Needing the collective for a great build.

[askbob]

I first want to say many thanks for a great forum that is bringing out the 'old' kid in me as well as some fond memories. I raced for several years as a pre-teen up until I could drive for real. We had our own indoor small dirt oval in southern IN, as well as the occasional outdoor pavement race. It also progressed onto a really nice indoor carpet track at Arvin's Hobbies in New Albany, IN. Most guys then were converting their RC-10's into a carpet track car. I'll never forget being a kid who had made up his own shock towers, among other things to lower the car for carpet racing. All on lawn mowing money, and most importantly, moms money!! After winning the A-main several times by more than a whole lap, they didn't like me much. Must have been something about a young kid beating the snot out of old dudes. Well now I'm the old dude I suppose, but I'm getting the itch to see what one of the old 'goldies' will do these days. Is it really possible to still compete with this platform against the newer models of cars? I'd really like to get everyones input and take you along for the build and racing too. Having been out of the hobby since the early 90's, I'd like to get up to speed on whats what in the best performance using the old 10 as the main platform.

After reading through almost all of this forum, my first questions are:

1. Will the stealth transmission hold up to the brushless/lipo configuration with or without modification?

2. What front end suspension pieces will bring out the best in the gold platform? How wide should I go, and should I use the nylon arms, or a pretty set of the aluminum ones? I've also seen longer shocks used in a more slanted in at the top position.

3. What would be the cats a$$ on a rear suspension? Trailing arm design? Longer A-arms?

4. Remembering that the Associated shocks were only so-so, what would be best here?


Money is not a problem doing this project as long as I can get modern performance out of updating and 80's design. Looking forward to everyones thoughts and ideas.

[askbob]

Here are a few pics of the old days...

[Ruffy]

1. Will the stealth transmission hold up to the brushless/lipo configuration with or without modification?

Yes it will, I use mine weekly with an 8.5 Brushless LRP motor and a 5300mAh 65C Lipo Battery with no issues whatsoever. Standard slipper works perfectly too.


2. What front end suspension pieces will bring out the best in the gold platform? How wide should I go, and should I use the nylon arms, or a pretty set of the aluminum ones? I've also seen longer shocks used in a more slanted in at the top position.

The standard nylon black Team car or worlds car wide arms work best for racing on the RC10. Aluminum can and will bend and stay bent, even if it is unnoticeable to the naked eye. Nylon will give but bounce back. Some types of arms, made from a type of hard delrin or close material have been known to fracture as the material is brittle and instead of bending will simply crack.


3. What would be the cats a$$ on a rear suspension? Trailing arm design? Longer A-arms?

Standard A Arms, especially with todays smooth blue grooved tracks.


4. Remembering that the Associated shocks were only so-so, what would be best here?

So-So?! How can that be when you look back at some of the fastest and best racers around the world, and look at their shocks. The AE shocks were/are first rate and the best in my eyes and vast experience. Maybe you just needed someone close-by to help you set them up or put them together correctly for you. Or maybe it was just learning how to bleed them correctly.

[Charlie don't surf]

4. Remembering that the Associated shocks were only so-so, what would be best here?

So-So?! How can that be when you look back at some of the fastest and best racers around the world, and look at their shocks. The AE shocks were/are first rate and the best in my eyes and vast experience. Maybe you just needed someone close-by to help you set them up or put them together correctly for you. Or maybe it was just learning how to bleed them correctly.

Keep in mind the bottom loading shocks were a bit leaky ( and so were Losi's that did build smoother ) I'm just saying..........

[askbob]

1. Will the stealth transmission hold up to the brushless/lipo configuration with or without modification?

Yes it will, I use mine weekly with an 8.5 Brushless LRP motor and a 5300mAh 65C Lipo Battery with no issues whatsoever. Standard slipper works perfectly too.


2. What front end suspension pieces will bring out the best in the gold platform? How wide should I go, and should I use the nylon arms, or a pretty set of the aluminum ones? I've also seen longer shocks used in a more slanted in at the top position.

The standard nylon black Team car or worlds car wide arms work best for racing on the RC10. Aluminum can and will bend and stay bent, even if it is unnoticeable to the naked eye. Nylon will give but bounce back. Some types of arms, made from a type of hard delrin or close material have been known to fracture as the material is brittle and instead of bending will simply crack.


