Form Over Function
Tamiya’s The Hornet Customized And Slammed
For many RC enthusiasts of a certain generation, their first entry into the world of hobby grade radio control was made courtesy of a road paved by Tamiya. Whether their gateway kit was a Grasshopper, The Hornet, The Frog or Lunch Box, these kids of the 80s were among the first generation to bask in the glory of what this author deems the “Golden Age” of RC. The 80s and early-90s saw tremendous advancements in the hobby in terms of not only technology, innovation and design but also lifestyle and business changes as well.
Existing brands became more established and yet to be solidified brands that we take for granted now as giants in the industry were only being seeded on workbenches across the nation and globe. Racing was just getting organized and aftermarket parts support started sprouting up due to both ingenuity and necessity. It was an exciting time for the RC hobby. It was during this era that Tamiya released a couple of RC kits that would forever change our Rc-loving lives. 1984 saw the release of both the Grasshopper and The Hornet. These two-wheel drive buggies
were as advanced for the time as they were simple. Their shared chassis was robust and fun to drive and appealed to entry-level drivers and seasoned hobbyists alike.
I estimate that with the exception of a few pauses in its timeline, the Hornet has been in continual production since its original introduction in October of 1984. That’s pretty astonishing for any product, let alone an RC vehicle. What’s more impressive is the fact that Tamiya USA has mentioned to us that the Hornet continues to still be one of their top sellers to this day.
Count me in as one of the customers that are keeping this kit in demand. The Hornet and its brethren have found continued life in nostalgic enthusiasts as well as creatives that push the kit to do things it wasn’t meant to originally do. In fact, I have three so far and am contemplating building a fourth, Tamiya’s upcoming X-SA version Hornet, but more about that later.
THE INSPIRATION
Regular readers of RCCA may have glimpsed the featured Hornet in incidental background images of previous issues. This Hornet was a fun project that I took upon myself after getting inspired by what a subsect of RC customizers were doing in Japan. For lack of a better term, I call the movement “slammed buggy” or “slambug” for short. The slambugs that I saw on a trip to Japan made no sense performance wise but they looked damned cool. RC buggies, lowered and widened enamored me enough to motivate me to buy a Hornet to build my own.
I would point out that for me, Takayuki Yamazaki of PDC Designworks, is a great inspiration for the slambug aesthetic. I’ve been following him on Instagram (@pdc_designworks_hyper_designer) for a few years now. For those who may not be familiar with Yamazaki, he’s the designer behind some of Tamiya’s edgiest kits including the Dual Ridge buggy, Dynahead 6x6 truck, Dual Rider trike, Dcr-series Mini 4WD and more. He also slams most every RC vehicle that I see him post on IG. Form over function must be his mantra. Count me in!
Let me peel another layer off this style-onion by pointing out that he’s the designer behind a niche aftermarket brand from Japan called T4works Tokyo. T4works specializes in slick aluminum upgrade parts for vintage Tamiya buggies and trucks including the Hornet. You can probably see where I’m going with this by now. My plan for the Hornet was to lower and widen it for the slambug look and heap on a bunch of that T4works goodness for good measure. Let’s get to work!
THE BUILD
As with all Tamiya builds, this one went smoothy and in particular is well suited for beginners to tackle. It helped that I gathered all the aftermarket parts together before starting on the build. As I worked on the kit’s assembly, I substituted all the stock parts with hop up parts that I collected. The T4works parts had to be ordered from overseas from Rcmart so waiting for those parts to arrive was a test of my patience. I also ordered parts from AMPRO Engineering, which is 3D printed on demand. The AMPRO parts arrived quicker than I anticipated, which is always nice.
“I call the movement “slammed buggy” or “Slambug” for short”
Achieving the lowered stance was accomplished by installing spacers above the front shock towers and by adding spacers inside the rear shocks. Doing this pre-compresses the suspension and lowers the overall ride height of the buggy. This also means that you retain very little, if any dampening from the springs and shocks. Just like a real car, the lower you slam it, the harder the ride will be. I wanted it the lowest it can go but I did leave a little play in the suspension, but not much.
