Mardave Cobra Stuff / Discussion
 

Hi All

Ive recently got ahold of a a Cobra and am keen on getting it running and racing it at my club.. (I like a challenge). I have got a few questions I'm keen to ask though.

As far as I remember the shocks are oil shocks? If so how do I open them?

Will any spur just fit?

Is there a GRP chassis? The Aluminium one just seems like its ready to bend at the drop of a hat.

And any tuning tips?

I'll post pictures once I get the shell painted.

Cheers

You might want to give this site a look: http://www.planet-venom.co.uk/

From what I remember the shocks unscrew from the bottom.
Can't remember about the spur gear but the good news is that Mardave have re-released the Cobra so all the parts are available.

Fibrelyte used to do carbon fibre parts for the Cobra, including the chassis, shock mounts, etc. However, you'd have to really love it to spend that sort of money on one.

Never ran one so can't help with the setups I'm afraid.

Get hold of Chris Wilkinson at Mardave as he has recently redone bits for the Mardave.

I'd love to see it do well

there will be a 2009 cobra released very soon! many parts uprated and brushless ready:drool:
if you cant wait he still makes and sells the cobra se new direct from Mardave.
You can also get a whole new slipper set rather than fixing the old confusing one!!

I'll be interested to see what the 2009 edition is like. However I want to see what my old school one will achieve.

As to brushless ready, what really would you need other than Universal drive shafts? I Intend to Run a brushless in mine anyways.

For the 2009 one the chassis is the big thing that could / should be changed.. and the shocks.

2009 one isnt much different from the one you have, maybe a sliper clutch and a anodised chassis which would be stiffer than the yellow standard one. Get some ae shocks or losi ones as the std mardave ones leak.

:D

are you on about the one due sep/oct time with a revised diff(at last)
turnbuckles and a host of improvements over the recently reissued se?

the old cobra gearbox and diff dont like brushless, infact the diff with no plates was/is the achillies heal of the cobra

What exactly was the problem? I remember them being ok with a 17t motor back in the day. Although I know brushless motors have a lot more overall torque.

Also looking at this one, it seems to have a slipper of sorts.. (and carbon fibre shock mounts) Although I cant work out how to add a spur to it atm...

if you've got the slipper you may be ok, but the diff has no plates and the bosses wear quickly and bang goes the diff( ive had a new diff fail within one heat running a 19t motor), the top shaft in the gearbox is not the greatest with brushless either, a couple of people i know who run them with ezrun systems had some new alloy ones made to stop the wear.
It can be done but you'll have to call upon your own modelling skills
I was going to get myself a new cobra last week but after speaking to Chris at Mardave decided to wait for the next couple of months for the the new with all the old little niggles sorted and ready for the next 20 years!!

Cool :cool: its great seeing these old buggies being used again in anger.... would love to see some pics of your Cobra Gatmix :)

Unless you are planning on driving your Cobra flat-out into a brick wall you shouldn't ever have any problems with the Dural Ali chassis bending (unless it has been already bent by the previous owner) I have seen them bend - but these were cars that had been really abused.

Similarly - we would regularly run 12turn motors without any bother.... though not sure how they would stand up to something like a 6.5 brushless? The Diffs did need re-building regularly to keep them smooth/ish but the complete units were so cheap - I quite often brought one rather than the individual diff parts.

I also ran the standard shocks - with carefull assembly they can be made to work rather well with minimal leakage ;) Yes Kyosho Option House or AE RC10 shocks were better but I couldn't afford those back then.

Set-up wise - 30wt oil all round with Schumacher long Blue springs on the rear & Schumacher med Yellow springs on the front, ride height with wishbones level & a couple of degrees of neg camber all round was always a good starting point :)

I managed some decent results with my old Cobra - especially indoors, the main weakness I felt with with the car was that the gears inside the gearbox were too course & limited the stop speed.... which is why I adapted a Losi XX gearbox to fit :D

My Cobra
http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_m...9648&sid=28990

Wow! Thats a nice looking car :)

I've got the car pretty much up and running. I thought that the slipper was missing some pads.. but they dont actually have pads!

The shocks are a mess, I need to open them up and get them set-up (These are about 15 years old). So I doubt they have any oil in them anymore :) I need to look for those springs you mentioned :)

I've also managed to get a new Lexan shell / wing, plus a wishbone etc from Chris at Mardave. Top bloke and the parts are so cheap :)

I intend to race it tonight.. maybe

I'll post a pic once the car is up and running, I have a lrp 8t that I will fit in it.

Yeah Chris is a top bloke and just wish he'd race the Cobra..

HE dont like anything else then his beloved vrx's
You need ball bearings for the new gearbox as hinckleys club cobra came with bushings in :bored:

I think the 1/10 vrx will be released soon.

Tonight I'm going to rebuild the shocks. Do you have any tips on how to get the best out of the Mardave shocks? As far as I remember they dont have o-rings etc although that was quite some time ago and my dad would have probably fixed them up.

