[WIP] [MOC] [RC] Turbo Racers vs. [...] - Latest model!

[johnnym]

 

Now for something completely different:

A Spyder from the future - the Turbo Racer's AMC Ultra - and its opponent - the Police Interceptor MM Falcon PS (both based on @rm8's chassis for his AWD prototype)

Now you can play Outrun - but for real!

UPDATE: This series of RC cars will get updated in the future with new additions.

UPDATE2: It was time for a logo and here it is (might be subject to change)

Edited February 21, 2020 by johnnym
Added logo

[johnnym]

The Turbo Racer's car, an AMC Ultra

(AMC - Apollo Motors Company)

Since I own a Buggy motor I always wanted to create a fast car with it, but couldn't came up with a useful chassis. I thought about a standard RWD setup but then remembered @rm8's AWD prototype and knew it's gonna be this one. I started to build it from the shots available in the video and after some fiddling and a lot of forward/reverse in the video I got a working chassis.

The first drive in my bedroom was just hilarious! Man, I didn't thought a Buggy motor would make such a difference. Using one genuinely feels like cheating.

But what's a chassis without a body? I wanted to have a race car, so didn't want to recreate what @rm8 did. I thought, why not do something futuristic and through 8386 and an 8272 I had a lot of old-style - but looking more futuristic than the newer ones - red panels and thought that this could be the first application for them. It is a little tricky to use them as they only have pin holes on one side but it also wasn't that important for me to create something sturdy. The resulting body is actually V2 already, as the first version was too low at the front and kept scratching the floor during drive.

So what's in it?

• A PF Servo motor for steering,
• a Buggy motor for propulsion
• and a BuWizz for power and RC.

I use the old 49.6 x 28 VR tyres with matching rims as wheels. I really like their looks and especially that also the tyres have two "faces", not only the rims as in modern LEGO wheels. I have two complete sets of these rims and spray-painted four of them in black. ATM I am still undecided which rims to use, the white ones or the black ones.

I'd like to add some bigger rear lights and maybe some illumination for front and rear lights and maybe an illuminated power core in the future.

Ditched that, these cars use turbines and nothing else.

    
@syclone: Hey, would you mind to create an opponent for this one? I instantly thought about your futuristic racers mentioned in:

Finally two shots from above and below:

On the last shot you can see the steering mechanism, which is also the weak point of that design. When cornering a lot, the connection of the wheel hubs and the steering rack can get loose over time (5 mins of driving or more). I haven't yet find a solution for that.

@rm8: Say, how did you fix them, because when looking at the hard driving in:

 

...your connections seem to be more sturdier as what I experienced when driving my AMC Ultra.

The Police Interceptor - an MM Falcon PS

(MM - Mars Motors)

A super fast car like the AMC Ultra needs a worthy opponent on the road. And this MM Falcon PS is the latest in highway patrol and interception.

This car is using the same setup as the AMC Ultra, i.e.:

• A PF Servo motor for steering,
• a Buggy motor for propulsion
• and a BuWizz for power and RC.

The chassis is also nearly identical, except for the front axle, which I modified a little where wheels and steering are attached.

So far I didn't have the problems as with the AMC Ultra's front axle: even after excessive driving the steering rack stays connected. So I'll most likely change the front axle for the AMC Ultra, too (when I rebuild it - as its chassis was used to build the MM Falcon PS' body on it).

Edited January 6, 2020 by johnnym
Adapted naming to back story

[Jurss]

Really interestig designs, theme is weel kept, and they look really good. 

[johnnym]

@Jurss: Thank you very much, glad you like them.

And I might repeating myself, but I really like these old panels - I think the ones with the large holes have even more appeal - they seem to be just made for futuristic cars. And they're dirt cheap on BrickLink.

[johnnym]

Oh noes , the Turbo Racer got busted by the Police! Will there be a new contender? Maybe, but read for yourself...

Spoiler

## Turbo Racer crash site ##

Greg Parsons: Hi and good morning, this is Greg Parsons for Autonews. We're here at the crash site of Mitchell Baker a.k.a. the notorious Turbo Racer. When trying to finish the East to West part of the TransAm race he got caught earlier in the morning by local Police near the border of California. Now nothing more is left from his AMC Ultra than a smouldering wreckage and he just got driven away with an ambulance. From what we know at the moment he was lucky and his injuries aren't life threatening.

G: I'll now talk to the two patrol officers that cought him to get their view on the situation.

<<Not far away, a person sits in a red car - standing on a hill ledge overlooking the scenery - listening to the radio, Autonews is on>>

G: Good morning officers, what can you tell us?

PO Davis: Good morning, Greg.

PO Willys: Hey Greg.

D: Well, we were on patrol early this morning when we got signalled that he's heading towards us and we caught up with him quickly.

