L Plates On A Hornet?

[Toymotor2]

Hi,

Some advice for a Tamiya novice please!! I have a few questions:-

My son wants to move away from his current toy RC cars and have a 'proper' RC buggy. I would like to get him something for his 12th birthday at the end of the month. He likes the look of the TT-Gear buggy, but reading the spec I have talked him into a Hornet as I'm assuming it will perform better (ie be faster) and not need upgrading as quickly. Am I on the right lines?

I will obviously help him make the car, can anyone advise how tricky it is? I remember making complete messes out of my airfix kits as a kid, though I am more patient now and even sometimes look at the instructions!

The sites I have looked at sell packages which should include all he needs - car kit, battery, charger and radio unit. Any advice on things that I should get from day 1, I seem to have read a fair bit about bearings and would rather fit them from day 1 if they make a difference and it is a hassle to retro fit them. I think I will need to buy the paint for the body?

Finally, if anyone has any tips to ease our first experience I would be grateful.

Thanks in advance,

Shads

[mymonsterbeetleisbroken]

hey there and welcome to the site!

I've actually written one reply but just deleted it - as i'm unsure if your asking about the tamtech hornet and buggy champ - or the 1/10 scale hornet?

The big hornet is a vintage design from the 1980's. I love vintage tamiya and parts are dead cheap for that chassis, as it's been re released. But its a very basic car and a 12 year old would probably soon get board of it. When my brother was 12 i bought him a tamiya M03 mini cooper, which is a seriously fun car and is very fast. My 9 year old sister got a grasshopper when she was nine, which has the same chassis as the 1/10 hornet - but now she's 10 and has mastered all its got to offer her, so it'll be replaced by something more advanced soon.

On the other hand, the tamtech series chassis are very similar to eachother. The buggy champ offers old skool front suspension and and my opinion is better than the tamtech hornet.

I can't really compare the 1/16 tamtech gear cars with the 1/10 hornet, as the scale is so different. The hornet will be more powerful as its got a 540 size motor. But, it won't handle as well, and is very limited as far as upgrading goes. The TT gears are small and therefore less suited for out door use, but the hornet is easily outclassed by nearly any other 1/10 rc buggy you can buy.

If it was the 1/10 hornet you're looking at, you might want to check out the more advanced cars, buggies and trucks. Even though he's just starting out, it might be worth getting something thats easily upgraded, rather than being stuck with the hornet

For a tip - place this site in your bookmarks folder, as there will always be an answer to any question you have on here

[backtomyroots]

Well, the Tamtech series are not really going to perform in all environments, especially off road. Go with the 1/10th scale Hornet. The only hting is, it is a re-release and not too many options are available for "down the road".

But, on the plus side it is a simple car with few parts and very durable. It was my first "Real RC" many, many years ago. It took a beating and was fun to drive.

[Toymotor2]

Thank you both for the prompt replies.

Sorry for not being clear, it was the 1/10 Hornet I was considering. I appreciate it is an old design, but knowing how it will be driven (somewhat recklessly) I thought it may be a good introduction. I hope it will be fast enough without spending too much, this is pretty much the most I can afford. He will be using it in the garden with me and sometimes on the street near his mothers house and from what I have read should be able to take a little abuse. He is also rather fussy about the looks - hence the thought of the TT-Gear.

We have just watched the 1984 video of the Hornet :-] on www.storacingproducts.com and whilst it is a very dated video it gives a more realistic idea of what he can expect than the video I have seen of the Traxxas Bandit, which Modelsport.co.uk recomended over the Hornet. The Bandit not only looks worse (according to my son) but is also enough extra 's to put me off.

Whilst I am not too worried about the amount of mods (hop ups?) we can get, if there is a more modern alternative you could reccomend for a similar price I will see if he likes the design and go from there. I guess the Hornet may be a short sighted purchase if he loves it, but the car may not get loads of use and it's a lot of money to have sat on a shelf!!

Whatever I get him, would you advise having a couple of batteries to allow a reasonable time of driving in one session?

Thanks again, your advice is appreciated.

Shads

[Jackson]

Here's my opinion on the two options: 1/10 Hornet or 1/16 Tamtechs

I have a Grasshopper, which is basically the same as the Hornet with the exception of body, tires, and the motor size. The Hornet runs on a 540 size motor while the Grasshopper runs on a 380 size motor. I also have the Tamtech Buggy Champ. In my opinion, the Tamtech handles way better than the Grasshopper, this is with speed out of the equation. Speed-wise, I can't really give a exact number since I went straight to brushless in my buggy champ.

