute alloy ones on eBay, does anyone know if they'll fit ?

Anyway, luckily I have two other gearboxes intact so I cleaned one up, cleaned the gears etc fitted rubber sealed bearings & now I'm here:



I still need to re-build the diff using the Tamiya Hop Up diff kit I bought but at least I'm then able to mount the gearbox to the chassis. Luckily the rear shock tower, hingepin blocks, arms are all good.

Onwards & upwards...

[kaylon]

I love my Madcap!... It should be finished soon.. I'd love to be able to pop over to NBC like I used to a few years ago and do some vintage racing with you guys

J

[fakiee]

Originally Posted by Dandare

RL]And, the two plastic mounting posts had previously been glued into the gearbox but didn't looked cracked. This was a problem as I only had one other so I needed one of these so I managed to dremel one out:



There are some Super Astute alloy ones on eBay, does anyone know if they'll fit ?

I still need to re-build the diff using the Tamiya Hop Up diff kit I bought but at least I'm then able to mount the gearbox to the chassis.

The alloy mounts from astute/super astute will fit, the also use the same ones in the Egress and Avante (metal parts bag).

When building the diff use all of the 0.05 washers including the spares! Also threadlock on the allen bolts that seal the diff, and a good quality driver.

[fakiee]

Originally Posted by cjm_2008

Who did you have to kill to find that? Would be cheaper to find a 2nd hand super astute if you want the TTC gearbox.

What brushless are you looking to run?