Super Hornet
Model Number: 58124
Released
TBA
Drive
2WD rear, gear differential
Suspension
Front swing arm & rear rolling rigid, coilover oilfilled shocks
Chassis Description
ABS Bathtub
Body Type
PS injection moulded
Motor
540
Scale
1/10
Like the Grasshopper 2 the Super Hornet is another "2" for Tamiya. A small resemblance to the original Hornet the Super Hornet is aimed at the beginner to off road racing. A great car to drive and easy to build and repair. (Original description by acprc)
Reviews
Tamiya01478
I bough one of these cars cheaply off ebay a while ago and have been having fun with it ever since. It is based on the hornet and therefore the grasshopper and grasshopper 2 cars. I completely rebuilt mine in a evening without an instruvtion manual so I would therefore rate it as a very good car for a begginner. The hard plastic body makes re-painting a doddle. I found that it was very fast in stock form and the the oil filled dampers are a real asset to the handling. If you buy yours secondhand however check the oil level. I found mine to have 3 3/4 full ones and one completely empty one. Overall I would rate this as a good car for any begginer to have and i think it should have a place in every experinced modellers model room too!
scienceguy
The Super Hornet is quite possibly the last remaining holdout in a line of cars with chassis based on the now legendary Grasshopper. As such, it retains the toughness, practicality, and ease of maintenance that characterized those cars so well.
The chassis itself is the one-piece bathtub style found on cars such as the Grasshopper and Grasshopper II, and the original Hornet. Its interior dimensions are designed for a time when servos and radio gear were a bit larger that they are today, and so provides plenty of protection for everything contained in it. The body is of an impact-resistant plastic, giving up the weight savings of the first Hornet's lexan body for an extra measure of toughness.
The drivetrain is a two wheel-drive design with stout plastic gears and very strong axles, incorporating small improvements in structural integrity that had at times plagued the first Hornet. The ubiquitous Mabuchi RS540 motor fills the power requirement, and keeps run time extensive.
Suspension duty is handled at the front by independent swing arms, with camber changes accompanying any movement of these arms as a result of the single-pivot design. At the rear is a rolling rigid system, with the entire differential axle taking part in the suspension action. This design lends itself to a great deal of rear end "hop," which is likely the one feature of this type of car that is most notable. Dampers at all four corners are oil filled, plastic coil-over pieces that, considering the archaic design of the rest of the suspension, do an admirable job of shock absorption.
The outstanding features of this car and those like it, and the reason that the chassis design has survived for so unusually long, are its sheer toughness and ease of maintenance. Compared to modern buggies, the construction of this model is a breeze, and to damage or break any part on this buggy would require either a bit of entirely questionable driving, or possibly a direct blow from a hammer. It is for these reasons that this car is a great starting point for the beginner, and remains an excellent source of building and driving fun for the experienced r/c enthusiast.
Collectability at the time of this writing is quite low since the car is still currently offered by Tamiya, but its tough design and very close similarity to some well-known buggies of the past should increase its value when production ceases.