Managed to try it out over the weekend (briefly) after testing out the Madrat.

Was quite surprised on how it went, considering the tyres are shot etc it was quite responsive. The shocks are quite terrible though so I might replace it with some plastic Tamiya ones for now as at least they work.

I moved the front shocks to the front of the tower and that helped teh handling quite a bit. The car felt more shurefooted into the corners.

Does anyone know if you can strip the yellow paint of the chassis easily?

Might be me being old but am sure my chassis was blue.

I think they did both Yellow and Blue painted chassis over the years ?

To strip mine, i got a metal roller paint tray, filled it with cellulose thinners and left the chassis overnight in it. The paint comes off easily in the morning with a scraper. Then i polished it to a mirror finish on a industrial buffer.

Didnt last long, but looked great for oohhh a good 10 minutes before its first run :lol:

sport was yellow and TQ was blue!

I've got a red chassis :p

Think it was an 'Option' my original blue one got cut up & sprayed black for the gearbox conversion ;)

As for your shocks Gatmix..... think you really need to start off with some new O rings.... also make sure the shafts haven't been scoured by someone using pliers on them to screw on the plastic ball end.

Thanks for that.

I have got some O rings and shafts on order so I will rebuild them again, because at the moment they are letting the car down.

I could just hook some others on to the car, but I want to try to keep things more to speci as it makes the whole project more fun :)

I'll post pics soon. It looks quite nice with its new shell etc :)

You'll have to get some pics up in your showroom over on T.C... would be nice to see it :thumbsup:

Ok, I'm going to race it tonight :thumbsup:

Although Ive just fitted a new brushless into the car and I dont think the drive train likes it :( It seems like the slipper is slipping under acceleration. however its not the slipper it seems to be something internal :confused:

The car still moves etc, but you can hear a whiring sound...

I'll also put some pics up on my Tamiya club page, I have a pic on my Blog as well btw

hoping thats not the diff, as no diff plates means outdrive/boss face wears quick and slips and you have to replace, good news though just this minute enquired with chris and looking at 2/3 weeks till mardave should have a revised diff:thumbsup: with plates for there kits and i guess as a general spare part

Lucky it was just the diff being a bit loose :) It does struggle with the brushless (its only a slow one, but the extra torque makes the gears really work.

I had 3 races with it, and the car handled much better than I thought. One of the rear shocks isnt set up right (its a bit stiff) so the car didnt want to go right :) However it still ended up 2nd in all of the 3 heats that it raced in.

I'm going to sort the shock out and I think it could potentially win.

(note it was only a small indoor track, on carpet).

Added some pics to my TC showroom

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_m...91631&id=16972

looks spot on:thumbsup:

Mardave has announced the latest cobra. Now with carbon fibre parts and a new diff :)

http://mardaveonline.co.uk/

hope there is more than just us two excited about this news:lol: me i cant wait!

With all this hype does anyone else want an older style one?? (blue chassis) going cheap!

Any body sell second hand Mardave Cobras to Ireland
 

Hi there ,
I have been out of the scene for a long time (14years exactly) and have bought 2 Ansmann Madrats for my kids, I would have bought the Mardave Cobra but they are so expensive new . I am though determined to buy a Cobra for myself but cant find anyone willing to sell their Mardave Cobra to anywhere but in the UK . I owned a Mardave Meteor for my first car moved onto Traxass TRX-1 and then a number Schumacher Cougars from 1 to the Cougar 2000 but back then I always wanted to try out a Mardave Cobra and Mod it with the Associated Gearbox and a few other bits Carbon ShockTowers etc but never got the chance .

My query is does anyone sell second hand to Ireland I have tried a few on Ebay but all wouldnt ship to Ireland but am determined to buy one I will pay the shipping charges !! . I am looking for a cheap rolling chassis in any condition but cant find anyone thats willing to ship. Is there anyone out there ? :(

My aim is to make the car as competitive as the Associated cars even using the new gearbox parts that are now available for it but need the rolling chassis to start .

Wynneb

Big problem is that Mardave still havent released the new diff. So you cant really run brushless in it. I have a 12t in mine and it seems to powerful and the diff slipps. :(

cobra
 

i have a cobra with a development gbox, carbon chassis, towers, traxxas shox and loads of other bits. i run it now and again and it does well. its the car on mardaves site. trying to fit a b3 box to make it more reliable

really nice looking buggy, i thought the buggy on the site had the new diff etc already fitted and was testing it out ready for me to buy some, drat, i need a new a diff, they've got none avaliable at the mo over at mardave

here's mine:woot:

fitted my cobra with a b3 gbox now. Trying to post pics. Theres a pic on my profile of the car.

if i have attached 3 pics if i have done it right. Hope you all like the car.

excellent, good pics of the gearbox mod, this is the start of the mods i reckon, thanks for all the advice today.

its quick
 

iv raced against this and i can say its beats a b4 and xxxcr easily its the fastest cobra iv seen