Readers Rides Archives - Page 3 of 19

A Young Enthusiast’s Scale Monster

The year was 2009 when, while watching Monster Jam, a young Drue first saw a commercial for Traxxas’ Grave Digger. He bugged his family for it every year at Christmas with no luck. Traxxas and Monster Jam parted ways but when Traxxas released the Skully he was taken with it and his quest was renewed. […]

Custom Land Rover D90 Van

One look at Jeremy’s custom conversion and you wouldn’t be faulted for assuming that Land Rover must have built a cab-over-engine version of the Defender 90 but it never did. This vehicle is loosely based on a concept for a D90-based camper van toyed with by German Land Rover specialist Matzker, but Jeremy took it […]

LS-Swapped Axial Capra

LS motors have become the power plant of choice for many custom builds of all kinds, and its cool to see that kind of authenticity show up in Joshua’s Axial Capra. Tucked in back and encased in the cage is a hyper-detailed 3D-printed LS3 from Benchmark RC that includes a working serpentine belt, pullies and […]

Tweaked TX4 Sport

Peter tells us he mainly refurbishes and modifies RTR trucks, or vehicles he’s traded for that were originally assembled by their previous owners. He decided he wanted to do a build-up of a brand new kit but budget was still a factor so the platform he chose was the TRX4 Sport from Traxxas and he […]

Bro-Dozer Tribute

Monster Jam fans know the Diesel Brothers’ Bro-Dozer as the bright yellow Duramax diesel-powered monster truck, but the concept appeared first as a jumbo-sized rock crawler/tow rig hybrid based on a Ford F-350 Super Duty truck. It was stripped down, caged up and sat on top of a set of mega-size military axles and rolling […]

Ford GT = Gorgeous Tamiya [READER’S RIDE]

Reader’s Rides is sponsored by PRO-LINE. Click for the latest gear! Don Almeido pays scale tribute to Ford’s Le Mans conquering GT with his special Red Card issue Tamiya F103GT with its carbon lower chassis. To that he added a 19T Corally brushless motor on an aluminum motor mount, with a HobbyWing speed control. To that […]

This Vintage Rail Brings Blown-Hemi Heat

This Reader’s Ride originally appeared on BOOST. For more amazing builds like this, join BOOST now! The wicked Outlaw rail Matt Topas, of Kapolei, Hawaii, built has the look of a classic top-fueler from the last of the front-engine era, right around 1970–71. The sleek shape uses the front section from an RJ Speed rail body […]

Custom 3D-Printed Hot Rod [READER’S RIDE]

Jason Suter designed in CAD and used rapid prototyping to develop his custom Hot Rod, which is inspired by the classic ’32 Ford Deuce Coupe style. The body is 3D-printed in SLS nylon while the chassis is laser-cut out of aluminum. Most of his driveline and running gear is aluminum, sourced from the RC crawler […]

Beefed Up Bomber [READER’S RIDE]

Reader’s Rides is sponsored by PRO-LINE. Click for the latest gear! Peter received his RR10 Bomber in trade completely stock except for the motor, but he had visions of something tougher and even more trail-worthy so he started throwing upgrades at it starting with a set of Vanquish front links on a GPM aluminum blue […]

Carisma Crawl-maro [READER’S RIDE]

Reader’s Rides is sponsored by PRO-LINE. Click for the latest gear! Shaun Bullington’s “Crawl-maro” started life as a Carisma SCA-1E Coyote, but now wears a Vaterra ’69 Camaro body that he dirtied up and weathered with custom paint, and added a set of homemade Enderle-style fuel injection stacks. The rims are RC4WD wagon wheels wrapped […]

Cab-Overload Grand Hauler [READER’S RIDE]

Chris tells us that after discovering RC and completing a couple crawler and drift-car builds, he found that he enjoyed building even more than running his vehicles. He was lucky enough to get hooked up with a group near his home in Hawaii—the “808 Scale Haulerz”—and began his first little big-rig build: this Tamiya Grand […]

This Weather-Beaten Trail Bug is a Vaterra Twin Hammers [READER’S RIDE]

Ronald Martin’s bug-bodied Twin Hammers is a perfect reminder of how modest beginnings can lead to great results. He tells us that this project all started with a donated spare parts chassis he inherited from a friend. He dug into his own stash of leftover parts to put the basic foundation together. He had some […]