These upgrades were done just before Vintage Off-Road Nationals. We’re just getting around to posting them since it was hectic getting everything ready in time for the event, and have been on a non-stop race schedule it seems ever since. Regardless, here is our upgrade article for when we took our box stock Tamiya Avante and added some modern power and rubber to it.

Above you can see all the goodies going in the stock Avante. A Novak Pulse ESC, a Novak Vulcan 13.5 and some Pro-Line Hole Shot tires in the super soft (M4) compound. This should make the car alot more competitive.

I’ll start 1st with mounting up the tires. Before we do that we need to clean them.

I use some denatured alcohol to clean any mold release from the tires. I also clean the rims as well. This is a must do for proper adhesion. You don’t want your tires falling off.

This is what comes off the tires…Clean em!

I went with the stock foams for these tires. After stuffing the foam in the tire I noticed some trimming of the foam was going to be necessary.

Test fit on the wheel.

Here you can see how much I trimmed off of the front tire foam. The rears I did not trim.

Now, some may disagree with this but I stand by it 100%. With a properly cleaned tire and wheel you DO NOT need any special “tire glue”. This glue I buy at Walmart. It comes in a blister pack of 4 tubes for a $1.97. I have had no issues with tires coming off the wheel if everything is cleaned correctly with this glue.

Now with the tires done it is time for some new electronics. Here I have taken out the stock ESC and motor.

The new Novak Vulcan 13.5. I love how this motor looks.

Here we have it installed. I stuck with the stock gearing.

Time to stick in the new Novak Pulse ESC.

The ESC is average size to other ESC’s on the market but the capacitor is huge! Bigger is better right? 😉

WARNING!!

Here I am tinning the wires on the ESC. Always use a soldering iron that gets pretty hot. This one I have is an old Weller that you could probably weld with lol. Don’t mind the tip…it needs some attention with a dremel.

Wires shortened and soldered up nicely to the motor. Each wire on the ESC is marked “A, B and C”. Make sure to match them up to the corresponding motor tab that are also marked with those letters. Now we’re pretty much done, we just have to drive out to the track in CT.

When at the Vintage Off-Road Nationals we decided to actually try the stock tires. They hooked up pretty well in the semi-loose surface but left something to be desired for sure. It had a ton of push to it.

Below you can see the nicely installed Novak brushless system. It worked flawless all weekend. No heat issues despite the lack of airflow under the tight fitting body. The motor was super smooth and had plenty of power as well.

Here we installed the Pro-Line tires. It makes the car look a lot more modern without the huge chocolate-chip style pin tires. The performance was a ton better as well. A lot of forward grip, and it really freed up the car and make it handle decent out on the track without all the dartiness from the stock tires. The M4 compound was great for the cooler September weather as well.

And there we have it, our Tamiya Avante as it was run on race day at the VONats. Novak power and Pro-Line tires. I think with a little more tuning this could have been a real competitor on the track. Jarodd drove the wheels off it and made a decent impression that the Avante is more than just a pretty face. With work, it is capable of keeping up with those old Yokomo’s just fine.

Stay tuned for Part 2 when we add some sweet Yeah Racing aluminum parts from RCMart.com, as well as the Tamiya Torque Splitter kit, and maybe give it a wheel at the local indoor track.