Hotshot vs Supershot

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Hotshot vs Supershot

Post by fredswain »

Back when I first got into RC, these cars were current. My first car was a Fox but I always wanted a Hotshot or preferably a Supershot. I never got one. Fast forward 25 years and now I have a chance to pick up a Hotshot for less than $50 which I think I am going to jump on. It will need a little rehab but shouldn't be all that bad to get into very nice shape. While it would be neat to have a nice stock Hotshot, I've really always wanted a Supershot.

What were the differences between the two? From what I remember and can tell from pictures, the Supershot had the Gold rims and spiked tires, 4 yellow shocks all around, and a different body. I can also see in pictures that the Supershot doesn't have the sway bar in front like the Hotshot does. Was there anything else that was different between the cars? While I don't intend to abuse the car in any way, I am going to run it. No shelf queens for me.
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Zipster
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Re: Hotshot vs Supershot

Post by Zipster »

I believe the metal roof panel was different (scoop on the supershot), the supershot had a different battery holder & undertray, the resistors were different (just the regular rectangular ones on the Supershot vs. the round ones on the Hotshot). I've heard there were some slight drivetrain updates, but never seen them apart and side by side - that may have just been with the Hotshot II, though. They also had different motors, but probably not an issue for a runner :) The swaybars were removed as they weren't necessary with the 4 shock setup, and the front shock mounts use the same holes as the sway bar brackets.

Basically, the Supershot was a Hotshot with all of the available hopup parts from Tamiya and a unique body.

I'm in the process of building up a Supershot conversion runner out of a combination of original and re-re parts. My original plan was restoring an original Supershot I found, but it turned out to be so completely trashed - I couldn't find a single major plastic piece that wasn't broken or "repaired" :cry: , that I just pulled the unique parts and am going to pick up a better starting point.

The hard parts to track down/afford are the gold wheels & the 4-shock bracketry - which was available as an aftermarket kit called the "HP kit". You can find them occasionally, but they are really expensive (well into the hundreds for either. The shocks are just standard yellow Tamiya units, and the bodies are available reproduced. I think I have a set of the front brackets (both upper and lower) floating around - not sure of the condition - if you're interested, PM me.

If you are just looking to make a hotshot into a better runner and upgrade from the cool looking but poor functioning monoshock setups, there are several other options, using boomerang/super sabre (if you want red) parts. Actually improves the geometry as well as adding the separate shocks on each corner.

The Supershot was one of my absolute favorite cars bitd, and I'm looking forward to eventually actually driving it.

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Re: Hotshot vs Supershot

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"It's not broken, it's British!"

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Zipster
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Re: Hotshot vs Supershot

Post by Zipster »

Yeah, forgot about those kits - they are cool, but really, really heavy - i've heard you need to really updated the power or you end up going pretty slow...

There is also a guy in the UK who makes a front kit that works for the Boomerang or Hotshot - radshape or something... Really tall towers. Unfortunately, that leaves the back still a problem.

With decent fabbing skills, you could easily replicate the HP kit - It's a couple of bent aluminum brackets and a small fiberglass rear tower.

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Re: Hotshot vs Supershot

Post by fredswain »

That's a pretty slick suspension kit but I really want to keep it all fairly close to original. There are a few things that I would be willing to change but I'd like to keep it more original than not.
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Mad Racer
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Re: Hotshot vs Supershot

Post by Mad Racer »

To me a Super Shot is the bees knees.

I have a Nice Hot Shot with the R/C Channel suspension kit, A well sorted Super Shot and a restored Hot Shot 2. All runners of course. The R/C channel kit adds 300g of fat to it. My Super Shot has modern shocks with losi springs as well as a Top Force steering set up. ( No Bump Steer and way better lock)

Still love my Hot Shot. So it's up to you.

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Re: Hotshot vs Supershot

Post by fredswain »

Well it's a no go on the Hotshot I was hoping to get. I got to see this "great condition" car and that term must be very open to interpretation. The car has the full Hot Trick red chassis upgrade. While some may think it's neat, I find it to be about the single ugliest thing ever made. It's not just a nice Hot Trick car though. Not even close. It has old Yokomo wheels adapted to it, first generation RC10 gold shocks on it, plastic RC10 bell cranks, very chopped up RC10 battery holders, and parts of a very chopped up RC10 gold pan chassis added to the Hot Trick chassis. While the individual parts on their own don't sound too bad, everything is pretty highly worn and the workmanship on the adaptation of everything is terrible. The suspension binds and what does work has poor travel. I have no idea what body it has but it is ugly and in poor shape. Trust me when I say it is a big piece of junk! It was done poorly and abused heavily. Overall it is nearly worthy of the trash can except someone somewhere would probably want that chassis kit.

There are a couple of good things about it though. It has the Supershot metal front shockmounts. Yeah these are simple metal pieces that anyone can build quite easily but at least I can find a couple to know their exact size. The best part about this car though is that it has Thorpe front and rear ball diffs with dogbones. There are some extra parts to it. There is a full set of extra gears, extra front suspension and 2 extra front gearbox cases but the original chassis and rear suspension parts are long gone. It would be so expensive to rebuild that buying a re-release would be cheaper, easier, and would result in a nicer car. I may try to pick this car up anyways and just part it out and save the Thorpe parts for the day I do get a Hotshot. Oh well. It's not today.
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Falcon#5
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Re: Hotshot vs Supershot

Post by Falcon#5 »

Is there $50 worth of parts in the Hotshot?

I didn't know you had a Hotshot Mad Racer! 8)
You seem to have some sweet cars.

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Re: Hotshot vs Supershot

Post by fredswain »

I am tempted to buy it just so I can have the Thorpe ball diffs and dogbones. I could probably just sell the Hot Trick chassis kit and then save the rest as spare parts for the day I do finally get a Hotshot or Supershot. I've already waited 25 years for one. A little more time won't kill me.
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Re: Hotshot vs Supershot

Post by tamiyadan »

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Re: Hotshot vs Supershot

Post by tamiyadan »

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fredswain
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Re: Hotshot vs Supershot

Post by fredswain »

If I do finally end up with one it will use an ESC and a some form of old stock motor. I have a perfect old Futaba Magnum Jr radio for it and a handful of old brushed stock motors. I would definitely use all bearings. For me it sounds like the main differences would be the gold rims (and different tires of course), body, and 4 yellow shocks. It seems the rest is trivial to get me from a Hotshot to a Supershot with the equipment I'd use.
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Re: Hotshot vs Supershot

Post by tamiyadan »

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Mad Racer
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Re: Hotshot vs Supershot

Post by Mad Racer »

Tamiyadan.

You know your stuff when the MSC is concerned . I remember the beige color board showing up first in the porsche 959 i think. Looked a little better built as the Technigold was in it. That was here anyway maybe wrong though.

The Tamiya 3 step msc was to me better than any other brand od msc around at the time. I discovered the ESC and never looked at a msc. Infact i have a box full of new msc from all the kits i bought and threw them in my grave yard over the last 20 yrs.
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Re: Hotshot vs Supershot

Post by tamiyadan »

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