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I already have another thread detailing one of these rare beasts which I picked up a while ago from Richard Isherwood (who was sponsored by Don Ison of NODIS prior to his Team Kyosho days), but never did I think i would locate another, let alone several!

Through a very generous RC community member I now have four in total, one of which is absolutely brand new and amazingly free-spinning. They are all slightly different internally, one having been modified with a full width middle spindle and a white nylon intermediate gear, another also has a machined alloy diff gear as opposed to Tufnol, plus two also have extended spindles which protrude from the gearbox casing. This suggests some sort of external drive to possibly a front gearbox, and sure enough, in the box of spare parts there is also a machined belt pulley. These items all came from a friend of Don Ison himself.

Extremely rare items which can now hopefully be rebuilt and put back into active service.

Holy F!

Interesting, did they come with covers for off road use or were they strictly for on road?

At that point, I'd be looking for four chassis and nose plates.

juicedcoupe wrote: ↑Tue Feb 08, 2022 12:53 pm At that point, I'd be looking for four chassis and nose plates.

I honestly cannot believe how free-spinning the unused one is. It just spins and spins and spins.

I have a nice period-modified RC10 with a rare Schumacher lightweight chassis which is earmarked for one of them (there is a thread on here somewhere detailing that car), and I am also building a very UK-oriented lightweight which will also be getting one chucked on the back... just mocked it up now in fact.

At least the person who lightened that chassis did it with style. Most of the ones I have looked like it was done with buckshot.

Somebody on the FB page just came up with this nice bit of dating evidence too:-

Sept/Oct 1986 Radio Race Car magazine advert.

Epic

On a couple of these it seems a little odd that the intermediate gear is only supported on one side of the gearbox. However, having stumbled across a spare short spindle shaft in the box of spares which came with these I can now see that a little thought was put into this; it isn't just a simple straight shaft. The threaded portions extended through the gearbox casing and the stepped section is then locked down hard onto the inside of the case by tightening down an external nut. Once this is locked down hard there is absolutely zero movement of the shaft whatsoever. Then a brass intermediate gear complete with ballraces is slipped over the shaft on the inside and is secured with a C-clip. An interesting design, but it does appear to work well.

That's better supported than the idle gears in a six gear.