Colorado “Hell Racing” Original Tamiya Rough Rider Buggy

[TheSpeedway]

Sharing photos of the Tamiya Rough Rider I recently landed. These cars do not come up for sale around here in Colorado from my experience. The Original owner claims he purchased it in 1982 from a local hobby store. He also recalled that it had only 2 hours of run time which may be correct by the lack of wear on the plating of the front spindle shafts. These 2 hours still appear to have been rough on the car and I would guess it was his camping buggy.
Body is broken, front bumper stressed and rear bumper mount broken. The rear arms are swapped to bypass the down stops for more clearance with the front springs cranked to max the spring rate.

Dual shock mounts were fabbed by the original owner and are clever. The bottom of the gear box has no gouges so that was a plus.

It came with a Tamiya hump pack, MRC charger and Stick radio. Items on this car appear to be mixed between MK1 and MK2. Brass universals, solid rear bumper mount on the gearbox, screws for the hairpin front springs and nylon bearings rather than bronze.

My first RC car was a Rough Rider purchased around 1981 and was an MK1. I had forgotten just how flexi these chassis are. It explains why I purchased an aluminum one almost immediately as my body broke above the roll bar rather than at the nose like this one.

The photos document the original condition of the car. The final photo shows it with a new body and returned to the stock shock configuration. It has since been shod with new tires/wheels and a rear bumper is on the way. All are rerelease parts that I am glad are available. (I do wish the front tires still had the Sandblaster Junior lettering though)

[rccars4sal]

I like that dual shock setup. Did it work well,, not limit travel or cause any binding?

[TheSpeedway]

It doesn't appear to bind up. As the shocks really don't hold the oil well they don't really work. I joked with the guy I bought it from that we should have loaded these things with grease to get them to work.