RE: 1:1 Scale Sand Scorcher Celebrates Tamiya Re-issue

[black car]

Agent Orange said:

Garlick said:

I'm thinking of a PH RC meet now.

Imagine the sight of grown men trying to race aged RC cars

Lets do it!

Err no don't. You're no longer a child and it won't feel the same as when you were.

Bought myself a Tamyia RC car about 2 years ago for a bit of fun with a mate who talked me into it. Building it was great fun and driving it was a bit of fun for about 5 minutes then it quickly became quite dull. It's the only time I've lied to my wife about were I'd been as I felt some what embarrased to tell her. Put it away never to be used again.

Been meaning to sell it ever since.

Edited by Agent Orange on Thursday 4th February 11:59

Edited by Agent Orange on Thursday 4th February 12:01

Maybe, maybe but it needs to be done just on the off chance that you're wrong.

Mardave Meteor here (made in GB by chaps in a shed, brilliant) and still got it. I had a Tamiya Hornet before that but raced it into the ground...

Edited by black car on Thursday 4th February 13:31

[HereBeMonsters]

Garlick said:

I'm thinking of a PH RC meet now.

Imagine the sight of grown men trying to race aged RC cars

Lets do it!

I'm in. What to run...? http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom.asp?id=24278

[exRNN14]

Here's my tribute to the first R/C that I ever owned:



(Based on an HPI Savage. Yellow car is a 1:6 scale FG Marder - 25cc of tuned-pipe petrol chainsaw-engined goodness )

[m4tthew]

Also had one of these for my first 'proper' R/C car.



I remember burning myself on the resistor a few times

[k-ink]

Unlucky for all the spanners who paid thousands of pounds for the old plastic kits. Tamiya is re-releasing everything now.

[southendpier]

Was it the Rough Rider that didn't have a dif? Was a bh to turn it.

I saved all my pennies and got a grasshopper, but didn;t have neough for a battery pack so I made my own from some ni-cad cellas tape and wire. (it was st as yo acan imagine).

Got a Parma racing motor and 7.2v pack for it eventually and ggeared it so it was the fastest RC round my way for the 7 minutes it took to drain the pack. It would snap like anything, ended up with a body built from mechano bits.

Grasshopper had the worst suspension and that fixed rear axle...happy days.

Built a Gravel Hound for my son last year. It is immense 4wd fun! Not quite as much fun as the 2wd bouncey slidey, drifting, spinning Grasshopper but there you go.

[Roop]

For any of you still umm-ing and aah-ing over buying a re-release Sand Scorcher, have a look at the video I shot back in 2007 of me and some mates with customised Sand Scorchers on the dunes...:

ETA: Mine's the red and white one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SUmd4t6KXE

Enjoy

PS: 2 new Sand Scorchers coming my way in 2 week's time

Edited by Roop on Friday 5th February 12:14

[k-ink]

Roop, that traction looks terrible. You want an 1/8th AWD rally car!

[garethj]

southendpier said:

Was it the Rough Rider that didn't have a dif? Was a bh to turn it.

That's right, the Sand Scorcher I had was the same. I turned the battery box around so the battery was more forwards, put a Frog servo saver on for the steering and it turned in much better. But was generally unstable instead...

I'm sure you could by a diff as an accessory back in the days, not a Tamiya part but from one of the model shops?

The Grasshopper I had later was better in every way than the Sand Scorcher, even with a rear axle that was half the car's weight. And a Mardave Meteor was better still.

[anorak on] That full size Baja Bug has semi trailing arm rear suspension, not the swing axles of the Tamiya kit [/anorak on]

[Bill]

Roop said:

have a look at the video I shot back in 2007

You tart

Looks like a laugh though.

[RV8]

Not a bug fan usually but that beetle is awesome.

I've always thought a real life subaru brat would be great

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRmZF86XPDc

[DeadMeat_UK]

Oh I loved mine - best Christmas present ever, and learned some good fundamentals about diffs, shock absorbers etc when building it.

Veeeery verrry tempted....

[Nick_F]

The SuperChamp was a big step forwards, as I recall, with much less flexible front suspension and much more compliant rear.

