Rising Storm
Model Number: 58334
Released
November 2004
Drive
4WD shaft, 2 gear diffs
Suspension
4 wheel independent, double wishbone, coilover oil shocks
Chassis Description
DF-02
Body Type
lexan
Motor
540
Scale
1/10
November 2004
4WD shaft, 2 gear diffs
4 wheel independent, double wishbone, coilover oil shocks
DF-02
lexan
540
1/10
Reviews
Percymon
I bought one of these for my Son last Christmas - it was the first NIB i'd built, having practised prior to Xmas on a Manta Ray rebuild for myself. The kit goes together easily, the instructions are pretty easy to follow, and the sprue layout is logical. There is some cost cutting here n there, but as an intro to RC cars and bashing about its fine. The shell is pretty easy to paint, although the rear wing takes a bit of figuring out (remove the film to paint one side, then remask to paint the other) . Decals not too bad to apply although some are a little tricky to manouevre around the more complex shapes of the side pods/driver cockpit.
Ground clearance isn;t great on this buggy chassis, so the underside is very vulnerable to scratches and grounding out; which combined with the slotted undertray means lots of debris and dust enters the battery compartment and ESC /motor area.
Overall though its a good basic basher - my son broke a front shock tower so i swapped the front and rear ones for alloy hop-ups. I've got alloy wishbones and shocks to go on in time too.
The good thing about this kit, and with others, is you can buy it for youngsters and upgrade the speed progressively as they get used to it .. first upgrade fit ball bearing instead of the plastic ones in the hubs, then fit a sport tuned motor. After that there's plenty of other options in hot brushed or brushless motor systems, although by that stage i'd suggest you move onto a more capable chassis like the DF-03 or DB-01
scoobywagon
I bought this Kit in the begining of January from an Ebay shop. Its the first new tamiya i have bought. The kit itself is the usual Tamiya easy to build and came complete with the TEU 101BK electronic speed control. Both front and rear diffs are ballraced and the standard 540 motor is not to bad for straight out of the box use. The body is easy to paint and the stickers are all pre cut as is the masking sheet for the body.
I have added the 8 ball races available as a hop up part for the wheels and changed to a 27 turn motor which makes a lot of difference to the models performance.
But be warned the TEU 101BK esc is not all that wonderfull and does not like any highly tuned motors as i found out trying it with an 11 turn out of my Blitzer Beetle it will just over heat and shut down.
But with a no limit speedo and the 11 turn it goes like a rocket.
Overall its pretty good value for money but the prices vary from 54.95 from an Ebay shop to 109.99 from high street model shops.