Tamiya Martini Porsche 936 Turbo

[bRIBEGuy 3426]

It's funny how things happen sometimes, and how timing is everything or nothing. 

At one point in my "collecting days", I had big (medium?) ambitions of completing the Tamiya "First 100".  The reality of doing this eventually caught up to me, both in the rarity/scarcity/cost of many of the early cars, and that after a long hard look in the mirror I came to the honest realization that I really don't care about many of those first 100 models.

Fast forward ten or fifteen years, and I come home with this:

 

The funny thing is, this is still a car I have no intrinsic interest in... but I stumbled onto it locally, and it seemed like a shame to pass on the opportunity to at least bring it home and have a closer look.

I haven't gone too far into this yet, but the whole things looks in really good shape for something that first came out in 1978.

 

The rear wing top appears to be missing, other then that it appears to be complete?  The driver is unpainted.  Manual is mint.  Box is in pretty good shape.  The rest of the stickers are still in there.

 

I haven't even pulled the chassis out to take a look yet, but I figured I'd post up a couple quick pictures to share. 

Tamiya's 6th RC car model ever.  How cool is that?

[Dan1891 297]

I just love these old Tamiya cars! I wish they will re-relase some of'em again.

 

[stulec52 54]

that was a great find Mark !!
 

[bRIBEGuy 3426]

On 4/15/2024 at 12:34 PM, Dan1891 said:

I just love these old Tamiya cars! I wish they will re-relase some of'em again.

 

It might be interesting if they did... on the other hand, I really don't know if there would be a market for them (aside from people buying them for parts for restorations)?  While I'm appreciative of what they represented at the time, the reality of these cars in a modern day setting is that they are pretty basic and likely don't really drive well.

But who knows, right?  Tamiya does surprise us with their releases from time to time...

[bRIBEGuy 3426]

I had a wee bit of free time over the weekend, and finally had a chance to pull the 936 out of the box for a quick peek.

While I was hoping the car would be 100% complete and perfect (ya right...like that'd happen), it does show a few signs of being 46 years old.  Don't get me wrong, this thing is GREAT for it's age (and compared to most I have seen)... Just not new built.

 

The body is in good shape overall.  A bit dirty.  I originally thought that the air scoop might be damaged, but it just wasn't seated in place fully.  For now I have just removed it so it fits in the box better.

 

Driver appears unpainted and unmounted...

 

Body has a small crack along a joint/seam near the back.  This would be a super easy fix with a bit of glue.

[bRIBEGuy 3426]

The chassis appears complete, and while it has a few scratches on the bottom from being run, is in very good shape.  Then again, this is a VERY simple car, so what is there to go wrong? 

Most of these cars that I have seen tend to be stripped to the bare chassis, so it's cool to have the original dry-cell battery holder present (complete with "cell-ejection ribbons"), as well as the old MSC.  Servo's, Rx, and radio battery are old vintage Kraft "Sport Series" items.  The car even came with 2 extra servos!

 

I thought for sure the tires would be garbage, but they are soft and don't seem to have cracks or flat spots.  I love the "Good Year" logos on the sidewalls!

[JimBear 1538]

If they could rre-elease the XR311, why not this one? Beautiful, nonetheless!

[bRIBEGuy 3426]

The original box has the A & B boxes inside still, as well as a handful of spare parts and such...

 

Original manual could be my favourite bit of the kit... and it's pretty darn minty!

[bRIBEGuy 3426]

Original body stamp...