Atomic Carbon CR2 (mid motor XXX)

[DerbyDan]

I'm afraid my project over the Christmas break wasn't vintage related.... but involved me re-building a 2wd off road racer that i'm hopefully going to campaign during the 2011 season.

The car is a Losi XXXCR with the Atomic Carbon mid motor conversion. I brought it second hand about 4-5 months ago off a fellow racer who himself had brought it just for the comprehensive spares package that came with it for his own 'CR2' (the name given to these converted cars). After a quick strip down I soon realised that it needed some parts replacing/overhauling & wasn't going to be a quick case of chucking in some radio gear & heading to the track.

The whole car has now been stripped & cleaned & rebuilt with the following new parts;

-Front uprights & steering arms
-Front wishbones (now graphite)
-4 gear transmission housing from PSI racing (who also offer a mid motor conversion for the XXX) Mine is one of the first that was machined - hence the white delrin, the production items are now supplied in black
-All new RPM ball cups for the main camber & steering links + the small Losi ones at the servo

The rear end has also been converted to the earlier XXX arrangement which had a narrower VLA (inner hinge pins are closer together) for this I used;

-XXX Graphite wishbones (mine are actually XXCR ones!)
-New hubs
-Ali XXX/XXXT Pivot plate

I topped all this off with a new 'Phobia' shell which I painted in my usual scheme to match my Corally touring car.

Anyway heres the pics of the finished product;







The gearbox needed some slight modification to fit!


Rear end shot showing earlier XXX parts & XX wishbones


And a group shot with the touring car that has also been treated to a new shell that I've painted ready for the new season


Typically i've finished building this & Losi release the 22!

[RCveteran]

That is very pretty! How fun will it be when you beat 22's, look at it that way.

[bearrickster]

those are very nice

[losiXXXman]

with envy... I LOVE the CR2. I go to oople, and just scroll through race photo page after race photo page looking for them. They are by far one of the most eye-pleasing buggies out there currently. It breaks my heart that the kit is SO expensive. I even thought of trying to replicate it myself with just a double deck graphite or something. Ah, maybe one day....

I'm sure you will be able to hang with the new kid on the block (22) any day of the week. IDK your experience, but everyone who has ever spent a good amount of time at the track knows that it all comes down to two things. 1.Driver. 2.Setup. Hey, Ruffy and the Harris' are giving the new cars he11 in florida with RC10s that are 25+ years old. YES!

[DerbyDan]

with envy... I LOVE the CR2. I go to oople, and just scroll through race photo page after race photo page looking for them. They are by far one of the most eye-pleasing buggies out there currently. It breaks my heart that the kit is SO expensive. I even thought of trying to replicate it myself with just a double deck graphite or something. Ah, maybe one day....

I'm sure you will be able to hang with the new kid on the block (22) any day of the week. IDK your experience, but everyone who has ever spent a good amount of time at the track knows that it all comes down to two things. 1.Driver. 2.Setup. Hey, Ruffy and the Harris' are giving the new cars he11 in florida with RC10s that are 25+ years old. YES!

Thanks!

Theres quite a few complete CR2s out there for sale second hand now the 22's release is imminent... there was a nice one on ebay.UK recently that went for about £90GBP if I remember correctly - so they can be picked up quite cheaply now - mine wasn't expensive, but now I've added all the new parts I've probably spent the equivilent of a new 22 PSI racing in the US (who made my gearbox housing) Also do a mid motor convertion for the XXX - its a double deck chassis from FRP (rather than carbon) but it is alot cheaper than the AC kit & is said to be better on loose surfaces.

The CR2s over here have been successfully mixing it (& said to be easier to drive) with the other mid motored cars like the X6 & Cougar SVs etc as well as the 'perenial' rear motored B4s - so unless the 22 is a major step forward then I don't see why my car shouldn't give them a run for their money at least!