Another thing is aftermarket support. The Hornet would be a great basher, but has very little aftermarket support. On the other hand, the Tamtechs have loads of alloy parts from 3racing, some from Tamiya. You can almost build a Tamtech out of aftermarket parts!

[Edit] About the durability issue, I have a little sister that is 8 years old. She is somewhat interested in RC's. I wouldn't let her drive my Grasshopper, I could see in my head her smashing it to pieces 5 seconds after she runs it. However, today, I let her have a go with my buggy champ (with mamba 8k brushless, what was I thinking!?!), and yes it crashed into the curb pretty quickly...and some more after that. Surprisinly nothing broke. The Tamtechs are very tough. I know the hobby shop owner has a Tamtech Frog for her daughter which is 5 years old. And I've seen her drive that thing and I have yet to see it break

[Bluefoot]

Hi Shads,

I gave my kids an old Hornet to run and they think it's great. It's tough as old boots and goes fast enough to make the "toy" RC cars look like they are going backwards. All the other kids on the street want to have a go with it. If you want a buggy for a kid to play with then this is a good one. And they do look good when painted nicely and decaled properly. If you want it to go faster then you can buy a faster motor for it. The gearbox on these are quite tough. Handling won't be so great, but that's part of the fun and challenge of the old designs.

The Tamiya instructions are very good and this is an easy car to build. If you buy it from a hobby shop they will (should!)help you if you have any problems. They are not as fiddly as an airfix kit.

Definitely get ballbearings for it.

The more batteries the better. Good batteries, and higher mAh batteries will last longer. Also a reasonable peak charger.

You will need paint (from the Tamiya PS range). And read the instructions about painting the lexan body. It's not difficult if you take a little time to get it right.

If he wants something that can have endless hop-ups, tuning parts and money spent - then maybe look at the tamtechs. They come as a pre-assembled car which is ready to run. This can be an advantage I suppose, but I think half the fun of RC is that you build the car yourself.

If he wants to get serious about racing, then it might be worth taking him along to a local club and talk to the people there and have a look at their cars to decide what he wants in the future.

Cheers,

Don.

[HunterZero]

The 1/10 scale Hornet is almost a bullet-proof car for a beginner, I don't think you can get a better introduction to the hobby than with this kit. The Hornet does have one other advantage over the Grasshopper, in that it has slightly upgraded rear suspension with oil dampers.

The off-the-shelf upgrades for the 1/10 Hornet/Grasshopper chassis are fairly limited, unless you look about for some of the vintage upgrade kits. Spares are plentiful on eBay and very cheap. I would recommend starting out with ball bearings, you will need 9x 1150 and 1x 850 to do the whole car. The Hornet is very light and its handling isn't so great, so adding a much more powerful motor will make it an uncontrollable missile. The standard electronic speed controller (ESC) that comes with it typically will only handle a Sport Tuned motor. Anything faster than that and you'll need to upgrade the ESC, which can be expensive.

Hopups for the Tamtech buggies are much more readily available and diverse. Spares are similarly quite cheap. So it is a car you can tinker with over time, adding little hopups here and there.

Out of the box, the 1/10 Hornet is quite a bit quicker than the Tamtechs, probably plenty quick enough for a 12 year old to terrorise the neighbourhood pets.

One strike against the Hornet is that the rear spike tires tend to wear quickly, especially on road. There was a hop-up released for the Frog that will also fit the Hornet - Aluminium hex adapters - that allow you to fit more modern wheels/tires.

Note there is a Super Hornet available as well, which has a few more updates over the original Hornet, but most of the chassis parts are incompatible, and it probably won't come with an ESC. I think they only share the gearbox and the bumper.

If you do get the Hornet now, You can always carry over the radio gear, ESC and battery to another car when you upgrade later, eg to a DF-03.

- James

[Teej84]

Just a lil extra thing its always worth getting a couple of batteries or some uprated batteries so you can have longer runs. This hobby is addictive and you'll always want to drive aswell as your son so its worth getting an extra battery for both of you!

