Vintage Article: RC10 Transmissions

[toyowner]

WOW! That brings back memories. At one point in time I owned an MIP, Thorp, Track master, and the Chain Drive. I had quite a bone yard of AE stuff. Had a few Houge trailing arm chassis" too. I would like to have my old MIP 4WD conversion back though. That was a fun car

[jmuck69]

In Houston a lot of us ran the MIP three-gear tranny but replaced the ball diff with a unit from Thorp. Just cut down the outdrive axles and slip on the outdrive cups and go. The Thorp was bullet-proof!

[fredswain]

I remember that. The fastest guys all had MIP gearboxes and graphite chassis. Us poor kids still had the gold pans and 6 gear boxes although I eventually did get the graphite chassis. I felt cool when I did. I still got my butt kicked though! Some people had trailing arms. Barry always ran with them. First with the MIP's and then later with his own Bullet Racing brand. For some reason I always wanted a belt or chain drive. I never got either. I got the JRX2 instead.

[jmuck69]

I remember the Bullet stuff and especially the chain drive tranny. There was also a track owner named Randy that started to produce trailing arm kits that were nock-offs of the MIP kit. i ran it for a while, but went back to the standard A-arms and gold tub. I tried the graphite chassis, but just didn't like the feel. The one thing about the MIP tranny with the Thorp ball diff was that we ran 90wt gear oil on the gears. The case would leak oil out and it was so stinky!! made me gag to smell it.

[fredswain]

Before Bullet had their belt drive, they had the RC-X2 conversion kit. It really wasn't that popular because you either had to piece together or cannibalize 2 cars to build it. It used an RC10 front suspension, a Bullet Racing graphite chassis (they were all built by Composite Craft), with the Bullet trailing arms, but used the JRX2 gearbox and rear bulkhead. Barry's logic back then was that the JRX2 gearbox was much smoother than the stock 6 gear in the RC10 at the time and since it had more readily available parts was a great option to purchasing another gearbox from someone else such as MIP. It was sound logic and he was correct. However it never really took off. I always wanted one though and after seeing his I cannibalized the graphite chassis on my RC10 so I could bolt my JRX rear end on it. I used the H arms so mine really was an RC10 front on a JRX rear. The car handled well but I ultimately built both cars back to what they were. The whole point of Barry's conversion was to use his trailing arms on an RC10 but with a better gearbox. I was never convinced that the RC10 front end was superior to the JRX front end and still having both cars I'm still not convinced. The belt drive came shortly after the RC-X2 conversion.

[BigPun76]

Dragging up the past!

Here's my contribution:

http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=28681

I didn't have much of a chance to run it BITD. I think I raced it a whole 3 times before my local track folded and it went up in my closet. I'm getting her back in running shape just so I can have some enjoyment from her!

I remember going to a race down at Oasis(?) down in Humble I think it was and seeing the Bullet cars kicking butt! So I had to have one (well, DAD had to have one since I was a poor teenager at the time!) So he ponied up and bought the chassis and the Lethal Weapon! I love my dad!