Tiny - Special Ed's XRC RC-1

For his 39th birthday, Special Ed's loving wife bought him a 1/5 scale on road car (ain't she awesome!!!!). When going large scale with cars (hobby grade anyway) you have a few choices regarding manufacturers in a couple of different price points. Rather than break the bank right out of the chute Special Ed decided to go the less expensive route and chose the RC-1 by XRC. It has the same general features as the big guys (FG, H.A.R.M., Lauterbacher) but costs 1/4 as much. For that kind of money he could afford to put all kinds of sweet hop-ups on his car.

The 1/5 scale cars are powered by the same type of gas/fuel mix motors as most weed whackers, small tillers, etc). It has a 23cc engine and will top out at roughly 50MPH. These guys are huge...nearly 3 feet in length and 15 inches wide and weighing in at around 30 pounds. There are some things you have to do with these guys in order to make them more manageable (change shock oil and springs, stiffen the chassis, install better servos, install front brakes). All of the upgrades Special Ed has purchased so far only ran about $200 so it is still cheaper than the big guys.

We will update this page with all of the steps Ed takes to upgrade this puppy (assuming we don't get lazy). We will at least post a chart of the upgrades for anyone who cares to check it out.

UPDATE 08/30/07:
More power...that's the disease. Ed decided he wanted more power so got himself a Zenoah G260RC 26cc motor. Installation was fairly easy as the G260RC has the same mounting holes as the XRC stock motor does. There were a couple of things that needed modifying. First, if you get the Zenoah with a clutch installed you will have to remove the clutch case because the layout of the RC-1 requires the use of the clutch pan part (stock RC-1 part). You have to remove all of the clutch parts on both motors to make this swap (no way to get the clutch pan off of the RC-1 motor and onto the G260RC unless you do). The second thing you have to do, assuming you bought the G260RC with a 'heli' style muffler, is to take it off and turn it around so it fits the layout of the RC-1 chassis. No problems there though, the bolts and holes line right up and you still have a sealed muffler. The stock rubber exhaust elbow of the RC-1 fits perfectly onto the G260RC's stock 'heli' muffler. For $229 (at Dave's Motors) you can double the horsepower of the stock motor. Seemed worth it to me...others may disagree.

Ed also bought the Pegaso wheel system (from Big Boys Toys and Hobbies). For $160 you get four beadlock wheels (black or white) and four PMT Kronos tires specifically designed for the Pegaso system (hard plastic inserts). The tires you get are two 27 compound and two 20 compound. We haven't given them a test yet but will soon and will hopefully take the time to report the results. As the tires are the same except for the inserts there's no reason to expect they'll be much different from the standard Kronos wheels you buy.

So far here's what we've done:

Additional bracing between the rear supports

DDM air filter w/ Outerwears pre-filter

Outerwears pullstart pre-filter (to keep the dirt out)

Shock oil changed to 6000/3000 (front/rear)

H.A.R.M. white (front) & red (rear) springs (2.4x60mm & 2.2x55mm)

New fuel tubing

Front disc brakes

H.A.R.M. brake cables

HS-805BB servo for throttle & rear brake

HS-755MG servo for front brakes

HS-755MG steering servo

28T pinion & 36T spur gears