My Ultima pics and some RC10s from the local vintage meeting

Post by **Snake Plissken** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 5:30 am

We had a short meeting yesterday, only RC10s and my Ultima (no Tamiyas this time..). I was really curious to see how the new Pro Line tires would work (in previous meeting the vintage tires caused serious oversteer on the hard packed track) and boy what a change! I can actually power up during cornering!
I've heard about the Ultima's understeer nature so I installed the RC10B4 wide front tires to help compensate for that, but it still understeered. Then I tried out my RC10 and realized the difference between understeer and dialed! Driving the RC10 is like driving on rails, it just goes where you steer it! Having said that I still like the Ultima handling (although the shocks need thicker oil as it bottomes out at the tabletop).
Enjoy the pics. Sorry, not a lot of action pics though, we were busy driving!

Post by **Mr. ED** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 9:34 am

LOL, I see spoilers still get lost during races.

nice to see that Ultima hit it.
I didn't think you would still jump it: I find it scary how jumps wear everything down, from gears to outdrive, dogbones,...

How did you get the Sand viper wheels on in the front? Are you using CRP axles to convert to 'wild one' wheels?

Post by **Snake Plissken** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 2:22 am

Hi Mr. ED.
We don't bother with the wings, too much hassle when removing the body.
As for the Ultima, I drive it as I would back in the days. Ultimas (and other cars based on it such as Outrage, Tracker and various on road chassis) are plentiful on ebay and I don't mind using used parts as replacement. Admittedly parts are harder to get this way and cost more than contemporary kits but running vintage cars hard is part of the fun (for me anyway

) and I'm ready to pay the price...
You got it correctly regarding the front wheels, I installed CRP 'Tamiya to Kyosho' axles to fit 1150 bearings. I tried to remain original and searched for Triumph front wheels but couldn't find any.

Post by **Mr. ED** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 3:15 am

When my ultima was still my racer, we had no jumps on the tracks to speak off.
Later I used to drive it from time to time in races, long after the high-days were over and it saw some jumps then. But in the last few years, I decided to put all the spare parts I had together and build as many variations as I could from them.
4th one almost done, so I'm running out of spare parts kinda

The fact I'm terrible at jumps and I hate paying shipment for overpriced parts is probably the main reason I envy your guts.

We'll see , planning on finishing nr 4 soon and hopefully find an offroad race for it also...

Good choice on the CRP axles by the way: those larger bearings are the way to go with the larger and wider frontwheels anytime.

Post by **Snake Plissken** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:09 am

Mr. ED wrote: But in the last few years, I decided to put all the spare parts I had together and build as many variations as I could from them.

this happened to me several times -I looked at the spare parts I had and realized Its almost enough to build a complete car, so I build it (and of course spend money on ebay to complete it) only to realize that I have no spare parts for my runner anymore, which got me buying more parts... Its a vicious circle!

When I wrote I run the Ultima as I would back in the days, I didn't mean I thrash it (well, at least not intentionally..) but rather that when I race it against others I don't hold back. Other people are having fun restoring cars and placing them on the shelf, I'm having fun by racing them. I'll keep doing it as long as spare parts will be reasonably priced (thats why I don't race AYK or Hirobo cars for example). the trick with vintage spare parts is not to get the NIB/NIP ones (which is what people restoring shelf queens are trying to get, driving the parts price up) but rather to get used lots, or basket case cars to dismantle.

Post by **Mr. ED** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 5:10 am

Snake Plissken wrote:...the trick with vintage spare parts is not to get the NIB/NIP ones (which is what people restoring shelf queens are trying to get, driving the parts price up) but rather to get used lots, or basket case cars to dismantle.

I still have lots of standard parts if you ever run into shortage for these.

For me , I've allways mixed brands and modded parts from other cars to get to the point where everything fitted into something quite different from the original. (check out the stuff I put up here if you didn't yet)
Most of them parts are stuff I gathered over years from the discounted bins

so no longer available for years already.
Now, if something breaks on them I could very well have to restart the whole concept

Snake plissken; isn't that the main characterof an old flic? Bit Mad Max like?

