sports850

That is really cool , both the subject matter and the build . Well done .

Shawn , I thought the detail you were doing on this way back when you started was amazing but you are continuing to raise the bar higher and higher . Amazing work .

Sorry to hear of your , and your family's loss Darin , I hope you all can continue to find support in the happy memories . You are all in my prayers .

Basic is an understatment for it I remember using it on a section of highway we were building (closed to traffic) and the nut holding the butterfly valve on the exhaust vibrated loose , instant full throttlestraight down the highway till it ran out of radio range . Found it further down the road on it's side still screaming and doing donuts spinning on the top edge of the A pillar from the top of one wheeel touching the ground ....

Those lights are cool !!!!

You're way above my level so I didn't notice the cross terminology I dragged mine out of storage today as they've been there for several years due to an ex wife not being very mini friendly Kyosho .049 rwd mini , this is from somewhere around 1989 or 1990 , very basic and a bit of a pig to get running right . The 049 engine doesn't have a carb as such , just a mixture needle and a butterfly valve on the exhaust to slow it down . It also has a brass band that tightens on the flywheel for brakes but since the flywheel gets coated in oil from the exhaust ( along with everything else , hence kyosho tyres don't like being stored after being near nitro fuel , they stuck to the box ...) all the band does is smoke when applied . It ran great when in tune , not the best handling but sounded good . Kyosho 15 fwd mini , never fired this one up , haven't got a smooth enough , big enough area to try it and besides , it just looks too cool to get dirty I got this one somewhere around 1998 from memory . Mardave Ministox rwd electric , this is a very basic , low powered suspensionless mini but is a lot of fun , it's built like a tank and is modeled on a British class of speedway mini so can handle a lot of bumps . It's great fun against faster cars as it will handle hard hits when they try and overtake , it's also fun for tripping over monster trucks . It's from somewhere around 1988 . Tamiya electric fwd , LOT of fun and takes a lot of abuse , this is the real early version (1992 I think) with the horizontal spring across the front for front suspension that didn't do much , later versions had independent shocks . It's primarily standard , has gone through more sets of tyres than I could count and just gets thrashed and comes back for more .

Yes , the Mini-Trac used Snow-Trac tracks which were two bands of rubber conveyor belting style laminated rubber sheet with metal grousers on the outside and metal tyre guides inside . The closest I have come up with so far for it is two strips of vynil with big staples every 3 or so mm so there's a flat side outside and a raised tyre guide on the inner side . Still looking for suitable , unpatterned vynil though .

Thank's , that's great . It's close to what I'm after but not quite right still Still , it's a ###### site closer than tank tracks .

Nice , I'll get some photo's of my RC ones this afternoon if I remember them So how many chanel RC are you using to be able to do the lights as well ? I'd love to put magnets in the rear wheels and an electro magnet on the hub to have a semi working handbrake .... but I have way too many bright ideas

Love seeing your mini builds Shawn , they are just so clean and sharp (I'm about to finally start a replica of my sports850 too , I've actually been too scared to use your grille and wheels , they are too perfect and I didn't want to stuff them up ...) . Nice car cartpix , if only they'd given the rest of the world a body with the suicide door on the other side (RHD markets have you opening that door to put people in the back seat from the traffic side) , How long have you had it for and what's your impression of it ?

I've got to join in on this one , The mini in my avatar is the Mini-Trac , built in Australia and trialed in Antarctica . It was mostly succesful except for the steering brakes (single leading shoe morris 850 brakes) freezing up . I started looking for info on it after finding a black and white photo online , found someone who recognised the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition (ANARE) logo on the front and then went hunting former ANARE members . I finally found someone (after talking to one person , who put me in touch with someone else , who put me in touch with someone else etc) who remembered seeing it in a Melbourne workshop before it went to Antarctica , after sending letters requesting information to everyone the region of Melbourne with the same last name I found Terry O'Hare who built the Mini-Trac and he was happy to chat about it and sent me a heap of photo's which I later got published in an Australian mini magazine . Also during this I was sent an email with the video file that's linked below by someone who'd heard on the grapevine that I was looking into the Mini-Trac , it was taken from super 8 film that he took in Antarctica and as far as I know is the only footage of it anywhere . You can see the steering brakes being used by the two levers in front of the driver . I also got a lot of help with the research from another forum (forumsforums , are you the same junkman as over there Christian ?) as I had no idea about snow vehicles prior to starting researching this (I live on the NSW mid north coast , near Coffs Harbour and only 600 meters from the beach so no snow ) . Anyway , here's the video and the article , I am planning on doing a scale build of this but have been hampered so far by being unable to find the correct tracks for it (taken from the Swedish Snow-Trac) , has anyone got any close up shot's of the Polar Lights lost in space vehicle please ? Anybody know if anyone is making sno-cat style tracks in scale ?

