I knew I wanted this car to be special, so I ordered
an array of upgrade parts before I even built the model. Pictured
here are aluminum steering parts, motor mount, sway bars, and some
differential parts.
I was worried about the durability of the tiny plastic gears in the
differentials so I ordered this set of metal cross pins and gears.
Sitting above the upgrade bags you can see the exposed rear
differential after I removed the bulkhead.
The left hand image shows a comparison of the old and new differential
gears. The stock plastic parts are on the right, and the new steel
parts on the left. I have no proof that the stock parts were
inadequate, but I feel better with the upgraded parts. Similar
tiny plastic bevel gears are still present right next to the transverse
mounted motor. I originally intended to upgrade both the front and
rear diffs, but I could find only one set of parts in stock at the
store I used, so I decided to go with a one-way spool in front, shown in
the right hand image next to the stock diff. It radically changes
the handling of the car when braking since only the rear wheels brake.
The left hand image shows all the parts I removed from the car.
Apart from what I've discussed so far, you can see the motor mount, the
rear shock tower, the shocks, and the steering cranks. On the
right are the extra parts from the upgrade packs. There were two
motor mount options and I only used one of them. The sway bar set
came with three stiffness options, only one of which was used, so the
others remain available for some other car.
These final images compare the chassis before and after the
upgrades. The most immediately obvious difference is the
shocks. I got some really nice TRF shocks that are perfect.
Most of the other changes are hidden inside, although you can see the
blue shock tower peeking out in back, and you can see the anti-roll bars if you look closely.
