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By Yalson.
05/07/2007 17:55:59
Although there will be those who make great claims for other models being more important and successful, I would say that the original Grasshopper/Hornet was probably the most influential model Tamiya ever produced.
This wouldn't be due to its speed or handling, (the Grasshopper especially, with it's standard RS380 motor, was dog slow, and although the Hornet had the advantage of oil-filled rear shocks, semi-live rear beam axle and an RS540 motor, it still handled like a squirrel on a hot barbeque,) but due to its popularity. They may never have won the World Championship, but how many people have who started on one of these? Childishly simple, virtually indestructible and possessed of an almost labrador-like willingness to get involved with whatever its immature owner felt like doing to show off to his awe-struck mates, (flights of concrete steps? No problem! Upstairs windows? Try and stop me!) The 'Hopper was vital as it got people hooked. The long running time on the tiny motor stopped impatient kids getting frustrated and the ease of (re)construction meant that if they did break it, they wouldn't get frustrated fixing it. It was, and still is, the perfect first RC car.
More amazingly, even its greatest flaw was a blessing in disguise. The standard Grasshopper handled truly terribly. The pivoted beam axle, which meant that BOTH rear wheels would react even if only one hit a bump, was perhaps a concession too far to ease of build. But replace the standard set-up with the Hornet arrangement, which allowed the rear wheels a degree of independence of movement, and the car was transformed. If you could lower and stiffen it a little by adding some tie-wraps to the front and spacers to the rear shocks, it would actually handle really well on tarmac! Off-road, the handling still wasn't world-beating, but it was at least predictably rough. The point, though, was that if you could drive one well off-road, you could transfer those skills. If you could drive a Grasshopper, you could drive literally anything. In the same way that karts give you the basic skills to drive F1, its idiosyncracies concentrated the driver on what they really needed to know.
And yes, you could win races with them. I did with mine. Other cars were faster and handled better, but that meant they dumped quicker, and many was the time when I picked up a result because my friends' Boomerangs, Ninjas and the like ran out of gas or just broke. My Grasshopper never broke once during a race and with a standard 540 motor, it would almost do ten minutes, let alone five. It was so dogged, it was almost as if it was bulletproof. The other cars would wrap themselves around trees, marshalls and each other and the Grasshopper would keep going while everything else just bounced off of it.
But even our local beginner's racing club got more competitive and halfway through my first season my increasing desire to win saw me get an Optima Mid Turbo with a long-wheelbase conversion. The Grasshopper would still come to race days, but more as a standby in case I broke the Mid beyond repair. I won the championship that year, but I couldn't have done so without the points I got with the Grasshopper.
Eventually I sold it for virtually nothing.
I really wish I hadn't, 'cos it's the greatest car Tamiya ever made.
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