The ultimate Neo Vintage Tamico Off Road Cup Challenge
Chapter 2 - HOW TO BUILD A SUPER HOT SUPER HOTSHOT
Before the Supershot there was the legendary Hotshot
The Tamiya Hotshot was released 1985 as their first 4WD competition buggy. With it´s innovativ and totally overengineered design it was a hit on the market! In a time, when most buggies from other manufacturers looked awfully simple and not well designed, Tamiya came with this masterpiece of tech, look, style and coolness and shocked the world! A fundamental impact in Tamiyas history as leading rc car company. No other company was able to make something, like this. The Hotshot came with a closed and robust drivetrain with shaft drive layout, very long arms and a sophisticated designed monoshock cantilever system for only one shock for front and rear! Many would think, Tamiya wanted to save money on 4 shocks, but the truth is, they wanted to show, they can do it with only 2 shocks total to demonstrate their superior engineering power.
The Hotshot original suspension. Crazy stuff.
The Hotshot came with many other innovations, like the low profile rims and tires for example. But there was also some serious downsides of this high tech device. The suspension worked not very well and the steering had some extreme kind of bumpsteer.
Design innovations with the 2 shock cantilever system were cool and special, but to be honest, it worked not very well. The whole system went stiff under load and the single shock per axle was totally overloaded with work.
Many racers in 1985 started to build their own solutions to improve the Hotshot and today we can say with confidence, the Hotshot was the victim of the most terrible and genius modifications ever made on a RC Car by far! Examples? Here we go!
When Albert Einstein would design a buggy. Ingenious and hilarious at the same time.
Why do you guys always put those stupid wheels on a RC Car? This buggy needs help!
Why not? 10 Styling points, but illegal for racing.
C´mon! Arms are long enough my friend.
Mono - stereo shocks and working lights and for sure with a 3.5T brushless motor.
Cheap Chinese alu arms from Ebay. Everything on this photo hurts my feelings in many ways.
5 shocks crazyness for people, who use Rubrik´s Cube 32x32.
You have some very long shocks, bro.
Getting better with this swedish one, mate!
Pukka Parts from the UK makes this Hotshot chassis. I saw Richard Isherwood racing this one at the Euro Masters last year. This was quick!
Brutal fast thing!
Classic Hot Trick Stuff Hotshot chassis conversion. Heavy sheet metal!
Now we´re talking!
The first serious Hotshot racers had this fibre glass plate chassis in many different variations.
Inspired from this, I made my own chassis for my Supershot back in the days - see chapter 1 in my articles.
I was 15 years old and only had money for a small fibre glass plate. I was in several hobby shops in my city to find this plate. All shop owners told me, that it is not possible to make a new chassis for this car. Finally the last shop had those plates. And at the same day, late in the night I sat in my room with a old jigsaw and cutted my first rc car chassis in my life.
1986 was the year of the Supershot. It came with 4 real shocks - one shock for each wheel this time! The shocks were made from plastic, but they were the first real high volume shocks - today we would say big bore shocks. The Supershot got a new lid with a longer nose and an undertray. Now you had some serious suspension on your ride! For a Tamiya car pretty close to a real racing buggy.
For a very short period. And for me, my first real racing buggy at my first race back in 1986. And now - 39 years later I do it again. At the Tamico Off Road Cup at the beautiful race track from the EDC Kinzigtal/Germany. Back, where it began, back to dirt!
