Tamiya ReRe Blitzer Beetle with Willy

Sturdy, reliable, off road car, and has the Beetle shell too! A great car for most surfaces, has almost monster truck sized wheels and tyres. Long & wide footprint. It shares chassis with the Stadium Blitzer and Stadiuim Thunder (it's a 'stadium truck' chassis).

Originally inspired by the exciting off-road desert racer cars and trucks of the 1970s and 80s seen in the United States. The Blitzer is a very striking car indeed, not least because of the vivid colour scheme of black, orange, yellow and green.

The Statium Blitzer was released originally in 1992. The Stadium Thunder and Blitzer Beetle in 1996. This can be seen as a re-release of the Stadium Blitzer. The Blitzer Beetle itself was re-released in 2011. Actually the Blitzer Beetle is then in a way THE first re-release from Tamiya! 5 years before the beginning of the 're-release program' in 2000, starting with the XR311.

I bought mine from Stella Models - they do THE best packaging on the planet, ensuring box and content arrive to you in 100% mint condition!

140 $ for this kit with ESC is just excellent!

The shell is a dream to build and sticker up, just perfect! I took out most of the windows and added a Willy's head.

As to the chassis I flipped the steering knuckle arms to take away bump steer (also requires some dremeling and shimming for the links to clear the lower wishbones). Removed the servo saver to take away all slop. Some shimming here and there to eliminiate play. Put in a Sport Tuned motor. 3Racing DF03-18/V2 Aluminum Swing Shaft Set Ver. 2 For Tamiya DF-03.

Did the first testdrive last week. It will be my entry in the 'Big Wheeler' class in the Nordic Vintage Challenge. See www.ymr.no/nvc.htm

It drives and jumps VERY well! Tires work great on astro, even in the wet. Nice steering. No traction roll problems! And it looks SUPER COOL on track! But it needs better acceleration in order to clear the double jumps. So I must try with a 17.5 turn brushless I guess. Only problem is I'd need to use much higher gearing? (those motors have torque but no speed) Anyone know how to modify it in order to fit a larger pinion and adjust gear mesh?

Thanks for looking! :-)