3. What would be the cats a$$ on a rear suspension? Trailing arm design? Longer A-arms?

Standard A Arms, especially with todays smooth blue grooved tracks.


4. Remembering that the Associated shocks were only so-so, what would be best here?

So-So?! How can that be when you look back at some of the fastest and best racers around the world, and look at their shocks. The AE shocks were/are first rate and the best in my eyes and vast experience. Maybe you just needed someone close-by to help you set them up or put them together correctly for you. Or maybe it was just learning how to bleed them correctly.

Thanks for the info Ruffy. By so-so, I mean they work good, but were a bit leaky. I had them apart and back together with my eyes closed. Correctly for sure. It seems like there was a Kyosho shock back then that was best? Time fades my memory somewhat.

So the front world/team A-arms works best. Which shock tower set up is best? I've seen variations of the stock setup, and the taller ones allowing longer shocks up front.

[greene-r74]

Keep in mind the bottom loading shocks were a bit leaky ( and so were Losi's that did build smoother ) I'm just saying..........

Yeah find a way to convert to top load shocks. FT B4 shocks would rock. Might have to get custom towers made, but there are guys on here that can make you some.

[askbob]

What exactly do you mean by top load shocks? For the sake of matching, what about running B4 front and rear shocks and who could fab the towers?


Ruffy, how does your 10 with the lipo and brushless do against the newer style cars at the track?

[Charlie don't surf]

The later 91 on shocks had the stack of spacers and orings that loaded from inside the shock body, instead of under the shock body-

and a properly set up rc10 will A-main with the current cars, as will the rc10t in the truck classes-

[askbob]

Thanks. I'm looking for a nice almost done roller chassis set up to race, or going from scratch here.

[Ruffy]

My stock RC10 CE with the old gold shocks is as fast as the fastest in the state, and faster than 95% of the modern cars I race against. This is also racing against sponsored guys, the car just needs to be tuned correctly and then driven well. It lacks nothing compared to the modern cars.

The only area I see where the modern cars perform better is if you have a track with huge air jumps like for 1/8scale buggies, the newer cars fly better (fly= orientation more parallel with the ground) than the older RC10's.

As far as the bottom load shocks, I never had a set of bottom loaders that were assembled correctly that leaked at all. The only difference between the top load (seals inserted thru the top of the shock vs the bottom with a retaining ring) seals and bottom load seals is the retention clip (other than they changed the washers and o-ring spacer material from nylon to teflon for less stiction). So the seals stackup and the tolerances for them are identical, with the only thing different being the retention device, then they are basically the same when it comes to this "leakage" that some say they had.
I'm not saying that your particular shocks leaked or not, as this was mainly due to the builder. I know as far back as 1986 my shocks nor did my group of racing buddies that I showed how to correctly assemble the shocks ever leak. The secret was merely not to pinch a seal on the way in.
The main reason for the change was not because they "leaked" but more due to most people never acquiring a set of retention ring pliers to service the shocks as needed... the new top load plastic clip made it easier for racers to service their shocks; other than that they are the same.

Hope this helps.

[PBR Allstar]

If you're trying to build period the AE shocks are the way to go. Like Ruf said, most are assembled poorly. If you want to modernize then I say run a set of velvets.

[Johnboy72]

Hmmm. So it can handle with the modern cars. Wonder if we can make a goldie complete against terminators and modern dirt oval cars?

[m_vice]

Hmmm. So it can handle with the modern cars. Wonder if we can make a goldie complete against terminators and modern dirt oval cars?

I say you can...

I remember working on my gold shocks a lot and after several assemblies they never leaked, and I do remember pinching the O rings a lot = leak.

[call-911]

Back in the day, the Kyosho gold shocks were more desirable than the AE shocks. If you had a surplus of money, the platinum shocks were most desirable. It's not from an engineering standpoint from my perspective, but more of what the top dogs were doing in the 80's (monkey see, monkey do). I was only 12 at the time.

[PBR Allstar]

Hmmm. So it can handle with the modern cars. Wonder if we can make a goldie complete against terminators and modern dirt oval cars?

a couple years ago I ran a season on loose dirt running 13.5 edm based off a team car with a lot of mods. I ran in the top three a couple times, but since then all the major manufactures (C/W, GFRP, Putnam & JRC) have introduced loose dirt/buggy tire specific parts and cars. I honestly do not think you can make a pan based RC10 competitive at this point against good drivers with well sorted cars.