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Terra Scorcher 2020!!

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May be of interest to somebody, we actually ran some GPS speed tests today on thundershot based buggies including my daughters new built re-re terra scorcher and we got these results:

1) My Terra Scorcher fitted with a (now well used and needing rebuild) Reedy 19T spec motor, 13T pinion, Novak Rooster ESC and 8.4v NiCD - 25mph

2) My daughters new Terra Scorcher (all new components that still need some running in) with a new Tamiya Super Stock RR 23T motor, 15T pinion, Modelsport Sniper ESC and 7.2v - 19mph

3) Bone stock and well thrashed thundershot on 540 silver can, 15T pinion and 7.2v NiCD - 16mph

NOTE: All buggies were running 2.2 inch wheels and tyres, not the stock (and much smaller diameter) stock wheels and tyres.

One thing we did notice is that my Terra Scorcher tracked straight as an arrow at 25mph over a 200 yard stretch of smooth'ish tarmac with no need to touch the stick at all whereas my Daughters new Terra Scorcher was very skittish and needed alot of correction with the stick to keep it in a straight line. This was causing her some distress. It was not servo trim, we ruled that out but her Terra Scorcher tended to randomly veer to one side or other at full speed. Looking at the cars side by side it seems that my TS sits lower, has more front toe in, has more camber on all wheels, is heavier and is fitted with an expensive metal geared servo. Not sure which of these differences made it track so much better though. We'd need to go through one by one on her car until we find the cure. 

Having said that, her car slaughtered me on the postal racing challenge so handling at high speed is not always that critcal LOL

 

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10 hours ago, mud4fun said:

My middle Daughter (aged 16) completed here re-re Terra Scorcher yesterday other than painting the cockpit/drivers head. She thoroughly enjoyed the build, didn't really have any issues with chassis other than struggling to get a circlip in place and needed me to put it on for her. I painted the shell for her and helped her with the four large decals as she was really struggling to get them lined up and bent around the edges with creasing.

She is running a Tamiya super sport RR motor in it at the moment with a Modelsport Sniper ESC and futaba 2.4Ghz radio

The original wheels and tyres have been put away for safe keeping and a new set of DF03 2.2 inch white wheels and schumacher 2.2 inch mini pin spikes have been fitted for use in the garden.

1047743830_new_terror_scorcher(4).thumb.jpg.f6d30fd72473dcd7507c909a9bb12f48.jpg

 

Also shown here is our current operational thundershot based fleet

and yes, the crawler is a heavily modified thundershot!

We like these buggies :-)

The black thundershot is my youngest daughters, the white thundershot and terra scorcher are my middle daughters and the crawler and purple/green iridescent terra scorcher is mine.

 

265447285_new_terror_scorcher(1).thumb.jpg.2b4167a9efc257af866061999bb17fd4.jpg

Could do with Tamia re-releasing the thundershot as I'd like to get some new shells and stickers.

 

 

I saw the three pictures and it's beautiful work. Could you provide some specifics on the tires. I just finished my Terra Scorcher (first new build in 30 years for my grandchildren) and I love the look of those tires. Many thanks 😊 

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1 hour ago, MrBlz said:

I saw the three pictures and it's beautiful work. Could you provide some specifics on the tires. I just finished my Terra Scorcher (first new build in 30 years for my grandchildren) and I love the look of those tires. Many thanks 😊 

Yes, the tyres are all Schumacher 2.2 inch buggy tyres (mounted on Tamiya DF03 2.2 inch wheels in black or white). All the buggies in this picture are fitted with the Schumacher mini pin spikes in blue compound. However we also run full spikes and also tarmac tyres from Schumacher too. The advantage with using 2.2 inch wheels is that there are plenty of aftermarket tyres available and they are cheap. A pair of schumacher tyres from Modelsport UK is approx £7 (half or less than that of what you'd pay for Original Tamiya thundershot tyres).

Schumacher do four compounds, blue=hard, yellow=medium, green=soft wet, silver=soft dry (I think, you'd need to confirm)

We find blue compound works best for us, great for bashing and messing around in the garden or even doing races as long as we are all on same tyre.

