B3 rebuild into purple racer

[REMJ666]

Nice car...One day there will be much luv for the B3...Then you can boast about having one

[flipwils11]

OK I'm set for racing tomorrow night, my goal is not to finish last again! New tires, Schumachers front and rear. I had to use a Dremel to cut down the insides of the JConcepts Relux B4 front wheels because these tires are so narrow. Also I put a spacer in each shock plus adjusted the shock mounting holes, trying to get the ride height much lower the way these B4 guys run theirs on the carpet setup. I also put 45 wt oil in the rear shocks.

Sorry for the crappy iphone pics, and cockeyed rear wing (yes I had that one from when the body was painted so I trimmed it and mounted it finally).

[suby56]

Nice,
It looks fast. Can't wait to see it in action.

[Jay]

Looks great man, let us know how the race went

[flipwils11]

ARggh! Had car trouble this morning so I won't be racing tonight since the wife needs her car to take the kids to swimming. All my crap is still in the trunk of my car sitting at the mechanic's, joy.... Maybe next Tuesday.

[REMJ666]

Murphys Law That sucks..Hopefully you have some trust worthy mechanics..

[rctenracer]

This is my B3 that was a basher/racer and I freshened with new parts and had for sale recently. With no takers I decided to keep her (not much B3 love apparently, but I really like them) and do a few upgrades and anodizing color modifications. This will be converted into a racer with no bashing (I have enough parts from another B3 to make that the new basher). A few parts from Fibre Lyte, a brand new carbon composite chassis, I've added the metal rear trans brace which I had done in purple, the aluminum front bulkhead I had before redone in purple, motor plate/trans plate/kickup in purple, and some other stuff like Dynotech B3 front arms and she'll be ready for my electronics choice.

I am thinking a Tekin RS and a 10.5T motor.

In the second pic . Is that a b4 top shaft and slipper set up in your trans? If so any mods to run it .

[flipwils11]

Yes its running a B4 slipper, no mods necessary other than the rpm gear cover to fit the slipper which sticks out more.

[aeiou]

Great build!

I was going to order a set of the Fibre-Lyte shock towers for my son's B3 runner, but I noticed they have 2 versions of the B3 front (well, 4, if you count the cross brace option). There's a "regular" version and a '99 version. Which one did you use and do you know what the differences are between them?

[Bormac]

Hi Adam, great build. I used to race a B3 'worlds' car a while back and this is what got me back onto the track after a very long break from racing. I liked my car but yours really is inspirational. The purple really out shines the factory blue in my opinion and certainly makes your B3 look even more special than the factory team car.

Wish you luck with it at your next meet.
Cheers-Jason

[flipwils11]

I was going to order a set of the Fibre-Lyte shock towers for my son's B3 runner, but I noticed they have 2 versions of the B3 front (well, 4, if you count the cross brace option). There's a "regular" version and a '99 version. Which one did you use and do you know what the differences are between them?

Sorry, I should have just posted a parts list for this build! I will do that here in a few because I was thinking about it and realized it was probably a good idea (and then I can add this one to my gallery!).

Here are the two towers I ordered, if you're going to order up a set I might get some more if you want to go in together on the shipping.

RC10B2 03 Rear mount (can use Kyosho wing mount)
RC10B3 04 Front mount with cross brace ('99 model)

Hi Adam, great build. I used to race a B3 'worlds' car a while back and this is what got me back onto the track after a very long break from racing. I liked my car but yours really is inspirational. The purple really out shines the factory blue in my opinion and certainly makes your B3 look even more special than the factory team car.

Thanks, trying to spread the B3 love a little bit on this site! I really like the way these things are put together, the front top plate and the kick-up plate I think are well engineered and the way the trans brace, trans case, and rear shock tower fit together. I like them a lot.

I didn't realize it at the time how much I was going to like these machined aluminum front bulkheads that were sold on ebay a year or so ago. He had probably a dozen or so for sale, and I'm glad I got two, but I've never seen them offered again. They were different than the Thunder Tiger front bulkhead. The rear trans brace is straight Thunder Tiger and looks just like the Trinity metal rear brace I've seen for the B2/B3 but is much easier to find.


