Traxxas sprinter: The eagle goes oval

Almost every RC fanatic has an old vehicle lying around doing nothing but collecting dust. a good friend of mine, Glenn "Fluffy" Oswald, has many such machines. For the spirint car showcased here, Glenn revived a retired, 2WD Traxxas* Blue Eagle race truck from the early '90s. Although no longer state of the art for concentional off-road racing, the sprint-spec version really rips on the dirt oval at Xtreme RC in New Milford, CT. I oughta know; it's my track!

CHASSIS

The first step in the operation was to take the vehicle down to a bare chassis and prepare it for painting. After it had been cleaned with isopropyl alcohol to remove grease and grime, the chassis was ready for a few coats of Black Baron* yellow epoxy paint. That took care of the main chassis plate, but there's more to a sprinter than a slab of aluminum. A roll cage, bumpers, and nerf bars had to be constructed. Glenn cut, bent and soldered the parts together using sections of K&S* brass tube. He drilled holes in all the joints, installed pins for extra support and used silver solder throughout.

Louvered-aluminum side plates add to the look and are off-the-shelf parts from Big Boy Toys*, as is the rear bumper. The tubular parts and side plates are bolted to the chassis with 4-40 screws.

SUSPENSION

As a race truck, the Blue Eagle came equipped with tall shock towers to accommodate long-travel shocks. This setup provided much more travel than the project required, so Glenn had to make a few mods.

He removed a full inch from the lower half of the rear tower and drilled new mounting holes to attach the tower to the front of the gearbox. Then he added a custom-made graphite upper camber-link support/rear bumper brace to the front of the stock gearbox. Using the stock mounting hardware, he bolted short versions of Kyosho's now-defunct Platinum shocks to the shock tower. (Historical note: the Plats were the first shocks to feature externally adjustable damping, and they used a system very similar to that now offered by Progressive Suspension.)

There was no need to shorten the stock front shock tower, but Glenn did drill 4/40 holes lower in the shock tower to accommodate the short Kyosho* Platinum shocks.

Some other original Blue Eagle components were overkill in sprint-car mode. The truck's long suspension arms made the car's track too wide. Solving this problem was easy: by using Traxxas buggy arms, Lunsford* short titanium rods, stock hubs and front spindles, Glenn found that he had the perfect width for dirt-oval racing.

BODY

Glenn chose a Big Boys Toys sprint-car body because of its detail and realism. He painted it with Pactra* Candy Blue, black, silver and orange. The upper wing is from Associated*, but Glenn made the nose wing himself using Bolink* 0.030 Lexan. He painted both wings with Pactra paints to match the body and mounted them on the roll cage using BRP* wing buttons and piano wire fitted into Du-Bro* throttlecable holders. He then soldered the holders to the top of the roll cage, allowing the wing to be removed easily by loosening a few setscrews.

WHEELS AND TIRES

HPI* chrome, 5-spoke, truck wheels fitted with Pro-Line* 2.2 Road Hawgs complete the rear of the car, while the front has a matching set of rims and rubber in buggy size. This setup gives the machine the right balance of traction for sideways oval action.

GETTING SIDEWAYS

Glenn's sprinter is impressive enough on the shelf, but I just had to drive it. After installing a fully charged 2000mAb pack in the stock battery holder, I took the car for some hot laps on the dirt oval. If you think four-wheel drift is fun with a touring car, you've got to try driving a sprinter! Glenn's machine will hang its tail out all the way around the track, and it's a fast Tide. Turning left doesn't get any more fun than this. Great job, Fluff.

*Addresses are listed alphabetically in the Index of Manufacturers on page 216.

Copyright Air Age Publishing May 2000
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