Vanquish

[Saito2 6673]

The Vanquish was probably my best performing car in my original collection. I was fortunate enough to get it for Christmas (after MUCH begging to the parental units) since it was on closeout for a mere $99.00 (far cheaper than its normal $225 price tag). It was my only gift that year and it was well worth it. I was smitten with the Avante and the Vanquish was as close as I thought I'd get. In reality, it was not necessarily the budget Avante but rather the superior performer. I stupidly painted it blue and put Avante wheels on it. Years later (but still about 20 years ago now) I began to regret not going box art. When Tamiya announced the re-release I had some hope. The high price tag and pre-painted body with silver canopy decals put me off. I looked at my old Vanquish sitting on the shelf and decided to finally go through it. I wasn't going to wait to see if the rumors about clear bodies coming from Tamiya were going to be true as spares is commonly an issue as is, so I grabbed a repop body and decals.

 

Here's what I started with, my original Vanquish and its original manual, first gone through on a Christmas night many many years ago...My folks couldn't tear me away from my work bench that night. I had waited long enough and the anticipation was great. I still remember day dreaming about it in English class as Christmas finally approached.

 

 

With the body removed...

 

Some of the weird stuff I did as a kid. I likely burned the heck out of myself on the resistor guard, hence the black electrical tape. Probably not the best for cooling in retrospect. I lost a rear dogbone once and no spares were to be found. I did have an extra from an Aristocraft Dolphin of all things that actually fit. The green twisty ties were a RC Car Action "pit tip" to help in preventing the future loss of dogbones.

In pieces for the first time since the early 90's... That yellow handled screw driver was the same one I used to assemble it way back when.

Cleaned and back together. I hunted down the MRC Top Gun radio and gear I saved up and bought special for the Vanquish. The old receiver still eludes me but I'll come across it eventually. Most of my cars got the cheapest gear I could find (usually Aristocraft Challenger 260s) but I wanted something a bit nicer for my Vanquish and I thought the MRC connection was cool (MRC was Tamiya's US importer back then).

All done. I'm still short a left rear wheel (tossed out by my folks) so an Egress one will stand in for the moment (that side will just have to face the wall on the shelf for now, lol). I'm glad I restored it. It means far more than the re-release to me.

[mongoose1983 3335]

Love it, looks SWEET!

[DeadMeat666 1675]

Great post, and very good resto job there!

Out of curiosity, since this is an original Vanquish, and it had clearly been used in the past, did you find that the infamous G part was cracked anywhere when you disassembled the buggy?

Part B of the question: Did you originally use any locktite around that area when you first built it? Was there any residue when you disassembled it?

I'm developing a theory and a real-life case like yours would help me prove or disprove it.

[Saito2 6673]

24 minutes ago, DeadMeat666 said:

Out of curiosity, since this is an original Vanquish, and it had clearly been used in the past, did you find that the infamous G part was cracked anywhere when you disassembled the buggy?

Part B of the question: Did you originally use any locktite around that area when you first built it? Was there any residue when you disassembled it?

No, the G part was not cracked or damaged and I did not use locktite/threadlocker in that area either. Granted, my Vanquish was driven with care. I didn't regularly jump it and if I did, they were smallish jumps appropriate to the era. The buggy did suffer a few roll-overs (evidenced by the scratches on the small "Tamiya" sticker on the top of the canopy), but not many. The tracks it saw were outdoors and quite rough/unkept however.

Honestly, the buggy only suffered three issues back then. I lost a rear dogbone. I lost a screw to one of the front uprights. Finally, the central ball diff's adjusting screw backed out once but fortunately didn't destroy the rear gearbox internal molding. Other than that, it was problem-free. I ran a Joel Johnson stock motor in it most of its life and, on rare occasions, wired in an seventh cell that sat above the battery enclosure. I had no idea the G part was an issue until the re-release was coming out and folks began speaking of it. Then again, virtually everyone ran Kyosho 4wds in my area back then, so I was then only Tamiya driver outside of some old Hot Shot buggies here and there.