4WD Tamiya Hornet

The Tamiya Hornet is one of the founding fathers of RC as we know it. That car has brought an easy to assemble, durable, and fun car to millions of people for over 20 years. People have recently been digging out their old buggies and enjoying them once again. Unfortunately the engineering of modern RC cars has advanced about 100 years compared to the Hornet, making it a little boring. Some enterprising people in Japan have taken it upon themselves to re-engineer the Hornet to bring it up to 21st century standards. How you ask? By ripping out the Hornet stuff and adding some touring car 4WD components!

RC Can Be An Inexpensive Hobby - Part 3.

RC Can Be An Inexpensive Hobby - Part 1.
RC Can Be An Inexpensive Hobby - Part 2.

The final chapter in our look at what you can slap together for around $40 plus a few items you may have lying around.

VIP RC

VIP styling is the application of certain performance aspects to a big luxury sedan. Most VIP cars have large wide wheels and lowered suspensions. Some have engine upgrades like intakes and exhausts. Since we can't actually get in our RC cars VIP styling isn't that big, they're all touring cars under the body. The look, however, is unique and can be pretty awesome.

RC Can Be An Inexpensive Hobby - Part 2.

RC Can Be An Inexpensive Hobby - Part 1.

Now for car number two. Literally. This is a vintage black plastic Traxxas Hawk. Distinguished from the white plastic Traxxas Hawk by the obvious color of the chassis. The black version had a much longer production run so that will be the version you would most likely find. This is an awesome starting point because Traxxas hasn't changed the components very much over the years. That means the parts interchange among all of their 2wd offroad vehicles is very high. That is a very important factor when choosing the right $40 truck. If it costs big bucks to repair and restore the truck it won't be a low buck project. This truck is very similar to modern Rustlers, Stampedes, and Slashes. In fact you can say this is their grandfather! This puppy came in stock condition with the addition of a 13T trinity and a Duratrax/Novak T4 esc. It did not come with a radio but it did have a servo and a receiver.

RC Can Be An Inexpensive Hobby - Part 1.

$40 doesn't go a long way any more. I've spent more than that buying tires for 1 car! What can you do in this hobby for that small amount of money and have fun? Buy alcohol. Nope. Cruise craigslist and ebay and find an old stadium truck. Stadium trucks have been around since the late 80's. When Tamiya released the Blackfoot in 1986 People realized how much fun an ordinary 2wd buggy could be with really big tires on it. The better the buggy, the better the truck. Since it's a dead simple concept and old as dirt, there are approximately 37 million stadium trucks in the world. My math may be a little off since I pulled that number out of my butt from online research. The point is they are plentiful and cheap. Years ago in AZ I showed some friends my $40 concept and bought some Traxxas/Losi hybrid with vintage Futaba electrics and an unknown motor for $45 with local pick up. This time I went to the bay and craigslist.