Snowhopper. Ski Patrol Beetle!

[Diggley]

...Without a doubt, the coolest Grasshopper..EVER!

[Ivan Dobsky]

That is so awesome that a word has yet to be invented to describe how awesome that is. I thought my Grasshopper based Beetle was cool until I saw that. Now I have to see a vid of it running in snow or whatever.

[EvolutionRevolution]

Very awesomely cool!

[milkyd]

that would be sweet through some soft sand!!!

[Mad Racer]

You had posted this on the Tamiya club right?

That forum just doesn't appreciate a nicely modded car at all.

As I said before a very nice job. I do remember seeing a add for snow skies for tamiya at the back of RCCA pages.

[j-sou]

You had posted this on the Tamiya club right?

That forum just doesn't appreciate a nicely modded car at all.

As I said before a very nice job. I do remember seeing a add for snow skies for tamiya at the back of RCCA pages.

Yeah, I posted it on the forums and added in to my showroom there, and not many people seemed to care
The show room there is pretty handy for keeping a list and pics of your cars organized, but the forums are lacking. I like the community here A LOT better. Oddly enough the Traxxas Camaro in my show room there seems to be what everyone likes the most. go figure.

There's actually a pair of these ski's on ebay right now, but it says they were "poorly painted"!? Why would anyone take a black pair of ski's and paint them black with a frikkin brush?

Anyways, I'm glad everyone likes the car. I've got a lot of stock box art cars, but building things like this is what I enjoy most.

[Der Kommissar]

Wow, I'm totally blown away by this build. You should be very proud. Can I ask if the cantilever parts were custom by you or are they available? I am working on a Hornet build and would love to have a set.

[dj_kilroy]

I love the fact that you used the stock 3 speed mechanical speed control... Gold!

It would be great to see it tearing up the snow.. More pics I hope..

[highwayracer]

Wow....very nice. I have a soft spot for the grasshopper / hornet series, since the hornet was my first car. I wish I had the time to build something like that.

[vintage88]

Wow, I'm totally blown away by this build. You should be very proud. Can I ask if the cantilever parts were custom by you or are they available? I am working on a Hornet build and would love to have a set.

x2

[j-sou]

It's just some parts I made, not a kit or anything.

Thanks dj_kilroy! I wanted to keep all the electronics vintage and primitive. I dig that stuff

[j-sou]

The bonus Grasshopper from leftover parts is about done. I just need to paint the body and do a few minor other things.
It's pretty straightforward: G-hopper repop, vintage CRP front shock/tower upgrade, Troll red tires, black CRP 3 piece 1.5" rims, CRP stainless wheel hardware, lunch box wheelie bar, modded CRP body mounts, and a RacePrep Dyno Stock motor. Couldn't find an original version of this body, so I went with the TBG repop. Who's hoarding all the cool NOS VW bodies???

For the body mounts, I hacked up the CRP truck conversion rear and flipped it around, and on the front It's just an aluminum post with the CRP top piece. The backside of the rear mount still has plenty of room to hang the resistors off of if I go with another mechanical speed control again. You know I love that vintage primitive stuff!

I'll paint the body, add the same style POS Hitec vintage radio the Snowhopper has and call this one done












and a parting shot with his G-hopper friends. One day I'll find a better camera and location to shoot my cars....

[Coelacanth]

I just saw the Snowhopper build for the first time now, and it's totally awesome. Do you dare to actually run it in the snow? All that work deserves some actual video of the car in action!

[vwjuice]

Wow man. Those are both sweet builds.

[teman]

Love the ski patrol bug - too cool!

IF you do get the itch to run it, wait until the snow has a frozen top layer and it will hook up. If it's powdery or wet snow, the rears will dig and it won't go anywhere I loved driving my snowbird T3 last winter There's a vid posted if you're interested