Ultima third party carbon chassis

[Snake Plissken]

I just won this Ultima parts lot: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSAA:US:11&Item=260160973595
The carbon chassis looks interesting, and I'm tempted to use it as a base for a hopped up Ultima racer. The seller thinks it was made by JG, but tulsa wrote me its made by Duratrax. I'm interested to know more information about it: is it complete (ie, did it have an upper deck like 2nd version Ultima Pro, did it came as part of a hop up kit with other parts beside the battery holders, etc.). Also, here is a question I was always curious about: Although Duratrax is part of Hobbico, which used to be the US Kyosho importer at the time, they made their own hop ups to Kyosho cars, such as chassis, shocks, wheels, tires etc. that actually competed againt Kyosho's own hop up line, Option House. I can imagine that the Duratrax parts gave more profit margin than Kyosho parts (they were probably made by some unknown third party manufacturers at much lesser cost than the Option House parts) but why would Kyosho agree to have their own products compete against products distributed by their own agent? Maybe for this reason Kyosho established their own distribution center in the US?

[mrlexan]

That chassis could be a toss up as to the manfacturer, as I believe that JG, Duratrax, Composite Craft and even Trinity offered a chassis all with the same features. I would say without the header card, it might be difficult to tell.

Sorry to add more confusion to the mix. Thank you sir.

Jay

[RichieRich]

Going by the holes it doesn't have, it's probably not a Duratrax chassis. So, that leaves the other brands as possibilities

[Asso_man!]

and I think the Trinity chassis only had 6 slots, but the seventh could have been drilled

[RichieRich]

I just realized my post was a little vauge. The Duratrax chassis had steering servo holes on both sides of the chassis. Also, it had holes between the battery slots. I assume so you could bolt the batteries down with a plastic spacer?

Also regarding Duratrax, their parts were generally cheaper but they also made stuff for other brands. For example, you could also get a Duratrax RC10 graphite chassis. They also made universals and shocks that would fit the RC10. I think their main objective was to have parts that would fit all brands of buggies at the time. I guess if you sell a lot of Kyosho, why not make aftermarket parts that fit

[MelvinsArmy]

Is that an 86 Haro Master hanging in the background?

Sorry, don't no nuthin bout no Ultimas.

[terry.sc]

It can be a Duratrax chassis as mine is identical to that. I know mine is a Duratrax as it was bought NIP and came in the bag with the Duratrax header. Old photo of mine which as the chassis came with no battery holders I used a set of RW Racing battery trays instead of filing the slots. As you can see only one set of servo mount holes and no holes between the battery slots.

MyUltima.jpg (174.27 KiB) Viewed 2783 times

MyUltima.jpg (174.27 KiB) Viewed 2783 times

[Snake Plissken]

terry, I see that your chassis has upper brace between the front bulkhead and the bellcrank mounts (very similar to the Ultima Pro version 1), also, the bellcrank is different to the stock Ultima. Did these come with the chassis or are they a later modifications? The lexan undertray fits very nicely to the chassis, who made it?
The lack of battery mounts with the chassis is interesting, why didn't Duratrax include them? Were they offered separately??
I wonder how popular these chassis were back in the day, was it a natural purchase for a racer who wanted to upgrade from a Turbo Ultima?

[terry.sc]

The steering setup and the front brace are my own design and all parts are home made. The steering link was developed to make the steering more aggressive. This was my race buggy then so there's not much left of the original Ultima I started with. The undertray is a Kyosho Optima Mid Custom one, to go with the bodyshell.

Ultima.jpg

More information on it here.http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=18145&id=297

[RichieRich]

Well, hmm, the picture I have of the Duratrax chassis is either wrong or there are two versions. Love the buggy Terry. I think I've already seen pics, right? Just out of curiousity, how come you didn't use a Ultima Pro XL front plate? Your's came out pretty good, though.

[johnnyboy]

I don't remember my old JG chassis having the 7th cell hole....

[terry.sc]

I think I've already seen pics, right? Just out of curiousity, how come you didn't use a Ultima Pro XL front plate? Your's came out pretty good, though.

Familiar because the pics are from my TC showroom http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=18145&id=297
I didn't use the Pro XL plate as the even the Pro didn't exist when I raced this in '87. It started as the original plain old Ultima with the red shocks and channel chassis, which is why the Duratrax chassis was fitted.

[Snake Plissken]

Well, I finally received my auction win last week (the seller only shipped it at the beginning of the month for some reason –but he did threw in a receiver and two servos as compensation ). To my delight I found a couple of nice hop ups that couldn't be seen in the auction pics: a Robinson adjustable rear toe in and a mystery 48 pitch ball diff-hard final pinion combination. The ball diff is either MIP or Thorp -I'm leaning more towards MIP, the problem is that some parts seem to be missing: the thrust bearing and adjusting screw and maybe diff rings? I'll be grateful if someone can point me to a manual/exploded view for it.
The carbon chassis is the standard wheelbase length and looks very nice. I'll be using it on my Ultima racer after figuring out how to mount stick packs securely. I'll probably add an upper deck for extra strength as well. I'm a little worried about scratching the bottom side on the track, I vaguely remember a clear coating that can be glued on the underside to prevent just that damage, has anyone tried it with any success?

[Asso_man!]

the diff. is MIP for sure!

[Mr. ED]

Hi Snake P ( I typed it and only then realised how that'd sound)

serious now, thanks fore referring me back here; I had this tread bookmarked but it seems it was gone from 'watching' after the forum upgrade.

As you know I just got the Thorp ball diff upgrade to 48 pitch, and I can confirm the one above is not theirs. The nr of balls is different, and the topgear is alu with a very different look of yours. They may be interchangeable: I didn't count the nr of teeth yet
Is it 48 pitch american style or the metric 48 pitch like the pro's spur?

Thorps is the american standard 48 pitch.