By Moosey 13/06/2007 17:46:18

Another massive THANKS to Mark (FERRETTI) for the Super Astute decals.

By pikachoo75 10/12/2006 23:45:08

Just before i left the hobby for a while I owned a Super Astute. It was VERY well engineered and fantastic quality. Great FRP chassis and towers. I rekoned it could have done with the alloy HI CAP dampers but i guess it was more aimed at club level. The gears were smooth and very quiet but very limiting for ratio choices due to the pitch. Strangely enough i liked the geared diff, my friend had a Mad Cap and I thought the ball diff was abit crunchy. All in all a great 2wd buggy, seems to be a bit of a theme for Tamiya...make an over enginneered first model (Astute) then a fairly basic version (Mad Cap) and then get it pretty much right with the last model!

By Stevo309 06/10/2006 16:06:54

As it's name would suggest the Super Astute is just that. Tamiya took the Astute and made it better! Personally i prefer the look of it's older brother the Astute but the Super Astue has been improved under the shell in almost everyway. Actually despite sharing the same undercowl, shell and body there are very few common components between the two.

At the front end the Super Astute has been improved with thicker wishbones and re-inforced bulk-head. It also has simple and stronger nylon front uprights and bigger wheels (2.2 inch). The battery is mounted lengthways along the chassis to sharpen the handling although this makes it harder to install/remove as you almost certainly have to remove the shell.

At the back end the rear uprights have become a stronger and simpler affair, much more akin to those on the Madcap rather than the hideously over-engineered Astute adjustable toe-in rear uprights. The wishbones are also thicker and braced with a metal strip in-between the 2 front pivot pins to protect from a frontal impact. The gearbox is all new and features a planetary gear diff and slipper clutch with lexan cover. Tamiya call this the TTC gearbox. I wished Tamiya had made the spur gear changeable though to allow different ratios and not used such a fine pitch of gearing which limits the pinions available.

The Super Astute is a highly competent and good looking machine. As a racer for it's time it was a bit out-classed by the competition.