- FIBRE-LYTE Carbon Works Prototype RC10 -

[unclemikey1978]

Oh......My......God! I'm speechless!

[vsefiream]

Wow that looks fantastic.

[ChisaiKuso]

Nice!

[Asso_man!]

The chassis has now been stripped to the very last nut and all the parts were cleaned, degreased, lubed and even had to trim some left over flashing from the palstic parts. The car was generally in bad need of love, but in the end it cleaned up quite good. The plastic parts were first degreased and scrubbed, then they went for a 48h peroxide bath in order to get them back to somewhat whiter appearance. I have decided to change just a few details to this build: all screws will be replaced by stainless steel ones and I may also ditch the stock turnbuckles for some Tecnacraft ones. Ballcups will also have to be replaced as most of them are shot or in too bad shape. Tires were dry and will have to be replaced too. Otherwise all the original parts will be kept.

I really had to pinch myself not to dye the nylon parts with a hot pink dye. I think it would look great, but in the end I don't want to change it too much.

Here are the plastic parts after a thorough cleaning:



Steel parts also received a renewal treatment:



The chassis on its own:



I thought the upper deck could be removed to access the servo and install the front parts but it it in fact bolted and glued which gave me a hard time to dismantle the front end as the only way to remove the front bulkhead parts is to isolate the front shock tower, remove all the parts and then only slide and put the tower at an angle so that it can be removed. Not really race-friendly...



Funny little detail:



And I also realised they glued a piece of carbon underneath the Stealth and the rear bulkhead, most probably because the 2 side chassis holes that hold the the bulkhead were too high like it was already the case on some production chassis. Nevertheless, said holes are here flush with the bulkhead where some production chassies from Fibre-Lyte were delivered with 2 tabs in order to compensate for the remote holes.

[3trxvintage]

Both of the cars are really cool . I look forward to seeing how the Traxxas rad cleans up. I need to order some parts for my SRT and TCP from Fibre-Lyte soon. It appears like their products are top notch. Asso_man before I order how would you rate the quality of their products on a scale of 1-10? thanks.

[DennisM]

Those parts looks like new now - good job.

[railey72]

Simply Awesome. One of the coolest RC10's posted in a long time!!
Nice work

[Asso_man!]

Thanks for the nice comments gents, much appreciated! I love this thing, and I really have a weak point when it comes to carbon tubs, I just love them, especially for all the engineering work that is behind them.

Anyway, it is not finished but I made some good progress last week but forgot to take pictures while reassembling as I was so anxious so see it on wheels, lol.

So, most of the original car is still there, I just replaced the following stuff:

- new stainless steel screws all around
- white RPM shock ballstuds
- RCPS turnbuckles
- black AE ballcups
- MIP zero maintainance steering assembly
- Proline rear tires / Yokomo fronts (original tires were cracked, but I might revert to Schumacher tires all around as this is a typical British car)
- Fibre-Lyte battery holder (original one was missing)
- rear shock caps were replaced with some better ones
- DEMON motor was included in the RC10 box, so I just put it back in place. I like the fact that this is also a typical British item.

Here are the reassembled shocks along with some new MIP parts:



I also wanted to show you guys the amount of work that went into this wing, it's just amazing...



Here it is back in all its glory:













The car with its Yokomo counterpart in the background:

[DerbyDan]

What a beautifull buggy!! Great to have its COMCOM/Fibrelyte Yokomo counterpart too.

What will you do for a body, will the original shell clean up nice enough?

P.S; although that Demon was a very popular motor in the UK, its perhaps slightly old for the car.... not by much (Demon ~ late 80s V.early 90s) A Team Tanaplan motor would be awesome IMO!

[Asso_man!]

Thanks Dan! I also have its Kyosho Lazer and Schumacher Cougar 2000counterparts in fact, but these still need to be restored. Let's not forget the crazy MIP Legend versiontoo!

Regarding teh bodyshell, I plan to clean and repair the original one which is not my cup of tea in terms of paint, but as it was always dressed like that, I just can't use something else. I really wanted to modify it the least possible. I might cut the side windows and add some netting instead as the windows are not clean and/or damaged.

For the motor, I know it's a bit outdated for the chassis, but it came with it so I decided it should go back there. I've never seen a Team tanaplan motor, got any pics? Was it a British brand as well?

[askbob]

That's one trick tub, very cool!

[Headling]

Looks superb! Well done on re-build

Best RC10 on here IMO

[Charlie don't surf]

Awesome Dave! Where is the all carbon tub group shot???

[DerbyDan]

I'm guessing Martin Hansell wasn't the most avid of racers so probably didn't always run the latest kit in his own cars.... but I like your plans for keeping original to the spec as you recieved it, including the bodyshell.

Oh & these are the Team Tanaplan motors, I just think the black & hologram sticker would go well with the black & white of your car

[Asso_man!]

Awesome Dave! Where is the all carbon tub group shot???

Well good question, I actually thought of it as I have gathered quite a lot of them over the years, but some of them are now boxed, while others are in different resto stages when not untouched since I acquired them. In the meantime, I could probably shoot a nice group pic with the ones at hand.

I'm guessing Martin Hansell wasn't the most avid of racers so probably didn't always run the latest kit in his own cars.... but I like your plans for keeping original to the spec as you recieved it, including the bodyshell.

Oh & these are the Team Tanaplan motors, I just think the black & hologram sticker would go well with the black & white of your car

The RC10 was run for sure, but at most a dozen of packs. I guess that at some point they just couldn't resist to make a few laps with this gem. That being said, it must be a pain to drive as it is so rigid. On top the car is not easy to work on with that permanently bolt on upper front deck. I have huge problems to install a servo in there as the screws protrude inside the tube and do not allow to fit a normal size servo. I would like to stuff it with electronics (namely a KO CX-II ESC and a Futaba RX) but what kind of period-correct small profile servo should I look for? Any ideas? Otherwise, I'll just fab up some custom servo posts... Stay tuned...

Oh and these Tanaplan motors do look hot indeed! Are they yours? Were they made in UK?