TOPIC:

I'm seriously considering getting myself a re re Wild One to keep my vintage Fox company... If so, I'm really tempted to go brushless - not for performance (although I wouldn't want it to be any slower than a silver can, and a tiny bit faster might be nice), but just because it's a bit different and I've never played with brushless before.

I'd go sensored as it feels a more elegant solution, and probably just use the Tamiya ESC that gets bundled with the kits (TBLE-02S).

The main question is what spec I'd need for appropriate performance. Having read around a bit, I'm thinking maybe 17.5T? How would that be in real terms for speed and acceleration compared to the stock silver can (bearing in mind that the WO can't go above 18 tooth pinion, so I can't gear it up much)? Is there a more appropriate choice?

Then question 2 is what will actually fit. I'd been thinking of the HobbyKing TrackStar , but realised yesterday that there's not much clearance between the frame/cage on the rear of the Wild One and the stock motor. I'm wondering whether those side-mounted electrical connectors would actually fit? If not then another option is this Speed Passion one.

Final question is whether those brushless motors with fairly big ventilation holes are actually ok on a buggy with an exposed motor just by the back wheel. Are they reasonably protected from stones/dirt, or are they designed to be enclosed/shielded as they are on lots of more modern designs and I'd just ruin it in no time at all?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/wisdom!

You have the option to buy the tamiya bl motor or like I did (easy solution) buy a combo. I have a hobbywing 17t combo with a setting card to use nimh or lipo batts. It is really powerfull. And adjustable.

You need to gear down for power increase, not up, so the 15T pinion is the limit. I'm a fan of the first generation Trackstar motors (at least, when they were 20 GBP or so), but as they got more expensive (price increased to c. 30 GBP) & the 2nd generation not so much, I have to wonder what extra you're really getting for 40 GBP ... but then, i think that about a lot of motors...

I don't have a Wild One any more to to a test fit, but I don't see a good solution for the Trackstar motor: fitting the motor 180 degrees around means the sensor connector is very exposed, and direct soldering wires on "backwards" to clear the Wild one cage right way up means the sensor connector would be inaccessible.

The Speed passion motor looks a much safer bet in that regard.

Brushless T numbers are not analogous to brushed figures (as you've discovered), in my experience:

21.5T brushless about = to 27T brushed
17.5T brushless about = to 23T brushed (or Tamiya Sport Tuned 27T with advanced timing)
13.5T brushless about = to 21T brushed

... so that 17.5T brushless should in theory be giving you around a 30% boost, which the Wild One really should be up to handling, long term

Difficult to argue for anything other than than that Speed Passion motor, if you've already got a recent Tamiya ESC going spare - just be aware that neither the kit ESC or that motor AFAIK come with a sensor cable (3 GBP?) - I can't see a cheaper route to going brushless, really. Buying a brushless motor/ESC/programming card combo will give you more options (that you may not need) but at greater expense. I'm not sure I'd suggest it unless you don't have a spare ESC or want to go much faster.

i should also add that a cheaper way to the sort of performance you're suggesting would be the venerable old (and 20 GBP) Tamiya Sport Tuned motor. Not Brushless though, obvs.

Thanks so much for all of that - that's really useful.

I completely agree with your thoughts on how much motors cost and what you're paying for a magnet and a bit of copper wire... And yes, a brushed motor would be a much more sensible way to get a bit faster. This isn't about sensible,though! And I don't really mind about performance (other than that being slower than a silver can would feel like a bad decision...!!) - it's just that I've never played with brushless at all and kind of fancy seeing what it's about. Last time I was buying RC parts was probably about 1990, so I'm a bit out of date!

I don't actually have an ESC yet, but it only adds about 15 GBP to the kit to get a Tamiya one included, and I quite like the idea of it being genuine Tamiya (although I don't like the idea of genuine Tamiya enough to pay what they're asking for their brushless motors!!!)

I'd obviously misunderstood about gearing - I thought I'd read that brushless tended to spin more slowly (but with more torque), so bigger pinions were the way to go. It's not helped by everything on the internet only talking about unloaded speed though. Although I'm sure that's not unrelated to real top speed, I think it's only directly relevant to how fast the wheels would spin in the air (or when it's on its roof!).

I'd gone down the same thought process with the Trackstar mounting/wiring options clear the cage. I think there might be 60 degree mounting options (3 pairs of threaded holes by the looks of the pictures), but I'm not sure any of them work. I also don't think the terminals are at the very end of the motor's body, so my other worry is that the terminals themselves might clash with the cage even if I could route the wires away from it. The only bits without a cage in the way then, as you say, leave the connections all very exposed.

Thanks again!

Also it helps me feel better about how much it'll cost to look at the 1988 RIKO price guide I discovered I'd kept in my Fox's box. Strangely it doesn't have a price listed for the Technigold, but an RS540SD Black Sprint would have been £24. Add in 30 years of inflation, and I guess we don't have it too bad now!

It was also interesting to find out that I'd paid £13.40 of my pocket money for 4 1150 bearings for its front wheels! They did come in a posh box though, which it turns out I've still got.

One last question - I'm about to order everything, but I'm not sure how long the sensor cable is going to need to be... Is the Tamiya 27cm one going to reach with the ESC placed neatly? Or I can pay a couple of pounds more and get the 35cm version which is definitely long enough. I guess there's plenty of space to tuck away excess cable in a WO, but if the 27cm is perfect then that'd be a better plan. I want to order it all together to save postage costs, so can't buy the kit, measure things, then buy the cable!

AJB wrote:

One last question - I'm about to order everything, but I'm not sure how long the sensor cable is going to need to be... Is the Tamiya 27cm one going to reach with the ESC placed neatly? Or I can pay a couple of pounds more and get the 35cm version which is definitely long enough.

To answer my own question (just in case it helps anyone else in the future): Yes, the 27cm sensor cable is long enough, but you probably won't fit motor power cables down the same side. The unexpected issue for me was that only 2 14AWG motor wires fitted through the "normal" route either side, but I wanted to route all 3 together, so had to improvise a different route over the gearbox, down, over the left hand driveshaft, and then up into what would originally have been the 4xAA battery compartment from underneath. That seems to have worked well!

tamiyabase.com/...1-wild-one