[Mad Ax]

My few cents worth as you look like you'll be driving in the garden - the TamTech Gear cars are quite a bit smaller than the 1/10 range, and won't go so well on grass or bumpy mud due to the reduced ground clearance. In my opinion, the standard TamTechs are also a little slow on open pavement, and are really designed for indoors or confined spaces unless you fit faster motors.

If you want outdoor I'd say gor for something 1/10. That still leaves you with a huge choice:

The Hornet is a good beginners car IMO, pretty strong, good spares availability on ebay, easy to build (but if you're the type that doesn't read instructions then now is the time to learn!) Once your son has mastered the standard car you can think about uprating the motor and speed controller, but there's not a lot else you can do with a Hornet.

There are other Tamiya buggies in the intro range, but they're all much of a muchness and not really worth me going through each one.

Another alternative is to look at the slightly more expensive buggies from Tamiya - the DT-02 cars (Sand Viper and Desert Gator) are very good rear-wheel-drive buggies - a little more costly than a Hornet and a bit more complex to build, but you shouldn't struggle if you read the instructions and do it step by step. Hop-ups for the DT-02 cars are almost endless and if you throw enough money at them you can even turn them into race-capable machines, although that's not really what they're designed for. They are higher tech than a Hornet and therefore handle better. A newcomer may not notice the difference, but with experience the better chassis become more "rewarding" to drive.

The DF-03 cars (Dark Impact, Keen Hawk and Avante MkII) are probably over your intended budget, but worth a mention. They're much like the DT-02 cars, but they are 4-wheel-drive. This means they handle better on mud and can push through short grass with ease.

However, if your grass is often quite long or your mud really bumpy, you may want to consider a monster truck. I am currently recommending either the Blackfoot Extreme (2x4) or the Double Blaze (4x4, twin motor) to all newcomers to the hobby since IMO they're excellent trucks for generally bashing about and having a lot of fun with. Out of the box both are slower than the Hornet or any other 1/10 buggy, but in a race over grass the trucks, with their bigger wheels and better ground clearance, will win. Both Blackfoot Extreme and Double Blaze are similarly priced, but the Double Blaze comes with an old-style mechanical speed controller that isn't as smooth as electronic ones - however, you do get two motors and four-wheel-drive. The Double Blaze is naturally more expensive to hop-up because you need to buy two motors and a high-power speed controller, and naturally the battery runtime is only half as long as the Blackfoot Extreme.

I only recommend these trucks because I love my Blackfoot Extreme to the ends of the earth - it's easily my favourite runner. In standard trim I found it a little slow, but with a 23-turn motor and 20-tooth pinion it rocked.

Finally, a word on batteries - remember to budget for at least 2 good batteries and a good fast charger. Run-time from a standard 1/10 buggy is usually around 10-15 mins depending on battery capacity, terrain and driving style; slightly less for heavier trucks and 4x4 buggies with additional drag. Ball bearings help improve run-time and improve efficiency. A good charger will charge batteries in under an hour - but remember, the bigger the battery capacity, the longer the charge time. This means that you'll wear batteries out faster than you can charge them - there's no way around this apart from buy more batteries and keep them charged.

Remember - tamiyaclub is a good source of info and advice, if you get stuck during your build or want advice on what hopups to buy, there are always plenty of people willing to make a suggestion*

*Note: most of the suggestions will be different

[SegaFalcon]

If you worried too much about the budget may I suggest Ebay. You can get a car your Son will enjoy for peanuts as there are often plenty of cars that people have brought and then decided it just wasnt for them. Somtimes they are ready built and essentially ready to run or they can range from partially built to New in box. To start with you have a whole range of cars to choose from, my first and current being a Tamiya Falcon, which started with the standerd silver can 540 which Ive now upgraded to a 19t and I must say its fun to drive. I exspect it to be well used even when I pick up a Nitro car next week. Just remember this when you decide to upgrade parts on it, Just like the original kit you will get plastic bearings. These can wear quite alot and you really will benifit from swappint them for a ballbearing set as they do not wear quite so fast and will give a much smoother exsperiance and quicker acceleration.

[Toymotor2]

Thank you all for your replies, interesting stuff - as Mad Ax said, opinions will differ! I think I'm going to go for the Hornet, I will makesome phone calls today to see what deals are about. I'll let you know how I get on with building it! Thanks again for taking the time to share your views and experiences.

Shads