Beginning of the 4WD 1/8 Buggies

[tamartin]

I want to share some knowlegde of the early 4WD buggies with you. Maybe someone can help me to even make further statements or to correct my thoughts.

I began to drive with these cars 1983, but the first 4WD car, the world had seen, was the Kyosho Land Jump 4D around

1979 1980

For almost 1 year this car was the only 4WD car in the world. Thats the reason why there are so much cars around. In the States it was even longer.

The first rival of the car was made by a small Italian manufacturer SG. They made a 4WD kit for their Romax Expert. Not really a contender with the 3 chains in their drivetrains.

1981

the race begun. A second Italian manufacturer Garbo hit the shelfes. The Presto!! A copy of the drivetrain layout from SG but with a chassis plate and not 2 railings as used in the Land Jump and Romax. Very light and with extremly durable plastics, called Zytel.

All these first 4WD cars had chain drivetrains and trailing arms. The Land Jump was more a rear whell drive car with a little help from the front tires. No diff in the rear and a slipper clutch with one ways in the wheels up front. The Presto had no diffs and no oneways out of the box and the Romax only a diff up front.

1982

was the beginnig of a new aera. A small French manufacturer Yankee designed their Yankee Enduro. The first!!!!! 4WD car featuring the 3 diff layout, A-arms around, engine left facing the front and the tank in front of the engine. Even 17mm wheel adapters were on the car, all the same on todays buggies!!! I might even say that Audi Quattro was based on this layout or vice-versa.

This car was lightyears ahead of all other ones, it won the European or World Championships 3 years in a row with Pedro Martinez de la Rosa behind the wheel at the age of 14.

Kyosho only managed to make their Land Jump better in the new Land Jump Integra. Full 4WD chain drive with lighter wheels and better coil over shocks instead of the ball pen springs of the Land Jump.

1983

Yankee changed their filmsy greyish plastic into better black one and Serpent, one of the best On-road car manufacturer in the world, tried to make an Off-road one. The Serpent Cobra, an extremly unique car. The layout was a copy of the Yankee, but with only 2 diffs, which were ball diffs!!! The one and only 1/8 car with ball diffs. The car was so extremly lightweight, due to a double deck chassis, which made it uncontrollable at any terrain.

A real flop. Serpent I think never tried a Off-road car again.

1984

the victories of the Yankee made some manufactures very jealous, so SG brought their Leopard 4WD. A 3 diff A-arms layout, with 2 steering servos, eninge left side facing foward. The first contender of the Yankee.

Kyosho only changed the old alloy trailing arms of the Integra to plastic A-arms. Still a chain drive layout, the Vanning.

1985

Garbo the second Italian company showed up with one of the best buggies at this time. The Gepard 3, which had some astonishing features. A-arms with ball connections, big 8mm dog bones like the Savage today, but with a stupid engine layout facing the rear and small shocks. Which was very hampering the exhaust.

Also a second french company Siccom showed their car the Siccom Magnum Force. Huge rear dampers and a mid engine layout was the innovation of this car. But the mid engine was only accomplished by two open gearings in front of the diff housing, which caused enormous troubles.

And than Kyosho showed up with the Burns, which was so dominant with the Mugen Athlete, to end some manufactures lives. Yankee made some Europas till 1989 but ended up making 1/5 and 1/6 cars.

SG or Garbo became Crono, the other company died, same with Siccom.

I did not mention some other cars, eg. Thunder Tiger Varicom Silver Fox, Blue Bird 4WD, aso, because these companies only copied the cars and not really inveted some new things.

I hope this interests somebody and will not waste time.

Some of these cars mentioned above can be seen in my showroom.

[WillyChang]

Nice work!

Part 2 might start with the Kyosho Burns / Turbo Burns, eh? []

[OCD]

Great Work!

Exactly the kind of thing I love to see here in the forum. 