EDIT: Added to my gallery, with parts list info and pictures here:

http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=77&t=24237&p=301215#p301215

[flipwils11]

Ugh! I hate being a rolling chicane again. (went racing last night)

The new Schumacher tires helped immensely and the car is turning in pretty well but my setup still needs a ton of work. Considering the stock class with blinky esc's and 17.5T brushless motors are accelerating at least as hard as I am and I'm running a 10.5T motor, I don't know what gives. My car will still wheelie especially with the traction of these tires on carpet, but seems to run out of steam quickly and reach max velocity. On this Tekin RS Pro ESC I'm not sure but I don't seem to be able to change any of the throttle profile settings, as it just stays I think at setting #1. I have it in the blinky mode because I haven't bought the Tekin hotwire, should I go that route? Also my motor is barely warm after lots of driving and practice laps so I guess I could go up on the pinion? Or is it better to go to a smaller spur (I have a 78T).

I added in lots more drag brake and aggressive braking profile on the esc and that seemed to help, but I drove one of the well set up B4's and was amazed at how easy it was to drive. I feel like I'm fighting the B3, every jump trying to get the throttle just right and then add throttle mid-air to keep it from nosing over which it does every single time. The B4 was able to glide over everything, and the steering, wow.

A guy looked at my B3 and then drove it and thought my steering was limited somehow lock to lock especially compared to his B4 so I plan to mess with the servo travel and radio settings more and see what could be going on.

I moved the front shocks to the innermost top perch so they are almost pointed at 60 degree angles in toward the center of the car at one guy's suggestion. I have the front fairly soft trying to get it to bite and turn in, and the back hard (25 wt oil front, 45 wt oil rear).

My driving in the B main was horrible after having some great practice laps right before so I have no idea what happened, nerves maybe. I managed to hold up the guy in 2nd place and then we all crashed so I felt terrible (I was trying to get out of the way of the leaders as they lapped me for the 2nd or 3rd time). The biggest takeaway for me besides how much the drag brake helped me was how easy the guy's B4 was to drive, wow. I don't want to throw in the towel on driving the B3, and I'm not unrealistic that I'll take 1st place in the A main (these guys are really good, some racing up to 4 times a week!) but it would be nice to finish mid-pack or at least on the lead lap!

As one guy trying to help me said "Well, for starters it would help if you had a buggy made in the last decade..."...

[askbob]

I had a similar experience when taking my OIN to the track. Driving my friends B4 was totally different. Way easier to drive than the gold pan. One thing with adding drag brake is that it can really mess with the cars attitude over jumps. For me, no drag brake was easier to manipulate the car over jumps.

[aeiou]

x2 on the drag brake. I've never been able to drive with anything more than just a tad of drag brake. I can't recall the last time I used it other than on the crawlers.

As one guy trying to help me said "Well, for starters it would help if you had a buggy made in the last decade..."...

There's always a wisenheimer, right? I had my OIN runner at the track a couple of weeks ago and a guy said it was cool, but it looked like it was built from a bunch of old computer parts. I had to laugh, mainly because he was right! Most of the guys at the track have barely seen an RC10, let alone one with bare aluminum and brass tubing.

Unless you want to make it to the A main podium, stick with the B3 and have fun. You have a car that finishes the race, so you're off to a good start. You can get these things pretty dialed in with some work.

[flipwils11]

OK thanks guys, yeah it was really tricky in the air with the drag brake but the resulting help to haul it down faster for corners seemed to be an ok tradeoff. And it was nosing over with no drag brake before I made the change so I was already adjusting attitude in the air anyway.

Yeah the guy who let me drive his B4 and tried the B3 concluded when he handed back the controller "I never would have gotten into RC if I had to drive the old stuff from 10 or more years ago, it wouldn't have been fun."