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Randomly ran across this thing on ebay a couple of months ago, and it kinda floored me. I had not idea Tamiya made cool things! Through research, up until the mid-80s, they made loads of cool stuff. But I digress. I must have hit this car at the perfect time, because since then, every other one I have seen on the bay is priced at 5-7 times what I paid for this one. And once cleaned up, this one was in really nice condition.

This is the only Tami I have ever built that I never cursed the name Tamiya while doing so. This thing is a pleasure to work on.

Day One: Step #1 of any build. Spread it out. Front end. It is a pan car, so nothing fancy here. A little typical Tamiya ABS makes its way into the kit. Rear end. All BB, aluminum mounts, nylon gears, adjustable diff. Not a bad unit. The "suspension" is nothing more than a small spring, and the "shock" is nothing more than an o-ring. You can adjust the "squeeze" of the o-ring for some adjustability. It seems kinda silly now, but this car came out in 1984, so its AE contemporary was the 12i, which had about the same rear suspension. Top deck partially done. After this, I just got into the building groove and forgot about taking pics. And yes, multiple steps skipped here. That was enough for one sitting. Next up is to figure out the Rx wiring and get the motor back together. This car would have originally come with a Tam RS-540SD (black motor, blue endbell), which is a pretty rare and desirable motor in the Tami world. I got hooked up with an awesome deal on one from a fellow member here (CrazyRC), so thankfully I have an original motor. Then on to body. Oh, and tire truing. Never done that before, so that should be interesting.

Motor and MSC in. Rx wiring cleaned up.

Waiting on a battery. Ironically, the one time I actually want to use a Tamiya plug, not a single battery I own has one left on it.

My first glued and trued tires. I give them a solid A for Acceptable. Far from perfect, but good enough.

Getting closer to "that" time.

One nice thing about it all being Tamiya is that the blue of the decal sheet is dead on the blue of the paint.

And after just about the worst paint job in my life (which is saying a lot), I can just about call this one done.

This will be car #1 of a mid-80's 1:12 line up that I want to create with as many manufacturers as I can get my hand on. #2 will be a Kyosho Alta if parts ever get here, and #3 will be a RC12i. Not sure after that.

Are you sure this is a Tamiya car?

It looks great. This sounds like a cool collection you're putting together

I think the paint job looks just fine! Car turned out nice IMHO. I always wanted one of the 1/12 Tamiya gtps. After seeing yours, I'll have to try to find me one

Very nice result , I can't fault the paint either !

Nice one!

Love the build and especially the motor choice...well done!