58742 Hornet Evo coming!

[lin6499 283]

 

 

[scoobybooster 284]

Doublepost, please remove

[ThunderDragonCy 8115]

I think flames on the Evo are a nod to the Super Hornet. 

That vid looks good. The front arms are clearly bowed (not flat as it looks like in the boxart) to give decent shock geometry. 

I hope they have sorted something with the battery door. With a new mounting section for the trans at the rear there might be something in that?

I don't think the weight balance will be that bad. On my Ultra buggies one good thing is they fit square shorty lipos and you can push them all the way forward. 

[Mongol Pete 6]

Pete from Newstalgia RC here.

My first reaction was that it was a lazy release and that I wasn't interested, but that was a lazy take.

This is a VERY cool release from Tamiya, possibly game-changing. If they do something similar with other iconic models, like the Grasshopper or the Lunch Box, like the song says, this could be the start of something good.

Santa will bring a Tamiya Hornet EVO to the NRC garage in Mongolia, to be sure!

[jonboy1 3319]

I love that Tamiya have done this, they have always been my favourite manufacturer so i'm biased, but I respect them for saying "yup, this is a 40 year old design and we are still flogging it, but we realise there's a whole bunch of loyal customers who would love us to improve it, so we will."

However....I don't see me buying one. As @Juggular said, the DT02 gearbox is 20 years old - although at least it does have the option of a ball-diff, which is great - but it is kinda bulky and doesn't have a metal mounting plate. I'm also not sure about the transition from motor in front of the axles to behind. The BBX gearbox would have been awesome in this, but I totally get why they didn't do that. I'm not so sure about the treatment at the front. The thing that really puts me off is the flame sticker set! Since when were flames and Hornets a thing? Surely flames are a Hornet's greatest enemy? Especially when they are rendered as badly as they are in this instance! Sorry, there is one other thing - the price. You can get a standard Hornet for about £100. This is looking to be £170? Seems a bit steep for what it is. £130-140 maybe. 

 

2 hours ago, Kowalski86 said:

 I'd like to see this same treatment done to the ORV chassis and Wild One next, those could really use a more robust gearbox/axles.

Funnily enough I had in mind to do a similar exercise with the Hornet as I just did with my FAV. I'd worked out how to have the motor in front of the axle but I am still struggling with how to get decent suspension fitted to the front without cutting the front mounts off.

Didn't Grahoo do an ORV?

 

[nowinaminute 3319]

15 hours ago, Pintopower said:

The Tower is too low and the arms have the mounting point through the axis instead of what they did on the super hornet.

This is my main concern at the moment. Between the stock towers, and the bracket to bodge the upper connection, and lower connection not being sunken through the arm, there looks to be precious little travel available.

Going from a simple, single arm setup to a double wishbone style seems to yield less travel per same amount of shock movement, too, so I do wonder how it will work in reality.

For all it's faults, the original style has plenty of articulation.

[ThunderDragonCy 8115]

I am more upbeat about this than some. The DT02 gearbox is hella robust and has a ball diff option. The lack of motor plate and pinion options isn't that big a deal. I have run 10.5t on lipo with truck wheels in my dt03 and nothing has melted and everything inside still has all the teeth.

8-9 FDR is fine for mild brushless or nice brushed like superstock. How much faster are you wanting to go?

DT02 rear geometry is pretty nice. 

I think the front will be fine. I have mini cva attached to tub towers on Ultra Hornet with flat dt02 front arms. The tub doesn't bottom oit before the shocks, so it's not ideal, but in reality it runs great. 

[Tamiyastef 2498]

How do they do it! I thought I reached a point where there's nothing left on my wishlist and then they do this. Might wait for the Grasshopper EVO release though 

[Wheel_Nut 365]

They have made a huge change by adding the DT-02 gearbox and I’m not sure if the proportions are 100% spot on.  However I can overlook that.

Since I’ve already got a vintage re-release Hornet, I’m looking forward to try an updated version.  From the youtube video promotion, the new suspension appears to ride the bumps very well.

