Let's talk Triumph

[RCveteran]

Frankly I knew nothing about it, got a nice deal on this one and I am very intrigued by the car. Appears it never really caught on or has a not so great rep. All I know is it sure is hopped up from the factory and seems ahead of it's time at least in the narrow front chassis long arm concept, Dual deck, 2.2 wheels, all sorts of adjustment features and who doesn't love the silky gold shocks. Looking at old Tower adds seems to appear sometime around 1991 and disappear shortly there after.

The one I got has a cut top deck, was this a popular mod? Basically anything you want to share about these let's put it here. Any good stories from back in the day?

[jkelm24]

Yep, you'll find some info here using the search. We've discussed different race mods and alternative parts in other threads. Maybe some of that will be useful to you depending on your intentions with yours (shelf or run).

Yes, the Triumph was released in '91 and was later replaced by the Pro X in '93.

The Triumph is one of my personal all time favorite buggies. Kyosho basically packed every single 2wd fad of the time into one model: dual carbon deck, long suspension arms, long shocks, adjustable front rake, belt drive transmission... it had it all. It was released within a couple years of Associated's first 'Stealth' that Masami raced in Australia in '89. Kyosho appears to have taken the blue print from that car and packed a bunch of other mentioned features into it when designing the Triumph.

This kit was sold along side the Lazer ZXR as their two flag ship models. The ZXR appeared to have done fine in the 4WD market because it really didn't have a lot of competition outside of Yokomo and Schumacher. I remember seeing ZXRs all over the race boards in RCCA magazine (among YZ10s and Cats). But, the Triumph had a ton of competition!

The word on the street says that Kyosho was also having distribution problems in the US during this time period. This appears to be at least somewhat true. I remember Tower Hobbies being one of the few places advertising Kyosho at the time.

The Triumph also isn't very durable. It's intended to be a pure-bread racing machine and durability doesn't appear to have been a top priority. They skimmed weight everywhere possible. The top deck was a regular casualty. They snapped between the front bulkhead and battery box. This appears to have been the case with yours, and is also one of the reason why it's nearly impossible to find a NIP top deck (although the bottom deck can be easily found for cheap).

Enjoy it!!! They're an amazing example of the trends that were making their way through the 2wd world in the late 80's and early 90's.

[RCveteran]

Thanks for the history. Agreed no top decks anywhere. This one appears 95% new at least. I intend to run it a bit on carpet offroad fun laps but it won't see anything serious, parts are just too hard to find. I have me rere RC10 for showing the new school cars how we did it and you can get parts for it.

I need to paint the body for this one, it is the original uncut in that box. Probably box art.

I have to agree, there are parts that look fragile but almost formula one mindset, durability comes 2nd to speed. It looks very modern for such an old car. Last belt drive I had was Schumacer Topcat and I found the silent nature pretty cool.

[RCveteran]

Were the front wheels used on anything else? I can find rears on ebay. Coincidentally both swap directly to my original Ultima which I was just about to convert to RB5 front hubs. If I could find a direct 2.2 swap I'd be happier.

[GoMachV]

Luckily some people reproduce those uppers

[Mr. ED]

The wheels were sold later with a similar looking cheapo car "Chadori" something

[Mr. ED]

It was very strange kyosho only ever offered a glassfibre chassis and topdeck. You'd think the top model would at least have a graphite chassis.

Things i rember being discussed were 2 generations of front shock towers and single belt vs double belt transmission cases.

I had a virgin body too, but went with a losi body instead. Check it out:
http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=39189

[RCveteran]

Direction to top deck pretty please?

[RCveteran]

Losi body fits like a glove but I think my shelfer JRx2 would be upset with it and a war could break out when I am not around. It already tried to stop the Kyosho invasion once.

[GoMachV]

Direction to top deck pretty please?

Shoot me a message if u need one. I'm cutting parts this weekend. They are $24 shipped

[RCveteran]

Thank you GoMachV. Perfect fit new top deck, better than new. I am quite certain this car is now a contender for 2023 IFMAR World's it was so far ahead.

[Welshy40]

Nice, just in case you werent aware Jamie Booth won the British Nationals with this car and also with the ZXR so was above average. He beat Craig Drescher who as you most probably know made almost all the worlds A finals at the events he raced at and won 11 euros titles so to beat him driving his stunning associated must be quite good. Also I raced those nationals and saw it go and looked good but did understeer.

The next car the Pro X was the worst RC buggy ever made, looked stunning but just didnt work.

[GoMachV]

The next car the Pro X was the worst RC buggy ever made....

ok I know what you mean, I've built one, and the trans was horrid- but I've owned some much worse buggies than the Pro-X

[Mr. ED]

It was kind of funny how they tried selling the pro-x gearbox design as a novelty while the losi jrx2 used the same principles years before.
But getting back to the triumph: I saw 1 shop in the uk still sells spare wheels for the hype chadori...

[TomEG]

It was kind of funny how they tried selling the pro-x gearbox design as a novelty while the losi jrx2 used the same principles years before.

The Pro-X was designed by ex-Losi guys, hired by Kyosho to make the "perfect" buggy. Let's just say they re-employed Japanese Auto Model shortly after the Pro-X......