How cool is this.

**PLEASE READ THIS** for anyone looking at this model displayed in my showroom and wondering if I will sell it? PLEASE DON’T ASK!!! I get numerous requests from TC members wanting to buy cars displayed in my Tamiyaclub showroom, and to be honest I get very annoyed when people ask to buy something that is clearly NOT FOR SALE!! This car is part of MY COLLECTION and as such I want to KEEP IT!! So please don’t Email on the off chance that I might sell it to you, if I want to sell any of my cars I will put them up for sale in my TRADE ROOM, so look there to see what cars I am prepared to sell otherwise don’t bother asking cos the only answer you will get is NO!!! thanks for reading this disclaimer. Regards wldnas.

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Ohh look, it’s yet another MIB kit? That makes 4 this month and I have another on the way? I mean what is there to say about a MIB kit anyway? After all it’s only a printed cardboard box with a number of metal and plastic parts in it? But then again you all know me? I can write 10 paragraphs about absolutely nothing when I get going, and this particular cardboard box of parts is no exception… cos it’s a Kyosho Pro-X and in Kyosho MIB kit terms, I think it’s very special indeed ;)

In the intervening years when I wasn’t Playing with or Collecting RC cars, a number of different vehicle models came and when and only in the last 2 years or so have I had chance to catch up on lost time and find out about all the cool and wondrous stuff I missed out on first time round, the Pro-X is one such car, it appeared in 1993 and was a very serious attempt by Kyosho to get back into the thick of competition racing, using all their racing know how and in drawing on the design experience of the two previous 2WD buggies, the Ultima and Triumph they produced the Pro-X a competition buggy without peers, their great white hope for the future, a future that would see Kyosho rise back up to the top of the RC competition scene and recapture the glories of the early and late eighties….

Well what happened? As I was out of the loop, I can only guess? I imagine that the car was moderately successful in it’s homeland of Japan, but for everywhere else it had to compete directly with Losi and Associated best efforts and that was obviously too tall an order for Kyosho to surmount and like the Triumph before it the Pro-X turned out to be little more than a dark horse whose spot in the limelight was cruelly cut short, and as with so many unpopular designs over the years it quietly disappeared without trace becoming yet another picture in the Kyosho history book, which is a crying shame cos I think this car is one of the finest Kyosho buggies ever produced, want to know why I feel this way about it? Then read on… :)

After I had found out about this car, I was immediately captivated by it’s looks, now Kyosho cars have never really been as good on detail as their Tamiya counterparts, the reason for this is that Tamiya make models and Kyosho make racers, and racing cars don’t always look that pretty, but somehow Kyosho cars always had that edginess to their designs that set them apart from the rest of the field, even though there were many more dedicated top link competition cars that could run rings around Kyosho’s, they knew their stuff and made cars that could compete on level pegging with the best, that’s more than can be said for certain “Competition” bred Tamiya buggies? But even so every once in a while Kyosho would produce a design that is so much more elegant and beautiful than the rest of the cars they were making at that time, good examples of this are the Tomahawk, Javelin and possibly the Turbo Scorpion as well? But I think the Pro-X is another one of their special cars that is just too good a looker to be taken seriously a thoroughbred racer.

To be perfectly honest, at first glance it’s a raving RC-10 clone, what with all that White nylon on the suspension parts, dish type wheels, large swept back F.R.P shock towers with fat metal high cap dampers attached, spindly adjustable suspension links, modular moulded chassis, compact racing transmission and a basic wide pan buggy body with a huge rear wing perched up high over the rear as if overlooking the car, yeah it pretty much looks just like any other competition buggy made over the last 10 years or so, a stagnant design, that dates back to the inception of the original RC-10, with that car the die was cast for every 2WD buggy that was to follow, it set the standard and no-one has yet been brave enough to challenge it and bring out a design that’s truly original and innovative, I can see that competition cars are doomed to stuck in the same old rut, just endlessly refining a design specification that’s nearly the best part of 2 decades old.

Another TC member once said to me in the chat room one evening that all RC buggies look the same to him, I had to disagree, but I was out numbered and after 20 mins of a decidedly one sided argument I was promptly sent packing, yet in some why, when all Off-Road cars look like this you can see their point, it’s no wonder that Road-going models of real live cars have become so popular over the last 10 years, at least with a different body and wheels, you have a new car to sell, the shape of the buggy is standardised and what’s more unrealistic, but that’s not the issue here, ppl who think that all buggies look the same and all Touring car type models look different are shallow and only seeing the cars skin deep, all modern Touring cars have chassis that are virtually the same, I mean Tamiya have made an art form of sticking new body and wheels on the “same old” chassis and calling it something new? it’s the exact opposite of the old argument, only I see it from this side, Buggies may look the same on top, but at least the chassis designs and engineering is different and original enough to make them interesting to me, that’s the core reason of why I collect so many different kinds of odd ball buggies? Cos I find the engineering and design of the unusually chassis so fascinating.