Last year I made a return to off road racing with a Worlds RC10 that I restored - I only managed to do four meetings with it, but I proved that I could mix it with the modern stuff - especailly on the grass (I finished 3rd at one local meeting beating many modern buggies). However a lot of our tracks are now laid on astro turf, which gives a consistant & very grippy surface to race upon.... they also tend to have lots of agressive undulations etc built in to the circuit..... I'm sure the CR2 will be easier & faster to drive on this type of track where as I struggled with the RC10

[DerbyDan]

Quick update;

I raced this car on Saturday & Tuesday night, both times on pretty much the same layout at the new 'Moto Arena' venue at Silverstone. Here's a picture of the circuit;



Here's my car on the grid on Tuesday night (11-01-11)



I did ok considering my lack of recent experience at Off Road and the fact it was a new (to me) car, at both meetings I finished about mid-table....there were 46 drivers on Sat & about 35ish on Tues night. Its those huge jumps that i'm gradually getting used to.

Oh & there were some pretty special drivers there on Tuesday



If fact most of the 'A' final was made up of whos who in the European world of off road RC!

[RCveteran]

That is one heck of a facility. I'd have a hard time seeing the car in the far corners and what is the short course truck in with the 2wd buggies? Pace truck

[DerbyDan]

That is one heck of a facility. I'd have a hard time seeing the car in the far corners and what is the short course truck in with the 2wd buggies? Pace truck

Yes, I've been used to running in small sports halls - so the size of this takes some getting used to... however I guess alot of the outdoor tracks (on & off road) that i've raced on in the past are probably of a similar size - the fact that this is indoors makes it 'feel' bigger.

Yeah that Short Course truck was somewhat out-paced by the buggies... they haven't taken-off over here like they have in the States (we don't have a domestic series of 1-1 SC to capture the imagination), a few guys have them, but when theres not enough to make their own heat they are allowed to join in with the 2wd Buggies.

[jamin]

The Moto Arena looks sweet, I'd love to 'pop' over there one Tuesday night to race, 2 hour drive each way though

[mamadoesntletme]

I always liked the Cr2!

[bearrickster]

I always liked the Cr2!

I do to but they are so expensive, I wonder what their thinking about the new TLR 22 comming out at 265? thats like 1/2 of theirs. kinda make you think. but yours is a beautiful car. I love the colors and the race livery theam you have on them. I am working on one of those myself. and what I wouldnt give for a track like that close to me. the last time I got to drive on a track like that I had to drive 800 miles each way to the Vonats, but what a Blast we had. I would do it again any time.

[DerbyDan]

I always liked the Cr2!

I do to but they are so expensive, I wonder what their thinking about the new TLR 22 comming out at 265? thats like 1/2 of theirs. kinda make you think. but yours is a beautiful car. I love the colors and the race livery theam you have on them. I am working on one of those myself. and what I wouldnt give for a track like that close to me. the last time I got to drive on a track like that I had to drive 800 miles each way to the Vonats, but what a Blast we had. I would do it again any time.

Thanks Rick - that scheme has pretty much been the 'team' design for ten or so years now - though up until recently the white area used to be yellow.. I think the white freshens it up a little?

The Moto Arena is a great venue & has only recently opened, but it has been heavily criticised.... mainly because it was set-up by people who knew little about model car racing and how meetings are run... things have improved alot since the current manager, Matt (who has been listening to these points of critism) has made important changes, including getting in local clubs who now run regular meetings at the venue. It was primarily designed as an on-road facility (in keeping with the fact its based within the boundry of the full size circuit), but its come at a time when on-road racing is in decline & Off road is becoming popular again. Under all those jumps & carpeted areas is a lovely tarmac track - it takes the Silverstone Buggy Club members (who have their own astro turf track in Silverstone village) many hours to convert the track to the off road layout. The meeting on Sat (8th) was the biggest in terms of number of racers so far that the Arena has held... which is ironic given that the facility was never really intending to hold Off Road Racing on this track..... makes you kind of wish that they'd laid down a lovely lymed clay US style off road track instead - such a track built indoors is something us UK drivers have been hankering after ever since buggy racing began.

[fredswain]

I got lucky and just picked up a lightly used CR2 for very cheap. Awesome looking car. Mine already has all the VLA parts on it. It's in great shape. I don't need to fix or replace anything. It's just waiting on electronics. I am about to put a new body on it since I want my own paint scheme but that's it. I can't wait to run it.

[UltraHIVE]

Thats awesome, mid motor conversions rule!

[fredswain]

That's the car that I'm going to need the window decals for but I've got the XXX body.