21st Century Kyosho Beetle
Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 2:14 pm
I have had this Beetle for some time now, and I didn’t know what to do with it… I wanted to do something new and fresh. At least new and fresh for me and up to date in design… 
When I got this Beetle the body was rely beaten up with big cracks and some parts missing, so it had to go. I don’t think that body use to belong to this Beetle, because the rest of the car had only been driven a handful of times, if that many. So cleaning wasn’t that hard, it took a few hours to get done.
In my search for a modern racing paint design I found some pictures on a Red Bull VW Touareg! My car is a Volkswagen and a desert racer, so why not… I ordered a repro Beetle body combo from Marwan and let “my” painter do his thing! I left him some pictures on a Red Bull VW Touareg and I have to say I love his work. In the meantime I had started to search eBay for some Red Bull decals. I got lots of hits, I bided on some “moonshine” decals and won 5 sheets for $1.25 and shipment was $2.95… 
That’s Kina for you guys… 3 weeks later I got an envelope, opened it and got rather disappointed. The vinyl felt almost 0.04” thick and no good for my project. I have to start all over again, and now I found what I wanted in Hong Kong. Red Bull decals for RC, if I remember correct they were made some Kyosho on road car, and I had to pay a bit more than $1.25. 
For wheels and tires I used some “leftovers” from my “Blueprint Scorpion” project. The tires are Pro-Line Dirt Hawgs and the 2.2”wheels are Kyosho Pure 10. I had just to cut off 10mm on the inside of front wheels for the rubber to fit perfectly. Then I added some five bolts on each wheel for realism. To get the rear 12mm hex to fit the Beetle I used the same adapters I use on my “CRP/Turbo Scorpion Racer” project. I also used the leftover shocks from that project, the Yeah Racing shocks; 60mm at the front and 70mm at the rear. I rely like those shocks, I thing I have to find some more for future projects.
The Beetle bumper is big as an airplane wing and no good in this project. So I custom-made a skid plate in aluminum that I thing looks perfect on this somewhat modernized Beetle. Then I had to add some extra KC-lights just for fun of it. If I ever want to run this car I defiantly need a sway bar to prevent the car tripping over its own front wheel, so I bent some 0.075” piano wire. Found some simple holder and then I attach the ends with straps. Yes it’s simple, but that’s the way it was done back then. 
To power this beast I have mounted a brushless Hobby-Wing system! But the 9.5T motor that came along is a bit too hot for this old transmission so a new 13.5T it’s on its way from Kina to my doorstep. There is no diff in this old Beetle, so I suppose that’s rather modern. Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t modern racers use gear-diff and/or locket diff in their cars now days? If this is the case I have “modern” transmission. The only thing I have to do is to check so the gears aren’t too loose; otherwise a 13.5T will rip this transmission apart! But you can always use the car for a gently Sunday drive, just cruising…
The rest of the Beetle is stock right out of the box 28 years ago.
When I got this Beetle the body was rely beaten up with big cracks and some parts missing, so it had to go. I don’t think that body use to belong to this Beetle, because the rest of the car had only been driven a handful of times, if that many. So cleaning wasn’t that hard, it took a few hours to get done.
That’s Kina for you guys… 3 weeks later I got an envelope, opened it and got rather disappointed. The vinyl felt almost 0.04” thick and no good for my project. I have to start all over again, and now I found what I wanted in Hong Kong. Red Bull decals for RC, if I remember correct they were made some Kyosho on road car, and I had to pay a bit more than $1.25. But the 9.5T motor that came along is a bit too hot for this old transmission so a new 13.5T it’s on its way from Kina to my doorstep. There is no diff in this old Beetle, so I suppose that’s rather modern. Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t modern racers use gear-diff and/or locket diff in their cars now days? If this is the case I have “modern” transmission. The only thing I have to do is to check so the gears aren’t too loose; otherwise a 13.5T will rip this transmission apart! But you can always use the car for a gently Sunday drive, just cruising… The rest of the Beetle is stock right out of the box 28 years ago.
