Ahhh - LOL - For some reason I thought Highwayracer meant the spacers in between the bearings in the rear hub. I kept on thinking - "jeeez - I am getting old - I thought that they didnt do that mod till much later - XX or SE".........now I can see what you meant Highway!! Sorry for the confusion - I should read things a little more closely at 3am in the morning - got a serious case of "Losi goggles" on!
I dont have the alloy spacers for the outdrives - however I know I have them in a pack somewhere! It must have been the really early kits, as I would imagine that they would have cost a hell of a lot more to produce.
Havent done much more building tonight - I have been tidying up and getting other projects lined up. If you reckon this thread is nuts - wait till I start my RC10 one!!
I am really excited about this weekend though, on Sunday night I have a friend coming over with his family to stay for a few days. Its a pretty cool story - hope you dont mind me telling it - if you get bored easy - switch threads now..............
Back in the mid to late 80's, I had a fierce rivalry between myself and a guy by the name of Michael Geddes. We lived in different states and always really had some serious battles at the top of the stock class scene here in Australia. Whilst we could never be described as "bestest buddies", we always got along really well and respected eachother on the race track. As anyone who knows what stock class racing was like back in the 80's, it was tough and sometimes very "dirty" driving that won races. Both myself amnd Michael were very much about going fast - and we both knew that taking eachother out would potentially wreck our days. We always finished withing metres of eachother, but never took eachother out. Sadly for me - Michael was in front more often than not! At the end of the 80's we did not see eachother much at all - as we did not race as much anymore - girlfiends, cars - you know the story. In fact - Michael gave up completely for many years.
Fast forward to about 18 months ago, I am at a meeting here in my state, helping guys with tuning of their cars etc, and who should walk up to me with his familiar "howzit goin mate"? I did not know who the hell he was at first, then after talking for a bit - I realised...it had been over 18 years since we had seen eachother. We started chatting about the old days, he mentioned that he had been back running Off road again for a few years. I was surprised because I hadnt seen his name in the magazines at all - then he told me he had changed his surname!! Well, I had just started to get hooked on off road racing again, and we agreeed to keep in touch and start racing more together. Long story short - I have been staying at their place for the weekends at least once or twice a month. I had even gotten him to run some vintage races with his old RC10, which he sold because he always hated the car and didnt want to run anything but a Losi - as he was a sponsored driver back then and had alot of success with them. Knowing that he loved the Losi (in particular the orignial 5 link), I said I would happily build him one to race. We have both been doing alot of racing and Michael had been focusing on that. So Michael pretty much forgot about vintage and focused on modern.
This is where the story gets very cool! I was going through the Australian "for sale" section of R/C Tech a few weeks ago, and I noticed something very familiar for sale by James (vintageracer here on 10 talk). I could not beleive my eyes - James was selling Michaels 1988 5 link JRX2. Everything was still there - the "Twister" decals and all the sponsor logo's etc - exactly as I remembered the car myself. I nearly fell over with excitement and immediately rang James. I was devastated when he told me he had sold it just the day before to someone in Sydney! I told James the story and he was dissapointed for me as well. Unbeleivably - James had sold the car to someone that I know in the vintage scene - Steve. I was going to surprise Michael and get the car from James - but now it was a different story altogether.
I just had to let Michael know what I had found. I rang him and pointed him to the for sale thread. For what seemed like at least a minute - there was dead silence on the other end of the phone, then there was a comment - "OH MY GOD".... I just knew I had to get it - because I had not heard Michael get so enthused over a vintage car before. This is where the hard part came. I know that if I had just purchased a car that wanted, I sure would not be willing to sell it before I even got it! I thought I would give it a try though. I spoke to Steve and told him about the history of the car and how Michael had used the car only once - for the 1987 Australian National Titles. I said that Michael would really love the car - but that I understood if he wanted to keep it. Unbeleiveably, Steve was moved by my ramblings and agreed to sell the car for exactly what he paid for it! Just last weekned we all met up a the J Concepts Clash here in Sydney at the St Ives track. Steve brought out the JRX and the car is truly in awesome condition. We chatted for while about how cool it was and how it all fell into place. Funds were exchanged and everyone was happy.
Isnt it great when true enthusiasts for this hobby help eachother out? Steve did not have to give up this car, he could have kept it or made some money out of the deal, instead he recognised the significance of the car and what it meant to Michael.... Truly great stuff.
Any way - Michael is coming up to stay on Sunday night for a few nights with is family. We are going to go through the car, I am going to hook him up with some spares and we are going to have a great time talking about how fast we were back in the day, how aweseom the cars were - you know the drill. The icing on the cake for me is that Michael and his wife have asked me to be godfather to their new baby girl.
I will be sure to post some pics of Michaels JRX - and the spares package etc that will be his Christmas present.
Damn - dont you just love this hobby.
cheers
Darryn
