Tamiya Honda City Turbo Project

Page 2: Upgrades!

This model has the same chassis as the Wild Willy 2 which I already documented in detail, so I'll only cover an overview here. Please see the other page for more information.

Even though this was a Ready to Run model, I didn't want to deprive myself of the joy of building it so I completely re-kitted it by tearing it down to the individual parts as shown. There are a surprisingly small number of plastic parts and only a small bin of hardware.

The stock electronics include a Torque Tuned motor, a TEU-105BK ESC, a TSU-03 servo, and a TRU-08 2.4GHz receiver. I'll be retaining everything except the receiver. There is nothing wrong with it, but I use the same Spektrum radio system for all my models. I also took the opportunity to replace all the plastic and metal bushings with ball bearings.

The large spur gear on the left contains the differential. The gear farthest to the right is the spur for the motor. The right hand image shows the completed front and rear chassis assemblies. All of the gears are in the rear section. The front section holds the steering servo and battery tray.

The wheels are tires on this model are very unusual. The wheel on the left is for the front. The black cross pin insert is surprising for a 2WD car since no cross pin is needed. However, the hubs used on this model require them because these are the wheels from the original model from 1982 but they now attach differently. The rear wheels shown on the right are incredibly wide and deep so large offset spacers are required on the axles to install them. This model uses "friction dampers".

These pictures compare the Honda City Turbo Chassis (on the right) to the Wild Willy chassis (on the left). They are the same apart from the wheelbase. The Turbo achieves its longer wheelbase by simply flipping the front lower suspension arms. The only other difference is the location of the body posts.

Here I've added some simple paint to Willy's track suit. The seat belts and gloves have been decorated as shown.

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