RE-R Test

Ok, so how does it go mate?!

Good points.


Keyence Motor and set. Great! Very smooth and operates over a wide power range meaning you can be subtle with the throttle. I haven't played with the settings yet, but at the moment it's good. Motor didn't really get hot during my short session racing small children on the sidewalk.

It's faster than a 5 year old boy! not off the line though. Drift tyres can't keep up with human traction. HAHA!

As expected the car operates like a normal Yokomo drift car. Kind of.
Balance is good and I can see this being very good at change of direction. Drifting to left or right operates the same rather than the one side good, one side bad Drift Package experience.

Bad points.

There is more time spent with the steering in the neutral position rather than on any kind of angle. Initiate and wait seems to be the order of the day. Braking does nothing to keep the slide going as the front wheels are connected to all drive wheels and apportioned 25% each.  Like drifting a 4wd lancer EVO with a welded diff at both ends. just floor it, break traction then try to control it.

Loads of under-steer and no real drift style. In fact without the ball diff at either end, traction is probably worse than normal dori pake

But this is normal RC style. Lot's of on off throttle. It shouldn't be like this.

So the order will be a 1.5x FCD set and a one way something. I have two options, a one way centre pulley or a one way front axle from the ARD CE-R which is the similar chassis.

Head theory suggests the one way pulley will place less stress on components and be the faster and cheaper option. The second option requires replacing both pulleys. Probably look better.

It's all crazy!

Semi-happy!

RE-R Build Complete

Well, it took a while to get to this point. Take a look at the beauty!

This is the full normal RE-R.

Solid axles and equal distribution 1:1 drive. I don't know why it was sold this way, but until I save another 10,000 yen for the FCD conversion and one way pulley or diff, it's going to stay like this.

Issue # 1. These are the ball ends supplied with the RE-R. Obviously this was to overcome the situation that occurred with normal castor knuckles hitting the steering mechanism. But as I have 7 degree castor knuckles with the excess removed for more angle, guess what happened.

BANG!

Stop and think.... Hmmm. ok, I'll just invert the ball joint, but it means the end point on the steering servo will need to be adjusted... it should be ok.

You can see the angle on the servo ball. Not good at all but at least it runs under the bell-cranks

Issue # 2

In this picture you can see the second oddity. that Spur is high!!!!!

When you see people running chaser jzx 100 bodies, I know why. they are the only bodies that will clear huge spur gears required for these brushless motors.

DRB is the only chassis thats low enough for a good low body. Remember that!

Even if you wanted to run a small spur in the RE-R you couldn't! There's not enough room for the motor to go upward as the cutout is not round. You could get in there with the grinder I suppose, but that's not really the point of a CUSTOM chassis.

Issue # 3

The wheel base. The Drift Package conversion "should" use your Yokomo drift package components and body holes etc, but the rear suspension mounts are in a totally different position, so all my bodies were skewed. I was a bit, no a LOT frustrated by this point.

Luckily, I was able to get some TN racing spacers and get things in a better position, but I'll need to fine tune it again. If you had adjusted your bodies previously at a different point, this could remain an issue.

#4 Battery retainer.

There's nothing supplied to hold your batteries in place. so other than fibre-glass tape like the OLD days most people run these 100yen velcro straps. Now on a premium chassis like this, do you really want to run tape?

So, I still need to fix the curly wiring in time and play with the ESC settings tomorrow, but I'm looking forward to a test. I'm sure it's not going to match my old FCD dori-pake setup, for now, but we shall see what new frustrations bring.

One thing is for sure, it will be fast.

I guess it was worth it to find out what's involved in these packages, it's strange whether to recommend it at this stage or not, because it's not at the level I desired yet. If RE-Xtreme RC were to supply one to a customer, I know what to add in the box and how much the real cost of an RE-R is. The CER-D11 also has it's options so the real cost of those is also a lot higher. DRB needs about 80,000 yen to make a competitive chassis only so I'm still way under that. but recouping some cost through the sale of your original chassis may be the determining factor in choosing a premium chassis for most RC users when upgrading.

Street Jam Keyence Brushless

How Freeeeeeking cool is this!

I say very! Read the box. That's what it is. All my research led me towards Keyence. Japan's top brushless manufacturer and when I saw the is set in the exact spec I was after, it became cooler!

