Hello and welcome back on my NEO VINTAGE website! What happend since my last article from February 2024? For me personal a lot! From racing, I had the chance to go with Team Germany back to the OLDSCHOOL RC EURO MASTERS 2024 at MB Models/UK. As last time, we had a absolutely fantastic time there! It was amazing to meet all the heroes and friends again and to make new friends at this great event!
This is the biggest vintage buggy indoor meeting in the world! And the guys were better prepared than ever. Everybody tried to improve their cars from last year and there is no other RC meeting, where you can see the more of this most beautiful, creative and wildest builds you can imagine!
This time I packed my Kyosho fleet to run 2 classes 2WD and 2 classes 4WD.
And I had the chance to run my brand new Neo Vintage Racing Ultima build! It was the first coming out of this car - and it was mind blowing fast!
In this class - 1985 to 1987 - there were the most competitors of the whole race. The track was packed with Schumacher Cougars and Ultimas and also RC10´s and some other 2WD´s from this time. And the level of competition was high!
I learned my lessons from the last race here to make a proper set-up. And it worked super well from the beginning! And I made it in the A-final! Over the last years I fighted with my nerves. Especially when it comes to the finals. Then I am a nervous wreck normally. But this time, I was super relaxed and the whole event when driving. A complete new experience! So I was able to make some really nice laps and I found my name on P8 after qualifying - with all the english super stars in front of me! WOW! But relaxed, or not, the final was tough and as a gentleman driver, I let them all through and ended as 9th. For me personally it was a triumph! People came to me to congratulate and told me, my Ultima looked so great on the track. And it is true: The Ultima was a weapon. Easy to drive. great on the jumps and very nimble in the corners.
My other highlight at this event was my Kyosho Optima (rear motor). I made it in the A final again and fighted against the SWB Optioma Mid´s. I ended up as 5th in my final! The winner was also a Optima with the motor in the rear: from a young man with the name Oliver Nattress!
Meanwhile you can buy the NVR Ultima chassis conversion kit.
The kit comes with a 30 degrees kick-up and a battery holder system for Stick, or Shorty pack Lipo batteries.
Layout with Stick pack battery.
Layout with Shorty pack battery.
And it was only a matter of time to see the first wins of this car.
Rhys Ward wins the Scotty Ernst Showdown Race at Robin Hood Raceway/UK with the Neo Vintage Racing Ultima conversion. He used ALL NVR Ultima option parts.
For me, it is great to see the young guns driving vintage buggies, what are 3x older than the drivers!
What else happend this year? My both kids made their high school graduation this summer and I moved into another city. From Hamburg to Bremerhaven, a pretty small city in the north of Germany with a harbour, a nice nature and more friendly people than in my old town. I found a fantastic new home close to the "Holzhafen", a small lake in the center of the city.
My new work space. Including a brand new Bambu Lab X-1 Carbon 3D printer.
Bremerhaven is close the the north sea. The river Weser, where I ride my bike every day.
No, it´s not Dubai.
Maybe the most famous moment for Bremerhaven was the arrival of the King in October 1958, when he started his Military Service in Germany.
So I virtually started a new life. New city, new people, new home, new friends. The cool thing is, here is a buggy racing track, just 10 minutes away from my home! Finally a chance to practice and to test my cars. The guys from the club are super relaxed and I already could race against them a few times. Awesome! In the winter time the club switches to a touring car track for 2 weekends per month just 3 Km away. Perfect!
But now back to topic! The NVR Kyosho Ultima chassis conversion kit for the Utima Pro XL!
Yes, I already wrote a long article about the same chassis conversion for the "older" Ultima. But to see, that this chassis fits the Pro XL version as well, I write this article for you!
So what is the difference between the Ultima and Ultima Pro XL?
The Kyosho Ultima Pro XL came out at 1989. With longer suspension arms basically. At this time, Kyosho started with the Lazer 4WD. Both cars has very long suspension arms. And if you look hard, you can see, that the design language of the Pro XL arms is pretty the same as from the Lazer buggy.
For many driver the Pro XL was the peak of Kyosho´s 2WD cars. The longer arms really did their job and improved the handling a lot! But there was 1 thing, why it never had a real chance against the rising RC10 armada. It simply has not a slipper clutch transmission. Not a huge problem for bumpy and grippy tracks, but on real loose dirt tracks, the Ultima had no chance without a slipper.
