How do you drive your Hotshot/Hotshot II/Super Hotshot?

[Smokescreen38]

Do you guys actually drive these cars?  How has yours held up?  Have you done any mods that have been particularly worthwhile or helpful? Do you have any regrets on how you used yours? 

I thoroughly enjoyed the build of my rere Hotshot II but I keep reading about how fragile they are and I'm starting to wonder if I should keep this as a shelf queen.

The car looks as good in person as I had hoped and so far, it seems to be very fun to drive...unfortunately, it turns out that the front gearbox slips under load (a common problem, I believe) so I guess that it means that I need to shim the differential gears.   Anyway, assuming I can fix it, I would like to be able to enjoy the thing which amounts to some non-bashing type runs at the local dirt track, etc. 

Are there stronger aftermarket components out there that will make the car last longer? 

 

[Saito2]

 

Do I run my Hotshot series cars? Nah. J/K.

With the caveat that I drive them in a fashion they were driven in BITD (no insane motocross style jumps, skate parks etc.) using Nimh batteries and nothing hotter than a Sport Tuned motor, I have never found these cars to be fragile. I've never have diff problems either. In fact, of all the cars that use this diff design (also the FAV/Wild One and ORV series cars/trucks), the HS series is the one series that its never given me problems in. I've had front knuckles break on occasion. I've seen inner screw pin holes on the control arms fracture when they get old, but overall, they've been pretty low maintenance. Even those upper tie bars visible in my examples are there to cut down on slop, not add strength. The Hotshot style in particular seems very rugged with its boxed chassis overlaid with a tough roll cage. 

Can they break? Yes. A good offset front collision with a solid object can do some damage. Sometimes the center screw at the front of the bumper can pull through on hard impacts. They are not bulletproof like a modern race buggy with composite plastics. Really old examples with tired plastics will crumble like any other old Tamiya. Overall, I'd call them a pretty rugged design for an old Tamiya driven with respect to the era in which it was designed. I just might (might, mind you) even say they're even tougher (though far less efficient) than a newer DF01 when I'm feeling bold, lol. 

[TurnipJF]

I don't run mine often, and when I do, it is on tarmac or flat grass. I don't fancy sending it over jumps or abrading the underside on rocks and gravel. 

I also generally run it alone so that there aren't any other cars around to crash into it. 

It runs a GT Tuned motor and either NiMH or 2S LiPo. Mods are limited to a steel pinion, alloy anti-roll bar mounts, alloy wheel adapters, alloy battery holder and alloy front bumper. Nothing has broken so far. 

 

[toyolien]

3 hours ago, Smokescreen38 said:

I thoroughly enjoyed the build of my rere Hotshot II but I keep reading about how fragile they are

I don't pay attention (usually) to what I read. I thrash mine, but not too abusive. I just think if anything breaks I'll just buy a spare. And, if the day ever comes when I can't get spares, then it'll become a broken shelf queen.

 

[dannymulder]

The be honest I do not think the hot shot is fragile, I run the car for a long time now with an castle 5700 kv motor in it with the biggest pinion gear it can take,  and it is very fast, did a lot of runs with the car  on the beach and I run the car pretty hard, jump it ,crashed and cartwheeled a lot, I never broke anything on the car. 

The drivetrain can handle the power of brushless motors, and not had any problem with gears that slips, maybe you forgot something in the gearbox, the only thing that wear fast is the rear drivecups with this brushless motor.

[F-150]

I don't have a hotshot car, but I believe any of these are tough for it's intensions.

I myself never drive any of my cars like an idiot(cough, Kevin Talbot, cough) I think sending these little cars off of unrealistic size jumps, is so stupid. I like to drive scale with scale terrain and jumps. Even with my modern, B74 1 RC10.

I almost never run into stuff either and drive so as to not "accidently" run into a curb going 40MPH and breaking control arms. 

 I have my Baja rey if I want to get stupid...it's a beater and a ton of fun, all my other cars * like to keep in nice condition.

So what I'm saying is, drive it like it's suppose to be, watch what you're doing and don't run into a million things....it should be ok.

[Re-Bugged]

I don’t own one (yet) but this fella sure likes them…

 

[Mouc-RC]

16 hours ago, Smokescreen38 said:

unfortunately, it turns out that the front gearbox slips under load [...] I keep reading about how fragile they are

??? Never happened to me, I run my "street style" Super Sabre with a 13 teeth pinion + Super Stock BZ + 8,4v NiMh on let's say good traction surfaces and I never heard any strange noise or clicking whatever...

