The Wild One final assembly

We have reach the point where the driver's cockpit needs to be fitted onto the chassis and then, to finish assembling the rollcage... adding that famous roof we left apart so long ago(!)

Please focus your attention on the cockpit body posts you mounted at step 12 of the manual: the two rear posts should have been oriented so that the snap pin can be inserted longitudinally. At the front, the body post should be oriented so that the snap pin can be inserted perpendicularly to the chassis. Any other orientation would prevent the snap pins to fit.

Next, make the front hood pass in the middle of the front damper mounts before inserting the rear body mounts along the rollcage pillars. A single snap pin is used at the front to fit the bodyshell firmly.

I must confess I almost feel sad the assembly is finished because it was a very pleasant process to go through. I find the result to be nice and scale looking and I am now impatient to take it out for its first run. As for general consideration about this assembly, you probably noticed I never used grease whereas Tamiya recommends to use it in the gearbox and drive shafts boots.

As a rule, I no longer use grease, even if it would have been very useful to ease the drive shafts insertion into their rubber boots. Even if grease makes gearings work smoother reducing wear, it reveals to concentrate every possible dust to make an abrasive paste that "eats" the gears. None of my models features a truly dust-proof gearbox: when performing maintenance operations from time to time, I already had very bad surprises when seeing how much dust and pebbles got stuck by the grease. As for leisure use, especially using very reasonable motors, I think it is best not to use grease anywhere when assembling a model. This is very different if you race your model, especially because maintenance operations and full cleaning are required on much more frequent basis, especially due to the much more powerful motors used.

First runs with the Wild One

We arranged a meeting at our usual track with my friend David from RC 4 Old Nuts: space is limited for off-roading but still enough to test a model. Before hitting the throttle, we had a quick shooting session with my Wild One Off-Roader in its natural element:

Once we shot the photos proving it once was new, I unleashed the battery pack electrons. The first minutes were pretty calm, until Ray Lynch started to put the pedal to the metal:

I will not detail the Wild One handling, apart form two aspects: first is an obvious understeering you could expect with all the weight being concentrated at the rear of the chassis. Since the Wild One is not meant to gain by tenth of a second at the world championship finals, you can consider the understeer is a feature more than a flaw. Second is a surprisingly efficient suspension for a model that was designed more than 25 years ago.

Moreover, the Wild One reveals to be pretty tough and makes the driver confident: from careful at the beginning, the driver soon understands he can try more until a bad landing reminds him how many hours he spent working on the bodyshell. In fact, the Wild One could easily deal with the Sport Tuned motor power (driving carefully though) but I would recommend the Frog assembly universal shaft (reference 53908) and the 15T motor pinion.

Anyway, the Wild One is a lot of fun to drive, both because it is great to drive and because it does it in a very realistic manner:

As a conclusion, I can say the 2012 flavor of the Wild One is very pleasant to assemble. On the track, it has no intention to score a time lap, but it was not intended for this. Its goal is to please the driver with an easy to control handling, but also a scale realistic look: either in the middle of the country, in forest glades or on sand by the sea, the Wild One will demonstrate its qualities to please the driver. This was my first run with this great buggy and there will be many more as soon as possible.

Post Scriptum: as Ray Lynch was making the Mabuchi 540 motor scream, one of his friends came by with his work vehicle. The two mates took time to salute on the parking lot before going for a ride together:

To go further, I invite you to read the great presentation of the Fast Attack Vehicle my friend David from RC 4 Old Nuts wrote about it.

And now, watch the Wild One at the track :