Today I am writing about a person who is probably the most popular RC Car driver in history. A phenomenon, a legend and some say a god of RC Car driving. He started his career as a baby and took all the way up to become World Champion. But this was not enough! He took 14 IFMAR World Champion titles in total! Of course I am talking about the one and only Masami Hirosaka!
Masami has a nice vintage collection. Now you, shelf queen racers!
Masami won so many titles, it is simply not to understand. Unreal. From another planet.
His most famous cars are of course his Worlds Yokomos and the Stealth cars, but he also drove so many different versions of the Team Associated RC10.
If you look in some old RC Car Magazines, Masami drove this RC10 platform in many variants. Masaaki, Masami´s father was obsessed with experimental cars. He took his jigsaw and cutted all night long shock tower after shock tower. Battery brace after battery brace and they tested all this stuff hours by hours.
Masaaki Hirosaka in his workshop. Always busy to cut and drill things. I had the honor to meet him some years ago at the Kingstar factory in Taiwan and we had a nice chat. He is such a intelligent, funny and experienced person. A true legend in business!
This is only one of the more crazy builds. You see the angled shocks for maximum progressive shock rates. Maybe good for ultra bumpy tracks.
But Masami also used the stock standard RC10. My guess is, that the guys from Team Associated got a little bit in worry, that Masami´s cars were too different from the norm. Too far away from the kit car. And maybe they had to beg the Hirosaka´s to use the damn kit car at least once in a year!
This is a article from the RC CAR ACTION MAGAZINE about Masami´s ´89 RC10 car.
I am sure, many of you guys drooled over this magazine. And it was no Playboy.
So this is my starting point of the RC10 in this article. My idea was, to make something like this, but not exactly the same. But Masami´s RC10 was clearly my inspiration for this build!
The RC CAR ACTION MAGAZINE made fantastic photos back in time. Masami used a Team Associated Viper body. For my build I took the Protech 2 body, painted by ARQ Paint/Spain.
The cut down gold tub chassis from the right.
And from the left side.
I took some of Masami´s original car elements. The battery went about 16mm more to the front. Steering servo with cutted tabs went also to the most front position. This helps to move more weight to the front of the car. We have learned, that weight at the front helps a lot at modern tracks with big jumps and high grip. So I made a brass weight, what fits exactly between the front arm mounts and painted it in Masami´s signature green.
A closer look into the tub. Fake Sanyo SCE cells made out of LRP 4000mAh NiMh Sub-C cells. A foam block behind the battery pack and a hand made battery brace.
I took a Novak 410-M1 speedo and a Reedy Tri Sonic 15x5T motor. Not exactly period correct!
I made new and optimized shock towers from glass fibre material. 0.89 shocks at the front, 1.32 shocks at the rear. Both shock towers has 3 shocks positions and allows a higher shock angle (more progressive operation). I took for the pretty long front shocks some Team Durango DEX410 front springs, what I designed by myself when I worked for them more, than 10 years ago. They are longer, than the Team Associated front springs, has smaller steps and they are really straight against the AE springs, what mostly rubbing at the shock body!
Yokomo 2.2 inch rear rims. You can see the carpet set-up. The rear arm mounts are from RPM. They allow a little bit more wheelbase.
Masami style Kydex front bumper. 25 degrees caster blocks for more agressive steering.
Again - all those colours screaming the 80´s!
The front end. Steering plate with ball bearings to reduce play and more precise steering.
The Reedy Tri Sonic motor is a beauty.
Stealth transmission with a B4 slipper unit.
You are right. I need less builds and more racing! After 2 years of Covid-19 isolation, I am tired about everyting. Angry about anti vaxxers who goes on the streets with idiots, conspiracy theorists and nazis. They all makes life even more worse. The world is definitely more mad, than 1989. So it really helps to dive in my workshop-space and working on parts and stuff for projects. It really helps to ballance your feelings and come down to the ground. The warm memories from my youth, the excitement to go racing, wrenching with your race buddies, thousand laugher and endless good stories comes in my mind, while sitting there, cleaning parts, building shocks, or gear transmissions, what I have build so many times, that I could do that with covered eyes. I am 100% sure, times will never be so jaunty, as the 80´s!
Rear view with a nice end.
This build is not only a nice addition to my shelf, it is the brother of my Masami Yokomo. And it seems, they like each other.
I hope, you like this build as I do! Thank you very much to Masami and Masaaki Hirosaka for all the years of inspiration, awesome racing and being legends!