Hotshot/Bigwig Question

[MFrV1]

What differences are there between the Hotshot & Bigwig chassis (length, hole locations, etc)?

[pleiku68]

Everything...The Hot shot and Super shot share the same chassis and mech deck...The Big Wig and Boomer share a lot of parts..but other than four wheels the Hot Shot and Big Wig are not the same...Now some will will come up with 11 parts that are identical..lol jerry

[Shodog]

Booya Jerry, not even the wheels are the same between the two.  The easiest way to see the differences is to look through each of the online build manuals. 

[pleiku68]

Yo, Jim I did not say the wheels were the same..I said they both had four..LOLOL[]

[terry.sc]

The front and rear gearboxes are the same between the two, but the

Hotshot has hex drives on the centre propshaft while the Bigwig has the

now familiar bent wire propshaft. Apart from that just about everything

else is different.

[WillyChang]

... The Big Wig and Boomer share a lot of parts..but other than four wheels the Hot Shot and Big Wig are not the same...Now some will will come up with 11 parts that are identical..lol jerry

4 Super Gripper tyres

F & R transmissions

CVA oil shocks

Bumper

 

... there's 11! []

[DJTheo]

The front CVAs are a bit different (rods and 1 vs. 2) []

Cheers

[mike32]

Question is...which is the better car? I heard the Bigwig was exspensive, heavy, and not very successful on the track or on sales (i could be wrong, dont quote me on that)...

I must admit, the Bigwig was one of Tamiyas more unsual looking cars, and in my view, quite pleasing to the eye, i hope to obtain one, oneday...

Mike30.

[Shodog]

 I heard the Bigwig was exspensive, heavy, and not very successful on the track or on sales (i could be wrong, dont quote me on that)...

You heard correctly, it was a dog back in the day.  There was only one guy in our club running one.  Basically every Tamiya car has some issue or another but because the Hotshot was more popular, there was more aftermarket support for it.   

[DJTheo]

Out of the box a Big Wig is better/faster then a HS as it has better motor, more BBs, 4 dampers but HS/SS or Boomerang have more potential when hopped up as they are lighter.

Cheers

[pleiku68]

Yup, I ran the Big Wig when it first came out...The car was fast and fun..We did wide oval in an old roller skating ring. Anyway its one of the top runners of the first 100 Tamiya IMHO.This car out preformed the RC-10s and the other popular cars of the day..My son is a avid collector of Big Wigs...He has probably as many Big Wigs as I have SRB's..You know they make some pretty niffty aftermarker parts for the Big Wig.. lol...

[Wandy]

It was awfull on the track, not because of the handling (which is pretty good) but more down to the whole bulkiness and weight of it. I had one and attempted to compete at the local club but got obliterated by all the Optimas at the time.

Still though, it's a bit of a mystery why the BigWig is not more highly valued in the vintage price market because, as has been stated above, it pretty much is a unique car with it's own set of parts. Sure, it uses the familiar Hotshot transmission and yellow CVA's but the chassis, steering, wheels and body are only found on this car...and of course it is the 10th anniversary release too.

One other thing...it's front end is embarrasingly weak, namely the bumper and front wishbones, as I found out to my cost on my first drive all those years ago. One (admittedly quite heavy) crash with a Boomerang left the front in tatters and the car out of action for weeks since there were no spares available at the time. For a car marketed as an off roader it was a spectacular failure, but it was a great looking thing IMO.

[MFrV1]

Weak front end, eh. Anyone wanna buy one?

[pleiku68]

It was awfull on the track, not because of the handling (which is pretty good) but more down to the whole bulkiness and weight of it. I had one and attempted to compete at the local club but got obliterated by all the Optimas at the time.

 

 

Well I don't know what kind of track you were on but ours was a wood floor on a roller skating ring...I don't remember seeing any Optimas, Kysoho's were not very popular back then.. and I never crashed into a boomer. How long ago did you race the Wig????.Most guys had the RC-10 and latter the Dominator..The Big Wig with a stock Technigold won a lot of  races...Only problem was battery run time. Come to find out the Wig was four wheel drive and used more power..Also use to buy Sanyo computer batteries and make my own packs....We use to spray the Batterys with Freon to cool them fast for recharging..EPA would have a fit today..My son was like 13 back then and he is 30 now so this was 17 years ago and RC racing in Rhode Island was rather new..No one ever thought about running these things in the dirt..lol...but like I said in an earlier post there use to be a lot of aftermarket stuff for the Big Wig..So you could beef it up...regards jerry

 

[Shodog]

while it had a technigold, as I recall the Big wig  was heaveier than a Hotshot.  Most Hotshots were modded anyway. 

[pleiku68]

while it had a technigold, as I recall the Big wig  was heaveier than a Hotshot.  Most Hotshots were modded anyway. 

 

You know it may have been lighter..I have built the hot shot but never raced it...but I do remember now the Big Wig could take the 8.4 Gold something or other battary pack..Where everthing else was taking the 7.2...It conored better than most of the cars in that era with rack and pinion steering which I don't believe was availabe on the Hot shot or Boomer...Jerry

[terry.sc]

The Bigwig was styled for the aerodynamics by one of Japans top full

size designers. Unfortunately it didn't make much difference in 1/10th

scale. The Bigwig was heaver than the Hotshot, but also the extra

weight on the Bigwig was hanging out the sides, which meant the

handling wasn't as sharp as the rest of the range even though it had 4 shocks. The fastest of the

range was a modified Hotshot, out of the box the fastest was the

Boomerang. Rack style steering setup on the Boomerang sorted the bump

steer but without the overcomplexity of the Bigwig. The proper rack and

pinion setup in the Bigwig meant it needed rubber gaiters on the rack to keep

dirt out of it, the Boomerang version just didn't have that problem.

The only advantage the Bigwig had was the motor, out of the box it made

it faster than the rest of the range. As 8.4v was big in Japan at the

time the whole of the Hotshot range could be set up to take the Tamiya

Gold 8.4v battery.

Unfortunately for Tamiya the Hotshot came out at the same time Kyosho

released the Optima, so all the Hotshot range got nowhere on the track

compared with the better handling, more efficient Kyosho cars.

[MFrV1]

But what chassis chould I use to link a Hotshot II rear to a Bigwig front?

Therefore, I can find out what prop to use.

[terry.sc]

But what chassis chould I use to link a Hotshot II rear to a Bigwig front?

Therefore, I can find out what prop to use.

You can use any of the chassis to connect them together, they are all

the same length. The propshafts are the same length as well. The only

difference is that the Hotshot 1 and Supershot one has hex drives on

the end, all the others used the bent wire one. The two different

propshafts just need different shafts that fit in the ends of the

gearboxes to make them fit.

For reliability I would recommend the bent wire propshaft, the hex drive ones were known to fall apart.

[MFrV1]

Thanks alot for that info.

 Ebay, here I come!