The tyres we use the most are (rear and front)

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/schumacher-mini-spike-rears-blue-2-2/rc-car-products/2297

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/schumacher-mini-spike-fronts-blue-2-2/rc-car-products/2290

 

NOTE: You will not be able to fit these to thundershot or terra scorcher wheels, you would need to buy new 2.2 inch wheels, wide 4WD rear and narrow 4WD fronts

NOTE2: You will need foams/inserts to fit in the tyres, these are roughly £1 each and can often be re-used when changing tyres. You'll need Front or Rears to match your tyres. We use:

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/schumacher-rear-foam-tyre-insert-med-1pr-/rc-car-products/29248

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/schumacher-front-4wd-foam-tyre-insert-med-1pr-/rc-car-products/29249

 

 

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Always thought the Terra Scorcher to be butt-ugly but this creation below now makes me think it's just Tamiya's boring colour & decal scheme that does the buggy a disservice. Might have to pick up a TS2020 now. :P

ts2020.jpg

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3 hours ago, Wandy said:

Always thought the Terra Scorcher to be butt-ugly but this creation below now makes me think it's just Tamiya's boring colour & decal scheme that does the buggy a disservice. Might have to pick up a TS2020 now. :P

 

I love that!! :wub:

The different rear wing really works and massively changes the looks.

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On 10/21/2020 at 2:01 PM, Wandy said:

Always thought the Terra Scorcher to be butt-ugly but this creation below now makes me think it's just Tamiya's boring colour & decal scheme that does the buggy a disservice. Might have to pick up a TS2020 now. :P

ts2020.jpg

How nice. 🙂

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According to Tamiya USA the Terra Scorcher has been discontinued already. Seems this just came out a few months ago, and now its being shelved again. I was going to wait and purchase one first of next year, but looks like those plans are changing now. All U.S. distributors are out if stock, with Tower Hobbies saying backorder, next shipment early January 2021. Wonder if that's going to say discontinued soon too. Not going to take the chance Tower is wrong, they have been in the past.  Rcmart still has them, along with Tamico......placing my order now.  I'd recommend anyone wanting one, get one now since it may be another 10-15 years till this one kit is re-re'd again.

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7 hours ago, Hobbimaster said:

According to Tamiya USA the Terra Scorcher has been discontinued already. Seems this just came out a few months ago, and now its being shelved again. I was going to wait and purchase one first of next year, but looks like those plans are changing now. All U.S. distributors are out if stock, with Tower Hobbies saying backorder, next shipment early January 2021. Wonder if that's going to say discontinued soon too. Not going to take the chance Tower is wrong, they have been in the past.  Rcmart still has them, along with Tamico......placing my order now.  I'd recommend anyone wanting one, get one now since it may be another 10-15 years till this one kit is re-re'd again.

It is just the shell that would be difficult to source, not sure if TBG do one? The rest of chassis is largely identical to all other thundershot based buggies so with some turnbuckle upper camber links and steering arms plus the twin front shock you can get a thundershot, thunderdragon or fire dragon up to terra scorcher spec quite easily. The fire dragon is about to be re-released which has the twin shocks. Turnbuckles are readily available via aftermarket or using parts from other Tamiya cars. I'm fairly sure that the UJ driveshafts were used on other buggies too, pretty certain the set I have on my thundershot were not terra scorcher but can't remember what they were off. So no need to panic too much. 

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1 hour ago, mud4fun said:

It is just the shell that would be difficult to source, not sure if TBG do one? The rest of chassis is largely identical to all other thundershot based buggies so with some turnbuckle upper camber links and steering arms plus the twin front shock you can get a thundershot, thunderdragon or fire dragon up to terra scorcher spec quite easily. The fire dragon is about to be re-released which has the twin shocks. Turnbuckles are readily available via aftermarket or using parts from other Tamiya cars. I'm fairly sure that the UJ driveshafts were used on other buggies too, pretty certain the set I have on my thundershot were not terra scorcher but can't remember what they were off. So no need to panic too much. 

Yes, a Fire Dragon could be converted, but if someone wants a TS and not have to chase aftermarket bodies, decals, and parts, its much easier to get the kit from the get go.

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hey guys sorry random of topic, but i finally put a battery in my 2020 kit and the gearbox is smooth, but wow its loud.  is this car more noisy that what is typical?

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3 hours ago, Sweatpants said:

hey guys sorry random of topic, but i finally put a battery in my 2020 kit and the gearbox is smooth, but wow its loud.  is this car more noisy that what is typical?

No, however it seems to be a problem on the re-releases. We are going to have to strip my daughter's terra scorcher because it is horrendously noisy compared to any of our three vintage thundershots. My thundershot is very quiet, it easily matches my avante2001 for smoothness and noise levels. Some of this is simply down to being well run in, using quality grease and quality bearings but I believe the re-releases have poor quality plastic, poor moulding and sprue connections bleeding into the gear teeth. We are going to replace the rerelease gears with some vintage ones. 

