Hornet EVO Build - write up on page two.

[Carmine A 3121]

You saying there's a phone under all those lenses!?!?? 😮😯

And the box.... I hope it means there's a kit inside. 😀

[MadAnt 732]

Part 1.1.

The Tamiya Hornet has to be one the most iconic buggies from Tamiya, it seems that almost anyone I meet in public who was into RC in the past knows about the Hornet or Grasshopper and some have even owned one of these simple buggies too. My first hobby grade electric RC car was a Grasshopper, which is what the Hornet is based on. It's very simple platform and it's cheap cost made it a great starter car for the beginners, with a stock 27 turn 540 Mabuchi or Johnson motor (Grasshoppers had a 380 size motor) it was fast enough to be enjoyable, but also slow enough to not overpower the chassis and get into trouble.  Even the well experienced hobbyists like myself enjoys the Hornet and Hopper platform as they are sometimes the cheap way to do experiments and make modifications fitting other body shells on and whatnot.

Now celebrating The Hornet's 40th year of existence Tamiya has decided to do something special(there is a gap, just ignore it). Rather than just a cool paint and decal job those crazy engineers at Tamiya has modified the chassis and given us some new parts as well, technically making it a new car instead of just a simple retro fit with new suspension. That's right! It's not just the suspension that's different, it could technically be The Hornet III if the people working over at Tamiya wanted to call it that, but Hornet EVO I'm sure was the name that better fit the image, which is probably why it was chosen.

I've waited a long time to find out what makes thing tick. Follow along this build, because there may be some things you need to know if you are going to build one yourself. 

We start off like pretty much most RC kits by opening the box.

Ok, I'm not doing a box opening thread, go watch unboxing videos on YouTube if yo want that.

Assembling the transmission.

The transmission as many people know is from the DT02. While assembling the differential, I used Tamiya's AW grease on the bevel gears. This is a choice by me and should both lubricate well and give rotation resistance due to the sticky likeness of the grease.

The nylon gears got a light coat of ceramic grease.

Nothing really special with that and the motor is just the typical 27 turn Mabuchi RS 540SH silver can.

When installing the pivot balls for the rear upper camber links you can use the provided wrench instead of using pliers like the instructions recommended.

As of right now, these dogbone shafts are discontinued. Maybe this issue will be resolved soon.

I know that there is some concern about these outboard shafts bending, but I think what happened to Shen RC was a just a defect and was bent prior to the first drive.

Looking good so far.

[River19 178]

Cool.

My EVO came today......will build it over some Christmas vacation time...... and because I have them I am going to toss the 540SH a 540J and a Torque Tuned 540 on the motor analyzer and decide which one gets dropped in the Hornet.

[MadAnt 732]

Part 1.2.

With the transmission and drive line finished we move to mounting it all to the chassis, but before I cover that, let's actually get a good look at this EVO chassis.

This is the first modern Hornet chassis I have held in my hands. This chassis is different, it's better than the old chassis, it's even different than the re-release chassis. How different? Just a little, but where it counts and for necessity. Not only is there two new holes to mount the front suspension components, but just behind the shock towers the chassis has be reinforced with more plastic. In the past Hornets were prone to cracking by the front shock towers and now after 40 years something has been done about it.

In the pictures below you can see the reinforced areas.

Just for comparison here is the same area on my vintage Hornet which has been glued and repaired.

Anyway, moving on to the rear shock tower.

Looking at these pieces here really let's you know that there was no lazy way taken to give the Hornet IFS. No wait! Looks is not enough, you have to feel these parts go together, because It's an amazing fit.

Going through the process of mating the DT02 rear to the chassis just felt satisfying as it slipped together like a nice puzzle. I was impressed.

I do like the skid plate with the countersunk screws, I'm sure I'll scratch it up lol.

I was really impressed at this point and really was enjoying the build.

Part 2 will be the front end.

[Carmine A 3121]

I think I feel bad I didn't get one.....

Thanks for the close look. It definitely appears to be a Hornet....but better! Also, with those two parts, one could fit a DT-02 gearbox on any classic or rere Hopper chassis! 😯

Glad they finally reinforced the front shock towers. Very overdue. I think I'm as excited as you are about following this build!

[guggles 340]

Looks pretty cool! I like the mix of parts from old and new together. Thanks for sharing.

[MadAnt 732]

Part 2.1.

This is something I have never seen before, these screws with very, very flat heads. These are for when extra clearance is needed and mounting down the mount plate for the camber links.

The servo saver needs one hole drilled larger and gets one super flat headed screw too.