Post by **Snake Plissken** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 7:34 am

Mr. ED wrote:For me , I've allways mixed brands and modded parts from other cars to get to the point where everything fitted into something quite different from the original. (check out the stuff I put up here if you didn't yet)
Most of them parts are stuff I gathered over years from the discounted bins so no longer available for years already.
Now, if something breaks on them I could very well have to restart the whole concept

I can see why you would be reluctant to drive your car in anger. Modding cars is indeed fun but when a modded part breaks its not only the cost of the part but also the time it took you to make it. I modded a Tamiya Pajero (see attached pic) by dremelling its chassis to fit a stick pack (thus lowering its CG) but now I don't push it hard for fear of breaking the chassis after all the work, although originally I built it to be thrashed. Vintage hop ups, if rare, are also a problem -once installed they make a relatively common car to a shelf queen, you just don't want to take the car out and run it. I'm having similar thoughts about the 48 pitch gear set I posted recently, I don't want to install it for fearing of wearing it out.

Mr. ED wrote:Snake plissken; isn't that the main characterof an old flic? Bit Mad Max like?

Yes, Snake Plissken is the main character in "Escape From New York", my favorite 80's cult movie.

Post by **Mr. ED** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:13 am

wear isn't so bad on a shelf queen, especially when it's under a black gear cover

. It's broken which looks bad and worse impossible to run further.

I got this aluminium 48dp set as a present here in Japan: at a hobbyshop.
Unfortunately it feels as if someone meshed it up with a wrong module.
Cool for a shelf queen but I got none, and it sounds like a coffee grinder in a runner.
here're my ultima projects (the porsche is gone for now: want to turn it into a 4wd tourer: 1/10 or 1/12)
http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?t=1725&highlight=ultima
http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?t=808&highlight=ultima
http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?t=767&highlight=ultima
http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?t=683&highlight=ultima
http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?t=663&highlight=ultima

Post by **Asso_man!** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:25 am

I love the Ultima body, who made them? Never saw it before...

Great pics, so sad all of this happens across the Atlantic

Post by **mrlexan** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:36 pm

David, It is a Proline Butterfly. They come up every now and then on the bay.

Post by **Mr. ED** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:31 pm

And they don't include the rollcage: that's from the original ultima.
Just thought I should add this.

Post by **mrlexan** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 11:13 pm

Righto Erik..... Cage not included, you need an original.

Post by **Snake Plissken** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 1:45 am

Mr. ED wrote: here're my ultima projects (the porsche is gone for now: want to turn it into a 4wd tourer: 1/10 or 1/12)
http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?t=1725&highlight=ultima
http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?t=808&highlight=ultima
http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?t=767&highlight=ultima
http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?t=683&highlight=ultima
http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?t=663&highlight=ultima

Those are some interesting projects you made, Mr. ED.

Asso_man! wrote:I love the Ultima body, who made them? Never saw it before...

I bought the Butterfly body about 10 months ago from a guy who sold several of these on ebay, cost me about $15 before shipping. Since then I think I saw a couple more show up. Funny thing is, at the time it was for me a poor man's replacement to the original Ultima body, but as time passes I like it more and more (that does not mean I stopped looking for the original body though

).

Asso_man! wrote:Great pics, so sad all of this happens across the Atlantic

I see you live in Belgium, that means its the Mediterranean sea that separates us, not the Atlantic

Post by **Mr. ED** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 2:02 am

Asso-man,
Tulsa or shodog had an original rollcage awhile ago: in case you wanna start looking out for one of these bodies.

Post by **Asso_man!** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 2:46 am

Mr. ED wrote:Asso-man,
Tulsa or shodog had an original rollcage awhile ago: in case you wanna start looking out for one of these bodies.

thanks for the tip, it's definitely a gorgeous body

Snake, sorry I didn't see you were living in Israel, you must be the only one here... is vintage racing popular over there?

Cheers

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