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Can anyone tell me if the Kyosho Icarus (2wd caged vehicle) was a decent running beginners buggy? I'm thinking about looking for one for next year's off road vintage nats beginner's class and wanted to know the good/bad aspects of the buggy.

I haven't driven one, but I do own one and I'd say it's almost more of a toy than a hobby grade car. I suspect it won't handle worth a crap based on what I have seen of the suspension. It doesn't look easily upgradeable either. I think you'd do better with a Hornet or a Frog personally. That's my 50 cents. Opinions may vary.

A friend had one when I was a kid. It was very durable and handled fairly well, definitely better than my Hornet. The front suspension on the Icarus (and similar cars like the Cox Bandido and Kyosho Pegasus) is probably the worst feature; there are no hinge pins, just flexible plastic. IMO, a Raider would probably be a better Kyosho choice.

Regards,

Robert

I've seen a car with this chassis run in Japan at a vintage event. Very comparable to a tamiya falcon and pretty fast.
There were however no jumps and I think that's where you might get in trouble with ones durability. Go ultima I'd say.

Run it.... the way RCHR sets up the track for the VONATs, you'll be able to roll every jump on the track and still be competitive.

That looks like a sweet Little buggy too, the rear arms and axles remind me of the Tamiya Striker/ Futaba FX.

Natedog, was running a Striker and it did pretty good, I think he broke in the main, don't know exactly how...

ROH73 wrote:A friend had one when I was a kid. It was very durable and handled fairly well, definitely better than my Hornet. The front suspension on the Icarus (and similar cars like the Cox Bandido and Kyosho Pegasus) is probably the worst feature; there are no hinge pins, just flexible plastic. IMO, a Raider would probably be a better Kyosho choice.

Regards,

Robert

I agree, the Raider looks like a very good competitor for the "Classics Class".

In my opinion the raider is the best car. I actually had one that I gave to my cousin and it worked really well. The only weak point was the diff outdrive to the actual planetary gear...which could be solved with the ball diff. Kyosho also had a ton of hop ups for it.

I regret selling the one I had...

As for the icarus, I have most of the parts to build one...but I'm very hesitant. I honestly don't know if it's worth building. Like Erik said, it's very similar to the falcon but falcon's front end is much better.

regards,
highwayracer

the falcons front end was better, true, but it was very poorly attached to the chassis. The chassis would break at he mount points and you'd have to replace it.
Looking at my friends falcon I alwways wanted to do an epoxy sandwhich chassis for it

Mr. ED wrote:I've seen a car with this chassis run in Japan at a vintage event. Very comparable to a tamiya falcon and pretty fast.
There were however no jumps and I think that's where you might get in trouble with ones durability. Go ultima I'd say.

i agree go ultima. they pop up on ebay alot, not with the frequency of a rc10, but they come up. i think the roll cage and overall look of it is timeless and great. they modeled the hpi 5ss 1/5 scale after it

The thing is, he's looking for a buggy for "Classics Class" will the Ultima qualify as an Entry Level car?? or a competition level car??

I don't know, where the Ultimas racing cars back in the day, or were they raced with the likes of Frogs, Hornets and such??

mikedealer wrote:

Mr. ED wrote:... Go ultima I'd say.

i agree go ultima. they pop up on ebay alot, not with the frequency of a rc10, but they come up. i think the roll cage and overall look of it is timeless and great. they modeled the hpi 5ss 1/5 scale after it

Hey mike I can see technica's point: the ultima based buggy range goes through a very broad range of forms/ from plastic tubs to the ultima pro-xl. It would be a hard call and you'd have to judge car by car to see which class it belongs in.

The resemblance between the HPI and kyosho is due to the fact they were designed by the same man actually

ah i didnt read that part lol.

icarus is cool, i would stick with a tamiya re-re, maybe a hotshot? they are sweet cars and look awesome. frogs are great too, they make a bunch of aftermarket stuff still and custom stuff like that CRA guy on ebay.

a traxxas bullet would be a cool classic: original and strong. A tiny mod on the diff outdrives is all it needs

I think the Kyosho Ultima, even the first edition, would be too technically advanced for the Classic Class.

mr. ed, what mod does the bullet need? I know I fragged my outdrives something fierce with a 12 turn motor. Also stripped the diff pinions. this goes back 16-17 yrs now, I also busted the trans case/arm mounts to finally put the car out of commission. Otherwise, yep, they are pretty strong.