The factory plastic steering uprights were bypassed for T4works’ anodized pink Reinforced Aluminum Uprights. I also opted for the Lunch Box version of the uprights, which come with longer shafts. The long shafts will be necessary when I mount wider than normal front wheels. We’ll get back to this in a little bit.
Looking to inject more quality parts into the build, I ejected the flimsy plastic factory side bumpers in favor of T4works sturdy Aluminum Side Bumpers. These are finished in gunmetal mainly due to Rcmart being out of stock of my preferred color of purple at the time of my ordering. It’s worthy to note that most of T4works aluminum parts are available in at least ten different colors.
What I did secure in anodized purple were T4works Billet Hangers. The 8mm rear hangers are made a bit longer than stock and are much stronger than the stock plastic parts. The build was further upgraded with an attractive T4works Billet Motor Mount and Billet Oil Cap. The aluminum motor mount adds rigidity to the motor unit and the oil cap adds some extra bling. The Hornet isn’t going
to break any performance barriers but it is a really fun economy basher. In that spirit, I installed the factory provided Tamiya TBLE-02S ESC and stock silver can Mabuchi 540 motor.
To give the Hornet a wide stance, I deicide to go with wheels from a two-wheel drive Tamiya stadium truck called Stadium Thunder. The neon yellow wheels have a ton of lip and look great. I intend on driving the Hornet on pavement so I mounted street tires that come from Tamiya Blitzer Beetle. The front wheels fit without issue thanks to the wide Lunch Box shafts on the T4works uprights. The rear 12mm hex wheels required a set of Tamiya Frog 2005 Aluminum Wheel Adapters to fit properly. The adapters push the rear wheels out a few millimeters more for an even wider stance.
To cure the Hornet of an inherent problem, I employed AMPRO Engineering’s brilliant Battery Door. Hornet and Grasshopper owners will know that the stock belly positioned battery door of this buggy can easily pop off and drop the battery especially after a hard landing; dragging the battery on the floor. A few batteries of mine have major road rash thanks to this unfortunate problem. A simple jury-rig fix is to install a screw and affix a body pin to the chassis and battery door but I wanted a cleaner, factory looking solution.
The AMPRO Engineering Battery Door is made of a tough and durable SLS 3D
printed plastic and secures to the mounts on Ampro’s Hornet Battery Tray Retainer, which I also installed. You’ll notice that the Hornet logo is etched into the battery door, which is a nice detail. What you get is a solid locking battery door that is secured with two body pins. The battery isn’t going anywhere now. Speaking of battery, a Maxamps 5000 mah NIMH battery reliably powers this buggy.
DRIVING THE THING
The combination of a slammed ride height, wide wheels and extended wheel hubs means that this vehicle’s wheel alignment has been taxed way beyond its original design parameters and the stanced out camber can’t be changed without major modification. What does this mean for driving performance? This Hornet drives like a rear-wheel drive drift car but only much less controllable. Imagine driving a rear wheel drive vehicle with slick tires on an ice skating rink. That pretty much sums it up. It really enjoys sliding around, easily performing donuts and hopping about thanks to its stiff rear end and close to zero suspension travel. I must admit that this build was never supposed to perform well, only look cool and that it does that in spades. It looks really cool not performing particularly well. That said, it’s still really fun to drive.
FINAL WORD
Does this Hornet slambug build scratch my stylistic itch? It absolutely does. This kit was a blast to build, is infinitely fun to drive and a pleasure to look at. I’m now contemplating doing this treatment on Tamiya’s upcoming X-SA Hornet release. X-SA stands for Expert-semiassembled, which means that the Hornet lives on in yet another release. I can’t wait to get my hands on it. Until then, I’ll be turning one of my other buggies into a slambug, because sometimes form does not have to follow function.