

	What better way to enjoy the world of R/C than with a car capable of both on and off-road use? There is none. Rally cars simply provide the best bang for your buck and can bring your R/C fun-o-meter way up. So when I saw a Losi Rally Weapon going for but $100 on eBay, I acted. The last day of school, I received it. Since then, I have learned to love the powers of 4 wheel drive. Read on! 1/27/2002 -- Suddenly, disaster strikes... My Rally weapon has been getting quite the bit of use lately, and the amount of usage it has been getting had to have an effect at some point. Finally, it happened. I had been waiting to run the car for a while so that I could make a video of it. The night before I was to make the video, I did a thorough cleaning of the Weapon...every last piece of dust got shot off via motor spray. I set up the camera, and put on the new HPI Civic Si Coupe body, and went out for a spin. Immediately, I realized something was wrong, because it was moving slowly, and spinning completely if I turned in one direction. I let the film roll for a minute or so, hoping that it had captured the problem. The problem was easy enough to find even without the film. At every wheel, a dogbone connects to a diff outdrive. Around every outdrive is a 1/2" by 3/4" bearing. One of these bearings, the rear left outdrive bearing, to be precise, had seized and put the Weapon into 3WD. The problem started when I blasted down the outdrives with motor spray the night before. I had always noticed a large amount of oil near that bearing, and had just figured that the previous owner had just oiled it poorly. In reality, that oil was there so that the bearing could function as a bushing. When I removed the oil, the bearing clamped down onto the outdrive and prevented it from moving. I need to buy a new bearing, but it could take quite a while to get one. Here's a pic of the new (ugly ) Civic body for street use. 1/10/02 -- More fun... This car has turned me into both a Losi fan and a 4WD addict. The next car I buy will be 4WD, and chances are that it will be an off-road vehicle. For anybody considering purchasing a 4WD R/C in the future, I highly recommend it. The fact of the matter is that 4WD is so much easier, and more fun, to drive than 2WD, that I don't think I could be satisfied with another 2WD vehicle. I've been driving the car a lot now, and have had a significant amount of time to do some maintenance and record the way it handles. After about 7 runs, the comm on the Midnight 2 Pro was toasted, and the brushes were in bad shape. Of course, this is the one point in time where I don't have motor spray. I ended up just using some alcohol and spinning the motor around a few times. I then cleaned the comm with my new Peak Performance comm stick and replaced my severely worn brushes with some new "99 Plus" brushes from Trinity. The cars speed shot up, and so did the number of crashes I was having. Nevertheless, the Weapon seems committed to living down its reputation as fragile. On a number of opportunities, I've taken the Weapon off-road. My only gripes are that the Focus body exaggerates the cars tendency to nosedive over jumps, and the car has the tendency to roll. I think the rolling problem is from the Focus body also. I'm hoping to replace it soon with either an Acura RSX or a Subaru Impreza WRX body shortly. Here's a new pic with which I dare all touring car owners to compete: 12/21/20 -- The fun... This car is an absolute blast. Immediately after getting the car after school yesterday, I took out a nearly dead battery, picked up the car, hit the throttle, and watched all four wheels spin. So cool! However, the Rally Weapon is designed for saddle packs, so I had to do some sort of conversion to make the car accept stick packs; see the Conversion page. After the conversion, I took out the car for its inaugural run. 4WD is amazing. As long as you're on the throttle, the car sticks to the road. Let go of the throttle, and you smoothly transition into a four wheel drift. Hit the throttle again, and you're on track again. I did note some problems, though. The car would often veer off to one direction at speed, causing a string of near crashes that could've put an end to this car. Thankfully, the Futaba MC230CR esc is set up so that brake occupies the entire reverse throw of the transmitter. Hit reverse again, and it then begins reversing. The brakes are excellent; with the car hurtling forward at full speed, it only takes 2-3 feet to stop it completely. Another problem was that my battery kept flying out. I was able to fix this by reinstalling a post. I also had the opportunity to drive the Weapon off-road, albeit slowly. What I noticed is that the 4WD was able to pull the car over obstacles that my 2WD Bandit has to fly over. The ground was too wet for me to try any serious off-roading. Here are some preliminary pics: The body was nicely painted; I'm not sure if it was done by the factory or by the previous owner. A picture with the stick-pack appropriate chassis setup. Current Setup of my Losi Rally Weapon Chassis --Removed saddle pack holders --Stick pack conversion Rear Suspension --Stock Rally Weapon setup Front Suspension --Stock Rally Weapon setup Drivetrain --Stock, 3 belt 4WD Rally Weapon setup Electronics and Motors --Trinity Midnight 2 Pro Stock 27t motor --Futaba MC230CR electronic speed control --Tower Hobbies System 3000 radio