G: Give me a minute: One thing I don't understand, how could you even get close to an AMC Ultra with your MM Falcon? From the stats the Ultra is much more powerful with more than 1400 HP than the Falcon which maxes out way below 1000 HP.

AMC - Apollo Motors Company
MM - Mars Motors

W: Sure, Greg, but our Falcon is not an ordinary Falcon, it's a Falcon PS.

G: PS?

D: That stands for Pursuit Special. We got extras in our Falcon that allow us to keep up with fugitives.

G: So how much power do you have available?

D: That's classified.

G: Oh, come on, you can't let us hang in there without a number?

W: Ok, ok, let's say we got enough to not letting an AMC Ultra escape easily.

G: Ok, let's make 1400+ HP out of this, that will definitely interest our audience. Now please tell us how you could stop the Ultra. I mean even if you're equally powered, stopping another car at high speeds can't be that easy?

D: You're right, it requires skill and caution. For the Ultra we managed to get alongside it and than hit its front wheels with all we got. After some hits it broke and the Ultra rolled over and crashed.

G: The car looks totally wrecked, terrible, how come that Mr. Baker is still alive?

W: Yeah, that was a hillarious scene.

<<A WTF look from Greg into the camera. An ashamed look from PO Davis.>>

W: When the car started to roll over, Baker's instantfoam suit inflated and he got ejected from the Ultra. Ha, ha, ha, he looked like the freaking Michelin man! It will take some time until they can remove all that foam stuff in the hospital.

G: What will happen now?

D: He's going to jail for a while.

<<The person in the red car has heard enough and turns the ignition key and the engine of the car comes to life. At the crash site, suddenly a loud rumble from an engine start not too far away can be heard.>>

G: What was that?

<<A turbine slowly revving up increasing the volume than provocatively playing with the gas. The people at the crash site check the surroundings.>>

W: There, look, on that hill ledge, a red car! Ha, looks like we have another contender for today.

<<Autonews camera man Lenny Kowalsky points his camera to the red car and tries to get a good picture>>

D: Ok, let's go, I know a short cut.

<<Both POs jump in their car and zoom off kicking up a lot of dust. Screaming tyres when they hit the road. In time Lenny gets a good shot on them. The red car also zooms off leaving behind a dust circle. And screaming tyres when touching the road.>>

G: And here they go. Greg Parsons for Autonews, out.

<<Shortly afterwars>>

G: Lenny, tell me you got this on cam, right?

L: For sure! <<Chuckling>>

G: What did you get of the red car?

L: Nothing too clear, it was a little too far away. But I think I got a few usable shots, but look for yourself. What I can see from it looks very 80ies.

G: Indeed, never saw such a car but it has some classic lines. Let's acquire some expertise about what we have.

 

## Pursuit ##

<<The black Police Falcon PS caught up with the mysterious red car after a few minutes of driving.>>

D: Got'ya! What a beauty, but seems to be not fast enough for us.

W: Hey, should I call for reinforcements - just in case?

D: No, we're too close to the state border, we'll stop that car right now.

W: Ok, then.

<<The POs now try to stop the red car. But each time they try to overtake or ram it, the red car evades the try. Not noticed by the patrol officers, While doing this, the red car consistently revs up the speed of the pursuit bringing the black Police Falcon slowly to its limits.>>

D: Man, that car is fast.

<<PO Davis starts to realize that their contender is up to everything they had in their Falcon and much more.>>

W: What are you waiting for, overtake him.

D: Don't you realize it? We're at max speed already and our turbine will shut down soon if we continue at that speed. That driver just played with us. Unbelieveable how fast this car is.

<<The overheat indicator lights up, and the black Police Falcon starts to smoke like hell. Noticing that, the red car taunts them by rapidly increasing the speed and moving away. The Falcon's turbine shuts down and soon after the car looses speed.>>

W: WTF? How could that happen?

D: Looks like we're no longer the kings of the road?

<<The red car is already a quarter mile away and still revving up.>>

W: Hear that, that car is still accelerating, insane!

D: Hey, you got his license plate, right?

W: Sure.

D: What does it say?

W: C-Y-A - California.

D: <<SIGH>> Ah, geez, call central, we need a pick-up.

 

## Interview with John Doe ##

G: Hi, this is Greg Parsons for Autonews. We've got a special guest on the line today. Self-procclaimed successor of the Turbo Racer. Let's welcome him!

John Doe: Hello!

G: Thanks for giving us this interview. So, for a start, say, how should we call you, John Doe?

J: <<Chuckling>> Well, Greg, you can just call me the driver.

G: OK, the driver then. You're currently providing a lot of excitement. Ever since we noticed your car and got a glimpse of it at the Turbo Racer's crash site we would like to know what car that is, a car that seems to be uncatchable by the Police so far according to our sources. And it's a very uncommon sight these days and a lot questions from our audience asked us for details about it. We asked around, but most people were lost with the stills of the car we could provide. So what can you tell us about your car?

