DL Verossa: Carbon

Verossa going out for the first time. Now, with some "special" in it.
Since I saw full Carbon  Silvia of Yoshihiro Kawamoto, I try to find more creative ways of using real carbon in RC body works. I have to admit, it is a pain in the ass to make it look good, but if done properly, the effect is totally worth it.

This is the most colorful body I have ever made. It is totally unlike most of bodies in Russia, which are usually painted in 1 plain color. That is why there are not so many fans of this work here.

It is simply great to see, how these +12 Top line Mars wheels, whichI painted in Japan, while waiting for my Top 16 finals, make every other body look better.

DL-86 recent progress

Updating the blog was really tought for a couple of weeks now. But I'm back on it, hopefully with a lot of new stuff.

To start up - a taste of Dl-86 that is getting into its shape.

Digging deeper: ARD CER steering mod V.3.1/ Suspension Mod V.1

This idea of customizing my chassis caught me. Now I can't stop. I just hope it's all for good.
As I shown before, Alex is now rocking a full Yokomo front suspension. So, what has been done?

DL 180SX Koguchi

Here are some fresh pics of my team body, which has won the "Body of the month" contest and will be featured in a magazine.

Team "Drift Lab"

My team is now officially complete. 

My good friend Ilya, whom I taught a few "tricks", filled the spot.  He have chosen this GP sports 180SX, which I do appreciate.

You might see, that the color is slightly different. Well, I was short on Translucent orange and Semi-gloss silver, so I used whatever orange I had left and backed it with LRP chrome. 

Drift Lab Koguchi 180SX

So, after establishing my own team, I needed to make a team body as well. Lack of Tamiya PS paint in local hobby stores and an option of waiting 1 month for paint to arrive from e-bay, I decided that this body will be the team body. I even have leftovers for my teammate to finish his body.

The body is still unfinished. I left some space left for team stickers, and sponsor decals. It's serious now, I am looking for sponsors for local championships and D1-10 event in Amsterdam (for now. Malaysia and Japan events when they are confirmed).

Japan Inspired Koguchi 180SX

I am sorry for not posting anything during the championship - I simply didn't have a spare minute, and WIFI was no the strongest point of Yatabe.

Major write-off is yet to come, and in the meanwhile, I would like to share something I brought from Japan. We don't have much color choice of Tamiya PS paints in Russia, so I made a body right where color choice is perfect - Japan.

 Only 2,5 days took me to make this body, so the paint job is, to be honest, is the worst i have ever done. But who cares, when it has 10 signatures of D1 drivers, Manabu Suzuki signature, and the manager of "team Suzuki" brand. This is much more important to me.

Kumakubo, Ueno, Taniguchi, Saito, Kawabata, Orido, Shinmi, Tokita, Nomura and 1 more signature, that I can not identify at the moment.

This, as a "Japanese inspired body", should have proper battle stickers and a big wing to spice things up. At this point I plan to stop the bodywork and get into hardware upgrades, modifying and setting.

DL-drifting DIB tension rods

To my big disappointment, lower caster blocks came with a fair amount of play in them. That was predictable, so I was quick to implement my tested solution - tension rods. Simple, easy, super cheap.

This does not influence suspension work at all, except for a small dynamic camber, which is acceptable (and obviously better that a sh*t load of play).

Also, some shims were inserted into steering assembly. That gave me a very rigid rack.

DL-drifting Yokomo DIB

Even though i wanted to make a build review for my fellow Russian mates, at some point I simply got bored of photographing every bolt and package, like most of them want it to see. The main idea of the hobby is to have fun, so I put my camera aside, and finished the build, having proper fun.

AASBO/TRA Kyoto GT 86: part 4

Yet, another huge milestone in my project.

Silver and black are covered in PS-55 matt paint, rear diffusor and fog lights are painted with black from the outside, most of the window trims are on, and most important - body panels are glued to the body. I still need to trim them and make more realistic by adding some parts to them.

AASBO/TRA Kyoto GT 86: part 3

Finally I managed to find some time on my project. Studies are hard, so I can only work on it on weekends. This time I painted the body and 1.5 fenders. Still, I have to spray black and silver with PS-55 and paint rear diffuser and fog lights with black from the outside. Plenty of work to do.

AASBO/TRA Kyoto GT 86: part 2

Another day spent, rubbing off 3 layers of old paint from my lovely BMW. One of rear arches is now almost ready, thought I made some mistakes during cutting. But I know how to correct them. Black color will hide everything)

Arch came out a bit wider than I thought it would. Who knew I'd ever need a spacer for a +12 wheel.

Picture starts to clear up

AASBO/TRA Kyoto GT 86: part 1

Boom. Here comes the new project. This should be the most awesome one I have by this moment.
Tamiya Gt86 body + custom fenders (previously trashed Yokomo BMW) and a custom paint job.

Alex Racing Design CER D11 Plustoyo

Finally, holidays have arrived, and I had some time to clean my chassis properly, and rebuild it with thread lock, which, how I understood in the process, was a total must. 

After 4 months of using the chassis, I can say, that it rides really great. Weight balance and weight shift possibilities are amazing. The only downsides for me, are a bit weak rear CVD's and not enough steering lock.

Onevia pop-up lights. Finally done

Well, it's been almost a year since I cut the holes for these pop-up lights. And now they are finally done.

I was in a real hurry, so I messed up some parts, but I really like that it works, and it is finished at last.

This body holds a total of 22 LED's with working turn signals, stop lights, rearward movement lights, and blinkers, as well as an intercooler (which i don't have yet) light. ALl thanks to this magical thingy.

Here is a small video of how it works.

Body: Vetrice design BMW V2.0

After 1 year, since I made my first BMW, I decided to pay a tribute, and make it a couple.

So, that's the same Yokomo BMW, but "street legal". THought of making it candy red, but I somehow miscalculated the layers, and i came out a bit darker, than I wanted.

Again, some more new parts. Mainly - the Yokomo white rod ends and ball-bolts to decrease the steering play. Also, a Square 21T center-rear Pulley for 1,81 CS. 

And 2 sets of new tires, Mikuni for the asphalt and Top-line for the carpet.

New parts for ARD.

After some time spent with making Hamster's slow rebound mod working, I decided to try out the active pistons. Together with that, I bought some new useful stuff.