New Micro and improved Motorworks

[Steve]

I sit and stare at the still virgin Awesome R/C on my desk and think, it's probably time I tore into her to see what she's capable of. Then I think, hmmm, first thing I'd do is put bigger wheels all around. Because of that, I'd have to mod the body to fit, and suddenly it looks exactly like a Zip. I think the gearbox on the Awesome R/C car is simply there so they can do away with huge drive gears, and hence, get away with those tiny wheels. I'm thinking the drive ratio is about the same as a Zip, so once I put the bigger wheels on the AR/C, the mad power it has will go away and I'll be stuck with a noisy rear end that I can't change the gearing or motor on.

If anyone has pics of the guts of these things, I mean stearing, gearboxes ect, let me know, otherwise I'll thoroughly document my destructive voyage.

EDIT: anyone know what the voltage capabilities on the board are?

[Cubicle]

I still love my awesome as it is the most realistic car yet...but
damn it...WHY on earth have Tomy and RS refused to give us REAL looking Micro R/C's? I dont mind putting my custom bodies on but DAMN id like to ..at least once...purchase a micro r/c off the shelf that i can truly enjoy without modding. This lil bugger is the closest thing..Until the Old school muscle car killed it head to head.

PLEASE Muscle MAchines....for the love of GOD...please keep the bodies as they are NOW ( i.e. direct die cast replicas).

[Azimov]

I've been holdin this back until I got the body done. But, the conversation seems to be drifting toward customizing these Awesome cars again, so here's what I've been playing with.

[Azimov]

I decided to bite the bullet and ripped the rear end off the car and replaced it with the gearbox from a Motor Works car. The motor is the original hard wired Awesome motor but I'm using a ZZ blue pinion, idler and axel set. The front steering is stock Awesome RC and has MW front rims and tires. They are set out from the chassis with spacers. The rear wheels are off a small off road vehicle and are slightly smaller diameter than ZZ wheels. The car handles great now. The new gearbox transfers all the torque to the wheels and this thing flies. It will run across carpet without a problem and will even jump on to the leading edge of thick throw rugs by jumping completely off the floor. It's amazing how much torque is lost in the stock gearbox.
Here's what I had to do the charger to get the car to go down on the contacts with it's higher ground clearance.

[Bad Company]

Man, you have got some mad skills when it comes to doing REAL mods to these things Avimov. Keep up the good work.

[vtheo]

nice, maybe some pictures of the bottom, and the remians of the car you stole the wheels from

[Cubicle]

AHHHHH! No ! NO! Take it away! Dear GOD Azimov i know you have customizing skills but what about aesthetics!?

For me ..Az..for me ..please mod the lil darling ( or another) so that it handles better but stays in that beautifully proportioned lil body.

Heres the dilemma..if i wanted something that traveled over the carpet but looked like this awesome r/c id buy an EPOCH or Mini Z.
Iwant a micro that looks good i.e. real and handles like a champ.....

[Azimov]

AHHHHH! No ! NO! Take it away! Dear GOD Azimov i know you have customizing skills but what about aesthetics!?

LOL, I was gonna let the custom body help me with that. Sides, I kinda like the wedge shape of the chassis. This was an easier type of conversion, just chop and refit. The car is no longer scale, but fits somewhere between an Awesome car and a Zip. It's the same width and length as the AwesomeRC car, But the rear end is taller. It would be very difficult to maintain the size of the chassis and wheels when using a more standard gear set up like the Zips because the drive gear on the axel is a larger diameter than the wheels. Though it may be possible to make a custom gear set. I've got another one here that may go under the knife to see if it can be done.

Heres the dilemma..if i wanted something that traveled over the carpet but looked like this awesome r/c id buy an EPOCH or Mini Z.

That's a tough one. Even tougher when you consider these things aren't proportional. I'd say with the improvement of the gearbox on this one, it handles about like a Zip with more torque. That still ain't sayin much. But, it handles and moves much better than before.

[vtheo]

well i did find one, the last one hidden on the top shelf. it was the gold supra(its a supra right?). i really would like to do a mod like yours Azimov, i have a motor works with a broken steering knuckle that i was trying to figure out what to do with. you said it was a hack and fit job, any thing more invloved?

sorry for misa spelling i am a little tired.

[Azimov]

I wish my scanner was working. I would supply a couple of pics to make it easy for you. Basically, you disassemble the MW car completely. Cut the butt end off right in front of the wall between the battery and the gearbox. Leave this wall as it becomes the back of the gearbox. Clean off all of the protrutions and such until you get pretty much a small black box holding the rear axel, idler gear and it's axel, and a place to snap the Awesome moter in. Dissassemble the AwesomeRC car's rear gearbox and remove the motor then cut the gearbox off right at the beginning of the gearbox just behind the batteries. Clean this line up good and straight and then just super glue the new MW gearbox flush to the back of the Awesome RC chassis. You just glue the back wall to the cut end of the Awesome chassis with the bottoms flush. Now, just snap the motor in that's been danglin there, stick the idler and axel back in place, charge it up and you're ready to go. If you plan to use ZZ gears and axel, you will need to drill out the idler gear slightly as the MW idler shaft is slightly larger. You may have to adjust the ZZ axel width a tad too.
Oh, one more thing. You have to reverse the motor leads on the PCB. Really simple. Just desolder them and put the black one were the red one was and vice versa. Otherwise the car goes in reverse when you go forwaqrd. This is because we are removing an odd number of gear transfers when we cut off the old gearbox. This makes the motor turn in the wrong direction.
And, one more other thing. You'll have to mod your charger since the new rear end will increase your ground clearance and the car won't snap all the way down on the charging pad.
Next, I'm modding the controller. I'm moving the turbo button on to the side at the top, so I can hit it with an index finger. It's really hard to use were it is.

[Steve]

It's still pretty rough around the edges, but it runs smoother than a baby's butt! I removed all the gears, relocated the motor, and replaced the rear axle and tires with a slot car's. The white drive gear is from a clone (maybe motoworks?). Anyway, I glued the rear tab of a long extinct Zip to the rear of the car, and glued one of the original gear shafts in place to hold the Zip motor clamp on...and I'm amazed at the results. The car actually accelerates now...very quickly, but very smooth and precise, zero wheel hop. If I mash the turbo off the line it will spin the tires, but it still takes off very smoothly and hooks up pretty quick. The biggest improvement is noise. It's so quiet it's creepy. The only noise I hear is the tiny front wheels rolling over the dust on my kitchen floor. And man is it faaaast. I don't have nearly enough room in my kitchen to hit top speed so it's gonna be tough to clock. Here's the quick pics. (top is stock, bottom is after the knife)

[Azimov]

That is frikkin beautiful! Looks like the stock body will fit too. I gotta try this one. Great work!

[Cubicle]

PLEASE update ol CUBICLE as to whether or not the Stock body fits. If so ....A HACKIN i will be ..! Please update us Azimov....and Steve!

[vtheo]

the glue is drying, i had to use the back of a clone because i seem to have lost that broken motorworks. oh well, it was as simple as hack and fit, i cant wait till the epoxy dries.

[vtheo]

arghhhhhhh, stupid steering wires... three of them broke could some one post pics of where they go? it seems fast i just cant steer.