Mugen 1/8 buggy ATHLETE – nitro converted to “E”

This is an original Mugen (Made by Mugen Engineering Co., Ltd of Japan) 1/8-scale rc nitro buggy that was converted to an electric-powered unit (brushed set-up). Installed motor is a big brushed Traxxas TITAN 775 (#KA1161) with a module 1.0, 13-tooth pinion gear. ESC is a dual battery, “dual motor” (brushed), GT – 14.4volt made by HPI Racing (#309-002). To aid in heat dissipation, a mini fan was directly glued onto the surface heatsink. Although the esc has 2 pairs of terminals for 2 motors, the single huge motor is wired directly to “both” pairs – so the terminal pairing is wired in parallel (+ & + soldered to + motor tab and – & – soldered to – motor tab).

Color scheme for the wheels and tires has that retro-look of the 80’s pastel yellow and blue – personally I like it! Those cross and dash studs on the tires look very similar to the kyosho ones of the same “era”. Even the shell has that nostalgic paint scheme and shape.

Its very nice to finally own a piece of Mugen r/c history :-). Speed runs on 2 1200mah nicad packs is quite laid back, I suppose putting on a pair of nimh would only bump it up a bit (still to be confirmed) and with a higher mah rating would only increase run time. On 2 2S lipo packs, the buggy comes to life, if you know what I mean. And it looks like the HPI racing GT dual motor ESC is capable of handling a pair of 2s lipos (similar to the Traxxas EVX-1 14.4V esc).

Below are photos of the “re-build”.

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Re-building rear damper set due to worn-out O-rings …leaking shock oil, very bouncy rear and kept on bottoming out on bumps.

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Sept. 13, 2014 – It’s been a week now since I had this buggy and after re-building the rear shocks, it handles a lot better now – this would definitely give my Turnigy 2s 5k lipo pair some workout soon 🙂

And oh, I outfitted it with a set of wheels and tires from another buggy, wanted to “preserve” the original ones with the retro-color of yellow and blue.