About "how fragile", at the risk of offending certain sensibilities (certainly not writing this for you specifically Smokescreen38!), I'm sorry to say that the reliability of the mechanics depends very much on the quality of the build. I think I'm not alone thinking this, lots of RC reviewers back in the RC Papers days were always speaking this way in their articles.

 

[Super ally]

I run my hotshot with a sport tuned motor and 7.2v nimh on mostly tarmac surfaces so never any problems with it breaking anything.These are 80s designed buggies so they were designed for brushed motors and nicad batteries.

[ThunderDragonCy]

I think they are pretty tough really, if driven on appropriate terrain i.e. no massive jumps on concrete solid bmx tracks etc.

I run mine regularly on a big national standard astro track. I am rubbish at jumping any car so i go slow over those, but it's fun to drive and nothing has broken yet apart from the enormous front bumper

I run shorty 2s lipos with a 17t brushed motor. I built it because it looks cool. Wasn't expecting to like driving it so much.

 

[MadAnt]

On road I can run the Hotshot 2 pretty hard. Off road and on the track, I take it easy.

I've broken a few things on my Hotshot II. I really can't fault the car... Oh wait! Yes I can. The area where the hinge pins screw into the control arm is weak. Tamiya should have updated the control arms or at least made HD upgrade versions for the re release cars. Anyway,  I have modified mine to take some more abuse with traxxas bandit control arms and redesigned the front skid and bumper.

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?/topic/107234-the-hotshot-ii-cool-but-flawed-improved-with-traxxas-parts/

[Nick-W]

On 11/3/2024 at 8:30 AM, Mouc-RC said:

I'm sorry to say that the reliability of the mechanics depends very much on the quality of the build.

I'd echo this. It doesn’t even have to be a concous thing. If I have something slipping, clicking or overwise not quite right, my first action is just to rebuild the part. That’ll often solve a mistake I hadn’t relised I made in the first place or, sometimes, even noticed as I was stripping it down.

[ABigChungus]

Got my HotShot in May of this year. It was a fun and simple build. Hopped it up with the H.P Suspension kit and the Under Guard off of the Super Shot. It is a great runner. Obviously they weren't meant for jumping from heights or landing hard, but it's great fun driving it around and showing off! Can't say I've had anything slip or damaged anything. I'm running a GT Tuned on mine fitted with a High Torque Servo Saver up front and on 2S Lipos. Fast for what it is and with the dual shocks up front and rear, it made a big difference to its handling, and recently I added Universal CVDs at last which can only help the performance further.

[Smokescreen38]

On 11/3/2024 at 3:30 AM, Mouc-RC said:

??? Never happened to me, I run my "street style" Super Sabre with a 13 teeth pinion + Super Stock BZ + 8,4v NiMh on let's say good traction surfaces and I never heard any strange noise or clicking whatever...

About "how fragile", at the risk of offending certain sensibilities (certainly not writing this for you specifically Smokescreen38!), I'm sorry to say that the reliability of the mechanics depends very much on the quality of the build. I think I'm not alone thinking this, lots of RC reviewers back in the RC Papers days were always speaking this way in their articles.

 

Your Super Saber looks amazing, especially with that wheel/tire package. Nicely done. 
I suspect you’re right about the quality of the assembly job and the potential for breakage.  While the instructions don’t leave much room for error, under/over tightened hardware, incorrect screws, forgotten parts, etc. could certainly lead to breakage…more significantly, folks who make errors like this might also be less likely to have “mechanical empathy” and could drive in a way that ends up being way harder on the components.   
 

That said, there’s something up with this reissue Hotshot2 kit.  A tolerance is off somewhere…after double checking my assembly of the gearbox compared to the instructions and found no discrepancies, I shimmed the diff gear in mine and it’s working fine.  I abused the silver can motor on. 3s and still had no issues.

[Mouc-RC]

13 hours ago, Smokescreen38 said:

That said, there’s something up with this reissue Hotshot2 kit.  A tolerance is off somewhere…after double checking my assembly of the gearbox compared to the instructions and found no discrepancies, I shimmed the diff gear in mine and it’s working fine.  I abused the silver can motor on. 3s and still had no issues.

Interesting, I didn't feel the need of shimming on the Super Sabre, although I guess the transmission cases sprues are the same for the Hot Shot... I guess you had to shim output gears? How much?