Hotshot - 24 Years Late

[Jonny Retro]

Today I finally achieved one of my childhood ambitions - buying, building and running a Hotshot.

Ok, so it's not scaling Everest, but bear with me ...

In 1985, I was wowed by my friend's Hotshot - I don't know if it was the colours - black, white & red have something of a primal appeal - or that the engineering was so superior to what I was running at the time (a Hornet) - but I was certainly thinking "oh yes, she will be mine"

24 years later, I'd kind of missed the boat on the re-re - they're still about new, but thanks to global financial upheaval, the cost was something I couldn't really justify ... so thanks to Taffer for selling me his NIB re-re, sans ESC, at a considerable discount

I spent a lot of the weekend on painting the shell, wing, driver figure & tyre lettering - I always find it frustrating to have built the chassis, only to then spend another day or two on the painting, so I always do it a little bass-ackwards now. Building the chassis took 3 hours 40 minutes, spread over several sessions - I knew this car was complicated, unneccessarily so in places - but at the end of it, I just had to put the bodywork on, and go driving

I must admit to a bit of childish excitement as I stepped out of the house & put the car on the lawn ...

I know fellow Eastern Bashers will find this hard to believe - but I didn't actually roll it on its maiden drive - not even the "almost famous" humps in the lower part of my lawn upset it. Traction is impressive - I deliberately drove across a couple of flower beds to "test" it

Speed from the Dirt Tuned motor I put in is a bit poor, coupled with an indifferent Ni-Cad of unknown heritage - though I may have got the gearing wrong, as both the battery and motor got hotter than I would have expected from the speed, so I may try the 13T kit pinion instead of the 15T.

[tamiya monkey]

hi johny, nice story, the hotshot is one of those kits im not in a rush to buy as most of my time is just bashing, but everytime im in the market for a new rc car its always on the list, im sure im gonna have to give in and buy one real soon.

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It puts a smile on my face too, although I love Supershots and even Boomerangs too. I would recommend a Technigold motor and believe it or not, 8.4 Gold Power battery. I have a few, they still work :-)

Paul.

[Tamiya on the Brain]

Very good story Johnny

I was 12 at the time of the hotshot in 85' and I did so drool over it. Like you - this year, I finally got my re re hot and I am sooo happy with it. Glad to hear you are too!!!

Gabe

[Jonny Retro]

Thanks chaps

I'm just waiting for a Super Champ re-re & then I'll have pretty much the full set of cars I had in my yoof/cars I wanted.

Oh, and a Bruiser too. There's always "just one more car"

[HunterZero]

Today I finally achieved one of my childhood ambitions - buying, building and running a Hotshot.

Nice!

Speed from the Dirt Tuned motor I put in is a bit poor, coupled with an indifferent Ni-Cad of unknown heritage - though I may have got the gearing wrong, as both the battery and motor got hotter than I would have expected from the speed, so I may try the 13T kit pinion instead of the 15T.

Using the 13T pinion will give the car less top speed, but will make the acceleration a bit more responsive. Dirt tuned is only a midly tuned motor, and the Hot Shot has a fair bit of friction in the drive train. Did you assemble the car with ball bearings? If not, time to pull the car apart again, and get some bearings into it!

If your battery is old, or improperly charged, it may not have much 'punch'. What capacity is it? Are you sure it was fully charged? Did you trickle charge it or fast charge it? Is your charger a peak detection one, or an ancient timed charger? Try fast charging the battery with a peak detection charger. After fast charging it, the battery should be very warm to the touch.

Tamiya RZ motor is a good match for this car. Fast, without being too ridiculous. Should be able to get away with that motor and the TEU-101BK ESC if that's the one you have, with the 13T pinion.

- James

[HunterZero]

Oh, and a Bruiser too. There's always "just one more car"

Hehe, leave your wallet at the door!

- James

[Jonny Retro]

Thanks James - I used bearings throughout, but I think the battery was a lot of the issue ... it was a nondescript yellow shrinkwrapped pack that came with another car off eBay, it looked in pretty good order, but...

I gave it a slow charge, then a discharge, 3 more fast charges/discharges, then another slow charge, topped up with a fast charge before I used it, so I'm prety confident it was holding as much charge as it was going to.

I was curious about its age/capacity type, so this morning I thought I'd sacrifice the outer shrinkwrap to have a goosey at the cells - nothing doing: just more shrinkwrap. sliced some of that off, but the cells are completely unmarked. The welds on some of the tags wasn't up to the job, & fell apart with little encouragement, there's also some evidence that a couple of cells have vented, so I haven't really lost anything by this - I'd guess it was a cheap, "deal" type 1500mAh Ni-Cad, probably several year old.

I popped a Vapextech 3700mAh pack in the car this morning - it's still not fast, but does have quite a bit more punch

[Hotshot_DK]

Check out mine:

HP parts

24 ball bearing

Tamiya HP wheels

Reedy Yokomo Modified motor 12 T also from th 80's

Tamiya HP dampers ... not mounted on the picture

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I can recommend 1150 thrust bearings for the drive shaft. They make a difference.

Don't forget the EU initiative regarding Cadmium waste ;-)

Paul.

[Jonny Retro]

...

Don't forget the EU initiative regarding Cadmium waste ;-)

Certainly won't Paul - I have a special "battery bucket" that gets taken to the recyling centre every so often, and I carefully empty it into the correct storage bin there.

From there, a big truck collects them, and they go off to a much larger facility, where they pass through the hands of increasingly unscrupulous contractors, where they either end up mixed in with a container full of "recyleable materials" bound for India or wherever, or into landfill here.

[The Hornet]

Jhonny Retro or Hotshot DK

Could anyone please do a mini track test review!!

Theres not alot of MODERN comparative reviews of the re-re hotshot.

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Oh you cynic you ;-)

P.