Also my daughter used the supplied grease whereas I use hudy gear grease. All our old thundershots use the pressed steel motor mount too which I think results in better meshing of the pinion on the spur. We suspect the alloy mount on the rerelease is not quite correct so we are going to swap that for the pressed steel one.

I will report back once we've made the changes and will let you know if it made a difference.

 

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Hmmm - I wonder if there are some moulding quality control issues going on at the minute.

I have an F104 kit from about 10 years ago and the front wheels that the bearings fit into are a nice tight fit and the wheels roll perfectly on the spindle (even still though the tyres are ropey now)

Last week I bought a replacement set of F104 wheels (exact same moulding and part number etc as the old ones) and the front wheel bearings are loose in the bore in the wheel. With the wheel nut tightened up and shimmed as before the bearings are free of play but the wheels rock slightly on the bearing.

I also recently bought a high torque servo saver. There looked to be some moulding issues with that as it didnt seem to go together anywhere near as nicely as the ones i built last year.

These are all bonafide parts from a reputable man (:ph34r: called Tony)

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32 minutes ago, Superluminal said:

Hmmm - I wonder if there are some moulding quality control issues going on at the minute.

I have an F104 kit from about 10 years ago and the front wheels that the bearings fit into are a nice tight fit and the wheels roll perfectly on the spindle (even still though the tyres are ropey now)

Last week I bought a replacement set of F104 wheels (exact same moulding and part number etc as the old ones) and the front wheel bearings are loose in the bore in the wheel. With the wheel nut tightened up and shimmed as before the bearings are free of play but the wheels rock slightly on the bearing.

I also recently bought a high torque servo saver. There looked to be some moulding issues with that as it didnt seem to go together anywhere near as nicely as the ones i built last year.

These are all bonafide parts from a reputable man (:ph34r: called Tony)

Possibly, I too have bought a few modern re-re parts and they are seemingly not as accurate as the original vintage parts. Thankfully I have a huge supply of vintage thundershot parts so can easily and cheaply swap out all the poor modern parts for older ones. Shouldn't have to do that though. There definitely seems to be quality control issues. Very unlike Tamiya. The worst was the re-re Avante parts, especially the alloy rod ends, they are utterly dreadful and have so much play in them that they are basically scrap, they do not feel as heavy or tight as the original WORN parts that I removed!!. I'm not sure if these are genuine parts or fake parts though. Even though they have come from reputable suppliers there is nothing to say that those suppliers could have been victims themselves unwittingly?

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16 hours ago, mud4fun said:

Also my daughter used the supplied grease whereas I use hudy gear grease. All our old thundershots use the pressed steel motor mount too which I think results in better meshing of the pinion on the spur. We suspect the alloy mount on the rerelease is not quite correct so we are going to swap that for the pressed steel one.

I will report back once we've made the changes and will let you know if it made a difference.

 

My runner Terra Scorcher 2020 I installed an original motor mount, makes no difference to the noise.

Ever since the 2008 rere of the Fire Dragon, the diff has been noisier.

I'm approaching 10 hours run time and it is getting quieter, if it really bothers than install new old stock gears and internals (getting harder to find).

None of my rere Thundershots from 2005 suffered this so maybe the mold is now a little off.

Edited by taffer
edit I always use tamiya ceramic or anti wear grease on tamiyas
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3 hours ago, taffer said:

My runner Terra Scorcher 2020 I installed an original motor mount, makes no difference to the noise.

Ever since the 2008 rere of the Fire Dragon, the diff has been noisier.

I'm approaching 10 hours run time and it is getting quieter, if it really bothers than install new old stock gears and internals (getting harder to find).

None of my rere Thundershots from 2005 suffered this so maybe the mold is now a little off.

yea it doesnt sound like its binding or doing damage.. but boy it sounds like crap.

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10 hours ago, taffer said:

I'm approaching 10 hours run time and it is getting quieter

Blimey, my thundershot rear gearbox has had 200+ hours of use over last 20 years, no wonder it is quiet then :D 

Much of that was powered by the 13T dyna run and 8.4v battery, only been stripped, cleaned and new bearings a few times but AFAIK it is still running original gearset! (except pinion)

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12 hours ago, taffer said:

Ever since the 2008 rere of the Fire Dragon, the diff has been noisier.

