The ultimate Neo Vintage Tamico Off Road Cup Challenge Chapter 3 - HOW TO WIN A RACE WITHOUT BREAKING THE RULES?

The ultimate Neo Vintage Tamico Off Road Cup Challenge

Chapter 3 - HOW TO WIN A RACE WITHOUT BREAKING THE RULES?

Ok, friends, time is running and the TAMICO DAYS at the EDC Kingzigtal are coming closer and closer! Only 2 weeks left and I still not managed to book a hotel room.

The good thing is, I am not alone to be late. When I write this lines, the boys and girls from the club are still digging with heavy machines their the whole track into something complete new!

I am pretty sure, they know exactly, what they do on the surface. But it is possible, that the hard baked dirt track from last season needs a while to get same texture, than before. Possible, we get a kind of softer and more sandy surface for the Tamico days. That makes the tire choice more spicy for all.

At the same time we still managed to bring back our local track at the LTS Bremerhaven after the winter pause and I could already test my Kyosho cars with the brushed equipment, what is mandated for the KYOSHO Days. While you have to run the Tamiya Torque Tuned motor at the Tamico class, you have to run a Kyosho G22 motor at the Kyosho race.

My Lazer and also my Ultima Pro XL at the first test this year with the G22 motor. Pretty slow against the usual 10.5t and 13.5T BL motors we drive on vintage races, but not too slow. I like it!

The totally legal TAMICO OFF ROAD CUP Super Hotshot.

If you have seen my Supershot I made, when I was 15 years old, this one looks a little bit better now. If I had some more experience, tools and money, I would be able to make exactly this car in the year 1986. All ingredients were already there. Carbon fibre, Team Associated shocks, some ellbow grease and the will to make a god damn 4WD racer!

But with all enthusiasm I always had to keep an eye to the Tamico Off Road Cup rule book. To keep the cars close to the original Tamiya cars, there are some rules, who stop guys like me to overdo the tuning a little bit.

The rules are simple and straight forward.

Rule 1: Keep the original plastic chassis.

Rule 2: Keep the original lower Suspension arms.

Rule 3: Only Tamiya tires allowed.

Rule 4: Only Tamiya Torque Tuned motors allowed.

Rule 5: Have fun!

The Tamiya Super Hotshot can look pretty nice!

The original Tamiya box art graphic. When I was the young me, I went at least once in a week on a tour through the hobby stores in my city Hamburg in Germany. There were 3 stores on this trip. Because I had absolutely no money to buy RC stuff, I only asked the salesmen to open the boxes to look inside the beautiful Tamiya boxes. The amazing graphics outside and the even more amazing layout in the inside! The blistered drive shafts, ball bearings, metal parts and other shiny things to explore inside the box was magic to me. I felt like a pirate captain, who opens his treasure chest just to check, if all gold coins were still there. So I spent at least 1 hour at the shop and looked in virtually every rc car kit they owned. Then I went to the next hobby shop and did the same. I did it pretty every week. Of course I always came back with empty hands, because we was so a poor family. I made lists at home, what I need and what things cost and calculated, how much money I need to finally get a real RC Car. But after calculating the cheapest batteries, chargers, servos and other stuff, the number on the bottom of my sheet was always too big. That was very frustrating and I told me, that my kids never should have to experience that kind of feelings.

While my friends spent their pocket moneny for ice cream and sweeties, I saved all my little pocket money. I told my parents to not give me birthday, or christmas gifts, they had to save the money for me until the day I have all together to go into the city, visit my hobby shop, take a last long look into the super duper expensive Supershot kit and to put the cash on the table to buy it finally. I am sure, the salesmen there could not believe it, that the well known poor boy, who went each week into their shop finally had the money to get a kit.

I was so excited, that my body was shaking. And I can exactly remember, how I build this kit. The pain to get the parts out of the blister packs, the excitment to hold the tray with it´s 24 ball bearings in my hands. There was absolutely nothing in my life, what could be better at this day. A 15 years old teenager, who forgot the whole world around him.

This is true box art. This is, why we have to love Tamiya!

1/10 SCALE R/C HIGH PERFORMANCE 4WD OFF ROAD RACER - magic words for young boys!

Tamico was so kind to sponsor me to make this article. So I grabbed some extra parts for my build.

Xtra Speed aluminium front suspension brace.

Xtra Speed aluminium front hubs.

The Tamiya Super Hotshot kit is a bargain. It includes the car with all ball bearings, a very good motor and a cool speedo, made by Hobbywing. For a super cheap price.

Tamico in Germany carry FAN RC parts. And because they make excellent Team Associated RC10 gold shock replicas, I ordered the 1.32 and 0.71 lenght shocks for my build.

The naked shot - without body. It was a joy to build this kit. It is the first Tamiya kit after many years. If I am not wrong, the first Tamiya kit after the Supershot kit 39 years ago. This is pretty funny and amazing.

Right side. I made some modifications to fit modern Lipo batteries.

View from the rear. I use the Avante rear wing.

3D printed batterie clamps hold the LRP Hyper Low Lipo Shorty in place.

Left side.

I made a bumper from Kydex.

The power source. I use a LRP Quantum speedo and placed it in a cut out of the upper chassis. So heat can escape and you can adjust the ESC without pulling the whole car apart.

Behind the roof are 2 capacitors for the speedo, who looks like exhausts. The Tamiya Torque Tuned motor is famous to get hot. So I put a Exotec heat sink on it.

A look inside the black box.

I made some carbon fibre parts. For the shock towers and the lower battery plate, where I mounted a 3D printed skid plate.

Bottom side. The Kydex bumper is pretty small now.

3D printed prototype parts and the final carbon fibre parts.

Skid plate to get a flush unterside of the chassis.

Xray 12mm hex adapters with Neo Vintage Racing Yokomo wheel adapters with JC Racing 2.2 inch Yokomo rims with JConcepts Fuzz Bite tires. The Xtra Speed front alu hubs are strong and cool!

The Exotec heat sink. Tight!

The extended cut out to fit the LRP speedo.

The lower chassis tub with a Highest servo and Avante bell crank arms and steering plate.

I cutted all the limitter on the arms front and rear to get more suspension travel.

Cap power, baby!

Wheels off.

Right side.

The rear.

Left side looks also nice.

There is no downside on this deal.

I printed the rear hubs with a 3 degrees toe-in for a better handling.

I designed rear arms and hubs for a +7mm wheelbase. Not allowed at the Tamico Race!

The rear shock tower also includes the rear wing holders.

This could be a nice kit! It is strange, I designed so many RC Cars, bodies, option parts, tools and many other stuff, but never a Tamiya style looking buggy. I own 7 IFMAR World Champion titles as professional designer, but now I want to design one of those stylish playful roll cage semi competition "High Performance Off Road Racers", where I dreamed to race it 39 years ago.