Now this has multiple brake settings and throttle initiations and all the good stuff.

But out of the box you will notice something strange. Now, high end products I understand are for people with a soldering iron and so forth but this is half baked idea.

1. The sensor cable for the motor is short. Maybe 5 cm. But the motor leads are long. about 15cm. 3x longer. and when you connect the motor as well they are about 20cm. Now if you want the long ones then you would need to buy another sensor cable. Not good. And if you only need a short one then you have to cut the others. That just sucks. Now most people run these Kawada connectors. So why not just fit them if they are the best.

2. The other thing is the battery connector. NOT in BOX. So of course I had to buy one of these also. Cheap but the thing is. when you spend a considerable amount, you'd like the small options to be included.
Maybe three different cheap connectors. Again the cords are long and you are obviously going to cut them off, so why solder the ends? Sometimes I'd like to slap some people. I would have loved to be in the business meeting for that one.

So the ESC is good, but it will take a little while to get it all in the final positions and the motor wiring will also require some work.    

Now the motor, is all good. It's a great black paint and machined version. I was thinking of the grey one and then buy a blue 1/2 case, but the finish on this is great.

7.5T is equivalent to a modified 11T brushed motor, so it's strong.
for comparison
13.5T is equivalent to a stock 27T brushed motor.

Once I wire it up, it will be perfect.

RE-Xtreme Tsunami RC - Coming Soon!

Stay tuned for something special from RE-Xtreme RC Division.

Strike a Pose

Here is something cool, I picked up this figure to pose with some of my cars, there's a few similar styles in Japan. Second hand shops have many really cheap.

Against the AE86. it's about the right size. AE86 is very big compared to say a JZX Chaser with the same wheelbase.

Scale is actually about 9th scale. Against my RX-7s it's a little big. but effective none the less. It should match the RWBs pretty well.

You can search for these... クローズZERO II リアルフィギュア

RE-R Build

Well, I'm a little disappointed with the RE-R conversion.

Basically for what isn't in the box. Just a couple of small things could have been recommended. You buy these boxes with little idea whats involved, So I'm on a steep learning curve.

 The conversion requires Yokomo Solid axles (not included) so I had to get some before proceeding on the main build but now I've swapped the suspension over. I'm a little happier.

It looks amazing.

Anyway.
I didn't check, because every RE-R on their website is FCD, but the original is not. The FCD gear set is 7000 yen so this puts me into the territory of simply buying a whole new chassis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=pdSxM0oAu20 This video is 40/14 & 20/32 for a rear bias but thats a long time ago.

these days two are available 1.5 is 20/32  1.7 is 20/36 which is best... 1.5 do it!

I could have got a whole new car like a DRB for just a liitle more.

It's strange building something like this. The new parts are there but it's strange merging the clean and dirty.

Now I'm looking at the allow Yokomo toe and suspension mounts for $40 and a few other things which will almost bring the chassis up to $400 + I'm in need of a brush-less motor and amp $170... Later

And I'll want to run a new pinion and sprocket so that's another expense. $20

I should have just bought a Yokomo DRB and been done with it then sold the old chassis, which I now can't do.  So the advice is to get a CE-R or GR-X or Kazama. Something you can contact me about in the near future.

Anyway, if it does work out to drive well. I'll be well happy, but broke.

So I don't recommend going this route.... YET...! We shall see. Once the new Keyence goes in.

It's starting to come together.

RWB 993 RC Progress

Well the RWB 993 Porsches are proving to be a pain in the ass.

The slow progress of smoothing the fenders, filling the holes in the wings, painting the drivers printing the interior details etc

I know it's not far away, but details take time.

Anyway.

Here are some progress details.

Drivers are Tamiya LHD racing drivers. I don't recommend these at all, PS paint doesn't stick to them at all, so rather than paint and mask. I had to paint the base, then do the rest by hand. .

Color.

I'm going to use black as a base. 1. Because the green needs a solid background and the grey is so thin, I'll need to be able to see what I'm covering. It will also blend other areas where paint has become thick.

The bodies are going to be heavy because there's about 5 layers of paint and putty etc but who cares.

So 1 car is almost finished.

But the other still needs to be masked and puttied. I'm going to get stuck in tomorrow and see what I can finish.

ps. new engine detail.