MRP Miss Budweiser FE upgrade

[68Bud]

I have had this boat at least 20 yrs just knocking around on the shelf in the shop. I think I paid $150 for it used sometime in the late 80's. It came with all the original drive hardware, which was crap and barely toy grade by today's standards. Somewhere along the line I gave it the 20 foot Miller bug bomb paint job too. Recently, I decided to either use it or lose it, so another $150 got thrown at it. Well, today was the maiden voyage and I couldn't have been happier with the result! It isn't the fastest boat I own or a threat to break any SAW records, but the fun factor was high for sure. It probably goes mid 20's now, carries the left sponson the length of the straight and corners flat with no bad habits. Run time on a 3s 4000mah battery was around 5 minutes and all the components were barely warm. Now I'm glad I didn't throw it away the dozens of times I thought I might, lol.

the changes I made:

Modified the sponson ride surfaces and reinforced the transom. Removed the solid shaft and converted to flexshaft w/strut.

Upgraded power to 35mm Aquacraft Outrunner, 60 amp Turnigy ESC, 42mm prop., MV rudder.



Might have to see what other dusty relics I can find!

 

[gil sonsino]

Your boat looks in very good shape.Vintage models are Always nice to see for those like me cause they brought good memories.The only MRP I owned was a Viper canard in the mid 80's. Thanks for sharing Gill

 

[jayt]

I really like what you did to it. Several friends in the NW raced these boats stock back in the early-90s - a one deisgn class which was a lot of fun. I raced against a few of them in the old APBA 12-cell SuperStock Sport Hydro class in the 93/94/95 Nationals..

.

 

[68Bud]

Thanks guys. There are a few things I plan on changing, but I'm real happy with how it turned out. Jay, what kind of running gear did you use back then? I tried to get the original twin motor setup to work and it just never did. The speed controller on mine was 2 micro switches if I recall correctly...single battery on one and then both batteries on the other. Fred Flintstone would have been proud of that setup! haha.

 

[Christian Lucas]

Hi, greatings from one of the Flintstone age.

I love this boat and i can tell you this boat was a winner .i run the buddy boat Mr.Pringels in the Naviga 12 cell class and won lot races.

At this time i run a self mod Asto 40 with 4 turn wind on 12 cell and a X445 Octura. This was a hard acclerating boat and no way to took over as it was ever first at the first turn. Thats history but a friend doing a copy of the hull in epoxy so now i start building up the Budweiser version with the sleker top.I run allways straight 2 mm pianowire with no bend and the strut i solder a flat V with the Propshaftbearing in a streamlined brass part.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3vubz6fddmy94rn/2013-06-10%2012.36.08.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0odi8ue0fq3gqds/2013-06-10%2012.36.23.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p5pwt91w04q3gda/2013-06-10%2012.36.36-1.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mtg18v399np2rca/2013-06-10%2012.37.27-2-1.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/eo0cqjzlh54hgvx/2013-06-10%2012.39.00.jpg

hope you can open the files

 

[68Bud]

Great looking Mr. Pringles Christian. There were a lot of these "toys" sold back in the day, and it's always cool to see one still in working order. Interesting sponson running plates and strut design. Looking forward to seeing your progress on the epoxy version.

 

[jayt]

The 12-cell (nickel) MRP Miss Bud and its varients were really not that great stock. They were built to a price point and that limited their potential. To avoid using a large format motor (of which very few were avaiable at the time) MRP geared two "stock" 05 motors together with a 1:1 ratio. Not using a gear reduction ratio was a huge mistake since it required a small prop to be used - a plastic x431 IIRC - and the overworked little motors required a lot of maintenance to run well. The boats were almost "expert" boats rather than entry level to keep running. The mechanical speed controller was a pain too. Still, for tinkerers it was a lot of fun. A number of guys either installed a single 05 motor and gear reduction (possible with the stock gearbox) or substituted an Astro motor as Christian stated. Replacing the solid drive shaft with a flex cable was another good upgrade. Another issue was the brittle plastic used for some of the later hulls, it did not like crashes.

MRP eventually changed the driveline to a flex drive and made other changes, but by then it was really too late.

.