[ruebiracer 1168]

Actually,

as I realized, what it is, I was blown away! I never wanted to have a Grasshopper or Hornet myself, as my freind had a G2. My first Tamiya was an XR311 followed by a Brat as a kid, and both were handlingwise miles before a Grasshopper. I still remember my friend flipping all over on the street. Nevertheless, designwise the Grasshopper/Hornet are legends. Beautiful shapes and livery, fitting themes and legendary Tamiya DNA: "Anytime baby". Because of this and my favour for customizing Tamiyas to create some sleeper style ones, the German phrase "sheep in wolf´s clothing", I totally fell in love with modernized Hoppers / Hornets from @grahoo, @Pintopower and last but not least @ThunderDragonCy. They are handlingwise way more fun for me than the solid axle. My personal view, I must admit.

But now, this company I love since childhood, with it´s qirky designs, strange decisions (sometimes) but so much "soul" takes the Hornet for the 40th anniversary, and do a Retro-mod invented by all the Tamiya lovers and customizers out there! Isn´t that a totally new level? Have they watched all the threads we have for such conversions? I think so. Might be one of the rare moments, they really thought about what we would like to have! And why a TD4 and TD2 maybe was not the big success. It would have been easy to take DT03 and make a Hornet like body with that livery on it. We would have liked it to some amount. But keeping the original chassis and make double wishbones in front and a DT02 gearbox with rear motor isn´t that bad. Sure, it still has some flaws, but we like to fix them, don´t we? This is a new base, and I think DT02 gearbox is a nice choice. Who would really want a high power motor in this old chassis? A torque tuned will bring it to live more than enough.

Hats off Tamiya, you surprised me like few times before.

And don´t forget: DT02 can now take a sealed gear diff with the Xtra speed TA02 conversion kit.

And I´m in for getting one, probably to try a Grasshopper body in Blockhead motors design on it.

[ThunderDragonCy 8115]

Looking closer it seems this has new narrow track rear arms. I guess given the dt02 front and rear arms are on the same sprue, and this has new front arms, i guess that's not too surpring to keep the stance. Rear upright looks very DT02. Don't know what they will do about driveshafts if it is narrower. Next step down from the usual 70mm buggy shafts is 42mm for touring cars. Maybe 46mm if thry ressurect the ta05 shafts

[nowinaminute 3319]

1 hour ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

I think the front will be fine. I have mini cva attached to tub towers on Ultra Hornet with flat dt02 front arms. The tub doesn't bottom oit before the shocks, so it's not ideal, but in reality it runs great. 

That's how I'm trying to look at it. I always prefer enough travel for the chassis to bottom out, but given how light the front end is on these, even when the motor is on the front of the gearbox, I doubt it will cause too much trouble in normal use.

I guess the shock towers are one of the easier things to rectify, anyway. Some people literally just bolt on a couple of bits of alloy over the stock ones plus there 3d printed options etc.

Probably not that necessary in reality with the light front end. Having the rear end work properly is the most important thing. 

We shall see. I'm still impressed overall.

 

[nowinaminute 3319]

2 hours ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

8-9 FDR is fine for mild brushless or nice brushed like superstock. How much faster are you wanting to go?

If it can handle a nice 2s brushless system around 3300KV I think that would be mission accomplished. No reason to doubt it would. DT02 and 03 can as well as most of the vintage 4WD buggies.

It's not like you can't drive the original hornet and hopper on that kind of system, they are just a bit prone to randomly bouncing sideways and rolling over (apart from at the beach where I love using my hopper)

[Wheel_Nut 365]

1 hour ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

 Don't know what they will do about driveshafts if it is narrower. Next step down from the usual 70mm buggy shafts is 42mm for touring cars. Maybe 46mm if thry ressurect the ta05 shafts

Are the Frog driveshafts compatible?

[shenlonco 1173]

😍 A hornet dream!  Beauty!

[nowinaminute 3319]

Might help in the analysis:

[ADRay1000 423]

as an original LB owner, I have been intentionally avoiding any of the old solid rear end buggies and trucks. But I’ve always liked the look of the Hornet, so this appeals to me. Already thinking about paint schemes. 
 

also, am I the only one who sees a slight resemblance to the SRB chassis? 

[jonboy1 3319]

3 hours ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

I am more upbeat about this than some. The DT02 gearbox is hella robust and has a ball diff option. The lack of motor plate and pinion options isn't that big a deal. I have run 10.5t on lipo with truck wheels in my dt03 and nothing has melted and everything inside still has all the teeth.

