8649 Nitro Menace

[DarkShadow73]

Just received this from Amazon 3rd party marketplace. Was a bit disappointed, should have checked BL's inventory sheet, might still have bought it, but not sure. I realize this is a nearly 7 year old item, but I see there is no working engine or diff on it. Has anybody ever done a mod to add an engine, driveshaft to connect to a diff to power the rear axle? It is a nice looking Racer car, paid a bit more than I wanted, but the lime green color scheme which we don't see much in Technic or Racers series really adds to the front fascia, sides, and fairings.

Edited March 19, 2012 by TechnicFreak

[DLuders]

There seems to be room to add Power Functions elements:

brictechnic and agataya5920 both "motorized" their Lego 8649 Nitro Menace sets. They did not show any details, though:

On his Brickshelf gallery, agataya shows pictures of Lego Power Functions inside the 8649 body:

On his Brickshelf gallery, vkyppwnsall has 9 BIG pictures (too big to show here) of his 8649 with Power Functions. On this Brickshelf subfolder, vkyppwnsall also shows a few pictures of "Rear differential drive, front steering, minor bodywork modifications, [for] set 8649."

Solic has pictures of his PF-motorized 8649 on his Brickshelf gallery.

[Kronos]

I added a few things...

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=494787

-Mike

[DarkShadow73]

@camaro365- I see you added a rear mounted engine, that was kind of my thought too, I assume it is a connected to a diff for the rear wheels, if so is it the newer or older style diff?

I added a few things...

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=494787

-Mike

@DLuders- never thought about making it RC with PF elements, that is something I might consider, its almost like this car is screaming for full RC control, thanks...

There seems to be room to add Power Functions elements:

On his Brickshelf gallery, vkyppwnsall has 9 BIG pictures (too big to show here) of his 8649 with Power Functions. On this Brickshelf subfolder, vkyppwnsall also shows a few pictures of "Rear differential drive, front steering, minor bodywork modifications, [for] set 8649."

Solic has pictures of his PF-motorized 8649 on his Brickshelf gallery.

[Kronos]

I used the new style differential. I had to modify the back pretty good to make everything work. I modded mine after it was built. I might rebuild it and mod it as I go. I think that would be easier.

[DarkShadow73]

Thanks camaro365 - if and when you get around to it, let me know some details of how I would go about adding the engine and diff, I see the only axle in it underneath is for HOG steering. Bear with me I'm not great with mods with a bit of detail, you can PM me or I can also give you my e-mail too.

I used the new style differential. I had to modify the back pretty good to make everything work. I modded mine after it was built. I might rebuild it and mod it as I go. I think that would be easier.

One thing I would definitely do is exchange the red spoiler with a lime green one, it is more in keeping with street racers, all body color the same. I am a big fan of street racing with modded out real import cars. I did have this set when it came out in '05, but gave it to a neighbor kid for free, one of my better mistakes I guess, but he got a kick out of it, so it made me happy. His dad mods cars for a living here in Grand Rapids, wouldn't mind getting my own tricked out and NOS equipped... ...we have a wicked wide freeway running 3 or 4 lanes wide for about 20 miles and it has a wicked fun elevated 2 mile long S-curve in it through part of the downtown area that is slightly elevated on the far right lane and angles a bit downwards towards the inside 4th most lane. Probably grab a heavy-duty ticket or jail if I took that one at 100mph or more. It says curve speed 50 mph, but I've modded my car a bit, cold air intake, bigger radiator w/ tranny cooler line, sticky low-profile tires and got a better set of sway bars and some bigger brakes on it, took it at 70-75mph and it stuck like glue, come up into the inside lane from the south and angle down towards the inside lane barrier wall at the bottom, then throttle it coming out of the curve at better than 85mph. Only have done this a few times, but it was a thrill ride, of course only late at night with little traffic, took my friend's tricked Ford Fusion by at the next exit...

Edited March 21, 2012 by TechnicFreak

[DLuders]

...Probably grab a heavy-duty ticket or jail....It says curve speed 50 mph....took it at 70-75mph....

"The Fuzz" is going to bust you!

[DarkShadow73]

Nice DLuders-

Looks like a replica of a Crown Vic police interceptor, did you do it yourself? They mainly run souped up Dodge Chargers around Grand Rapids nowadays, both state troopers and city patrol cars. County sheriff (outside of the city of GR) still runs some Crown Vics, but they are slowly converting to Chargers as does most GR suburb cities. Some run Ford Escapes. State boys run Mustangs a lot during the summer for fast pursuit then a Charger will come and pick up any 'no pass go, straight to jail', DUI's and stuff. We had a heck of a chase through the main east-west freeway through the city a couple months ago, somebody robbed something on the north end of the city and led them on a chase almost 25 miles before finally they flipped their car as most freeways through the city are divided by concrete barriers. Last fall they widened the east-west freeway and had put up real expensive bright lighting all along the dividers throughout the freeway system on top of the divider and the suspect's car hit the wall at a rate of speed, then it went up on 2 wheels like the Dukes of Hazzard and slammed into the light pole and knocked it down, car flipped, chase over. I've got a souped up (yes I can do mods! maybe not so much on Legos, I depend on you talented guys in this group to give me ideas and I take them all, but on car I can do real mods easily) 9-year old Mazda. Even the normally aspirated Turbo engine produced about 160hp, I added a few choice items and it brought it up to almost 200hp, with that light a car, it can produce 160 mph easily, speedo only says 140. Only did the race thing through the curves a couple times and no cop can hide on the 8-lane curve, its all cement dividers on both sides, they don't want their butts out near the driving lanes in case of DUI's or sleepy drivers, they'd be like sitting ducks. Only real plus to the elevated curve is its heated, so hardly any snow or ice builds up on it, kind of nice, too bad all roads around here don't have that kind of system...

"The Fuzz" is going to bust you!

[DLuders]

Nice DLuders- Looks like a replica of a Crown Vic police interceptor, did you do it yourself?

Nope -- the Lego "Crown Vicky" was done by the incomparable Lego911 (Flickr photosets).

[DarkShadow73]

Would be kind of cool if Technic kind of deviated from the norm of construction and air vehicles and made a large police car, possibly a Dodge Charger style which they mainly use around my area, or one of the off-road Explorer or Escape type police vehicles complete with PF for led lightbars which are the norm nowadays maybe even a siren(ha,ha), sort of on the scale of their Supercars. They have lots of those Escapes and Explorers for the frozen tundra of Alaska, yup big fan of Ice Road Truckers TV series...

Nope -- the Lego "Crown Vicky" was done by the incomparable Lego911 (Flickr photosets).

Edited March 26, 2012 by TechnicFreak

[DLuders]

[bUMP]

PA Nilsson posted this

of a "Lego Technic 8649 Nitro Menace driving by itself. Controlled by CyberMaster brick [which came with the Lego Technic 8482 set (pictured below), and with the 8483 set]. Two sensors in the front bumper and one to have it center steering and go almost straight". The Cybermaster 71797 Cybermaster Unit is fairly rare.

Edited February 2, 2013 by DLuders