TOPIC:

Hi,
I wanted somethin special for my 500th post on Tamiyabase. I found it randomly, as someone living very close from my home proposed this rc car for an interesting price on a french forum I'm posting as well.
It's a buggy, It's quite rare. It's even a piece of the RC car history... And rather than calling that a car, I should really call this a project, as there is a (badword) lot of work as you will see on the pictures...

Here is some pics of the box.





And for the car, it is quite broken. But all the pieces are there, even for the broken chassis or the bumper. There is a lot of work. I will probably have to rely on 3D printing at least for the chassis and the bumper.






Suspension arms are in good shape, and transmission seems to be as well in good shape...

On the mailman thread, I gave some leads to help to find, let's be more explicit about those:

1. The first of a kind. It is the first ever electric front wheel drive rc offroad car issued on the market (en.wikipedia.or...road_buggy)
2. It's rare : Nichimo 
3. This model shares some design cues with another one within the same brand, but with a different architecture. And both would be considered highly innovative at that time... (for innovative, please see the site of BlackHoleSun here: 
   web.archive.org...tact01.php, and for the shared design cues, refer to the advert extracted from rc-paper.com you may see here : rc-paper.com/de...0068&pg=37)
4. Looking at the overall design, one could think about it as a copy of a famous Tamiya model : clearly the Hotshot has the precedence... Proportions are not identical, though.
5. it has a metal (yes, metal) radiator on the front. Interestingly it's not on the box art . That was probably added after the car was designed when they started to test it on the track, when they found they need to add a lot of weight on the front (and yes, it's heavy). Interestingly, they made it look like a radiator
6. The Motor is mounted longitudinally : The way it is mounted is even interesting. the motor has been kept as close as possible in the center, and the pinion is turning inside the spur gear, probably to keep the gravity center as low as possible...
7. Front : Front Motor and Front Wheel Drive. The Kyosho Maxxum FF was probably the more achieved one of this specie. They were efficient on the track, as long as you get the instruction manual right. As matter of fact, the Vantage and the Spirit (both FF, were tried by journalist in August and October 1987 in France, and while they did not understood the way it work for the first, they were quite impressed by the second one, which is technically identical - just because they found how to use it

I won't start the work right away as I need to finish my Marui Hunter/Galaxy project first, but I will update here while working on this project...

A piece of history. Nice find Marc.

Nice. I’m not too familiar with the Nichimo cars, I never saw one growing up in the 80’s, so I can’t wait to see a restoration on this. It will make a fascinating follow.
 

Same here Al, Never seen one in person. Did they come in kit form??

Yes, they did come in kit in the eighties. Not sure how long Nichimo cars were on the market. All the models had a release date in 1986. They reached Europe in 1987. They were imported in France by MRC (a local manufacturer). I heard about it while I was a teenager, as my monthly reads were Auto RCM, Adepte, Auto 8 and those french rc-magazines.
The whole Nichimo range was tested in Auto RCM during the second half of 1987. this exactly before I started to turn to 1/1 scale motorbikes. I don't have those magazine anymore, but I found some of those articles I read on rc-paper site...
And interestingly, if you want to see a Nichimo instruction manual, just go in the other makes section of the downloads on Tamiyabase, and they are there. like some others obscure or less obscure brands...

As I had some time this morning (a day off), some snow outside, it's perfect weather to try to move on on projects...

I decided to start my morning to get the Spirit FF down to parts...



I dismantle all what I could. On the rear end, I did not succeed to remover the wheels from the rear arms. I will need to think on those ones...


The right shock support is fixed with two screws which I believe have been glued with cyano... Not sure what to do to remove yet.

After that I focused on the front end


Lower front arms will probably require remplacement as cracks appear on both side at the shock fixation



The gearbox is interesting, probably the part in the best state of this whole car, but the motor is quite far from the front train...



Funny thing, as the motor is not really close from the front train, they added weight on the front with the radiator (I believe it was an afterthought, when they started to try the creation, as the box art did not include the radiator as well as the promo pictures from Nichimo)... This thing weight 92grams...


Chassis parts, roll bar, front and rear arms are going to require a 3D modeling and printing...

Next update at some point, but not necessarily in few days : I wanted to have a clear view of the state of all parts, to estimate the level of work required. I'll plan for it and I'll have other projects to shuffle as well , so don't expect updates before few months
 

I've never been clear on the value of an FWD off road buggy - off road needs soft suspension, soft suspension means weight transfer to the rear on acceleration = less grip on the driven wheels.

It's almost as though Nichimo thought "let's build a better - or at least, not infringing - version of the Hotshot" and started work on the front gearbox. At some point, someone asked "where does the driveshaft go?", and the reply came, "Right down the ... DOH!"

Well, one clear indication is that FWD buggys got very soon banned on 2WD races, as they were too much efficient on loose surface. Yes acceleration was not their strong point, as it was requiring to be soft on the trigger... But once at cruising speed, they were at their advantage when it comes to turn, as it was not requiring to reduce much speed, and that rear would not spin at the time you accelerate while still turning.

That being said, the Nichimo Spirit FF was the first of this specie, one year before the MaxxumFF from Kyosho (another car design by Akira Kogawa). I believe that before the ban of the FWD cars in 2WD category (end of 1986), the MaxxumFF was the car to beat on loose surfaces...

Very interesting transmission system. If I knew, I kept these rims for you. 

While working on the Samurai wheels, I learned a lot, and I should be able to start work in Fusion 360 for this project.

I laid down the chassis on my desk to have a more attentive look at it having teh Fusion 360 background to set my design strategy.


First I decided to keep the chassis this way at this stage. I don't want to damage it more than it is before I started the measurements. Acetone or CA solvent are out of the picture due to the risk for the chassis material, I'm considering boiling water could be a solution. That being said, I won't try this until I have moved forward on the design. I believe it is lest risky.

There is some symmetry, and some easy measurements, and there is parts where it's not exact symmetry which I will need to work out. I'm considering starting by the chassis rather than the gearbox (as the gearbox is probably the only assembly part in this buggy which does not require any rework ). I'm intending to start this next, as I do not want to start a kit right now, and I'm waiting for parts for the Samurais...