My MR4BC-S + yoke ramblings

[notme]

Wow what a forum! Im in heaven...! I have finally found an active place for yokomo buggies. I recently acquired a 2003 circa mr4bc-s and actually drove it for the first time today. It was a bit of a time warp for me as I have not driven a "yoke" since around 1993. An avid racer from the mid 80's until around 94, I just got back into racing/rc cars in 06'. My previous yokes were the yz870c and the works 91. My cars were direct imports from japan as I worked for the canadian importer of yokomo, Competition R/C. I could go on and on about the old days however I will just post a few pics of my new-to-me "Special".









My setup for testing purposes, 3800 nimh's, reedy 10x2 krypton, novak TC2 (hey it still works!) towerpro 995 and spectrum 3001. I do have the dish wheels for it but they are in poor shape so I used some standard "finned" wheels I had on hand. I did not own one of these in its day (6yrs ago) so I am in the midst of researching info about the car. Really not a lot about it available, although I have not gone through all the pages here on this site yet. The very first lap I ran on this car resulted in a broken rear hub, so I had to resort to the non special hubs (smaller bearings) I had on a parts roller. The car held up fine on the remaining runs of the day without issue.
With time I will get this car up to its potential, I dont think it will be hard to do!
Stay tuned, I will share a few stories and photos from the past, including meeting Masami at the reedy race in 1991, something I'll never forget

[tizeye]

Nice Yok and welcome to the forum I'm sure you will love it here...
Pete

[karnivool]

welcome, this is the best forum on earth which im sure youll work out soon enough...nice special
do you have correct rims for it? i have a spare set from memory

[notme]

Thanks guys. I am working on buying another one with a bunch of spares including new rims. I have been contemplating taking some rc10 style rims and resizing the mounting hole to fit the bc axles. I want to race the car so Im going to need a few sets of wheels, so I will save the original type rims if I come across some. I find this mounting system to be a little over engineered to say the least! The standard car with the oversize alloy adapter, with 3 countersunk screws and a nut to fasten it on?? Utter weirdness. Also having to different hubs for the standard and the "S", with different bearing sizes.
My local hobby shop has a few nip bits for the standard car, including a few belts. Ive learned that the rear belt can be the weakest part of the car, and to keep a close eye on the drive pulley, the metal will wear into a sharp edge which will shred the belts. So I will check that often as the rear diff will also need attention just like the old yz870's.
Im going to try and replicate bodies this winter, the one i have is good, but will want another for the future. Ive heard other bodies will fit, but lets keep the car looking original!
I have confidence in racing the car, the initial runs were pretty good. Locally the winningest 4wd is a losi xx4 and on rough tracks he is quite a bit faster, so to me age doesnt matter, its how the driver matches the car.
Does anyone have any knowledge about the cars success (or lack of) on the world stage? I understand Billy Easton used to run it....? Any history about the racing I am interested in. The car didnt really go over well in north america but partially due to its marketing by yokomousa..? I may be wrong.

thanks!
Bernie

[bscotti]

nice ride. Welcome aboard!

[notme]

One of the pics from the reedy race, should be 1990. The "Master"....

[notme]

Not sure where to put these.......more from the reedy race.



My rides for the "open" class.

[phoenix]

Welcome and thank you very much for these pics !

[notme]

Glad I could share them. FWIW, theres a yz10 on rctech going for 50 bones right now, nice deal.

[littleVETTE]

sweet shots. you even have a shot of jay halsey. were those your rigs in the red and white paint?

boy masaki sure cut down masami's rc10 chassis. that thing is cut low. lt looks like it's the same rc10 in the rcca issue of august 1991.

[notme]

sweet shots. you even have a shot of jay halsey. were those your rigs in the red and white paint?

Yes.

[littleVETTE]

sweet shots. you even have a shot of jay halsey. were those your rigs in the red and white paint?

Yes.

did you compete at that race?

[notme]

Yes, but not with the big guns. There was a separate amateur class for everyone else, which was still quite competitive, and to sign up you had to have an "in". I was a top 5 racer in British Columbia at the time and wanted to see how I measured up. Indeed I found out
3rd in the I main in 2wd, and 4th in the F main 4wd. I still have the hardware around here I think...
I didnt place as well as I could have, the track was unlike anything Ive ever driven on, incredible traction! Very fun times though, thats what counted.

[littleVETTE]

Yes, but not with the big guns. There was a separate amateur class for everyone else, which was still quite competitive, and to sign up you had to have an "in". I was a top 5 racer in British Columbia at the time and wanted to see how I measured up. Indeed I found out
3rd in the I main in 2wd, and 4th in the F main 4wd. I still have the hardware around here I think...
I didnt place as well as I could have, the track was unlike anything Ive ever driven on, incredible traction! Very fun times though, thats what counted.

all i got to say is you're a lucky mofo. just because the company you had around you, and especially in that time period. most of those races were a bitch to get into, sometimes, too.

[notme]

Yes I was! Especially looking back now......I met so many nice people, the rchr staff, other racers in my class and especially all the world class drivers! It may as well have been an ifmar w/c.
I was treated very well by, masami and his dad, (Mike?) Walker (twister motors), Jurgen Laughtenbach, Cliff Lett, Mike reedy, Craig Drecher and a couple french guys who I dont recall their names. The reedy race was a race for Mike himself, to celebrate his birthday. The one year (89 i think) they had a celebrity lady wrestler who did a mock wrestling match with Mike Reedy himself...I wish I had my camera!