Fyrstormer's RC Blog

back to Fyrstormer's Garage Last year I finally finished a build I started 3 years earlier, resulting in this truck: While I was proud to have gotten it to work, the truck was just too heavy for the OS 4-stroke engine I put in it -- even with a massive 6.5cc displacement, it actually produces power more comparable to a 3.0cc 2-stroke engine, which is just not enough for the big heavy Traxxas Revo. You might be inclined to say the FS-40's monster torque makes up for that, but not really -- the monster torque gets cancelled-out by the taller gearing needed for a slower-running 4-stroke engine to run the truck at an acceptable speed. So, before I managed to destroy the engine, I decided to build a new, smaller truck for it to power. Yep, another HPI Bullet. This makes my third Bullet in operation, all of which are nitro. (hmm. should I get a brushless Bullet while I still can? but I digress.) This allows a very direct comparison between the 3.0cc 2-stroke engine in my ...

back to Fyrstormer's Garage Whew, it's been a long time since I wrote a Build Complete thread. I've barely had time to think for the past year, much less play with my toys. About a year ago, I decided I wanted to build a nitro short-course truck. But I've become spoiled and lazy Traxxas nitro RCs that have reverse gears -- and electric RCs that can reverse without even needing reverse gears -- so I wanted my nitro SCT to have a reverse gear too. That certainly narrowed-down the selection a lot. In fact, it narrowed-down the selection to...nothing. There are no nitro SCTs with reverse gears. Buuuuut, the Traxxas Slayer shares a lot of parts in common with the Traxxas Revo, so maybe I could drop a Revo transmission into a Slayer and get what I want? Well...technically yes, but of course the devil was in the details. Since the Slayer doesn't have a reverse gear, it doesn't need a shifter servo, so it uses different electronics boxes than the Revo, and ...

back to Fyrstormer's Garage Now that the Nitro RS4 3 has been officially discontinued and removed from the HPI website, I guess now is a good time to post this -- just in time to benefit nobody! Back in 2016 I built a Nitro RS4 3 that could go 65mph. It looked like this: It did what it was supposed to do, but the problem is, going fast in a straight line is boring to me. Also the Losi 3.4 engine is loud -- louder than the larger HPI F4.6 in my new Trophy Truggy, in fact -- so driving it anywhere near a residential area was just asking for someone to complain and ruin my day. So after I drove it at top speed a few times ( and crashed it very badly one time ), it just sat on my RC shelf for the next few years. It was too dirty and scratched-up to be a shelf queen, so eventually I decided it was time to rebuild it into a car I could actually drive in my neighborhood. I already had my first Nitro RS4 3 Evo+ rally conversion as a template to work from, and in fact I wondered ...

back to Fyrstormer's Garage Man, raising a newborn sure takes up a lot of your time. I bought this truck in early 2018, months before my son was born, and I only just now finished the build. On the bright side, the year and a half that the truck sat on my RC shelf in various states of disassembly gave me lots of time to think about how to complete this build; I might've abandoned the project if I'd had more time to fret about the difficulties I encountered along the way. And there were plenty of difficulties, mainly "how do I fit an engine 50% larger than the stock engine, with double the displacement, into this truck???" Well, to start with, the engine itself required modification: For reasons that I will probably never understand, O.S. decided to release a truck engine with an 8mm crankshaft instead of spending a couple minutes per engine to grind-down the crankshaft diameter to 7mm so it could fit a standard flywheel collet. It's not like they don...

back to Fyrstormer's Garage Wow, it's been almost a year and a half since I wrote a "build complete" thread. Having a baby isn't especially difficult (or at least my baby isn't especially difficult), but it sure is a continuous effort. Weekends don't exist anymore; nowadays I sleep better on weekday mornings after my girlfriend takes our kid to daycare than I do at night on the weekends when they're both home. Anyway, at some point I found time to build a Nitro TC3. Why did I build a Nitro TC3 18 years after it was released and about 10 years after it was discontinued? Don't I have enough crap to worry about in my life these days? Yes, I do, but I still get bored from time to time, and apparently Me + Boredom = Questionable Decisions. To be honest, I would've been willing to get a newer nitro touring car, but the bottom dropped out of that market a while ago. It looks like the only nitro touring cars still being produced are eith...