The
Lancia 037 Rally has an interesting history, both in 1:1 and in model
form. The real car won the World Rally Championship constructors'
championship in 1983. Audi had come out with the Quattro in 1980
and All Wheel Drive was coming to dominate rally racing. Rear
wheel drive was disappearing, and the Lancia 037 was the last RWD car
ever to win the constructors' championship. Tamiya was quick to
capitalize on the popularity of the historic car, releasing the 58040
Lancia Rally in 1983, the same year it became famous. This model
came with a wonderfully detailed hard body mimicking the original
perfectly, but was paired with the ORV chassis from the Subaru Brat and
common to The Frog. While a perfectly passable chassis for
something like the Frog, in my opinion it wasn't right for the Lancia at
all. It was much too wide and much too tall and therefore made
the car look like some kind of monster truck instead of the rally car it
should be. In 2001 Tamiya re-released the body on the belt drive
TA-03RS chassis as set 58278
and it finally looked the way it should look. I missed out on
that one by a wide margin, but luckily for me they released the 58654
version on the shaft drive TA-02S chassis in 2018. This is a
nearly perfect rendition of the car down to the drivers and tires, but
it has one critical flaw: the TA-02 is a 4WD chassis. The
definitive feature that made the Lancia 037 historic is the fact that it
was RWD. Making the model in 4WD is just wrong.This is a 4WD shaft drive bathtub chassis with four wheel double wishbone suspension and oil filled CVA shocks. The motor is mounted laterally just ahead of the rear axle and the battery ahead of that. This is a very stable chassis which handles well. Off road performance is limited due to the low ground clearance and nearly slick tires, but really this model is about the appearance and it looks fantastic. The chassis could almost certainly handle a lot more power than the stock silver can motor, but I have no desire to roll it over and destroy the body, so for now my copy is completely box stock apart from a set of ball bearings.
Update: This model was destroyed in the 2022 fire. It has not been replaced.
 Page 1: Chassis Assembly |
 Page 2: Final Photos |