But the Pro-X isn’t that much different from every other RC competition buggy of its day? So what am I grousing about :S I guess I just needed to get something off my chest and this seemed as good a place as any to do it ;)

No the Pro-X is a supremely refined and crafted design, it just oozes style and I think it’s nothing short of a work of art, a lot of effort went into the design and engineering of this car and the result is something that is not only a technical superlative? But has the aesthetics of a supermodel, personally I think this car is a pinnacle in the career of Kyosho cos after this they kinda started to go down hill a bit and have not made anything remotely as cool as this since, now I know that the Pro-X is supposed to be a separate car design from the Ultima and Triumph that went before it, but I kind think that this car is the Ultimate Ultima, it’s overall persona owes a lot to the style of the later Ultima cars than the short lived Triumph, the kit this car comes in is just amazing, so much care has seemingly been taken with every step of the design and production process with this car, it’s simply sublime, but there are some other features on the car that really gel together to make this kit so special.

The build of the car is as you would expect from a modern Kyosho, the instructions are clear and concise, the gearbox is most noteworthy of attention, in some way it shamelessly borrows the concept of the offset diff with low rotating mass from the Losi JRX2 yet they have fashioned a much more elegant and compact solution to the problem than the ugly, clunky and chunky JRX transmission, the ball diff is mounted centrally in the gearbox and has three main parts in it’s make up, the middle section ot “Crown wheel” is a largeish spur gear with the fine balls in square recesses around the circumference of the central bearing, either side are the “bevel plates” which are in turn directly fitted into the side gears which are formed of slightly smaller spurs to the Crown wheel yet run along side in the same orientation, the central spur is driven by a small pinion on top that is part of the shaft that forms the drive from the Slipper clutch, down below the side spurs from the diff are directly messed with separate gears for each of the out drives for the gearbox, everything is well supported by ball races throughout.

The diff is adjustable through a small opening cap that allows access to the hex bolt that holds the diff together, adjustment is a simple matter of holding a allen key on the bold and on lifting the right rear wheel off the deck, turning it gently clockwise or anti-clockwise to tighten or slacken the diff accordingly, the slipper clutch has a separate mounting for the spur gear so that they can be changed without disturbing the clutch adjustment, the motor is mounted quite low and protected by a large blue anodised aluminium guard, Kyosho make a big point about the this transmissions design characteristics in calling it the SST (Super Sprint Transmission) with low centre of gravity, space saving design, simple adjustment and low rotational mass, I have included a picture from the box below to give a better idea of what it’s like :)

Other aspects of the cars design that stick out, the F.R.P shock tower are extra thick to give maximum torsional strength and resist breakage’s, the chassis tub is a single piece, reinforced composite construction, with additional stiffeners built in, it’s quite narrow with the battery sat in the middle to provide a low central gravity position, and the gearbox and front suspension mounting points are also suitably beefed up, the suspension is mostly made for durable white nylon, I’m a sucker for white nylon :P so this feature really appeals to me, universal shafts are used for the rear drives, as I said before there are top quality ball races used throughout, ample adjustment points have been built into all the suspension stocks, the shocks are metal Hi-cap damper units of the full volume constant pressure type, and the wheels are single piece light weight units with the optional fitting of smooth outer wheel dishes that can be painted any colour you wish, though the original decals supplied give the mock effect of white wall tires which is quite novel but again I think it adds to the overall aesthetic appeal of the car :)

One other appealing aspect of the car is the body style, it’s a nice flowing, “Crowd pleasing” design that looks sleek and flared in all the right places, thanks to the narrow slim line chassis the body doesn’t look as bloated as some others of this ilk, the decal stripes help to enhance the illusion of stationary speed with the dark glittery stripes flowing over the aerodynamic lines of the body to the modular rear wing at the rear, an item which in itself is quite special, made from a single piece of semi-transparent flexible plastic, it’s actually quite stiff yet would be capable I feel of providing some genuine downforce advantage to the car no matter how small, as it’s rigidly mounted to the top of the gearbox and as a fluted vent to assist in the airflow, this aerofoil isn’t just for show it’s actually functional, and how many cars have rear wings that you can say that about.

There isn’t much more I can say about it now without actually building the thing, but yet again as with all my other MIB cars, I will build it someday? But I will wait until I have a brand new Radio, Motor and ESC to fit before doing so, I don’t see the logic of ruining a car by putting crappy old radio gear in it? It’s a new car, and I will treat it as such, this is especially important with a car this nice, I spose I ought to give a mention to the guy who find this kit for me before I sign off? And that credit goes to a certain TC member #2 Stuart Leckie (STULEC52) formally of Glasgow Scotland, now operating out of Calgary Canada, He just so happened to find this kit (and the Baja Bugs Ultima that came along with it) in a local model shop, after telling me about the cars he offered to buy them on my behalf and after some long and protracted negotiations I paid the grand price of CD$618 for the pair including shipping, the Pro-X kit worked out at about CD$300 which in real money was only about £130 odd quid at the time ;)

So enormous Thanks to Stu for doing me a huge favour AGAIN and putting up with all my grumblings while I went through a bout of depression whilst awaiting my many parcels to arrive, Stu liked this kit himself and says that the Shop also has a Triumph that he might get, but the Pro-X was the one for me, and Thanks to him I have one of these stunning little beauties in my collection :)