RC12L3 Resto: '87 Buick GNX Build: Finished

[bearrickster]

Looks like a Losi now.

thats not very funny

[Coelacanth]

I decided to go with this body, downforce won't be as good as the usual pan cars you see, but still should be pretty good...and once I've painted it up like a Buick Grand National, it'll probably be the most bad-ass-looking car on the track.

[GoMachV]

If that's the TBG, I sent them that one

[Coelacanth]

It is indeed. So, thank you too! It'll take some work to make it *not* look like a 'Carlo, but I have some plans up my sleeve. Oh and by the way, the body fits this RC12L3 chassis & wheels almost perfectly! Tires nice and almost flush with the wheel-wells.

[Niki]

Hi,
1S-lipo and 540-can brushless fits nicely inside 12L3.
Even better when lipo is located on the right side (my old setup in picture). I needed only 20g extra weight next to ESC.
Battery end goes under rear chassis brace. LRP battery cell forms on one side drops in to chassis battery slots.

[Coelacanth]

Hi,
1S-lipo and 540-can brushless fits nicely inside 12L3.
Even better when lipo is located on the right side (my old setup in picture). I needed only 20g extra weight next to ESC.
Battery end goes under rear chassis brace. LRP battery cell forms on one side drops in to chassis battery slots.

Thanks Niki, that is almost exactly the info I was looking for. What battery & motor are those? Any chance you could upload a pic with the body off so I could get a better look at the placement of your components?

[retrorobot]

hey this link maybe useful regarding 1s lipo on a l3. Its in french but you can google translate it

http://www.overrc.com/techniques/reglages/assorc12l3/RC12L3_Update_fr2.html

[Coelacanth]

Interesting...did he just tape in the battery? So I should be considering a 1S LiPo that's as small/flat as possible and a 13.5T motor wouldn't be too much power on 1S, I'm thinking?

[retrorobot]

Interesting...did he just tape in the battery? So I should be considering a 1S LiPo that's as small/flat as possible and a 13.5T motor wouldn't be too much power on 1S, I'm thinking?

Looks like he tape the battery. I have 12r5 and we tape our 1s lipo and run 13.5 brushless. 12r5 was not made to run lipos or brushless but its fine taped down. I would imagine rc12l3 would be find also. But you may have issue of balance. But I remember researching this before about the l3 with 1s on one side and people who ran it said and it was fine and you don't notice it. I would imagine your using the l3 for fun and probably run it couple of times not for serious competition? The brushless motor for the L3 might be a tight fit like on my 12r5 I would imagine, since they're not made for brushless.

[retrorobot]

I just remember there was a older gentlemen at our are local track that closed down. The track is about 4000 square foot, He ran a 2 cell saddle pack lipo on his RC12l with 6 turn brushed motor. It was insanely fast on straights and corning was suprisingly good like it was on rails. he was racing others with modern day 1s cell 12th scale running 13.5 brushless would have smoked them if he didn't keep on crashing. But when he didn't crash its was pretty awesome and everybody at track was like what car is that, haha but they all too young to even know what is a rc12l with schkee body.

[Coelacanth]

I wouldn't be planning to win any races with the car, and wouldn't want to destroy it due to my lack of racing skillz. I'd love to drive it, though. A 1S LiPo with motor in the 13.5T range would be driveable, then?

[retrorobot]

I wouldn't be planning to win any races with the car, and wouldn't want to destroy it due to my lack of racing skillz. I'd love to drive it, though. A 1S LiPo with motor in the 13.5T range would be driveable, then?

13.5T and 17.5T are pretty standard for 1/12 spec racing here in north america. 17.5T more common but bit slow I fine. We have small tracks here. In Europe they can run lower turns because they have larger indoor tracks. Really depend on your local track. 17.5T brushless is similar to a 27 turn brushed stock motor back in the day that they would run on a Rc12l3 at local tracks. but if you do go with brushless you may need to change your gear ratio. On the older cars you have like tiny pinions, with large spur gear in the 100 tooths with brushed motors. Nowadays you have with brushless you have tiny spurs gears in the 80 tooths with huge like 30 tooth pinions. So just be aware you vintage spurs maybe no good running brushless. but depends on your track, I'm just talking from my own experince.

[retrorobot]

so 13.5 i think is comfortable speed but 17.5 probably more safe if you worrying about damaging it. The front end and the t-bar very fragile. I advise you get larger/long foam bumper that extends to the edge of the outer wheels. I find that really help protect the front end from get clipped on impact.
I made one myself from those foam pad that you use for gardening at Dollarama for like $1.25? You probalby know dollarama right?
You can make like 10 bumpers from one of those pads. It way stiffer foam then my stock associated foam bumper for my 12r5. Only issueis they don't have black, Comes in green, purple,blue. Not pretty but works.great. Crc makes a large bumper for 1/12 is like $8 bucks but you have to specially order it and you still have to trim it to fit.

[Niki]

This is my current setup:
Standard RC12L3 with CRC4242 lowered rear pod plates (to drop rear axle lower, direct fit no mods needed)
Battery: Standard 1S-size "LRP 1S 5800 65C" No. 79887 (taped down on the right side of T-bar)
Motor: GM Pro Stock 10.5T (with long flexible cables)
ESC: Turnigy TrackStar 120A 1S (on the left side of T-bar)
Spur gear: 76t (64pitch) Kimbrough #199
Pinion gear: 38t-40t depending on rear tire diameter. I have started with 44mm. Kept rollout around 69.

Sorry, I don't have a picture of it... yet.

-Niki-

[RC10th]

Do you run/race the car Niki?

As long as the weight balance is correct it shouldn't matter where the battery is. I think that is a pretty clever solution, especially for T-bar cars where you can't run the batteries across the chassis. Plus it allows more room to mount electronics.

Coel, are you going to run it on the track or just bomb around the parking lot?