There is so much history that needs to be captured;  The hobby is

so expansive, in both time and variation, that no one person can have

ever experienced it all.  I myself am too young to remeber the

early days of nitro, so when I see those heavy metal dinosaurs (no

offense to dinosaurs ) it's like seeing an alien spaceship. 

I ask myself, 'Who built such a exquisite beast, and what were they

like to drive.  What happened to these people, has their

civilization dissapeared along with thisexotic breed of cars?'

Does anyone here run these types? I know this is Tamiya club, but

curiosity has gotten me wanting to see a Landjump or something similar

in a video. 

[bender]

A small French manufacturer Yankee designed their Yankee Enduro. The first!!!!! 4WD car featuring the 3 diff layout, A-arms around, engine left facing the front and the tank in front of the engine. Even 17mm wheel adapters were on the car, all the same on todays buggies!!! I might even say that Audi Quattro was based on this layout or vice-versa. This car was lightyears ahead of all other ones, it won the European or World Championships 3 years in a row with Pedro Martinez de la Rosa behind the wheel at the age of 14.

Great stuff, I love reading abou tthe early history of rc []

However, just to clarify your above quote:

The first 1/8th Off Road World Champs were held in 1986 (in Grenoble,France) and was won by Frederick Veyssere, driving the Yankee that you mentioned. Pedro De La Rosa (yes, the former F1 driver) finished 2nd. That was Pedro's only appearance at a World Championships.

However, De La Rosa did win the European Champs in 1983 and 1984.

 

[tamartin]

Thank you for the information.

I did not know if these were European or World Championships.

You will soon be able to see a Serpent Cobra in my showroom.

[tamartin]

Yeah,

Burns, Turbo Burns, Mp4, MP5, Mp6, Mp7, MP 777

Mugen Athlete, MBX4, MBX 5

and all others!!!

The question was how they were to drive.

I can speak for the early 2WD cars with the engine in the back behinf the transmission.

Extremly fast, 8:1, or even 7:1 geared, compared to 11:1 to todays buggies. But with almost no on power steering, more hopping over the obstacles and with more fun in the dirt as todays cars due to the radio box, which were almost watertight in the TT Challenger.

The Yankee was almost like todays cars, especially if driving only around, which we did in those days.

The chain driven lookalike from TT Silver Fox was not as good, due to only 2 diffs.

But you had to be a real good mechanic.

Till 1995 or so, no 1/8 buggy could be driven without much improvement from out of the box.

E.g. you wont imagine how people had altered their cars, often beyond a point, where you could tell which brand it was.

I myself had made a buggy with front end from a Serpent Cobra, a front end from a Garbo Gepard and the drivetrain from the TT Silver Fox.

And that was not the extrem car!!!

Today this would be impossible. And the aftermarket for hop up parts is so gigantic, you only need a lot of money. SAD!!!!!!! And if something does not work properly out of the box, the company will be aimed with complaints.

25 years ago you sat in front of your car and thought and thought and.... This with the age of 15. Thats why I now know everything about everything working about RC cars. This helped me alot for my big cars.

Today a dad buys his son a RTR and if something breaks or is not working, he brings it back to the hobby store for repair or exchange.

So many childs will loose their interest very fast, because of this fact. You should repair your car with cheap homemade parts, before going to daddy and ask for the money for the alloy parts, or to learn driving better only making the car tougher. WRONG WAY!!!

My 2cents

[DJTheo]

So true Martin, also excellent overview article, keep them coming! [H]

Cheers

[smallman28]

I remember  reading a 1/8th race report in an RC mag when I was 13 with someone driving a Yankee who won some championship or other,I think their name was Martinez something.

EDIT,Just read your post in full and discovered the Martinez name there,strange how that stuck in my mind for all those years though.

[terry.sc]

Just a couple of additions

The Serpent Cobra, an extremly unique car. The

layout was a copy of the Yankee, but with only 2 diffs, which were ball

diffs!!! The one and only 1/8 car with ball diffs. The car was so

extremly lightweight, due to a double deck chassis, which made it

uncontrollable at any terrain.

A real flop. Serpent I think never tried a Off-road car again.

