My good buddy James offered me an Ultima Pro XL in appreciation for completely rebuilding a couple of his Schuey CATs for him. Unfortunately it wasn't selling when he put it up on ebay a few times and Im kinda glad it ended up with me after all.
Not happy with the original gearbox i wanted to swap it out for a Triumph unit which I got in a trade with Roger from this forum (thankyou again mate). Back in the day I did this same conversion when I turned an Ultima into a truck and I remembered how good the trans sounded in comparison.
Ive also had a set of wheel adapters that alloy Yokomo rims to be mounted to the Ultima so they had to go on. The original body of the Pro didnt realy do much for me so out it went and on went an AE Viper shell. The paint scheme didnt come off as neatly as I'd have liked but Im happy with it for a vintage runner. At some point I would like to mount a rear wing and find a set of rear universal swingshafts too.
I'd like to say a special thanks to James for a great buggy and Im looking forward to running it at a race track soon-
Thanks Roger. When I was looking over the car at James's house I was hard pressed taking this one on as the original body didnt realy appeal to me that much. Then James went into his shed and came back with a new Viper shell and he sat it on the bare chassis and told me to try it out. Im realy glad he did.
I fitted a 12 turn motor and wired the esc today then took it out for a burn in my street. The car is a weapon! The trans sounds soo smooth after i replaced the spur and pinion.Thanks again for the trans- Im stoked!
The triumph spur gears are really getting hard to find.
With the right center bushing, you can use a standard spur on the triumph. Traxxas has those "pegs" that they use on their slipper clutches that are inserted into the 1/8 inch holes of a standard spur. I use to run a losi gear (blue profiled 92 tooth) on my triumph transmission BITD.
That car looks really good...I may need to build one of those. Does anyone know where to get a triumph gearbox
nice car !! i like the newer body you mounted and kept the back end of the body on.i did the same type of thing with my pro xl and mounted the viper body but I hacked the back end off.plus im running my battery across the chassis so the body sits too low.i like how your battery is mounted better.i too have the triumph gear box on mine.
I like the car, and the body too! This kinda reminds me of a discussion I had with Kris Moore about his Triumph @ the ROAR nationals one year (1991 I think). He had mounted a Stealth tranny in the car and was running a Turbo Mirage body. I think he ended up tenth that year- car was really quite good. Anyways, is the Triumph tranny a direct fit for the ultima or does it require some mods? -Jeff
Jay Dub wrote:Anyways, is the Triumph tranny a direct fit for the ultima or does it require some mods? -Jeff
hello Jeff,
The diff pulley of the transmission sticks out of the case. You'll need to grind off a bit of the chassis to get it to fit correctly. You don't have to go throught the chassis...I guess it depends on how thick your chassis is.
Another solution would be to make a thin spacer that fits between the trans and the chassis. The spacer will have a hole so that the diff pulley will spin freely. You just need to be careful because if you use too thick of a spacer, the trans will not line up with the bulkhead.
I made a spacer when I fitted an MIP trans to my jrxt. The spacer for the ultima will look similar.
I did a similar thing with my Turbo Optima. I used a piece of threaded rod so I could connect the shocks and the wing mount to the same hole in the shocktower. Works well.
RC10 shells were a very popular choice for heaps of different cars back in the day - such a versatile shape.
The dirt shields are very effective - good to see more and more people running them on the older cars.
Cheers
Darryn
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hehe, looks like a triumph without the weak nose to me. Well done.
Why don't you use the already installed spoiler tubes?
Make sure to use some longer hinge-pins on the arm mounts and put a home-made brace over them at the front: that's about the only weak spot left now I guess.
I was thinking about using him using the wing tubes too. I never liked the way those worked. For some reason, I would lose my wing more often with my Ultima than with the RC10's similar wing setup. I'm guessing it's because there's a lot more exposed wing wire.
Some extra pics of the car with electrics fitted. Im impressed with the car, plenty of 'push' rather than a heap of oversteer-
The trans is ultra smooth and a great choice in the end. With a 12 turn 'Hara' motor fitted this call hauls @$$.
The lexan side peices were put into place to try and stop some of the dirt flying in to the radio gear.
I just picked up a Ultima Pro at the local junk store, in a box with a radio shack monster truck for $20.00. All the Pro is going to need is the upper fiberglass tray and a body. Dave (DW911) has this upper tray for sale and I was wondering if any...
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the pro's flat brown anodised alu chassis has the same wheelbase as a stadard or turbo ultima. But apparently that chassis was not the noe included with the pro for thUS market? Still I think the wheelbase is only different for the kelron and...
I just bought this Ultima Pro last week. It's a bit rough around the edges as you'd expect from a car this age but I think it'll clean up well. The main reason for buying it was the fact that I've never had one before, I was always into the 4WD...
This is my first post on this forum, and I apologize if my english is not 100%
I recently had a look around my old RC cars and found some parts from my first real race car.
This got me the idea to try to build a replica.
Prior to the...
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There are some Ultima PRO XL for sale but they are either very expensive or in bad shape.
Found a old Ultima 2 on Ebay that I am going to use as a donor car for the parts that is missing.
I do not know in which direction this build will take, but I...
Well it's going to be an Ultima anyway. I picked up an outrage for CHEAP the other day. I also have gotten a hold of a Ultima Pro chassis. (I know that the XL chassis is generally more desirable, but I like a twitchy car!!) Got a few Questions...
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I'd love to see a pic of the bottom of that motor guard, and how it mounts to the chassis there. I wonder if it would work for an Optima?
Erik - I still don't have a gear cover. :( ...I think the stock one will still fit. I'll be sure to let you...
........with Lohas Hurricanes :D
Utima Pro s2.jpg
Utima Pro s1.jpg
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Fantastic looking car, although I'd find it really difficult to choose between those sets of wheels. Both sets look great. The second set look like Sees if I'm not mistaken?
Maybe change the wheels around each week so both sets get to go on...
This was bought off ebay last year as birthday present to myself to give me a large dose of nostalgia. I raced one as a kid back in 91-94 when everybody else had Schumacher cougars and rc10s.
I had to...
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Hey mate
What bits did you use to do the shorty conversion mate? It looks great. I just picked up a pro with the same alloy chassis but was puzzled as to what holder I could mount but it looked difficult with all those slots for the saddle pack...
This is number 1 of 2 Kyosho Ultima Pro builds that i will be carrying out.
Being a complete novice at everything radio controlled i figured I'd throw myself in
at the deep end and get stuck in with some...
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Europe got the aluminum pro chassis.
(My second car... ages ago)
I've been searching the forums and someone mentioned that the XL wheelbase is ~1/2 (13mm) longer than the base model. But the body I have from Penguin has two cut lines and they're probably only about 6mm apart. Does anyone know for certain how much...
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They line up with the set screws in the outdrives :wink:
After having my Pro XL since the mid-90's, I was today days old when I learned of this black magic... :lol: :lol: