De-commissioning The Hotshot

[markbt73 5316]

I've had a re-re Hotshot for a few months now, and in all that time, I've run it maybe four times. Granted, I haven't had much time for driving anyway, but every time I take out the Shot, I find myself wishing I'd grabbed a different car. By contrast, every time I take out my Lunchbox, I find myself wishing I'd charged a second battery. This is telling me something.

Also, right now my best option for driving is my apartment complex's parking lot, which is too rough for a true on-roader but too smooth to make use of the Shot's suspension. It might be perfect, however, for my never-run M04 Alfa GTA, which is in need of electronics. So I'm going to take the ESC and receiver out of the Hotshot and give the Alfa a try.

There is no way I'm going to sell it; for one, it was a gift from my wife, and for another, I still love it. But it's better in theory than in practice, and the build process was more enjoyable than driving it. It will join one other car as a "shelfer-for-now," semi-retired display vehicle, the other being my beloved Associated RC10LSO Graphite pan car, veteran of many races and hours of fun runs. Both will see run time again someday, but for now, they'll just sit there and look cool.

[yamita 0]

I think I ran my hotshot once or twice and it's been sitting in the box since. Shoulda bought a willy...

[pagedm_f350 3]

As I don't have enough receivers and ESC's to go around I seem to always de-commission my least run and put them in another, maybe I should stop buying kits and buy some receivers instead.....

Hotshots are cool, wherever they are, shelf, carpark ...

[WillyChang 1814]

they look cool hanging on the wall

takes the weight off the suspension too - you know what stress does over the years

[Mad Ax 9313]

I felt exactly the same about my 'shot. I bought it to see what all the fuss was about, as I never saw one first time round. The build was truly excellent fun and it looks fantastic, one of the best-looking "modern size" buggies Tamiya have made. My first run was in my garden with long grass, where it seemed to cope well, but this was just a quick shake-down to make sure there were no faults.

My second run was a full pack with a Super Stock BZ on the very short grass in Yeovil's Ham Hill - unfortunately the front suspension let itself down badly and I spent most of the time digging up dirt. I've decided the HotShot (at least without the HP suspension) is much better as a shelfer - where it will look good forever - than on the track.

My next project is a shelfer Brat re-re painted up as a HotShot support vehicle, with trailer - just for the shelf

[Saito 5]

I like running my Hot Shot, so much so that I have a shelfer and a runner. Alot of it was perspective for me. Take the Frog from just a couple years earlier. For what Tamiya meant to be a competitive car, it hops and bounds all over the place. The Hot Shot on the other hand seems to just stick to the ground, sliding on obsticles that would put the Frog airborne. I like seeing that funky suspension work and flaws it does have (and believe me, there are some!) make it more interesting for me to drive than say a Dirt Thrasher. I can just picture when one of these first showed up to a track back in the day and held its own against the new dominant RC10.

[Crash Cramer 617]

Saito,

I have to agree with a lot of your points, but I have to say that "back in the day" we didn't get much opportunity to race with the RC10s as they were relegated to 2wd class. I am in Texas and we may have raced differently, but the classes were by car type and how many wheels were powered and then how hot was your motor. The only time you may have seen a HotShot paired up with an RC10 would have been NOVICE class and you were likely to see plenty of rag tag stuff in that class. I guess I can remember a grouping of Losi, RC10, Blackfoot, Traxxas something or other, et all. Well after having the car flipped up and crashed a couple times by the NEWBIES, I bailed out and went into the STOCK class and had to try to keep up on my limited budget(STOCK MOTOR, maybe bearings, but had to wash them each week). I had the most fun on the dirt oval that I raced at and that was because they would let me race in the 2wd stock class as long as I removed the prop shaft and had only two powered wheels. If you read my showroom post on my long overdue build HotShot, you would see I had an unfair advantage even in 2wd mode, so it was fun. I never took home giant trophies, but it was fun all the same.

[tylerdurden 0]

i love running my re-release hotshot, but i also running my original release hotshot in standard trim with a servo controlled speed controller

[terry.sc 16]

I have to agree with a lot of your points, but I have to say that "back in the day" we didn't get much opportunity to race with the RC10s as they were relegated to 2wd class.

Here in the UK we never ran separate 2wd and 4wd classes until the Optima came along, the Hotshots (even the much modified ones) were usually beaten on the track by the RC10 unless the grip was so low that the 2wds couldn't put the power down to the track. As we mainly raced on grass at the time it was very rare for a Hotshot to beat the 2wds. Personally as I raced on a slippery surface and the only tyres for the Hotshot were the oval blocks and pin spikes I regularly beat them with my much modified Frog.