This is the Tamiya Honda City Turbo R/C, it was originally released all the way back in 1983 as “Willy”s Wheeler” to celebrate the release of the full sized Honda City Turbo which first went on sale in late 1982.
The Honda City Turbo is one of the most beloved mini-hot hatches to come out of Japan. Interestingly it was conceived by Hirotoshi Honda, the son of Honda founder Soichiro Honda, and the founder/owner of Mugen – a performance tuning company that specialises in Honda vehicles.
Hirotoshi and his team developed the first Honda City Turbo as a Mugen project with no input from Honda. They took one of the cutest and most unassuming little city cars in the country and created a growling performance hot hatch that proved immediately popular. Honda executives loved it so much they made a production version and the rest is history.
The Tamiya R/C version of the Honda City Turbo has exaggerated features to capture the essence of the original car’s styling. The car sits on Tamiya’s highly regarded WR-02 chassis that features a two-wheel drive drivetrain with fully independent double wishbone suspension and a resin monocoque frame which encompasses and protects the gearbox.
The chassis also has front and rear friction dampers, a centerline-mounted motor, and a longitudinally mounted battery pack giving the model excellent weight distribution. It measures in at 345mm long, by 210mm wide, by 165mm high with a wheelbase of 185mm.
Tamiya designed the car to be easy to pop wheelies with, you just point the wheels straight and launch it forwards at full power. It has a rear wheelie roller bar to stop it flipping onto its back, instead it drops back onto its front wheels giving the driver directional control. This car does require that a controller be purchased separately, Tamiya does this so as not to charge people for controllers who already have one at home.
It’s hard to argue that this isn’t one of the most fun and entertaining R/C cars made by Tamiya, as you can tell by one glimpse into the eyes of the driver inside the car.
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