RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

soniccj5 wrote:I would love to see these in action on the track today. Would they be able to give the modern buggys a run?

They may actually do better now than they did BITD. Run time was always an issue with my friend's. He had a hard time to run fast for 4 minutes. With the high cap cells today it may be a different story. I still think there is a lot more emphasis on flash with that suspension than performance. They did a great job on the flash part though. I don't think they would have hung with a Yoke even with better batteries though.

soniccj5 wrote:I would love to see these in action on the track today. Would they be able to give the modern buggys a run?

From what I've read, they didn't even give the competitive buggies from their era a run. I don't think run-time was the issue. The car and suspension was perhaps a technological marvel at the time, leading the way with the implementation of a number of innovative design ideas, but it was way over-engineered and was a comparably heavy hodge-podge of high-end parts & materials that never resulted in good race stats.

http://www.robobugs.net/galleries/cool-rc-extras/history-of-the-tamiya-avante

My friend had and raced an Avante back in the day. It handled a lot better than the optima and the mids because t was able to stay at the lower grove of the track during a high speed turns. The tracks were pretty smooth back then, so there was no way to really tell how it handled jumps.

His biggest problem was the durability of the car. Suspension components were always bending / breaking. He would beef up one part which resulted in the weak point moving to another part.

Today's tracks may not be so kind to the design of the car, but with all of the aluminum aftermarket parts, it might hold up a little better.

Since none of us actually run our cars , we may have to wait for our friends from down under to give us a report on how it handles.

Timely post since I posted in the other re re thread about this black special edition. I had it preordered from Tower but saw the post-holiday bills and cancelled the order. But I still want one so bad, not sure if I would run it, so I think I need a "regular" blue re-re, too!

I love the pics of the orange one, and black, it's just such a cool car. I've watched some of the youtube footage of the re-re in action and it looks fun! I don't know that I'd ever race it, but it sure would be fun to go mess around with particularly since it can handle brushless I think and a nice lipo.

The price (check out Tower) on the black special is..... wow. That's part of why I had second thoughts after the order.

highwayracer wrote:My friend had and raced an Avante back in the day. It handled a lot better than the optima and the mids because t was able to stay at the lower grove of the track during a high speed turns. The tracks were pretty smooth back then, so there was no way to really tell how it handled jumps.

Really? That'd be the first I ever heard of ANY Tamiya car out-performing or out-handling Kyosho's Optima series. Though I take what I find on Wiki with a grain of salt, a similar description is there: "Unfortunately it was somewhat over engineered – The car was too heavy, too fragile, dynamically inept, and uncompetitive."

http://www.blackholesun.fr had this to say: "With the Avante, Tamiya made an astonishing engineering demonstration that everyone can remember in the RC industry. But it is also remembered as a total disaster on race achievements."

Full writeup on the Avante & successors here:
http://www.blackholesun.fr/RC_Tamiya_OffRoad_Chassis_US.php#Avante

The car is certainly noteworthy because of innovations that found themselves implemented on later cars, but it wasn't executed well with the Avante. It may be a collectible but far from a success on the track. Even with aluminum upgrades to strengthen weak points, I would imagine it's still overweight & over-engineered.

I had one for a runner a few years ago. It ran like a sack of crap. There was too much drivetrain loss. The steering was super sloppy and every cool looking ball end jiggled and rattled. They do however look great sitting on the shelf.

J.M. wrote:A sweet shot from an old RC Car Action magazine

Jason - do you know the year of when that photo was taken (i.e. date of the magazine)? Great shot!

Charles I dont think I own this copy anymore. I am certain it was the late 80's though.

that issue was in '89...here's a pic of mine...had to photoshop the background and yes i know my photoshop skills suck...i did it real quick

December 1988 RCCA. Here's the article in full:

The article clearly states that each of the cars could push top speed for over 5 minutes. I guess my friend just couldn't afford good batteries after buying his Avante! He's a lawyer now so he'll argue with me over the directions at a Stop sign, but I sent him the article anyway.

How much was the Avante kit new back in the late 80s...$300...$350? If so, I'm surprised he could afford any batteries at all after buying a radio, etc. I remember that my Turbo Optima kit was around $200 new in 1987 and I (and my parents) thought that was outrageous at the time.

ROH73 wrote:How much was the Avante kit new back in the late 80s...$300...$350? If so, I'm surprised he could afford any batteries at all after buying a radio, etc. I remember that my Turbo Optima kit was around $200 new in 1987 and I (and my parents) thought that was outrageous at the time.

Not to get into too many details, but his parents were both Physical Therapists with their own practices. I was lower-middle-class, but he was RICH! I knew him because his grandma lived in my neighborhood and she watched him after school and Summers. I'll post some pictures of his parent's property tomorrow while killing time at work. He was, and still is a cool dude though. Used to buy me lunch every Saturday at the track and I got to swim and spend lots of time at his house growing up. Plus, I painted all his bodies. I sucked then and I suck now, but it was still good practice. He sold me my first Hornet too. It may have been the first case of someone ending an auction early. I was supposed to pay $20/month for 4 months(paper route). He ended the auction early after $40. I guess that's why I voted him into judge...

THEYTOOKMYTHUMB wrote:The article clearly states that each of the cars could push top speed for over 5 minutes. I guess my friend just couldn't afford good batteries after buying his Avante! He's a lawyer now so he'll argue with me over the directions at a Stop sign, but I sent him the article anyway.

I guess I wasn't too surprised reading about the handling habits of the Avante...pretty much sums up what most of us already said. The CAT (first, in this showdown) and the Turbo Optima Mid were only about a third to a half-second apart.

THEYTOOKMYTHUMB wrote:but he was RICH!

Ah yes...the rich kids always got the cool stuff!! I had some friends like that...and I bought several of their RC cars used after they grew tired of them and got new ones.