TOPIC:

eddrick wrote:

You've had some nice cars jonny, why go buy a dog toy? ...

It was cheap

eddrick wrote:

... Apologies for the lack of enthusiasm, but having owned a Thundershot for a brief time, my opinion is that they're truly horrible fragile cars. As Tamiyanut said, check the A5 part, or better still, replace it without even looking at it. Check all the gearbox/suspension mounts too as they can split just by an ape putting the screws in, let alone using the car in an aggressive fashion. ...

The A5 part is fine ... even the hubs are intact. The car actually seems to have been looked after fairly well, excepting the bit broken off the tub

I'm not too worried about the fragile reputation - my cars get used an average of 3 times each, & rarely particularly hard.

eddrick wrote:

... Oh, & throw the Annsmann motor away before it sets fire to something - I had 2 recently in a job-lot of stuff, a 23T & a 21T, both were proper Black & Decker'd - shorted windings where the wire enamel had given up & fallen off from vibration or heat build-up (They weren't old either, looked new outside). They ain't that quick either, so not worth the risk in my book

The motor is an HPI Saturn 20T - which I admit look similar from the end I've never had an Ansmann motor catch fire, but I have found them to be pretty useless - no matter the number of turns, they have so little torque they're slower than a decent silvercan. I was foolish enough to buy a number - attracted by the low price - around 2008 ... a 15T, 17T, 19T & 23T IIRC.

Still, you live & learn, and I was able to produce this useful step by step guide to upgrading Ansmann motors, which I first posted on TC:

Jonny wrote:

Disappointed with the performance and torque of your Ansmann Clash motor?

Here's a step by step guide to improving its performance:

Step one - remove Ansmann motor from car & buy either a Mardave 25T G2 motor, or a Hunter 27T 540SF (around

Hahaha, yep that's about the size of it! I once put an Annsmann rotor in an Epic can, just to see if it the rotor, the magnets, or the timing that's the issue with poor power - it went like stink for 1 run then spat its windings out of the can vents...
Nowadays, metal endbells & in particular "Cooling fans" in motors make me cringe & I avoid them like the plague. What do you reckon the chances are of the HPI & Annsmann falling out of the same factory? Spose you'll have a better idea when you run it, you'll have to let us know your findings.
My 'shot was free, & I still had issues getting rid of it! Funny thing was, after a year of watching them go for 10-15 quid, I gave up & listed it for anything I could get, & someone offered me 90 quid for it (Sold, run away...)

eddrick wrote:

...What do you reckon the chances are of the HPI & Annsmann falling out of the same factory?...

It's possible - if the factory's QA department inspects components as they come in & have "HPI" and "Ansmann" tote bins instead of "pass" and "fail"

eddrick wrote:

...My 'shot was free, & I still had issues getting rid of it! Funny thing was, after a year of watching them go for 10-15 quid, I gave up & listed it for anything I could get, & someone offered me 90 quid for it (Sold, run away...)

The thing that struck me was the spindly suspension components ... I can see the theory, you can see it on things like "proper" racers like the later RC10s & 1:1 F1 cars - save weight by making them as light as possible & just strong enough to withstand the forces involved in their normal operation, and hope that your driver is good enough not to hit any kerbs/walls/trees/tyre walls/other cars/etc - because if they do, the suspension will immediately explode into a squazillion bits.

That's fine in theory - but at the risk of someone giving examples of how Tamiya cars won something, I'll say that the no-one would ever race a car like this, because the only time Tamiya cars are competitive is when they run against other Tamiya cars.

It's also more than slightly undermined by all the extra greeblies that are bolted on - all that extra ironmongery more than makes up any weight advantage

Pics as requested Jr

Bodyshell and wing took some modifications to fit mainly front post and coverting to single rear post from the original two. Wing was found in the same box cannot remember how i fitted it now. found pic how it looked before bieng stripped down body was factory painted not a perfect fit but looked fantastic running.

Thanks TN - I'm very interested in the bumper, but I'll pass on the body - I kind of like it, but it makes it look like a tall (B2 model onwards) RC10 with fat front wheels - fine if that's the look you're going for, but it is very different from the regular bodies for that chassis

No problem JR pm me your address and ill put the bumper in the post

tamiya wrote:

No problem JR pm me your address and ill put the bumper in the post

Cool - ta very much

Sent first class today you should see the bumper soon

Hi I appreciate this is quite an old post but I have just got my thundershot out of the loft where it has been for nearly 20 yrs. with a new battery pack it sprung to life span the wheels for two seconds then there was a horrible gearbox grinding . Now there is no drive I took the box apart and it looks fine and spins by hand. Do you have a gearbox diff and the propshaft from your car that I could buy?