I did run into a few issues on the front end, but as a mechanic I know how to solve problems. My metal gear rage servo was a little too tall, so on it's side, even with the new special angled servo mounts, the saver would touch the chassis. Oof! So in goes the TowerPro MG996R and problem solved... almost.

The front suspension arms and steering bellcrank setup is something pretty cool to see on a Hornet.

Just a tip. If the servo saver is making contact with the steering linkage (which is an issue I had), loosen the servo screws and wiggle the servo up. If you still don't have enough room, maybe put some washers between the chassis and servo mounts.

Update edit: I can upload images again and HEIF works now.

[MadAnt 732]

Part 2.2.

Let's take a look at that Hobbywing speed controller. I've owned a few of these HW 1060's but none that came standard in Tamiya kits and this one looks a bit different.

I'm just kidding, here it is.

The only thing different is the color of the heatsink, instead of red it's black and from my understanding, that's how they all come in new tamiya kits.

Alrighty, on to the shocks. I have guessed that the front shocks are the super mini CVAs and I was right, but these shocks use a longer shaft and a spacer between the shock end and spring retainer.

For now I just going to use my pre-assembled super mini CVAs that I already have, I'll lose a bit of ride height, but that's fine. The rear shocks are taller CVAs which I assembled using the two hole pistons instead of the three hole, because I want a bit more of resistance when the shock goes through it's motion and I really do think the soft oil is not thick enough for the rear suspension, but we'll see.

Another problem I noticed with the front end was the bending of the upper part of the shocks. The top of the front shocks have a brass pipe bushing and are mounted to the towers with U brackets and the bottom of the is forward off center from that. So the lack of articulation causes the upper shock eye to bend, which is not good. To fix this, I rotated the U brackets until the top of the sock was no longer stressed and now relaxed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MadAnt 732]

A few quirks and features and other things to point out:

🙂The kit comes with metal shielded ball bearings.

😃Almost all the coated hardware has a dark color finish, which is a nice touch and looks better in my opinion.

😐There is some up and down play with the steering knuckles in the C hubs, just use a washer to take up the gap.

🙂The long and not long gulwing suspension arms may seem like an interesting design choice, but that design allows for the use of Tamiya's pre-existing choices of shocks without having to design more new parts and allows for a good amount of suspension travel.

🤨The rear body mount bracket is mounted where the resistor would be on the original Hornet.

😐You will definitely need to make adjustments to the front toe angles and the draglink length, which the manual covers just incase.

🤔The rear springs seem a bit soft. 

🙂It looks weird with the wide front track until you put the body on it, then it kind of looks cool.

🙂The rear width is about the same as the regular Hornet.

 

 

[ADRay1000 700]

excellent use of emojis there

[ucacjbs 171]

20 minutes ago, ADRay1000 said:

excellent use of emojis there

Seconded!

great info too, I should add 😊

[Carmine A 3121]

Great insight! This kit is looking more interesting by the minute. Some top tips as well. 👌

[River19 178]

Nice job documenting the progress.  

My EVO box is sitting unopened at this point, planning to build over the holidays as a reward for getting through this lovely year end budget season at work filled with 12-14hr days staring at numbers.

 

[MadAnt 732]

2 hours ago, River19 said:

Nice job documenting the progress.  

My EVO box is sitting unopened at this point, planning to build over the holidays as a reward for getting through this lovely year end budget season at work filled with 12-14hr days staring at numbers.

 

You are gonna have fun, trust me.

Stay tuned, I have the Hornet EVO pretty much finished, I just need to take some pictures.

[Honza 1255]

On 12/16/2024 at 5:18 AM, MadAnt said:

In the pictures below you can see the reinforced areas

I'am a little late, but awesome write up!

Looking at these photos, I noticed matter finish of the part.. are there any markings on the chassis suggesting, that it is made of fibre reinforced material?

[MadAnt 732]

7 hours ago, Honza said:

I'am a little late, but awesome write up!

Looking at these photos, I noticed matter finish of the part.. are there any markings on the chassis suggesting, that it is made of fibre reinforced material?

The chassis is still the same ABS and has the >ABS< marking on the chassis.

For some reason the chassis part number is the same as the Hornet and Grasshopper re-release. This might be a good or a bad thing depending on one of two possible circumstances. It could be that all new Hornet/Grasshopper chassis will be updated with the improved EVO chassis, or it could be the bad possibility and the only way to get the EVO chassis is to buy the Hornet EVO kit.

