- Original Masami Hirosaka RC-10 GX prototype -

[harvey]

Well, I'll be the black sheep and say that no harm could come of doing a full tear down and rebuild*, 'cause can you collect vintage dirt? Great score whatever you decide, and a noble addition to your collection.

*while not changing a darn thing, that rear wheel cover may be tricky.

[RC10th]

There's no way it was 3,000 Yen. Thats only about $26 bucks.

[SHY]

Oh wow! Leave it as is! Only touch it with gloves on!

[Corsa]

We're not worthy!!!!!!!
Good score!!!!!!

[bully]

Get a perspex box made an shelf that beast.....

[Welshy40]

I would clean it up and get rid of the rust but add all four wheel dots when done. Its one in a million and bet your well happy. I only got yokomo yz10 proto parts handed to me when I beat him at one of the rounds in the worlds warm ups but never in a million years would have believed you could buy one of his cars.

[works92]

first Yokomo's 2wd ...

[Asso_man!]

Thanks for the compliments guys, I'm really stocked and still can't believe it is now mine. I'm still torn apart about what to do in terms of cleaning / restoring.
I am inclined to indeed drain the shocks and add early spring cups (non slotted) to the front shocks. I might also clean and remove rust from all metal parts (screws, bearings, alloy parts, CVD's, etc.) to better preserve it. I would not change a nut though or add anything.

After closer inspection, I can assess the car had a rear motor guard of some sort as indicated by markings and wearing on the chassis tail. Going by some pictures I could find of a similar car (the one with front lay-down Delta shocks, see below) and given the asymmetric two countersunk holes made in the tail, the motor guard was most probably made with a cut portion of a gold tub chassis. It could well be it had a (Yokomo?) undertray at some point as well.





I also opened up the 6-gear transmission to have a closer look at the internals and mods. Funnily enough, Masami used a LOSI spur ; the diff is pinned to prevent slippage; counter gears run on oilite bushings; and interestingly the internal support plate is an early (Edinger) one with the big C-clip. The motor plate has been cut diagonally to avoid bending it in a crash and a small portion was also removed below the two rear mounting holes. It looks like a dab of lube used to be in there. Also note the sealing stuff on the motor plate.











Also interesting is the way the rear wheel dots have been thought of: a small portion was first cut to allow easy access to the wheel adapter mounting screws and the wheel nut, then a second layer was applied to cover the whole with a small portion protruding on the tire to be able to peel it off easily. the two missing dots are a bit of a mystery to me.



Close-up of the Hot Laps rear plastic adapters, note the use of clamping washers on the 2 wheel screws:



Close-up of the custom rear shock tower and flipped over rear bulkhead:



There are "RACE" writings on each front tire and a pink number "2" can be seen on the front bumper, probably to easily differentiate this chassis from another similar one?

[Asso_man!]

And for the sake of documentation, I've compiled below a series of pictures of RC10-GX (the Japanese name for "Graphite") cars from the same era:

[slotcarrod]

As usual for you, top notch!

Surprised his gear box was so dirty!

[Asso_man!]

As usual for you, top notch!

Surprised his gear box was so dirty!

I was more surprised to find an early centre plate with c-clip and bushings

[Grunger73]

Beautiful. I wouldn't touch a thing on it , not even the dirt/dust. I am in awe. Then again, I'm a little obsessive. If I could , I'd hermatically seal all my vintage cars.

[slotcarrod]

Wow bushings!

[bully]

We shouldn't be surprised though should we

[skunk.werkz]

Remember its only original once, I doubt any of us will get to own something like that in our lives. You're the caretaker now...