R/C ONTARIO

PROJECT 2000

HPI RS2 PRO STOCK DRAGSTER

Y2K BUG

World's Fastest R/C New Beetle

For many years I have always had an eye on the dragster kits available.. Bolink is the first budget dragster that comes to mind and you can go up from there...

Well...I wanted something a little different in my dragster..I've always wondered why no one released a more realistic type dragster.. The body details and direct drive rear ends are awesome but those little wheels in the back always seemed unrealistic to me..

I'm sure that these purpose built dragsters are a little faster and better performing than mine, but my goal wasn't to build the fastest dragster in the world.. It was to build the fastest 'pro stock' car in the world... Taking a parking lot sedan and turning it into a souped up street rod...

With that thought in mind, my next choice was to pick the 'stock' chassis.. Being a huge HPI fan my choice was really easy.. The HPI RS4 Pro got the nod.. No doubt !!

Because I'm still racing my HPI RS4 Pro at our local racing club, I didn't want to condemn it to a life of the "straight and narrow".. I also didn't want to pay big bucks for something that may blow up in my face.. Literally!!

So I started my search in The R/C Ontario 2000 Classified Pages (Nice 'plug', eh? ) ..Any ways ..A good friend of mine was selling his Pro at a very decent price and I knew the car was in great shape...$200 Canadian bucks later I was ready to go to work.. The first thing I did was completely tear down the car.. (Sorry Ricky!!)..

This RS2 Pro Stock Dragster started out as a combination of three different RS4's..A Mini (rear suspension),a Nitro (main chassis plate), and of course, the rest was from the Pro.. It also started out with a simple Mechanical Speed Control, two resistors, and twelve cells (batteries for us lay men!!).. This all powered my trusty old Trinity Speed Gem 16T Ruby..

This setup was extremely fast but lacked a bit in the reliability area.. Don't get me wrong.. It worked and it would have continued to work if I hadn't damaged resistors during my initial test runs.. (Flipping an RS2 Dragster at speed can be quite dramatic).. The car was really a little too fragile though and the throttle control 'off the line' wasn't very manageable .... So its back to the drawing board.

Tear the car down completely again.. Completely new design.. (sort of).. Did some research.. Found that the Novak Duster can handle 10 cells.. Sweet!!.. Hence the switch from 12 to 10 cells and the same for the switch from MSC to ESC..

Battery Hook Up:... 

I used one 1700 6 cell stick pack and 1 custom made 1700 4 cell saddle 

pack..

You need to use the same connectors I did..

6-pack  (+)  to   4-pack. (-)

6-pack  (-)  to   ESC (-)

4-pack  (+) to  ESC (+)

As you can see I added connectors to all wire leads which makes it possible to use one or two batteries..Doing this you actually make an adapter to go between the batteries and ESC leads..To connect the battery and ESC leads together as shown in my chassis 

picture..

I basically rebuilt the Pro as stock... Replaced the RS4 Nitro chassis and custom made aluminium upper plate with the Pro's carbon fiber ones. .The only mods I made to the Pro other than the rear end was stripping out all the front drive components.. The front wheels simply roll freely on a set of drive axles (c/w bearings)..In the rear I installed HPI 2.2 inch truck wheels shod with Pro-Line Road Hawg rubber.. I suggest paying real close attention to the C/A job here.. On my initial runs the tires ballooned out so much that they tore free of the wheels.. These things expand just like those top fuel rail tires do.. Pretty cool stuff..

I replaced the Pro A-Arms with RS4 Mini A-Arms and dogbones to get the narrower rear end setup.. This increases the length to width ratio which makes the car a lot more stable down the track... It also helps out with the realistic appearance of the car.. No big wheels hanging way out of the sides.. Of course some trimming of the New Beetle wheel wells was necessary to make things fit nicely..

The battery pack setup allows you to run either 6 or 10 cells.. Thanks to the connectors/adaptor setup.. The 1700 batteries are more than enough to get this car screamin' down the straight and the take off speed is handled very easily with the electronic speed control.