Driver: Well, yeah, it might be uncommon these days for multiple reasons, for example it is actually from the 2030s.

G: Ah, 2030s? That explains part of it. But sill there should be some information available about it?

D: Actually only a few of these cars were completed before the manufacturer went out of business making it an absolute insider's tip.

G: Please come to the point: What type of car is it actually?

D: Sorry for tantalizing you and the audience: It's a Storm from VULCAN Manufacturing.

G: So a VULCAN Storm - interesting naming. Though I never heard of that car nor manufacturer. Please tell us more about the manufacturer.

D: VULCAN manufacturing was created by millionaire Freddy Pearce III. And it did accomplish with what Lotus and Vector failed a few years earlier: the fusion of a GT with a supercar. In the end the Lotus Vector didn't materialize and so Mr. Pearce - a great fan of that project - bought the rights and produced it himself.

G: And what broke VULCAN?

D: Mr. Pearce was killed in an auto accident and his heirs stopped VULCAN as it wasn't profitable at that time.

G: Aha, sad story.

D: Indeed, what a waste.

G: What makes this car so special? Our sources tell us that you did get away in all recent pursuits. Seems like that car is basically unstoppable.

D: Well, it's driven by a single turbine that provides just over 2000 HP to all wheels - that's without injecting water ([1]), then power increases considerably, but only for a few seconds. So basically the Storm is just more powerful than most other comtemporary cars, including the tuned Falcons of the Police. I actually only know of one car that matches its power.

G: Ok, that's interesting, is it a current one?

D: Yes, it came out only last year. That car is build by the German supercar manufacturer FAHR.

G: Ah, you mean the FAHRMaschine?

D: Exactly. As it has two turbines it has even more power than the Storm, but as it uses a rear wheel drive instead of an all wheel drive as the Storm, the Maschine is not as agile, though max speed is higher. Well, and it doesn't have a roof, so not for me. <<Chuckling>>

G: I see, our audience maybe still remembers our coverage on it when it came out. I seem to remeber that FAHR didn't even specify how much power the two turbines provide and just say it'd be enough for all needs. Now let us talk a little about yourself: What's your background? And what drives you?

D: Well, I can't give you too much about my background because as you know, I'm a fugitive currently <<Chuckling>>, but maybe just so much: I'm in cars since my early childhood and never let go since. I have driven a lot of cars during my life, but never changed since I have the Storm.
D: What drives me? Well, I like freedom and peace and both is in jeopardy since years. So I want to lead by example and fight back by not complying. When Mitchell started the TransAm race, I knew we were on the same side. And when he got busted, I had to continue his quest and do the West to East part of the TransAm.
D: Ahm, if you don't have any other questions and woulnd't mind, I need to loose a few cars. <<Chuckling>>

G: Ah, sure, I already wondered about that background noise. Again thank you for giving us your view. Godspeed, driver.

D: Thanks and see you. <<Turbine reving up>> <<Line closed>>

G: Well people, now we definitely know more. We will try to gather some more information about the VULCAN Storm and provide all details we can get on our site. If you know something about this seemingly iconic car, please let us know via our mailbox. That's it for now, Greg Parsons for Autonews, out.

V U L C A N STORM

The sixth picture still shows the earlier version, as I forgot to take a side view of the v2

Edited February 21, 2020 by johnnym
Moved pictures out of spoiler

[johnnym]

F A H R maschine sneak peek:

[Mechbuilds]

You have a nice funky style on your mocs. I like it!

[johnnym]

On 1/12/2020 at 3:58 AM, Mechbuilds said:

You have a nice funky style on your mocs. I like it!

Thanks @Mechbuilds! @rm8's original chassis really made all these models possible. I hope I don't ran out of (body) ideas for this series for a while.

[johnnym]

Finally, the F A H R maschine has arrived!

Spoiler

Autonews special hosted by Greg Parsons

"Heads up! A new Turbo Racer appeared on the continent: There were sightings of the incredible maschine from German supercar manufacturer FAHR in the states. At first these were close to the east coast and are now moving west, maybe it is following the TransAm? Not sure how that was accomplished, as the Germans are actually banned from exporting cars to the US since the 2030s. Well, obviously someone somehow got that icon into the states. And we are keen to hear news of its journey, so if you by chance spot it, contact us asap.

For now we only saw pictures and heard an audio recording of a drive-by - sounds like a Hawker Hunter on a low-level fly-by, just awesome! - unfortunately no videos so far. The pictures look authentic and our sources tell us, that the police already tried to catch it, but so far wasn't successful. If we follow our source, all interceptors they sent after the FAHRmaschine were actually totally steamrolled - though no official comment on that yet.

We also got news of the actual driver of the maschine, he seems to go by the name Fritz. <<Chuckling>> that fits. So, hey Fritz? If you're out there hearing that, we'd terribly like to get an interview with you, please contact us.

