The Tamiya Hornet has sort of a 2 link rear suspension mechanism, although it has limited room for some twisting. As you see from this video, this structure is good primarily for easy joy riding. The car is pretty jumpy even on grassland, therefore you simply cannot do serious racing with it.
It is not good for it to jump like that … given the violent and frequent vibration the rear shocks can fall apart… You may want to use super glue to secure all the screws and threads…
Another issue is the battery compartment. It is pretty tight for modern Lipo packs. A smaller lipo pack, however, can still work since its drive train is pretty simple and easy for the motor.
The video below shows how the Hornet runs on bumpy ground. As you can see, the chassis does not really handle well. If you give it a faster motor, a disaster can be expected. A stock 540 silver can under 2S is good enough for it. Also note that it cannot climb uphill well and will lose grip easily on muddy road surface. There is not much you can do about it.
A possible but not so effective “solution” is to use better shocks at the rear end:
Run time is good. With a 2200mah 2S pack the average runtime is 12-15 minutes.
Uphill performance is not bad.
Beware of the tiny screws that assemble the wheels. Better apply superglue to secure them as replacements are hard to find….
Bigger tires front and rear:
Fitting the Hornet with a “standard” pair of front wheels can be tricky. The stock front wheel requires two bushings on each side of the tire rim:
With a “standard” wheel, you may want to use the hex adapter as the bushing. Cut and fit the adapter so it can fit tightly into the rim, then drill a bigger hole to ensure the wheel shaft can pass through.