Yep , like the others said , cool start and a great idea for a build . I like sering different ideas like this .

Looks great , I love this type of build - bush mechanic's at it's best

Thank's for the input Scale Master , mini cooling systems are actually fairly efficient as the wheel well is a low pressure area and the air being forced in the front flows through easily , so much so that over 20 or so mph the fan is actually slowing the airflow down by interupting the flow . I have had many wild engines in them and never had overheating problems , but I always use a new radiator with a new engine whereas others don't and pay for it in the long run I started looking for a watercooled bike engine actually but ran low on options and the price of this kit was good Plus a mate had one of these bikes 15 or so years ago and then I was trying to convince him we should fit it into his mini . I am going to drill holes into the other side inner guard as well to increase airflow through the engine bay (and possibly vents in the bonnet if I can figure out how to do them properly ) . I just re-read this and realised it might sound a bit of a narky rebuff , not my intention mate , just explaining why this engine

Well , I found a great source of weaponry , for the Australian guy's KMart has a $15 bag of army stuff with all manner of guns (submachine guns cut down a bit are now in the old engine bay) and artiliery pieces and sandbag bunkers along with half a dozen soldiers that could become zombies ... I cut down 4 sub-machine guns to fit into the engine bay after trying to make a mini gun that would lift up and then swivel to the firing position (figured it would be too complex for the availible equipment after the worlds gone bad , plus it wasn't working ...) , need to rework the metal bonnet to fit over it now . Also the deck of the roof rack is on and starting to figure out the other armaments , "Mr Happy" will be slung below the rear window with the water writing facing out but when released will show "Mr Happy" along with a cable pulling a pin out for the timer ...

Well Hollys zombie outreach center's mini now has it's wheels under it , time to keep working on the armament now , especially in the former engine bay Looks like I'll have access to a truck paintbomb for the right price so will be building the support vehicle for this one too in the next month or so . And if anyone is wondering , Holly is a UK mini friend who has a bright pink mini , she's thrilled with this build and loves that her name's on it

Little bit more progress on this one , picked up a Tamiya GSX1100 Katana in 1:12 scale and assembled the engine (more detail work to do yet) and trial fitted , it's going to be tight but will work Lots more work to do with bracketry etc then the rest of the build as well .... Slowly slowly

Nice combination and well thought out . An Austin 7 hotrod is on my dream builds 1:1 list actually though with a twin cam 4 in it , small light and agile Then again , I am warped ...

Mmmm , the memories , I'll have to dig up the photo's of my Courier ('82 model or so from memory) styleside with fiberglass canopy on the back , false floor in the rear with double mattress on top . Among other places it took me on a Central Australia trip 13 or so years ago , very good touring wagon (only 2wd) and went well on dirt and rough stuff .

Thank's Mike , Barry , Tim , Evan and Gordon , Barry , well of course your son will be a nice guy then I have close to 1000 different model mini's in various mediums (plastic , kit , diecast , wood , ceramic etc) in my collection , they are kind of a disease ... Evan , mr Bean's mini is about the only one I haven't wanted to build so far , will have to add it to the list though along with some other movie and TV mini's (Italian Job - orriginal of course , Goodbye Pork Pie , Bourne Identity etc) . Just need more time and another trailer for the rig , B triple does sound tempting You need to add another trailer to yours though .

Feel free to put my build in there too Doc

Looks great Geoff , well done .

Thank's , I'll see if I can find some , the aluminium sheet I have is a bit thicker , just that little bit hard to work with but I'm still experimenting

Does that mean you're going to convert it back to a mechanical distributer and couple of big holley carbs Ken ? Or fit it with a sub-nuclear polymorphic powerplant ? Looks like a nice start with a lot of potential (plus I like the shape of them ) . Got to do a little more to mine tonight (I keep getting random ideas about how to do things with it), scratch built 10 semi auto shotguns that will be sort of hidden under the roofracks when it's finished (Holly's obviously pissed off with those Zombies) , I told you it would be well armed ..

ok , probably last update for this week , need to figure out how to make the armament now ... I'm still thinking of painting some pretty flowers on it to hide it's deadliness but have all the zombie proof mesh in . It's actually stainless steel termi-mesh (termite proof mesh that is cemented between lower courses of bricks in a house ) and looks pretty close to a tough mesh in scale form .