Nissan King Cab
Model Number: 58081
Released
31-Oct-89
Drive
2WD Rear, ball differential
Suspension
Double Wishbone all round, coilover oilfilled shocks
Chassis Description
ABS monocoque tub
Body Type
Lexan polycarbonate
Motor
RS-540S
Scale
1/10
KingCab is Tamiya's first attempt at building a decent stadium racing truck; previous monster offerings were ungainly car-crusher type behemoths (Clod, Blackfoot, Lunchbox) which weren't too stable on their paws. KingCab's long wheelbase, balloon tyres and high ground clearance made this an excellent backyard basher and club ST racer. Given a hopup motor, this model has a decent turn of speed and handled well.
(Description by Willy Chang)
Extremely well detailed and fragile blowmolded lexan body.
(Description by Willy Chang)
Extremely well detailed and fragile blowmolded lexan body.
Reviews
BeetleRacer69
Well what can you say about the King Cab that we don't already know. I love this truck, if I had known how competitive it was, I would have run one back in the days when I was racing. I remember when I got my first KC, me and an old mate from school went to LHS and bought one each on xmas eve (can't remember the year, getting old now) I bought mine home wrapped it up in xmas paper and stuck it under the tree, with 'To Del. From Del' on the xmas label. Next morning came and I left it till the last present to open. A couple of hours later it was done, just the last coat of paint, and decals to go. once it was all done I thought I'd give it a run inside. Wasn't such aa good idea. Got wedged under the kickspace and left a couple of deep black marks on mum's floor. After that outside use only, and man was it fun. Handles extremely well, takes on any jumps and lands 9/10 on it rear wheels first, and I used to put mine through it's paces. Never had any breakages, diff never slipped, it just kept on going. Then I did one of the stupidest things I could. I sold it. Now however, I have 2 and I aint gonna sell any of them. Out of all the stadium/monster racers I've had (and there's a few) I, with no word of a lie would say that the King Cab and Hilux Monster Racer line would be the best by far.
****I LOVE THIS TRUCK****
kontemax
King Cab is the best truck chassis ever built. It seems too much high but the weight balance is perfect. The long CVA shocks work great with this car allowing high jumps and fast running on very rough terrains without any problem. The look of the car is beautifull and the tires seems have a good grip on a solid surface. May be they aren't very good on sand and dirty surfaces. But the right tires for this car are the All Terrain spiked chevron Monster Beetle/Wild Dagger tires. The real set for the King Cab isn't the track but rougher terrains like caves. The chevron tires are better for that terrains. They work like a Gyroscope when the car flies during jumps so the King Cab will land on the wheels 8 times on 10 after giants jumps. Then this tires have an excellent grip during climbing. The gear ratio must be changed using smaller pinion gears. The mechanic is fast but a little bit fragile. The rear ball diff must be hardened changing the cups will allu ones and adding spacers to prevent slippages. The internal gear plastic mount must be substituted with an alloy ones. The shafts go to consumption a little bit fast but at the end the King Cab is my favourite car and is the funniest I have. A must!
J3cubfan
The Tamiya King Cab was the first Lexan bodied R/C car kit that I’ve purchased and vowed never to do it again. Being a huge fan of the plastic Styrene hard bodies, I was looking for a Tamiya R/C kit to build back around 1990. I look around and found the Nissan King Cab. It was kismet that I found that this kit. I just purchased a brand new Nissan Truck about 3 months earlier so just seem to be the perfect fit at the perfect time.
Initial Findings
I couldn’t wait to get this beast home. I opened it up and found the dreaded Lexan body. How in the world am I going to paint this thing? I put that off till last and anxiously opened the instruction booklet for a quick review. Here’s what I found that was included in the box. Everything was nice and organized in blister packs and all of the plastic parts, metal pieces and hardware had their own bag. Nice and organized the way I like it. You get an RS 540 motor. It’s a Mabuchi not the Johnson as we see with the more recent kits. And something totally new to me at the time, oil filled shocks. (John is just amazed at this point and starting to realize that this is not like the Holiday Buggy that I assembled a few years before).
Assembly
The assembly of this beast went pretty quickly. At the time I was living a one-bedroom apartment and did not have much room. No problem though, the instruction guided me through without any problems that didn’t require me to spread everything out. The oil filled shocks where a breeze to assemble and not as intimidating as I had thought. The monster spike tires have a one piece wheel assembly inserted in them that took back to the day of trying to insert the inner wheel hub of the holiday buggy and more recently the Sand Scorcher rear wheel and tire assembly. This was truly an exercise in patience and determination. When assembly was finished, I was faced with the dreaded Lexan Body. Instead of doing Fuzzy Flynn’s racing truck, I chickened out and painted mine the way my 1:1 scale looked, red. I installed the radio and electronics and was ready to go…
Oh my goodness this is a fun!
I charged up my battery and headed off the park for an afternoon of fun. And what an afternoon it was. This truck handled impeccably. It has a high ground clearance so it has no problem negotiating over debris and ground ruts. With the mechanical controller this had fairly decent acceleration. Although a year ago I replaced the mechanical speed controller with a Novak ESC Explorer II, and have enjoyed driving it ever since. The Lexan body has held up pretty well over the years. It endured a head on collision with a parked car and has been flipped a couple of times. Overall this is a wonderful truck to drive. The steering is quite responsive handles well on grass, dirt, mulch and asphalt.
Conclusions
This is a fun vehicle to drive. I think if I ever find another replacement body, I’ll do it in Fuzzy Flynn’s colors. Your collection should not be without one.