Category: Tech Tip – Chassis

If there’s one kit from Tamiya’s lineup that always makes people stop and smile, it’s the Mammoth Dump Truck (kit no. 58268). Released in 2000, this wasn’t your typical buggy, touring car, or even a monster truck. Instead, it was Tamiya doing what Tamiya does best: taking inspiration from real-world machinery and scaling it down […]

If you’ve been into RC on-road cars for a while, you’ve probably heard both the Group C chassis and the F103 mentioned in the same breath. They share DNA, they share a time period, and in many ways, the F103 feels like the natural evolution of what the Group C started. But what’s really the […]

If you’ve been around RC long enough, the Tamiya Group C chassis holds a special kind of nostalgia. It came out in the early ’90s, when Tamiya was pushing out some of their most iconic on-road cars, and it captured the spirit of real-world endurance racing at the time. Group C racing was huge in […]

If you’ve been in RC for more than a minute, you’ve probably had a run-in with screws—stripped ones, rounded heads, or that one stubborn Phillips that refuses to budge. That’s usually when people start talking about swapping to hex screws (also called Allen screws). And honestly? Once you go hex, it’s hard to go back. […]

One of the things I love about this hobby is how deep you can go with upgrades. You start off just bashing around with a box-stock RC, and before you know it, you’re swapping in hop-ups, debating gear ratios, and eyeing that carbon fiber chassis plate like it’s a work of art. Fiber parts—whether it’s […]

Back in the day, foam bumpers were pretty much standard on RC cars, especially touring cars and buggies. They did their job well—absorbing big hits and protecting the chassis from nose-dives into walls or pipes. But if you look around tracks today, you’ll notice most people have moved over to comb style (plastic) bumpers instead, […]

So, can the Tamiya TD4 really be a serious racing buggy? Honestly, it depends what you mean by “serious.” Tamiya kits have always had a kind of split personality: they’re brilliantly engineered, fun to build, and full of character, but they’re not usually the first choice when you think of hardcore race machines. The TD4 […]

When you look at Tamiya’s off-road history, the jump from the Hotshot to the Manta Ray feels like stepping from the “classic era” of RC into the beginnings of the modern age. The Hotshot (1985) was one of Tamiya’s first proper 4WD buggies, and at the time it was a game-changer. For a beginner like […]

When I first dipped my toes into off-road RC, the TT-02B was my buggy of choice. It’s basically the off-road version of the famous TT-02 touring car chassis — simple, affordable, and a great way to get into 1/10 buggies without breaking the bank. The build was straightforward, the parts were easy to find, and […]

When I first started in RC, the TT-02 was my entry point — and honestly, it’s still one of the best ways to get into the hobby. The TT-02 is affordable, easy to build, and super forgiving to drive. It’s basically the Swiss army knife of Tamiya on-road cars: you can run it with a […]