And here's a short information for our viewers and readers: if you haven't yet seen our article about the FAHRmaschine or don't remember it, check our archive for our in-depth look on this power house.

Over and out, Greg Parsons for Autonews."

Well, I wasn't satisfied with the actually planned back story for this car, so went for a different approach (i.e. this sort of introduction) and plan the real back story (i.e. the "in-depth look on this power house") for a later date.

What's new?

This was the first car in this series that uses RWD instead of AWD. It has a different front axle construction and an interesting alternative road performance, compared to the cars with AWD. The body construction is not ideal - actually two parts not interconnected - but it's sturdy enough for driving and it's good-looking IMO.  Actually I still find it one of the best looking cars in this series.

Pictures:

Hope you like the logo - if you haven't noticed it yet, as it's available since quite a while in the first post. Some of the other cars are now also available on Rebrickable (including a car yet unpublished on Eurobricks). Have a look if you like, the digital models are available from there.

[johnnym]

Here are my two latest cars (or four if you include the variations) for this series. I've been working on them the last two weeks and they are not yet published on Rebrickable, but I'd like to present them here.

PG Mantyger - Muscle car from Scotland, RWD. Inspired by Dodge Challenger

PG Mantyger H/R - Hill climber / Rallye edition; final model will have AWD, maybe some 50mm non-LEGO rallye tyres would be cooler

PG Mantyger [...] - special edition Mantyger, but no label for the trim yet, maybe it will also get AWD; I thought DBG and red wouldn't look too bad, so ordered a few of those DBG old-style panels

KT [...] - no name for the car actually and manufacturer's name is not yet final, but it's definitely gonna be a Japanese car; AWD and offered both with turbine or Wankel engine. Inspired by older Ferraris, older Lambos (and also Asterion) and Mitsubishi 2000GT

[johnnym]

Had to dig that thread up for my latest model of the series: the 2055 McKall Pusher!

This model's body was prototyped on the weekend over the course of two days and further developed on the third day.

It's an open top sports car with vibes from some classic sports cars - can you guess which ones? It wasn't designed specifically after those though but developed into the current form naturally, starting with the rear hips/fenders.

It started in an AWD chassis - I had it laying around - but was later transplanted to a freshly built RWD one, that has a RC Buggy motor (currently using an original one from TLG) mounted mid-engine style between front and rear wheels. The steering motor is currently missing but will be placed centered and directly behind the front axle. Some details are not finished yet, e.g. due to missing parts in desired color or unclear preference. Don't mind the rear lights changing their orientation on the picture series, this is another thing I'm yet undecided. I'm not sure what looks better, the spoiler tip like one where the lights point upwards or the other one where the lights point downwards. I think both have an interesting look.

I also imagine a more extreme variant without front grill, a wind deflector instead of a windshield and a "metallic" tubular roll bar instead of the current one. I hope to be able to switch between variants by just exchanging some submodels. Enough talk, here it is, looking forward to your comments.

Well, well, this thread misses a lot of already released and not yet released models from the series, so I maybe will present a few in the near future. If you're interested you can check out the already released models at Rebrickable: Turbo Racers vs. Police Interceptors

In the meantime have a look at the following video from last year which compares different RC Buggy motor implementations and their respective speed when powered by a Buwizz 3.0 unit according to the LEGO speed computer:

 

[sebulba56]

I spot a big AC Cobra inspiration here. Also the rears views make me think of an Lancia Stratos. Big fan of the color scheme.

[johnnym]

18 minutes ago, sebulba56 said:

I spot a big AC Cobra inspiration here.

Indeed, it has that vibe, especially the front looks I believe. So one found, two to go...

18 minutes ago, sebulba56 said:

Also the rears views make me think of an Lancia Stratos.

You know, I also thought that lately. Though it actually looks quite different. I think it also reminds me of some car from Cyberpunk 2077.

18 minutes ago, sebulba56 said:

Big fan of the color scheme.

Thanks, and me too. At first I thought it could look a little too much 42055 color-like, but in the end I'm quite happy with it. Still need a few parts in dark blue (and yellow) though.

[Thirdwigg]

Yeah, I like this one too. I love the exposed rear tires at the rear. The gentle up and down curve of the beltline is great too. Great job!

[johnnym]

2 minutes ago, Thirdwigg said:

Yeah, I like this one too. I love the exposed rear tires at the rear.

Thank you very much! And yes, that's a trend I'm totally addicted to lately. The P.B.M. 55, the UV Lazer and others have them, too.

2 minutes ago, Thirdwigg said:

The gentle up and down curve of the beltline is great too. Great job!

I'm happy that it worked out as I imagined it, too. I think I couldn't have built it that way earlier (e.g. last year or so), so it is the right model at the right time.