I was so surprised on how well the tamiya DT01 chassis went . ( Fighter buggy, Mad Bull, Rookie Rabbit) In our insect class at Boondal I lapped the field in no time. For those that don't know, this buggy is a modifed version of the Super Hornet and has a live rear end axle. BUT the bounce was so mininmum . (Yes i had better dampers mated to the original springs.) So after a while and my mate saying it wasn't in fairness LOL . Still a live axle I decided to see why is this such a better chassis to the Hornets variants.
So i decided to make the front end better ( Step 1)
I had bought a Team CRP FX10 or Striker double wish bone set up for $15.00. Still plenty in stock. The kit comes with the new arms, shock tower, Fixed camber links & Hub carriers.
I had to cut the arms down to fit the narrower front end of the S/Hornet. Next, the original shock towers were cut off to make way for the new FX10 shock tower mounting block. The next problem was that the camber links were out as it wasn't designed for the S/Hornet and a set of adj turn buckles were thrown in mated to new tamiya cups and studs. The Hub carriers were then wrong too so i tried a set of DT02 (Holiday Buggy) front hub carriers which fitted perfect. That meant DT02 steering knuckles had be used too with the pressed in ball studs. The original cheese straw steering links were tossed in favour of the better stronger links. The shock position was wrong on the lower control arms . I had to re locate them further out in the arms. I used H/B studs on the S/Hornet servo saver. The steering rods used were one short H/B with one Fox steering link. Phew, all together with no camber change and almost no bump steer.
Ok Step 2 ( Rear)
I found that one of the reasons the Fighter Buggy was better was the fact it had a locked rod . This was elongated to allow side to side movement like the Hornet but no jerking of up & down movement like the Grass Hopper with a locked axle pivot.. So I took this system and did my best to copy it. The Diff case had to dremeled out to take the shank. A gasket was formed to prevent any dirt getting in. The Chassis was than dremeled out as close as center as I could, as the battery sits there. I than JB Welded the shank in place. It's a little messy but all i wanted to do was see if i could do it.
The S/Hornet now has a rolling axle that can't jump around. (I locked mine as it was more predictable.) Now it has the best of both. The longer rear shocks of the Fighter Buggy were carried over too, with the shocks re-mounted further down the chassis. Frog Alloy adapters were added to allow hex wheels on.
Well lets hope all goes well. Still not a DT01 chassis as it lacks the longer wheel base but apart from adding a IRS rear end. So when the next insect cup comes I will be ready! Shhhhhhh