Throw on Holiday Buggy/Sand Rover front wheels & tyres and it turned into corners much better - even more so with the equal-sized set-up from the F150, but none of them would ever change direction if you just kept the power on.

[plenty]

In actual performance terms the early Tamiya kits were pretty poor. The Frog moved Tamiya's game forward quite a bit (the Frog chassis was also used for the Grasshopper, Monster Beetle and survives in mildly tweaked form in current Tamiya offerings). The 4wd Hotshot also drove quite well and had a reasonable amount of UK club-racing success.

Tamiya cars were always toys though, not serious performers (at least in my day, not sure about today).

[k-ink]

garethj said:

The Grasshopper I had later was better in every way than the Sand Scorcher, even with a rear axle that was half the car's weight. And a Mardave Meteor was better still.

[/anorak on]

Agreed. I had a few Tamiya's back in the 80's. They were all utter crap at handling! They used to blast off in a straight line and fall over at the first corner. The desire for them now is purely based upon nostalgia, not due to any real capabilities or craft man-ship. The coolest thing about them as said above, was the box art, looks and branding.

Now if your talking cool, what about the old Kyosho Optima Turbo. That went even better than it looked. Or even better, the 1/8th Kyosho Burns Turbo. Every modern 1/8th buggy stole the design of this model. Nothing has moved on very much at all since this showed the way. Everything since has been nothing more than a subtle variation or tweek. Much respect to Kyosho

[garethj]

plenty said:

the Frog chassis was also used for the Grasshopper

The Grasshopper had its own very simple bathtub chassis, the Hornet was the same but the rear axle was articulated a bit better and had a 540 motor. The front suspension was basically swing axle (bump steer for beginners) and I don't think it even had oil filled shocks?

The Frog's chassis was quite sophisticated at the time, a sort of spaceframe with double wishbone front suspension and independent trailing arm rear?

This is like alzheimers for 30-somethings. I can't remember what I was doing last week but I remember building model kits when I was 12....

[markh1]

This was my first R/C car...



Bought second hand For £70 in Sussex Model Centre if anyone knows it??

The supersabre was released in 1987 and I bought it in the early mid 90's

I sold it and bought a new mardave marauder in about 1997 which was old tech back then! My friend at the same time bought a traxxas Nitro Rustler which I bought off him about a year later...



I currently have a Thunder Tiger something or other. It has an ali chassis, wishbones and shocks but not sure what size engine. I have not started it for about 10 years! This thread has inspired me to dig it out my parents garage!

[RichardD]

k-ink said:

Now if your talking cool, what about the old Kyosho Optima Turbo. That went even better than it looked.

Mmm, gold anodised dampers



I need to look now to see what I have that has been gathering dust for the last 23 years. It is definitely an Optima, but with a mid motor and a carbon fibre chassis.

[plenty]

garethj said:

plenty said:

the Frog chassis was also used for the Grasshopper

The Grasshopper had its own very simple bathtub chassis, the Hornet was the same but the rear axle was articulated a bit better and had a 540 motor.

Oh yes, you're absolutely right. I just checked Tamiyaclub (what a resource for aged R/C old-timers like us!) and it was the Subaru Brat that was the precursor of the Frog (with 380 instead of 540), as the Grasshopper was to the Hornet.

I should really have known this, as I had a Brat which I eventually modded into a Frog-destroying monster specimen with uprated motor, ally wishbones to replace the plastic originals, ball bearings to replace the plastic bushes, and more.

I even remember boiling the front bumper in water for an hour which was a top tip at the time to make the plastic less brittle.

[k-ink]

RichardD said:

k-ink said:

Now if your talking cool, what about the old Kyosho Optima Turbo. That went even better than it looked.

Mmm, gold anodised dampers



I need to look now to see what I have that has been gathering dust for the last 23 years. It is definitely an Optima, but with a mid motor and a carbon fibre chassis.

That is awesome. The best 10th car at the time, by quite some margin. By the time I could afford one it had been replaced by the Optima Mid Turbo, which I went for instead. The only thing I would have preferred was shaft drive instead of fiddly belts. But that was the fad at the time for some reason.