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I mentioned a few times that I sold my Tamiya F101 a while back. Every time I look at The Wheely King I used some of the money for I realize how much I regret selling the car.

When I thought about it I realized I had most of the parts to build another F1 minus a few oddsand ends. Well, he other day I decided to see just how close I was. I know, I should have taken pictures of the pile of parts, but as I sat there doing an inventory stuff just began to get assembled. Not cleaned mind you, just put together. I am closer than I thought!

As it became more car looking I realized the coolest part, All of the spares were from my original car! They were the parts that either got upgraded or replaced for appearance. By selling the "good" car, I ended up getting most of my first real RC race car back.

Its got a long way to go but I drove it today and it runs great. Not nearly as fast as the racer...its got the original Tamiya silver can motor and an ancient receiver/esc. I have the font tires/wheels with the original rubber (yes rubber, not foam). The paint is peeling but since it was originally painted with a rattle can sometime in the 80's. I need to find a way to re-stick the decals that are peeling around the edges, and the body was badly trimmed (I wanted more airflow at the time so I cut extra wide behind the front tires...but without the mod motor I doubt that I'll need that air. I'm going to do my best to save the body since new ones are really rare and the couple I've found were around $100 just for the unpainted shell. The other just annoying thing is the transmitter has a broken/missing battery cover...its a Magnum Sport of course. Why did they all break? Oh well, I guess I can improvise something there.

So now I need to find a few odds and ends; some screws, bolts, and washers. That should be easy. the hard stuff will be the rear wing...I've probably searched for eight to ten hours so far trying to track down an original. I'd also like to find some of the Tamiya rubber tires for the rear (and some spares for the front), I may have that handled since a guy on the F1-Rc board said they use them in England as a spec tire. I tracked down an F1 club there and am waiting to see if he's right.

Anyways, here's some composite pictures I took...and yes, it really needs cleaned. Like I said, the parts came straight out of box that's been sitting collecting dust for years.





BTW, if anybody has any old F101 parts laying around you want to get rid of let me know. Especially the rear wing.

That's is what kinda sucks about hopping up a car so much. I almost have a another wheely king now. So I might as well upgrade my axles, tranny, and shocks and have two complete trucks. Now I just need the money to do that, and I could probably just as easily buy another Wheely King, but it wouldn't be as cool as the upgrade parts. That's how they make their money.


I'm gonna move this to the On-Road forum

Yeah I usually hate that. But, in this case it worked out great. I didn't need the hot one anymore because there's nowhere to run it. I had it lowered to the class rules minimum of 3mm, the 10T mod motor was a pain at best, I was afraid to use the CF chassis on anything other than glass smooth pavement (not much of that in Ohio) and everywhere I had left to run either has concrete curbs or big light post. So this works out...a bunch more ground clearance and the fiberglass chassis is already scuffed to hell. A few small parts and I have a great runner for the big lot at Malabar Farm State Park.

10T mod motor was a pain at best,

Tell me about it. I was running a 11T motor in a car I was trying to approach 50mph with, and had no idea I'd have to cut the comm and replace the brushes every 3 to 4 runs, and the runs were only 5-6 minutes. Kids today have no idea how easy they got it with their 70mph RTR cars, and brushless motors that don't require any maintenance.

We had a guy at the LHS that would prep your motor for you for a price and he claimed he had some secret to making more power. The damnedest part of it is the guys who bought his service did seem to run faster. I just racked it up to more confidence. Kind of an electric placebo.

One of thee days I have to bite the bullet and go brushless...maybe even lipo (since I have the charger already).

sidewinder wrote:We had a guy at the LHS that would prep your motor for you for a price and he claimed he had some secret to making more power. The damnedest part of it is the guys who bought his service did seem to run faster. I just racked it up to more confidence. Kind of an electric placebo.

One of thee days I have to bite the bullet and go brushless...maybe even lipo (since I have the charger already).

I was able to make my slot car motor go faster than the rest. All it took was a little time to align the bushing/bearings and if allowed polish the magnets. Cut brushes were a hit or miss, if done right were great if done wrong and then you motor stops mid race because the brush flopped out of position. But telling someone you did it would spook the rest of the racers.

I haven't tried rebuilding any of my RC motors yet.

sidewinder wrote:We had a guy at the LHS that would prep your motor for you for a price and he claimed he had some secret to making more power. The damnedest part of it is the guys who bought his service did seem to run faster. I just racked it up to more confidence. Kind of an electric placebo.

One of thee days I have to bite the bullet and go brushless...maybe even lipo (since I have the charger already).

You know, I actually love rebuilding motor and seeing them go faster when I'm done, the problem was just getting to the track to have the owner cut the comm for me.

Brushless is good. Seems like all advantage to me.

Yeah, I was looking at the sidewinder system because its cheaper, and with a name like sidewinder it has to be great

sidewinder wrote:Yeah, I was looking at the sidewinder system because its cheaper, and with a name like sidewinder it has to be great

Or crash and burn.

Just kidding.

Either way it should be spectacular!

Plus remember what they say...crashing doesn't matter, just be sure to try to crash in front of the photographer.

sidewinder wrote:Plus remember what they say...crashing doesn't matter, just be sure to try to crash in front of the photographer.

As long as they can get a shot of the Sponser decals. Always remember the sponsers, you need to keep them happy so they'll keep the funds flowing.