This dragster handles really well.. I hardly have to touch the steering at all, but when I do have to tweak the steering a tad it responds nicely.. Top Speeds are incredible.. Acceleration at the line is a little lacking, but with some treated asphalt and tire traction compound I will improve that quite a bit..

There is a popular belief in R/C Drag Racing that you need crazy low wound mods to be fast.. The reason this isn’t so, is because the lower winds may be faster at speed but it takes them longer to get to speed.. The 16t Ruby is more than enough motor to do the job.. Easing on the throttle at the line is the only thing that stops the wheels spinning so much that they blow off the tires.....C/A or no C/A.. In fact if you check the speed record holders in R/C Drag Racing you will be surprised what wind motor they are running.. This car goes fast enough that the body actually scrapes the ground as speed increases (down force).. That’s why the body is not as low to the ground as it could be..

The suspension setup was fairly simple.. Stock Pro in the front with red HPI springs and 30wt. Team Associated oil... The rear upper shock mounts are in the lowest/inside mounting holes.. This was mainly to allow extra clearance for the monster rear wheels, but I’ve found that it handles really well also.. With gold HPI springs(soft) and 30 wt T.A. Oil, the suspension travel is minimal, but soft.. I think this setup allows for the most rear traction available and it also makes the ride height in the rear closer to (and just above) the ride height in the front.

If you are interested in creating your own HPI RS2 Pro Stock Dragster, this may interest you..You don't need to cut up your body and add huge rear wheels and Mini A-arms/dogbones as I have..All you need to do is remove the front drive system which gives you the feel of a real life dragster and at the same time allows roon for the additional batteries..Then just use your stock Pro suspension and wheel set-up in the rear..


The Paint;??

Well.. This was actually a paint job gone bad.. The body used to be for “The R/C Wife’s” Tamiya New Beetle kit. The windows were nicely masked with the included Tamiya window masks..Those guys at Tamiya are so good with the detailing stuff.. Including the mirrors.. Any ways.. Turned out to be a real nice single color purple Beetle (or "purple punch buggy" for those of you with kids!!).. We backed it in white and everything was great.... Then we decided that spray tinting was to be applied.. OUCH!!.. I’ll never use that stuff again.. Its like water and the end result was a huge mess.. That FWD Tamiya is now topped with a very impressive Tamiya metallic purple paint job....So, I inherited the original body for my project.. Its two tone.. that’s all.. Any ways.. Decided it had to have some custom lettering.. Off I went to the local FastSigns outlet and got these little vinyl decals made up.. They work and (I hope) look great.. Kudos to FastSigns in Burlington for a job well done.. If you are ever looking for decals or whatever I wouldn’t hesitate recommending these guys. .

Final Thought;??

Well, there it is.. Not exactly a first timers car.. Unless of course you are happy with straight line racing.. But I had a lot of fun creating and testing and tearing apart and creating again.. With the body off, I caused a lot of damage (you need to slow down before turning to come back the other way.. .OUCH!!).. But with the body on, this Y2K Bug is self-righting.. Always.. It hasn’t stopped on its roof once, and the 'slowing down thing' has managed to keep it upright any ways.. Unless a full scale car comes ripping around the bend at the end of my street.. (Don’t try this at home kids... Play Safe!!).. When I’m all done playing with my new dragster it will easily convert back to the HPI RS4 Pro.. As a Final Thought??... Having fun and attempting to be creative is what this project is all about.. I’m not really concerned with how my dragster performs against other dragsters.. I just built it for myself and to share with you guys/gals.. How fast does it actually go??.. I know its faster than my Pro and probably faster than my nitro (I think it is).. It may be a little slower off the line than 4wd cars, but I’m hoping to improve on that in the near future.. I look forward to the day when we at our PLRC race club get together for the coming season and rent ourselves a Radar Gun.. I will post any times or speeds I manage to record in the future.. Thanks for your interest in my R/C Ontario 2000 Project... Keep On R/Cing.... The R/C Guy

How Much??

Reviewed By: The R/C Guy