8-9 FDR is fine for mild brushless or nice brushed like superstock. How much faster are you wanting to go?

DT02 rear geometry is pretty nice. 

I think the front will be fine. I have mini cva attached to tub towers on Ultra Hornet with flat dt02 front arms. The tub doesn't bottom oit before the shocks, so it's not ideal, but in reality it runs great. 

Maybe I came across a bit negative on it. That wasn't my intention at all - I honestly think it's a great idea and will be a great buggy, and I love that Tamiya have done it.

I think I'm coming at it from the perspective of

A: a hop up fanatic. If there aren't at least 30 expensive pieces of anodised aluminium or carbon that I can spend a tremendous amount of money and time sourcing only to be too scared to use it, then I struggle with incentive. 

3: having spent my entire career (sorry, working life) designing high end machinery "designing to a cost" has never been much of a consideration. So not picking the best option available always seems a bit wrong to me. In practice it accounts for 95% of all industry so is perfectly acceptable, but for me in my little world, I want better. Hence my "criticism" of the front end - how they have done it is great, and in all honesty will work just as well as an option 10 times the cost - but by dang it if it can be over engineered then over engineer it!!  

Honestly, I really think this is a great product and I have no doubt it will fly off the shelves and bring a lot of happiness to a great number of enthusiasts. For me, it's the flames. Why the flames?! Maybe it just reminds me of my first attempt many, many years ago:

Carpet isn't mine before any of you say anything!!!!!

 

[Ziddan 983]

40 minutes ago, ADRay1000 said:

also, am I the only one who sees a slight resemblance to the SRB chassis? 

Other than the wheelbase they are very different as the SRB has double fronts that pivot backwards and single rears at pivot up.

The front on this looks to have upper links added, possibly very similar to the mods some of us have been printing and attaching to the two front screw posts they so thoughtfully added, could also be and extension from the bottom bit that clamps in the front arms from the bottom but until we get shell less pics we are guessing.

And the rear looks like DT02 with short arms.

Ive printed an IRS rear end designed by https://www.youtube.com/@HumbleVintageRC and its set up similar to the ORV trailing arms but with upright shocks, it will be interesting to see how the DT02 GB attaches to the GH tub.

On my DT02 ive printed short suspension arms to get the tread right for use with a grasshopper shell, im using TT02 dogbones with it so that length seems likely, with it being marketed as EVO, has oil shocks and bearings, i wouldnt be surprised if it had universals too.

[Rinskie 851]

Welp I might have to eat my hat. After watching the tease video, that actually looks pretty cool. 

[manny 102]

7 hours ago, scoobybooster said:

Tamiya is quick !
First impressions of it :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW7nQbbl7WA

Thanks for sharing that.  I didn't notice at first that the front suspension has been upgraded to a typical C-hub and upper camber link setup.  

[BuggyDad 5320]

Interesting on the narrowed track vs DT-02/3 and shorter shafts. Would be tempting to fit 70mm CVDs with either DT arms or 3d prints. Although, I guess it might then look out of proportion with the stock wheels and maybe the length. 

[ThunderDragonCy 8115]

3 hours ago, nowinaminute said:

If it can handle a nice 2s brushless system around 3300KV I think that would be mission accomplished. No reason to doubt it would. DT02 and 03 can as well as most of the vintage 4WD buggies.

It's not like you can't drive the original hornet and hopper on that kind of system, they are just a bit prone to randomly bouncing sideways and rolling over (apart from at the beach where I love using my hopper)

I run 3300kv brushless in my DT03 with truck wheels. No bother at all.

[ABigChungus 70]

I wonder if this will handle essentially like a DT02 or whether it will handle more like some DT02/Hornet hybrid? My Kumamon DT02 is definitely one of the better running and handling vehicles I've got with the Adjustable upper arms and the stabilizers. Wonder what upgrades off of the DT02/03 will also fit, I assume all the gearbox related upgrades such as the hollow gear shafts and the heat sink/motor mount will be like for like.

[shenlonco 1173]

Guy's do you all realize that our brains will be going crazy when driving this new hornet?

we are so used and trained to that hornet hopper classic sound what's going to happen when you see the same car but that sound no longer comes from it anymore?