My first car - Mardave Meteor

[Dadio]

I did the mid motor on mine BITD but I just can't remember how it went , I was mostly doing it to protect the motor better as the aluminium motor guard just used to bend up and hit the motor instead of protecting it , if I remember correctly my meteors final configuration was with a hotshot rear gearbox mounted to it , no idea why at all .

[Moggie XL]

Cool I've always liked the homemade customised cars I remember someone at our local club with an Optimal mid rear end on the Meteor. Also I was looking at DarbyDans build and his gearbox is flat underneath.

[dinglem]

The main thing with the Meteor gearbox is to protect the gears from the motor heating the box itself and causing it to 'sag' slightly when you have heavy landings etc... you can see on mine the metal frame we have built at the rear to totally solve this. As long as you keep the diff in top top shape and set it pin-point for a teeny tiny bit of slip under full launch then it will be ok. I have run some hot motors in mine and never had an issue. In fact the highest top speed i ever saw in any of my cars on the Rolling Road was with my Meteor.

I had never really thought about the gold LWB chassis not having a cut-out but you are correct of course. I have a used one here and it has marks where the step in the gearbox base would be, so there is obviously something still there.

[Mike73]

Just wondering if you can help me, I bought a long wheelbase chassis but realized the gearbox doesn't fit because it is moulded to go down the back of the chassis. Have you modified the back part on yours.

If your referring to the LWB chassis and the Mardave Meteor gearbox having a protrusion to accept the original SWB tail protector???
The solution was to cut off the protrusion on the gearbox or alternatively add a thin piece of flat plastic CF or something, this then flattens out so that the gearbox then sat flat on the chassis plate. I generally trim the gearbox on mine.

[Moggie XL]

Thanks Mike I thought that must be the solution. Those Meteors you have look good have you had them from new?

[dinglem]

I'm liking the orange long front wishbones on that car Mike73. I presume you have had them 3D printed?

I have been worried about breaking my original long fronts so opted for the aluminium ones. I saw somebody running a similar set of aluminium ones at the Revival last year and thought how strong they appeared when compared to the (massively expensive and rare) originals.

[Mike73]

Thanks Mike I thought that must be the solution. Those Meteors you have look good have you had them from new?

Sorry hadn't spotted your post, I've been collecting and building up parts so as to recreate a LWB car i had as a kid, sold all the originals i did have in the late 80's to buy a mountain bike, wished i hadn't!!

[dinglem]

Well it has been quite a while since I looked at the Meteors in my collection, but the recent Revival meeting in the UK had a swarm of Meteors running in one of the earlier 2wd classes, so it got me thinking about my original race car. The start of this thread detailed me retrieving it back from an old school friend whom i sold it to in around 1989.... this was about 3 years ago. I set about restoring it but as the mods for modern running began to whizz around in my head i eventually went off on a tangent and built another Meteor in modern carbon fibre trim to sit alongside my original.

So now, it is time the original gained a little attention. My plan is to use it through this following 12months where possible in pretty much original trim as ran back in 1987 and then hopefully enter it into the 2022 Revival event..... so after a few hours of fettling over the past couple of days it is virtually done.

This is what I posted up on 'The Mardave Meteor Group' on Fb earlier:-

No heavy restoration on this one as it is intended for a return to race duty..... but is a special car for me. This was my first race car and I still have trophies won with it dating from 1987. It was modified as per the well-thumbed Halliday article, with my father adding a (now slightly rusted) front anti-roll bar, threaded RC10 front stub-axles, an aluminium gearbox brace, an upper chassis/radio plate, his own take on a longer wheelbase chassis complete with subtle side kick-ups for added strength, slightly larger stainless motor guard, fully ball-raced transmission, a wider bumper based on the 'Halliday shape' and of course the upside-down shocker treatment. The black bodyshell is my original and has lasted well all of these years. Motor is a Demon 27T standard, which is what I ran in this car at my first R/C club, a Demon ProKing esc (forward-only), the brick-like Futaba FP-R102GR receiver and boggo FP-S128 servo which were my originals from this car bitd. Wheels are also 'Dadmod' specials. Just a few bits required now to get it back up and running.... servo horn, motor wires and a wiring tidy up.

[dinglem]

[dinglem]

Putting my 'DadMod' lwb chassis car next to the factory spec lwb, I can see my dad made our car very slightly shorter; it was built before the lwb conversion was released by Mardave and was primarily made to allow for the longitudinal stick battery layout. It literally just slips in behind the steering servo with very little room spare. Anyway, I thought I would measure it and it comes out at 265mm, so only 5mm shorter than the factory lwb car. The standard swb Meteor has a 250mm wheelbase. At the same time I decided to check the width, and my dad clearly wasn't messing about when he turned the rims as it is sitting at 1mm inside the 250mm limit.

[dinglem]

It doesn't get much more simple and straightforward than this. Bullet-proof budget racing.

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281611679_3205779689657671_8459571776985662254_n.jpg (63.62 KiB) Viewed 724 times

[K Rob]

Not quite so budget with those wheels though

[dinglem]

Not quite so budget with those wheels though

They were free!! My dad turned them.

[K Rob]

Fair point - the rest of us had to make so with plastic
It looks really good in the black with red trim, and the Cactus tyres (by the look of it) work on those wheels - not sure that look right on kit wheels.
Although I could never warm to shocks being upside down regardless of the necessity to keep the oil in them

[dinglem]

I hate the modern tyres.... but it is for running on a modern astro track <spits> They look a lot better with proper retro tyres!

The standard kit shocks were shown that way even in the press pictures. I think part of it was because they leaked - fairly good fix is PTFE tape when sealing them up.... and also because they open and fill from the seal end... you can in fact undo them in situ and top up or change the oil. I put them on the car that way in 1986 when i built it as a 12 year old, so that's the way they will stay. Incidentally, Brimod offered Meteor-specific shock kits back at that time too, and I am told that shock kit cost more than the purchase price of the car!! (...which incidentally was 49.99pounds).