tamartin

For me it was not only the Tamiya catalogues. I had a Kyosho one, here in Austria you normally had a Graupner to have a look at the cars, but I could managed to get a original Kyosho one, with the Land Jump and Scorpion !!!! in it with wonderfull pics. I dreamed to have a Scorpion and to demoralize my friends with their SRBs and Ayks. I had a Scorcher at that time. But in the Tamiya catalogues you had much more pics of cars running with different paintshemes aso. Most other ones had only static pics. It was almost impossible to find nice color pics of other cars, so we always headed to the annual Hobby convention here in Vienna, where private people showed their stuff. Nowadays it is only for sale, only shops show up. Boring!!!! But in 1984 or 85 you could see so much different homemade cars or altered ones. Was really impressive and to bring up new ideas.

and

more

Some pics taken from an old RC-book to show you, how the tracks were in those days.

Thanks for the correction of the Serpent cars. Did not know they made a second one. But on the other hand this must be after 1986, or even later. I lost interest after my graduate in 1986 and began to drive a 1/8 buggy again as late as 1995.

It is a 934,935 chassis with all Tamiya hop-up parts available for it at this time. The bumper, speedo, motorholder and tires. But the Diplos wont do any good on a car with zero caster.

HI, should be the same wing and the same wing mount (the metall plates even the radiator).

Yeah, Burns, Turbo Burns, Mp4, MP5, Mp6, Mp7, MP 777 Mugen Athlete, MBX4, MBX 5 and all others!!! The question was how they were to drive. I can speak for the early 2WD cars with the engine in the back behinf the transmission. Extremly fast, 8:1, or even 7:1 geared, compared to 11:1 to todays buggies. But with almost no on power steering, more hopping over the obstacles and with more fun in the dirt as todays cars due to the radio box, which were almost watertight in the TT Challenger. The Yankee was almost like todays cars, especially if driving only around, which we did in those days. The chain driven lookalike from TT Silver Fox was not as good, due to only 2 diffs. But you had to be a real good mechanic. Till 1995 or so, no 1/8 buggy could be driven without much improvement from out of the box. E.g. you wont imagine how people had altered their cars, often beyond a point, where you could tell which brand it was. I myself had made a buggy with front end from a Serpent Cobra, a front end from a Garbo Gepard and the drivetrain from the TT Silver Fox. And that was not the extrem car!!! Today this would be impossible. And the aftermarket for hop up parts is so gigantic, you only need a lot of money. SAD!!!!!!! And if something does not work properly out of the box, the company will be aimed with complaints. 25 years ago you sat in front of your car and thought and thought and.... This with the age of 15. Thats why I now know everything about everything working about RC cars. This helped me alot for my big cars. Today a dad buys his son a RTR and if something breaks or is not working, he brings it back to the hobby store for repair or exchange. So many childs will loose their interest very fast, because of this fact. You should repair your car with cheap homemade parts, before going to daddy and ask for the money for the alloy parts, or to learn driving better only making the car tougher. WRONG WAY!!! My 2cents

Thank you for the information. I did not know if these were European or World Championships. You will soon be able to see a Serpent Cobra in my showroom.

I want to share some knowlegde of the early 4WD buggies with you. Maybe someone can help me to even make further statements or to correct my thoughts. I began to drive with these cars 1983, but the first 4WD car, the world had seen, was the Kyosho Land Jump 4D around 1979 1980 For almost 1 year this car was the only 4WD car in the world. Thats the reason why there are so much cars around. In the States it was even longer. The first rival of the car was made by a small Italian manufacturer SG. They made a 4WD kit for their Romax Expert. Not really a contender with the 3 chains in their drivetrains. 1981 the race begun. A second Italian manufacturer Garbo hit the shelfes. The Presto!! A copy of the drivetrain layout from SG but with a chassis plate and not 2 railings as used in the Land Jump and Romax. Very light and with extremly durable plastics, called Zytel. All these first 4WD cars had chain drivetrains and trailing arms. The Land Jump was more a rear whell drive car with a little help from the front tires. No diff in the rear and a slipper clutch with one ways in the wheels up front. The Presto had no diffs and no oneways out of the box and the Romax only a diff up front. 1982 was the beginnig of a new aera. A small French manufacturer Yankee designed their Yankee Enduro. The first!!!!! 4WD car featuring the 3 diff layout, A-arms around, engine left facing the front and the tank in front of the engine. Even 17mm wheel adapters were on the car, all the same on todays buggies!!! I might even say that Audi Quattro was based on this layout or vice-versa. This car was lightyears ahead of all other ones, it won the European or World Championships 3 years in a row with Pedro Martinez de la Rosa behind the wheel at the age of 14. Kyosho only managed to make their Land Jump better in the new Land Jump Integra. Full 4WD chain drive with lighter wheels and better coil over shocks instead of the ball pen springs of the Land Jump. 1983 Yankee changed their filmsy greyish plastic into better black one and Serpent, one of the best On-road car manufacturer in the world, tried to make an Off-road one. The Serpent Cobra, an extremly unique car. The layout was a copy of the Yankee, but with only 2 diffs, which were ball diffs!!! The one and only 1/8 car with ball diffs. The car was so extremly lightweight, due to a double deck chassis, which made it uncontrollable at any terrain. A real flop. Serpent I think never tried a Off-road car again. 1984 the victories of the Yankee made some manufactures very jealous, so SG brought their Leopard 4WD. A 3 diff A-arms layout, with 2 steering servos, eninge left side facing foward. The first contender of the Yankee. Kyosho only changed the old alloy trailing arms of the Integra to plastic A-arms. Still a chain drive layout, the Vanning. 1985 Garbo the second Italian company showed up with one of the best buggies at this time. The Gepard 3, which had some astonishing features. A-arms with ball connections, big 8mm dog bones like the Savage today, but with a stupid engine layout facing the rear and small shocks. Which was very hampering the exhaust. Also a second french company Siccom showed their car the Siccom Magnum Force. Huge rear dampers and a mid engine layout was the innovation of this car. But the mid engine was only accomplished by two open gearings in front of the diff housing, which caused enormous troubles. And than Kyosho showed up with the Burns, which was so dominant with the Mugen Athlete, to end some manufactures lives. Yankee made some Europas till 1989 but ended up making 1/5 and 1/6 cars. SG or Garbo became Crono, the other company died, same with Siccom. I did not mention some other cars, eg. Thunder Tiger Varicom Silver Fox, Blue Bird 4WD, aso, because these companies only copied the cars and not really inveted some new things. I hope this interests somebody and will not waste time. Some of these cars mentioned above can be seen in my showroom.

I think, all the RC-bodies green and white had green tinted glass all around. I had never seen brown or red bodies. Thats a novum for me.

I use oven cleaner. First let it work an hour and then I take steel wool for polishing. Look at my 1/8 buggies.

Thats very easy!!! It is a SG Coyote. Distributed in Germany and Austria by Robbe. You will find them very often at Ebay or I think some of our members do have them too.

Hi, not everything is always a Koysho fairlady!!! this is totally different to the Koysho cars, and the Simprop ones. also no thunder tiger. this must be a Blue Bird 2wd buggy. A similar car was in the USAbay days ago. Bye Martin

I am looking for a Graupner Gepard 3 4x4, or a Yankee 4x4. Both cars should be complete, I do not have any spares. Gepard would be preferred the one with the cage and Yankee, the oldest one. I drove both cars 20 years or more ago. I had watched Ebay, but no Yankee to get. Maybe some of you can help me to find the last missing cars out of my collection.