Serpent replaced the Cobra with the Spirit. The Cobra had an

option of a centre diff, but it wasn't fitted as standard. The Cobra

was very successful on smoother tracks, was even UK national champion.

Also in 1985 PB replaced their Mustang (a converted 2wd on road car

with a solid rear axle) with the Mustang Xi2, the first 1/8th buggy

with the option of four wheel steering, but more importantly the first

buggy with a 2 speed gearbox.

And here's a picture of the 1983/8 European chanpion Pedro Martinez de

la Rosa. He also just missed out on the first World Championshipby seconds as he was leading until rolling near the end.

[tamartin]

Thanks for the correction of the Serpent cars.

Did not know they made a second one.

But on the other hand this must be after 1986, or even later.

I lost interest after my graduate in 1986 and began to drive a 1/8 buggy again as late as 1995.

[Disco]

Hi, I raced a PB mustang Xi2 super comp in the late eighties, followed by a burns, turbo burns then on to a super Pirate and finally a probe  before i stopped racing 1/8th in about 1994. i now have a Mugen MBX 5 that was the UK Mugen team endurance race car but have not ran it yet.

There was another 1/8th rallycross car with ball diffs that was made by BMT  and ran in the UK by team green, it was not a great car. the last PB prototype was belt driven i seem to remember, but was never produced, i saw it run at a national event in about 1990.

Regards

Dave

 

 

[tamartin]

Some pics taken from an old RC-book to show you, how the tracks were in those days.

[tamartin]

more

[tamartin]

and

[PBXI2]

The PB Mustangs were rather important in the history of rallycross as they were the last British model to dominate the scene.

[KUBIK]

Hi all, I'm a huge vintage 1/8th fan If I can add some more thoughts below (feel free to correct any errors) as most of these observations are remembered from back in the day...

1984

Graupner Garbo Gepard 3 was designed (according to my exploded diagram in the owners manual). This was an interesting buggy as it had some old school features such as a full metal cage, high mounted shocks, radio box to protect the electronics, rear exit exhaust, but it also some new era aspects to the design: decent strong A-arm suspension, the start of larger diameter three piece wheels (still smaller than todays mind you), ball joints all round, triple diffs, very strong thick chassis, lovely build quality. This model was very expensive at the time. So I see this car at a cross roads in rc history - the end of one era with the beginnings of a new one.

1985

PB Mustang Xi2. Twin diffs, GRP radio tray, strong A-arms, same wheels and diffs as the Garbo 3. Came fully ballraced for £190 or so, making it much cheaper than the Garbo 3 and the only reason I bought one. The all wheel steering was a gimmick and most drivers remove it. Twin disc brakes were also not great as the servo effort available was simply divide into two making no difference. The chassis flexed badly as it was too thin and the top brace failed miserably. Overall a great value product but one which needed a lot of mods to make it work at it's best.

1986

I am sure this is roughly when Serpent had another car out. Dates are hazy but I recall a Spirit and Cobra.

1987

This is the year 1/8 exploded with loads more manufacturers taking it seriously.

PB X3 on the scene with triple diffs, vertical shocks, side exhaust layout, much improved ballraced steering (which I fitted to my Xi2), lower profile tyres on one piece rims, which became the norm.

Graupner Garbo Master released. Same as Garbo 3 but the cage was ditched for a lexan shell. Metal parts were replaced with cheaper lighter plastic parts, such as diffs, gears, etc.

Siccom and Yankee were huge this year.

Burns released, which soon became a Turbo...

1988

The last ever Graupner Garbo won the world championships with a Ghibli or Roadfighter as some called it. Engine was a T4 Mantua.

1989-ish-on wards...

End of the old school. All modern buggies became replicas of the Burns. All the variations, unique ideas and character vanished from 1/8 buggies. Skip to today and add some carbon fibre and CNC parts with pretty colours and you still have a Burns clone with bling. I think buggies are now as good as they will ever become.

Feel free to edit

Paul