The Car

Around 2004-2005, my father, my paternal grandfather, and I built together a Citroën Xsara Kit Car RC from a Salvat magazine collection. It was sold in fascicles — each issue came with a magazine and a bag of parts, and you would assemble the car over time. The very first issue even came with a VHS tape showing an overview of the finished car and how to get started.

The car was powered by a Thunder Tiger Pro 15, a single-cylinder two-stroke nitro engine. It was a proper nitro RC car: loud, fast, and required a glow starter, fuel, and tuning to run. Building it with my father and grandfather is one of my fondest memories — three generations working together on the same project.

The Problem

After years of sitting unused, the car had accumulated a list of issues. The nitro fuel had gone bad, and since the engine was stored without lubrication, the piston had seized. The air filter foams were lost, the carburetor needed idle calibration, and to top it off, a nitro engine is far too loud to run inside an apartment building.

On top of that, the original rubber tires had degraded over 20 years — the thin rubber had become brittle and was cracking open, almost feeling like plastic rather than rubber.

The Electric Conversion

Rather than trying to restore the nitro engine, I decided to convert the car to electric. The best part: I already had most of the components from my drone projects. The motor is a 2212 brushless outrunner rated at 800 KV — a spare from my first drone build. The radio is a Turnigy 9X, also from the drone. The battery is a Turnigy 3S 5200 mAh Multistar (10C discharge), repurposed from my second drone. The only new purchase was a 30A ESC.

3D Printed Parts

The original car was designed around a nitro engine, so fitting a brushless motor required custom adapters. I measured all the original parts with a caliper, modeled replacements in Fusion, and printed them at home with leftover filament.

Motor Adapter and Shim

The brushless motor needed to be mounted at 90 degrees to the chassis — quite different from the original engine orientation. I designed an L-shaped adapter that bolts to the chassis plate and holds the motor in position, plus a shim for fine alignment. Both were printed in PLA.

Gearbox Coupling

The original car used a centrifugal clutch to engage the gearbox from the nitro engine. With the electric motor, this clutch was no longer needed. I designed a gear that mounts directly on the motor shaft and meshes with the existing gearbox. Also printed in PLA.

Tires

The original tires had deteriorated beyond use after 20 years. The thin rubber had become brittle and was splitting open. I modeled new tires in Fusion, replicating the tread pattern, and printed them in black TPU (flexible filament) — a front pair and a rear pair with slightly different dimensions.

The Result

After all the adaptations, the car is alive again. Over 20 years after it was first built — now running silently on electric power, with 3D-printed parts filling in for what time had worn out. The Need for Speed: Most Wanted sticker on the body shell, dating back to 2005, serves as a fun reminder of just how long this car has been around.