As of right now Tamiya has no chassis in stock and is possible that they are trying to sell off the remaining stock of Hornet and Grasshopper kits, which just so happens it looks like they are selling all the stock during the holidays. That's good planning, or perfect timing, or both.

[markbt73 6089]

Nice! Mine is sitting there 3/4 finished, waiting for me to have a free day to finish it up.

By the way, O-rings in the diff outdrives completely eliminate the binding/bending dogbone problem. It even comes with enough extra O-rings to do it.

[MadAnt 732]

Part 3.

This has been a pretty good kit to build, even though there are a few things that need minor tweaking, it all stuff that can be easily addressed during assembly. @markbt73 brought up putting O-rings in the inboard drive cups, which is something I will recommend that people do with this kit, because with enough flex in the suspension components and the in and out travel of the dog bone shafts might cause the pin of the dog bone shaft to just slip out of the outboard axle cup. Use the O-ring to take up the space an prevent the shaft from sliding too far. Another thing I want to point out is the CC01 dog bone shafts just about fit, but may bottom out in the cups if you want more negative camber. 

Anyway, moving on to the body. It's a good thing I got a head start with this and painted the body last month, because it's freezing cold outside now where I am. I tried my best to put the decals on as straight as possible and despite using tape to align things I got the "Anytime Baby!" decal on slightly crooked. Meh... oh well.

I do have to say, I'm glad I went with gunmetal gray for the paint, because with the decals on the body it looks freaking awesome.

[Seanster43 230]

Nice write up, enjoyed the info about your findings and how to make it work as such, as well as the build pictures! 

[MadAnt 732]

So I've been experimenting and trying to figure out how to fit other hubs on the rear axles without binding. This is an issue I've found out(and others have found out too) trying to use the original old style hubs and other hex hubs. It seems kind of silly that the only hubs that fit well are the ones that came in the kit. The best solution would be to have a new revised axle with the pin hole drilled offset maybe 1mm out. This is the kind of stuff those YouTubers who got to review these cars extra early did not catch, and we who just got the cars in December have too. I can't even use my aluminum hex hub adapters which is sold by Tamiya as an Hopup option for the Hoppers, Hornets, Frog and other ORV cars, I've tried and the bearings bind when the wheel is tightened. As of right now, I have one sloppy solution after trying multiple things like spacers in-between the bearings that only contact the inner race to messing with shims and whatnot. This sloppy solution is tape in the pin slot of the hub, just keep adding tape until it rotates good.

If anyone who has some leverage at Tamiya reads these forums should listen and fix the issue.

I'm sure other people here would agree.

[ThunderDragonCy 8903]

@MadAnt have you tried some regular axles in the rear uprights to see if you have the same issue? I have vague recolections of my DT03 with the same part being really sensitive to which hex I used and binding sometimes, but it is a long time since I used the kit uprights so might be wrong. Just wondering if it's a dt03 part problem or a hornet evo axle problem?

[Carmine A 3121]

That seems like quite an oversight on Tamiya's part. Do you have any other stub axles to try... to see if you can at least get a good, usable solution?

[MadAnt 732]

8 hours ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

@MadAnt have you tried some regular axles in the rear uprights to see if you have the same issue? I have vague recolections of my DT03 with the same part being really sensitive to which hex I used and binding sometimes, but it is a long time since I used the kit uprights so might be wrong. Just wondering if it's a dt03 part problem or a hornet evo axle problem?

 

1 minute ago, Carmine A said:

That seems like quite an oversight on Tamiya's part. Do you have any other stub axles to try... to see if you can at least get a good, usable solution?

I don't have any DT03 axles, but I could try the shorter TG10 axles and an hex drive axle from my vintage Monster Beetle and see if putting on the hubs is an issue. I then could try TL01 and TT02 uprights. If anyone owns an ORV chassis car with dogbone shafts and a Hornet EVO, I ask if they can check the swap ability of the outer drive axles. 

[SlideWRX 1025]

Maybe some 5x11x3 bearings on the inside of the rear hub (instead of stock 5x11x4mm) would let the axle stick out 1mm more.  Considering the issues people have with the driveshaft being a bit short through, it might require a longer driveshaft - might as well make it 2mm longer, so you don't need an o-ring to hold stuff in the right place.

[MadAnt 732]

I would love to run this Hornet EVO off road, but the weather, holidays and me being busy during that time makes it difficult. Plus I really don't like being out in the cold for long, I get grouchy, lol. So right now the the buggy is ready to go in street mode, which means it just has the tires I use on my other Hornet and waiting for some pavement runs. We'll see how the weather is after the new year.

I guess I could paint the driver in the meantime.