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Let's talk about another one of my cars. One that gets a lot of action, but not a lot of screen time. In fact I've just been back through my photos of this car, and I have almost none. I may have a few in my Events folder, from the various places this car has been to over the years, but I've never really taken many photos of just the car. It all started back in 2015, or thereabouts, with a visit to Swindon Model Centre, which sadly closed down a few years ago. A friend of mine lived in Swindon, and it I went to visit him for any reason, we'd almost always take a trip to town to look in the model shop. It was one of those proper old model shops, little more than a cupboard that was stacked to the ceiling with balsa glider kits, aeroplanes, static plastic kit bots and, of course, RC cars and hop-ups. He often had bizarre old models that came in 2nd hand, but he also kept a good stock of new Tamiya kits. It was one of those places where it was genuinely hard to say no to a purchase. While I tried to limit that to hop-ups (he had a small section of wall dedicated to Tamiya hop-ups, I once bought a set of pink TA03 dampers NIB, no idea how many years they'd been hanging there) I sometimes couldn't resist a new purchase. On this occasion, back in 2015, that new purchase was a WR-02C Honda City Turbo. Quite why I bought it, I can't say. I didn't know about Willy's Wheeler back in the early days, I don't have much interest in the Honda City, and wheelie cars aren't really my thing. I guess there was something about the boxart or the huge, beautifully-molded plastic body that spoke to me - but that day I came home with a new box. And, as is so often the case, it got thrown up onto the storage shelf and forgotten about. However, sometime in 2015 I went to my first Iconic Revival, and I didn't have an entry in any official races, but I had heard about this wheelie race. I knew I had to build something suitable, so the WR-02C came down off the shelf and got thrown together. Revival is an off-road event, and in 2015 it was held at A1 Racing Club in Grantham, on a purpose-built astroturf circuit. Those road-biased wheels were never going to work on astro, to I had to fit something else. I had 2 pairs of Wild Willy 2 rear wheels lying around from another failed project, and they went straight on. The fit is straightforward. The Wild Willy 2 and other WR-02 variants have typical 2wd fixed axle shaft up front, but the Honda City Turbo has the same bearing-spun shaft arrangement as things like the TL-01 and M-03, so it needs a hex wheel instead of a bearing wheel. The HCT wheels are an unusual fitment, with some weird discy things instead of hexes, and they need a wide-style 10mm hex to get regular wheels to bolt up properly, but I had those in my spares box so it was no big deal. I also had an old Mini Cooper body that was a little bit beyond repair, which made the perfect donor once I'd chopped out the arches. I seem to recall the front arms were flipped upside down to extend the wheelbase (this may be normal for the WR-02C anyway) and ideally the wheelbase would be a little longer still, but this worked just right. This wasn't planned at all, it just ended up in the right place. I still need to make some longer trumpets to go on here.

Tamiyaclub community, earlier this year I finally built my first Tamiya kit, a Fighter Buggy RX Memorial, having lusted after Tamiya cars in toy stores as a kit. After quite a lot of fun, the rear tyres are worn and some questions have arisen: a) what are your recommendations for replacement tyres? I use the car to run around my garden and the countryside, i.e. usually on grass, often on gravel, sometimes on dirt and rarely on asphalt. The default rear tyres appear to wear rather quickly. I even consider putting Mad Bull front axles, wheels and tyres on the car. b) after a while my left rear wheel started to work itself loose multiple times during one run. With softer rear springs the issue happens less frequently. However, both the left and the right (to a lesser degree) wobble when spinning freely (lifted from the ground). From a quick inspection, the drive shafts seem straight. Switching wheels from left to right slightly changes the intensity, but not the tendency of the left wheel to wobble more intensely than the right one. My car is running Carson bearings. I suspect the wheels are slightly out of balance, but perhaps those drive shafts are the real cause Are the improved, more durable drive shafts available for this chassis? Thank you very much! Best, "Rookie Rabbit"

