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I’ll start this one off with some background info. The Nitro RS4-3 was my first venture into nitro touring cars and I’m glad that it was. I always liked
how easy it was to disassemble and how vast the parts market was, plus they were shaft drive and very simple for noobs. I ended up buying a mint shelf queen many years ago and sold it for cheap because I needed money which I regretted ever since. So this build thread is dedicated to making the best Nitro 3 I can feasibly make.
I don’t have any pictures of the car in the condition of when I got it, but I do have a pic of the old chassis plate next to the new one. I got the car for a great deal, it had a dead .15 engine and some beat up bodies included. It was half disassembled, filthy, missing pieces and had a stripped spur gear BUT it included a brand new HPI G3.0 engine…
Old chassis was filthy, scratched, and had stripped screws stuck holding the steering posts. First order of business was sourcing this rare Racer’s Edge lightweight chassis plate, new stainless hardware and new chrome steering posts.
I started rebuilding the rear diff and rear suspension. I then added a carbon fiber rear shock tower, alloy body post mount, swaybar, GPM lower arms and rebuilt the shocks.
After that I began to do the same thing but for the front end, and added Tamiya wheels and tires.
Temporarily added this carbon fiber upper deck and gearbox mount. I was missing some standoffs and had to find new ones. It’s impossible to find new fuel tanks for this platform, so I fitted a new Kyosho fuel tank with built in primer.
So although it’s nice that a new G3.0 was included, the problem is I needed to buy a T3.0 crankshaft to be able to run a 2 speed clutch bell and have it mesh properly with the gearbox. So unfortunately I had to disassemble it to swap cranks, and also add motor mounts because they’re not built into the crankcase like on the T3.0. While it was apart I added a Hot Bodies purple cooling head to make it look more appealing, and then I added a Hot Racing carb dial. I wish I could’ve gotten some purple pinion gears but the new corporate HPI color is orange so I have to live with this for now
My old shelf queen that I sold had a brand new purple CVEC pipe on it. Unfortunately they’re difficult to find now but I scored this used silver CVEC pipe which included a new spring kit
I took it apart and polished it up as best I can, it has a lot of scratches and pitting so it won’t ever be 100% perfect.
[[CONTINUED]]
This Subaru body is one of my all time favorite HPI bodies and I thought it would be perfect for this build. Bought it new and painted it, trimmed it and cut out the air inlet and exhaust outlet. It came with the wrong style spoiler in the kit so I swapped out for the proper one
I also added “brake discs” and some nicer wheel nuts. I prefer long body pins for ease of use, and of course foam grommets to protect from scratches
[[CONTINUED]]
Here’s the chassis in all its glory, all the top deck screws were replaced with burnt titanium, plus added purple washers to them. I wanted a purple foam bumper but they’re harder to find than blue
Added decals
Eventually I took the engine out and added an oil catch and a lightweight flywheel. Purple was out of stock but they had blue…
MST servo saver, wanted purple but black will suffice. The servos are new Spektrum
Alloy gearbox mount, alloy servo arms and old school receiver cover
This is definitely my most “colorful” build
Here’s a pic of the undercarriage to show off the oil catch, flywheel and alloy brake disc. One of the spur gears is brand new to replaced the stripped one, it was super tough to find.
Taking these pics just reminded me I forgot to swap out the purple screws for stainless lol
how easy it was to disassemble and how vast the parts market was, plus they were shaft drive and very simple for noobs. I ended up buying a mint shelf queen many years ago and sold it for cheap because I needed money which I regretted ever since. So this build thread is dedicated to making the best Nitro 3 I can feasibly make.
I don’t have any pictures of the car in the condition of when I got it, but I do have a pic of the old chassis plate next to the new one. I got the car for a great deal, it had a dead .15 engine and some beat up bodies included. It was half disassembled, filthy, missing pieces and had a stripped spur gear BUT it included a brand new HPI G3.0 engine…
Old chassis was filthy, scratched, and had stripped screws stuck holding the steering posts. First order of business was sourcing this rare Racer’s Edge lightweight chassis plate, new stainless hardware and new chrome steering posts.
I started rebuilding the rear diff and rear suspension. I then added a carbon fiber rear shock tower, alloy body post mount, swaybar, GPM lower arms and rebuilt the shocks.
After that I began to do the same thing but for the front end, and added Tamiya wheels and tires.
Temporarily added this carbon fiber upper deck and gearbox mount. I was missing some standoffs and had to find new ones. It’s impossible to find new fuel tanks for this platform, so I fitted a new Kyosho fuel tank with built in primer.
So although it’s nice that a new G3.0 was included, the problem is I needed to buy a T3.0 crankshaft to be able to run a 2 speed clutch bell and have it mesh properly with the gearbox. So unfortunately I had to disassemble it to swap cranks, and also add motor mounts because they’re not built into the crankcase like on the T3.0. While it was apart I added a Hot Bodies purple cooling head to make it look more appealing, and then I added a Hot Racing carb dial. I wish I could’ve gotten some purple pinion gears but the new corporate HPI color is orange so I have to live with this for now
My old shelf queen that I sold had a brand new purple CVEC pipe on it. Unfortunately they’re difficult to find now but I scored this used silver CVEC pipe which included a new spring kit
I took it apart and polished it up as best I can, it has a lot of scratches and pitting so it won’t ever be 100% perfect.
[[CONTINUED]]
This Subaru body is one of my all time favorite HPI bodies and I thought it would be perfect for this build. Bought it new and painted it, trimmed it and cut out the air inlet and exhaust outlet. It came with the wrong style spoiler in the kit so I swapped out for the proper one
I also added “brake discs” and some nicer wheel nuts. I prefer long body pins for ease of use, and of course foam grommets to protect from scratches
[[CONTINUED]]
Here’s the chassis in all its glory, all the top deck screws were replaced with burnt titanium, plus added purple washers to them. I wanted a purple foam bumper but they’re harder to find than blue
Added decals
Eventually I took the engine out and added an oil catch and a lightweight flywheel. Purple was out of stock but they had blue…
MST servo saver, wanted purple but black will suffice. The servos are new Spektrum
Alloy gearbox mount, alloy servo arms and old school receiver cover
This is definitely my most “colorful” build
Here’s a pic of the undercarriage to show off the oil catch, flywheel and alloy brake disc. One of the spur gears is brand new to replaced the stripped one, it was super tough to find.
Taking these pics just reminded me I forgot to swap out the purple screws for stainless lol
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