Thanks man. I have been told that locking the front will just make me throw center belt and make the car handle like crap. Glad to hear that isn't so. Also I was told that these cars need a manicured track or the belts will get torn up from little rocks and debris on the road. I guess that is so but can't see why this car would be worse than heaps of other 1/10th belt driven on-road cars. ????

I Decided to take off the mechanical brakes off just for now. I'll get it going as a single speed and motor brakes just for simplicity sake. Will have a go at making the mechanical brakes and two speed work as a part two of my project.

So far I have stripped the rear end and changed the small pulley on the center shaft and the rear belt. They were in pretty bad shape but all brand new thanks to all the spare parts that came with the car. Next up will be the front end. Going to lock it although I haven't worked out how yet. Will do some pondering once it's all apart. After that the real fun starts. Converting this puppy to electric power. Going to shorten the top plate so to make more room for the motor in the rear. Pics will come before I start any of the conversion parts. For now it's just a clean up and refresh everything.

Got a new body for it too and looking at some of the Le Mans cars for inspirations and the front runner so far is the Mazda.