Hi guys! I was wondering if the landcruiser 40 body and the decal set is still available from Tamiya? I'm needing replacements for my gf01 and even emailed Tamiya but was told the items were no longer available. Is this true? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Any commercially available sealed gear diffs for WR02? Any that will fit, with or without modification? Anyone try sealing a stock one with gasket sealer or anything? (I started a couple of these as an experiment, project interrupted- will share results) How about a real spool? (not locked) Thanks in advance

I have for sale inc. shipping in the UK, paypal gift please 1x NIB Kumamon WR-02G wheelie tractor £105 1x NIB Stadium Raider TL-01 truck SOLD 2x sealed in pack TBLE-02s brushed and/or brushless speed controls pulled from kits each £12 the kits with pics are advertised in my showroom and are on ebay (but more expensive due to fees)

Hi everyone! I'm new to the forums and the Tamiya Club site. I was way into the Tamiya kits back in the 80's and recently discovered the re-release of the Midnight Pumpkin, the original kit that got me into RC. Hence the screen name. I bought the Black Edition kit a few weeks ago, had a great time building it, ran it around my driveway/back yard and it was fun. But I soon wanted a larger space to run and some fun terrain, so I brought the Pumpkin to a baseball field and park a few blocks away. I ran on some bumpy grass, a few hills and a dusty, dirty baseball field. I ran one battery pack all the way down. I then took about a 5 min break and put in another. I noticed there wasn't as much power and I couldn't pop wheelies. Before I could pop wheelies on demand. I attributed this to the battery having sit and maybe not having a good charge. It was a colder day than I expected so I thought this may have harmed the batteries. The next day I went in the back yard with a fresh pack and noticed that the problem persisted. I see a decrease in speed and definitely not enough power to wheelie from a stop. One thing I also noticed was that the car sounded different. Before I had a high-pitched motor sound at full throttle. Now, it sounds lower pitched. A few things I've checked: Can't hear any gear slippage. Took the motor off and checked the pinion and the gear it touches. I saw no breaks or evidence of an issue or slippage. Nothing obvious anyway. The motor was seated/screwed in tightly. I made sure to re-attach it tightly. No evidence of loose connection between the motor and the ESC. Re-programmed the ESC. Wasn't receiving any faults or beeps of any kind. Did this as precaution. Checked the battery packs with a volt meter. They've shown over 8 volts at full charge. I don't have an ESC to swap out nor do I have another motor. I do have a meter so I was wondering if I should check the wires from the ESC to the motor but I'm not sure what I should see there. I was planning on upgrading to a Sport-Tuned anyway so I ordered one.... So... What are your thoughts here? Anything else I should try? Should I just swap the motor out with the new one when it comes in? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

Wheelies and fire go together in my mind. Is that wrong? I recently created a flame-pipe mod for my original Wild Willy GigaM38 build (here: http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=77628&page=4) ... and I had a blast running it until I wiped out pretty hard and trashed some vintage parts. I first got the idea from my son's Razor scooter that has a brake with embedded flint made to throw sparks. Neat effect. So, I picked up some little flint tips like you'd use to light a propane torch. You can buy them in 5 packs and they have a threaded end. After my M38 wipe-out, I thought it might be more cost-effective to make a Flame Pipe mod for the newer WW2 chassis. This way I can run the spark-thrower harder on concrete without worry about crashing the vintage rig. I designed a new wheelie bar in FreeCAD to mount the tips and the prototype came in from Shapeways today. I have small tweak or two I'd like to make, but I'm pretty happy with the prototype: Next to the stock wheelie bar for comparison. The prototype is printed in "polished metallic plastic" and will get painted black. Screw mounts through the opposite side and catches the spark tips. Different angle... Back mounting-flange detail. I installed the tips with a small 2.5MM X 22 screw. The new wheelie bar mounted up to the back of the rig just right. Let's go make some sparks! Light show time! As always, my video work could use some help. I shot the maiden run with my iPhone in the dark. Please enjoy the pyrotechnics... Go Willy, Go!

For Sale Both new and unused 1x white lunchbox / pumpkin bumper £8 inc uk shipping 1x black lunchbox / pumpkin bumper £6 inc uk shipping Or both £12 Paypal gift please