Wheel_Nut

IMO The best Tamiya design is the Hornet. It is tough and durable without any serious weakness.

I like what you have done with the gearbox conversion. Did you check if the maximum width fits within the IFMAR 1/10 buggy specification, ie. 250mm?

Thanks for your reply. As you said, it makes sense to use the parts on hand! I suppose there are endless possibilities for designers to try something new.

I have a question about the differential. It appears to use the stock Grasshopper gear set, but the bevel output gear seems to be PLA custom build. Is it simple a force-fit to the splines on the Frog output shafts? If designing a custom gearbox, would it be better to use TA-01 gear set, or otherwise based on the complete Frog gear set?

There probably aren't too many around with that body. I hope you don't mind me borrowing part of your pic. Do you think the Kyosho tyres and wheels would work well on a Hornet or Grasshopper?

Did you decide on wheels yet? For my Hornet build, I'm thinking to use 12mm hex adapters and some vintage Kyosho wheels. EDIT: After more investigation I discovered "JC Racing products" make a set of 2.2" wheels for vintage Tamiya cars such as Fox, Wild One, Grasshopper. I ordered a set of those from the UK.

Looks good! Hopefully the rear suspension is tough enough. I'm interested to see how you will connect the drive shafts and differential components etc. I'm only visiting this site occasionally, but I will be back when I'm able to.

Great idea for a build. It's a kind of classic style. Do you need to get some metal parts, dampers, gears etc? Are you planning to use the Grasshopper body shell?

It seems like a good idea to re-release the 58044 Pajero. However this chassis and body looks too tall for the smaller wheels. I bet they don't have the original chassis tooling. I guess it was irreversibly modified to produce the CW-01 chassis. I'm not sure people would want the old model with the grasshopper springs and high battery position anyway.

'Scale speed' means a tenth scale model will only travel 1/10th as fast as the full size car. I used the formulas shown by Lukej and applied the scale speed for a 10th scale model to produce the table below. I made an assumption the model will have worse performance than a full size car in aspects such as Cd (drag co-efficient) and drive train losses. However the full size car has an enormously worse aerodynamic drag. The hypothetical full size car requires 260kW engine power to travel at 300km/h. The model only requires 4.7W to travel at scale speed of 30km/h, which seems feasible considering a 540 motor will be lightly loaded at maximum RPM. The electric power consumption will be higher than this figure due to the inefficiency of the electric motor. Please let me know if you can offer any correction of comments.

That seems a big challenge due to the front-to-rear weight distribution. The MB-01 is sure to have less grip than a purpose designed FWD or RWD chassis. I see the challenge in terms of maximizing performance, rather than competing against other M chassis.

Yes.. It gives that impression ... It even has the option for high mounted motor! TT-02 looks like a better design for performance or racing. The TT-02 SRX seems decent. It has an evenly balanced chassis which makes it suited for 4WD drive, whereas the MB-01 is 2WD. For the MB-01 I'd rather have rear wishbones and uprights that offer fixed rear toe angle. I'd avoid any possibility of rear bump-steer if I can.

I'm wondering what keeps the front uprights attached to the wishbones. In the Hotshot series there is a metal plate to secure the ball joints, although it sometimes detaches in racing impacts.

I have my own view on the Mb-01. It won't have enough weight over the driven wheels in any configuration, so would not handle any more power than stock 540. I consider it as toy-grade, and somehow it looks like a funny joke to me. It would be spinning around until the tyres wear out. Otherwise it could be an interesting test of skill to drive around a micro-circuit at low speed.

I can imagine the Sand Scorcher and Ford Ranger being released on the BB-01 platform. Especially the trucks due to the 283mm wheelbase.

In Japanese it reads as TECHNI-COLD to avoid trademark infringement.

The colour scheme is an exact copy of the Blockhead motors Wild One. Jun Watanabi has a reputation as a designer, so I think he should have come up with something original for this release.

I love the accents you made to the original colour scheme. The old models have lasting qualities that justify the purchase cost.

I'd be more likely to buy one if they created "look-alike" Falcon body style on a DT-02 chassis. There was the Neo Falcon (58401) - But the body style was too much Gundam style. (That is nothing to do with Psy, BTW).

Such a classy buggy. The first time I saw one (long ago), I was sure its worth $1000 because of all the metal parts.

The Avante came out well. Credit to Tamiya for creating a good looking design in the first place. Its a pity Tamiya gave up the idea of using FRP or CRP chassis, as it is always better than ABS bathtub. My favourite design from Mechanic_AH is the Lancia themed Super Storm Dragon. Really inspired work!

TA-04 is absolutely a thing of beauty. Now that Kyosho re-released the Optima mid, the TA-04 seems the most appropriate response from Tamiya if they were to consider a re-re.

I recall I came across this in one of my previous lives. It happens because the brushes wear on the leading edge, and the timing becomes retarded due to the wear pattern. If the motor was brand new, the speed would be the same in both directions.

The surprising thing about the Frog is how well it performs compared to other Tamiya buggies of the time. I don't really like anything about the design, but the handling is better than I expected.

The design looks good. This time the steering linkage looks so much better than the TD-4. It also solves the battery access problem. IMO, TD-2 >> TD-4! I'd be interested to know how good a mid-motor buggy is on a traditional dirt track.