2011 Vonats Falcon

[losiXXXman]

You've done a greta job on that car Brandon. Bulletproofed the weak points, and modified other shortcomings for better performance. I say, just for fun, run it for one heat in the main 2wd class, you really gotta see what it can do. (I hear you got driving skill, so it'd be pretty cool to see it beat out some "race" buggies.)

I think another cool idea would be to build the falcon rear suspension with the Bearhawk/blitzer front suspension. They share the chassis after all

[Mr. ED]

I think another cool idea would be to build the falcon rear suspension with the Bearhawk/blitzer front suspension. They share the chassis after all

Didn't know that Could be usefull to know if I ever stumble over one on a flea market... though the last time that happened the guy was asking 150 euro for a pretty beat up buggy.

[tecnica2001]

You're an evil Genious...I had to hack the heck outta my car in order to add a steering rack to take away the bump steer....Great Job!!!

As far as CVDs, B44 cvds with bearing spacers will do the job, its what I've been using on my Bearhawk the last two years....

I guess you want more of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh4sWwXz70k

Looking forward to it Brandon...

[kaiser]

that falcon was the business! great job brandon.

[bearrickster]

that falcon was the business! great job brandon.

No kidding that Falcon was all busness and Bad to the Bone. who knew you could get a cheap car like that to run like that. ( sorry Brandon ) the Classis class was the most impresive class their. and not so much the RC10's or Jrx2's. for the most part they were not even in the running, the cheap Tamiya's were Bad!!. who knew a all Plastic Tamiya could run like that. Ericks Madcap was pretty impressive also.

[Brandon G]

Some pics of the car in full race trim.

The only part I broke all weekend was the front body mount post. Snapped off flush with the chassis. I had 1 occurance where a dogbone popped out, but it was due to the rear pivot pin backing out. It was questionable from the get go as it would never tighten completely due to the previous owner stripping the plastic in the arm. The righr rear shock bladder let go and blew 1/2 of the shock contents all over the rear of the car, luckily Erich had a rear arm and a bladder I could borrow.

The braces I made for the front kept everything attached. After the main I noticed one of the 2 bottom screws holding the front end to the chassis was completely gone! They did their job. BUT there are cracks stemming from the holes I drilled at the midpoint of the chassis for the braces. I will probably pick up a fresh chassis from the ebayer staduim blitzer part out guys.

Anyway, it was what it was. My best attempt at making a non race buggy do better on the track. Newer rubber is the single best improvement. Steering the second best. I dialed my dual rate down to about 85%. It didn't look like it had much throw after that, but steered maybe too much still. I ran 20wt Losi oil all around in the shocks, orange Losi short springs in front, white Losi springs in the rear. I opted for the larger 19 tooth pinion with the handout Sport tuned motor. This thing was too fast for the track! Rarely did I get to stretch its legs out on the back straight. It was simply not stable enough to keep on all four carrying too much speed into the sweeper at the end of the straight. I was running HPI superstar 2.2" wheels with J concepts rounders in front, Double D's in the rear.

And the wing made it unscathed! I did have my share of crashes too.

[geeforce59]

Very Nice! hmmmn.....i know what to do with retired Falcon now!....

[Coelacanth]

I really love that paint-job. I can go through a dozen pages of paint-jobs on RCTech.net and get so bored of all the gaudy peacockish paint-jobs, it makes me groan aloud. That site is full of dandies, I tell ya. This is what a paint-job should be; it follows or emphasizes the body's natural lines and has sharp, eye-pleasing colors.

I just hate the Tamiya yellow nas-T plastic...

[Brandon G]

Thanks for the compliments!

I grow tired of the tribal flame and jagged tooth designs that seem to be so very popular now a days.

But then again, remember the large qtys of splatter and drip paint jobs back in the late 80's??? I still like them though........

[Delorean]

that falcon was the business! great job brandon.

No kidding that Falcon was all busness and Bad to the Bone. who knew you could get a cheap car like that to run like that. ( sorry Brandon ) the Classis class was the most impresive class their. and not so much the RC10's or Jrx2's. for the most part they were not even in the running, the cheap Tamiya's were Bad!!. who knew a all Plastic Tamiya could run like that. Ericks Madcap was pretty impressive also.

Any links or info on Ericks madcap at all?

[Delorean]

oh and sorry, great falcon, a lot of smart but simple solutions to the falcons weaknesses

[jayman24]

All the falcons I had were broke in the same spot.
I ended up giving a couple away to some of my friends kids. They love them.
I had no need for 4 or 5 falcons.
I do have some parts left over, I was thinking of putting them on a hornet chassis.

[dldiaz]

Update for this model:

I sent Brandon a new chassis, for which he fabricated a new servo mounting plate, and a pair of reinforcement plates for the sides of the chassis where the custom front braces mount - all made from FRP, and all turned out awesome!
Brandon has mad skills!

I'm using Tamiya wheels (Fox / Wild One)
Thorp 'Dirt Burners' steel axle and dogbone setup
Tamiya TEU-104BK ESC
Tamiya Sport Tuned motor
Hitec HS-77BB servo
Futaba 2.4 GHz Tx/Rx

[Brandon G]

Looks nice man.

I was wanting to do a different rear drive setup on the buggy, but everytime I looked, the Thorp dogbone conversions were ex-pen-sive. Settled for CRP dogbones. Never had any trouble out of em for the race. Definitely a nice addition to the buggy!

[dldiaz]

I love this! I have several Falcons; I have thought, if I ever make it to the VONats - I will run a Falcon in Classics...
Did you consider using the Thorp (Dirt Burners) steel dogbones/axles for this build?

-cheers
dldiaz

I did not get a chance to update this thread before the 2019 Vintage Off-road Nationals, but as a follow up to my comment above from 2011 -
I did finally make it to the race [in 2019], and I did run 'this' Falcon in Classics:

I had a lot of fun, but my results were kinda lame - I chewed up a spur gear during practice, luckily I had one extra transmission with me, so I swapped in a new spur gear. I had very poor rear traction with the 'Double-D' tires I thought I would run, so I bought some 'Electrons' at the track. I tried to scrub the new tires in out in the parking lot, but the car is so lightweight and only running a Tamiya black-can motor, I couldn't really get much "scrub" - the tires were really slick for the first two qualifiers.
Tire felt somewhat better by Q-3, but I started to hear crunching again from the gearbox, so I finished Q-3 being very ginger with the throttle...
- I used a black 'stealth' body for the race:
- Notice the ribbon of flashing still on my brand-new rear tires...

I qualified 4th (out of seven) in the B-main, I felt like I could make the top three with a bit of luck, but my gearbox went south just a couple laps in - I think I was running in third when the gearbox started sounding really bad, so I just babied the car the rest of the race... To be honest, I never even checked the results, I'm not sure how far back I finished??
- The Falcon chasing an RC10:

- And losing...