Nobody knows really, where all the Pro XL´s gone over the years, but today it is a hard to find item, if you are searching for suspension parts. I had the luck to find a shop in Germany, who stored all needed suspension parts. Crazy!
So I took one of our brand new manufactured NVR Ultima chassis conversions to create the latest and fastest Ultima you can drive today!
As always, I took a Kyosho Optima Pro body for this car. And Sergio from ARQ paint from Spain did a great paint job as usual. I love it!
Also here: I used most of the other NVR Ultima option parts, such as the shock towers and Yokomo wheel adapters.
Left the Ultima and right the Ultima Pro XL. On my new home track in Bremerhaven they were not much slower than modern 2WD buggies there.
Without body, we see the clean layout and wiring.
On the other side we have a LRP Flow X speedo.
I like the clean chassis layout without top deck. The easy access to all components makes wrenching a breeze!
The JConcepts FuzzBite tires are my favorite tires at the moment for high grip tracks.
Everything is super low. Also the LRP Stick pack battery. If you drive a stick pack battery, the weight distribution is nearly perfectly ballanced and you don´t need much extra weights.
In this battery layout configuration you need a low profile steering servo!
The vintage community is growing and there are many guys, who offer cool und usefull parts for nearly every vintage car. But on the same way, some companies close the doors, because the owners retire. So seen at Lunsford Racing. Kelly, can you please tell me, where I get all my turnbuckles now?! Come back and do your job! For Us!
In my dispair, I had to take some JConcepts FIN turnbuckles. They are nice, but I WANT LUNSFORD BACK! Greetings to Florida! Your products were always awesome since my first days of racing. Thanks for making us great products!
As on all of my K-Cars, I use Xray ball cups and T-Works titanium ball studs. They do a great job, while the original Kyosho ball cups loves to pop out. As always for racing, make your car strong!
The Ultima re-release nnti roll bar set fits the Pro XL arms. Nice! And you need it!
Only the ball stud needs to mounted the other way around.
Anti roll bar at the rear as well! Get it, because you need it!
The usual Reedy 13.5T motor at the rear.
The battery is very quick to change. I use Yokomo YZ-2 thumb screws, instead of a nut at the battery strap.
There is a milled channel under the battery for the speedo RX cable. So battery comes low as possible. The steering servo mounts are from Xray´s Pan Cars.
The chassis without wheels. Look at the long legs!
For some reason, the Ultima re-release drive shafts are too short for the rear. My solution are the Yokomo ZC-421 drive shafts from JC Racing/UK, what are about 5mm longer - and Yokomo wheel adapters. Simple and smart, isn´t it?!
Kyosho guys know it - the rear hub is from the Kyosho Lazer! Clever solution on the ultra long rear arms for toe-in: you can adjust toe-in with turnbuckles at the arms! I mostly set up 3-4 degrees per side. You can take your camber gauge for checking toe-in settings.
For the Pro XL front arms I use the Chimera Model Sport aluminium bulkhead with narrow hole setting for hinge pins.
The NVR Ultima Yokomo front wheel adapter is reversed mounted to keep front spur below the 250mm limit.
There are 3 weight options of the front bulkhead: Original Plastic, Aluminium and brass. With the NVR chassis, the 56g aluminium version is the best solution to ballance your car for better handling and jumping. The brass version weights 170g! This thing keeps your nose down when jumping, but it also makes the rotation of the car slower, becaus it´s huge mass far outside the center of the car.
I really like the Hudy aluminium servo arms with clamping screw on my Highest RC Servos.
I put some weights behind the front shock tower for fine tuning.
For 13.5T motors you need the smaller option spur gear from Kyosho with 52T!
A low wing mount positions improves the car handling. With the NVR Ultima shock towers you get a improved shock tower geometry with 3 settings. Same on the front!
A look under the chassis. The longer arms and blue M4 aluminium screws at the rear to reduce some weight at the rear end. I made a Kydex front bumper for my Ultimas. They are shorter, what helps the cars on jumps.
I hope, you like my new Pro XL! I am very happy with it´s crazy performance and can´t wait to go racing again! No matter if you take the "old" Ultima, or the Pro XL - both are great with the NVR chassis conversion!
If you want NVR option parts, go on our Facebook page and send a message! Very soon we open the Neo Vintage Racing online shop. Stay tuned!
Update: Our shop just opened!