I'm approaching 10 hours run time and it is getting quieter, if it really bothers than install new old stock gears and internals (getting harder to find).

None of my rere Thundershots from 2005 suffered this so maybe the mold is now a little off.

I was wondering if the '05 re-re T-shot was affected as I don't recall any complaints on the forum about it back then. My '08 Fire Dragon bevels were totally deformed at the base/root of the teeth.

9 hours ago, Sweatpants said:

but boy it sounds like crap

...and does it ever. Mine sped around the yard sounding like an over-excited wind-up toy. I recall being quite frustrated with the racket until I tracked down problem.

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As long as there is not any undue vibration because of it, it can be as loud as it wants! 😁

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21 hours ago, Saito2 said:

I was wondering if the '05 re-re T-shot was affected as I don't recall any complaints on the forum about it back then. My '08 Fire Dragon bevels were totally deformed at the base/root of the teeth.

...and does it ever. Mine sped around the yard sounding like an over-excited wind-up toy. I recall being quite frustrated with the racket until I tracked down problem.

and what was the problem?

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1 hour ago, Sweatpants said:

and what was the problem?

gear1

About 12 years ago I tracked it down to this (the E3 bevels IIRC). Those lumps at the teeth roots were not easy to spot once they were coated with white Tamiya Ceramic Grease. That's a pic of the replacement gears I bought which, as you can see, were no better off than the kit gears, so it seemed like a mold problem to me at the time and not a fluke. It took a good bit of trimming and filing to "re-profile" the base of the teeth. I gave up several times but kept coming back to it until the problem was resolved. I can't walk away from problems for too long. The mechanic in me demands a solution :P.

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@Saito2 this is an unused (albeit dirty) vintage 1980's thundershot gear. Had it out to test fit for my daughters crawler project, it appears to have much sharper definition at the base of the teeth?

EDIT: I have just rebuilt a gearbox using vintage 80's gearing instead of re-re, it is far quieter so there is potentially a problem with the new gears. Having said that, my daughters Terra Scorcher has now started to quieten down after another hour of use today.

 

WP_20201107_19_00_05_Pro.jpg

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In fact, taking a closer look at the differences I'd say the entire teeth are more clearly defined on the original 80's gear, look at the top of the teeth, they carry the correct geometry on the vintage gear, your re-re gear @Saito2 is less defined and more rounded profile? Shame, as it suggests the moulds are at end of life so limited chance of any more re-releases unless they re tool?

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26 minutes ago, mud4fun said:

In fact, taking a closer look at the differences I'd say the entire teeth are more clearly defined on the original 80's gear, look at the top of the teeth, they carry the correct geometry on the vintage gear, your re-re gear @Saito2 is less defined and more rounded profile? Shame, as it suggests the moulds are at end of life so limited chance of any more re-releases unless they re tool?

I would agree with your observations @mud4fun but I do think Tamiya might keep up the re-releases on that chassis if it sells. The Fire Dragon is due back soon and though I have sworn off buying more models, I'm strangely thinking of picking one up. While they make upgrades from time to time (some of them like the Terra Scorcher motor mount being rather odd) Tamiya seems to have no issues with reissuing vehicles with flaws. The Blackfoot/Monster Beetle diff comes to mind. If they can get away with it (unlike the Juggernaut 1) and it sells, I'd guess they'd keep producing it.

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6 minutes ago, Saito2 said:

I would agree with your observations @mud4fun but I do think Tamiya might keep up the re-releases on that chassis if it sells. The Fire Dragon is due back soon and though I have sworn off buying more models, I'm strangely thinking of picking one up. While they make upgrades from time to time (some of them like the Terra Scorcher motor mount being rather odd) Tamiya seems to have no issues with reissuing vehicles with flaws. The Blackfoot/Monster Beetle diff comes to mind. If they can get away with it (unlike the Juggernaut 1) and it sells, I'd guess they'd keep producing it.

Yes, and to be fair here, other than the noisy gears, my daughters re-released Terra Scorcher has been perfect in every other way so we feel it is still great value and wonderful to have the opportunity to buy new 'vintage' kits. It is looking like the gear moulding issues actually self-correct over time once you run them long and hard enough. My daughter has been using her Terra Scorcher in the Postal Racing competition and is running a Reedy 19T spec motor and she has been pushing the buggy hard. It sounded like a knackered old Series Land Rover when first built but it is now down to sounding like a fiat...... given a few more hours use it'll probably sound normal :D

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