Tamiya America, Inc 1/10 Racing Fighter 2WD Off-Road Buggy DT03 Kit, TAM58628

Great kit, had alot of fun building it! The oil shocks do have weak springs (out of the box the car sags a little), but I plan on upgrading those anyways. The kit also comes with plastic bearings throughout so def pic up a set of 5x11x4mm bearings (10 pack like $13 on Amazon). Other than that, one of the better kits I've put together in a while. The plastic parts are really thick and look to be really durable so time will tell. The gearbox has thick plastic gears (.08 mod) that look like they can handle brushless power all day! For what its worth, this kit is great value for money. Will update after some more use! *UPDATE- The oil shocks that come with the kit are not great. The springs are soft and the shock oil is light so the chassis bottoms out on everything! I already have to buy a rear skid plate because of that. The esc isn't accomidating either because it only works with tamiya brushless motors or <27t brushed motors (no fast brushed motors with this thing). Then the motor mount only has 2 adjustments for a 17 and 19 tooth pinion, with no adjustable mount even an option! This kit has potential to be amazing, but its almost like Tamiya is limiting it so it can't compete with there more expensive models. Its still fun, but in stock form it just feels held back.

Super fun and easy to build for my 10yr old (with help). Tamiya has very thorough instructions, and the pieces fit very well with only a little bit of dressing on the burrs left from the parts trees. Definitely get a set of bearings from the start and also turnbuckles so you have setup options. This car is quick for a beginner and very smooth and controllable right out of the box. Would I take it to a track, probably not, but to have the build experience is invaluable for a young driver over the RTR stuff. over the first few months, it has had some spectacular crashes and always come out driving. He drives hard, pegs the throttle and like to see it fly over the jumps at the BMX park in town, and this car has not seen the repair bench yet. Great product Tamiya! Would recommend or buy again in a heartbeat!

Great car, really fun to build, just wish that it came with transmitter/receiver, paint, servo, and a battery/charger. Love it, and easy to build, great job, Tamiya! *Be sure to order ball bearings. They make the car much faster!* Overall, I think it's worth the money!

Car does not come with oil shocks or esc.

This is a fun and simple Tamiya kit. Like all Tamiya, it has detailed instructions with 1 to 1 scaling. I did do a few hop-ups out of the box, such as Fast eddy bearings, carbon fiber shock towers, and the Tamiya Sport tuned brushed motor. It dose come with a hobbywing esc for brushed motors and torque tuned motor. I did buy shocks as well but ended up using the stock cva shocks that came in the kit as they tuned the best for the car. It is not super fast with the brushed esc and motors but can be easily upgraded to brushless if that is what you are looking for. I'd say the most difficult part of the kit is the decals. All in all it is a wonderful kit for beginners or rc enthusiasts.

Had my reservations about this. Been decades since I got back into this hobby. What a tremendous value for money. Nothing fancy, but well engineered and super-sturdy, with a lot of potential for customization. It comes including a speed-controller that can be used with brushed and brushless motors (sensored or sensorless) down to 10.5T (which would be overkill for this chassis without some additional minor modifications to the drive train components) I in fact OVER-powered this chassis with only a mildly modified motor (Tamiya BZ 23T brushed motor) - but that speaks to the lightness and robust nature of the kit, and my lack of practice properly prepping the chassis. You will want to use some thread lock on the screws (just the under the head, no more!) that the suspension arms pivot on, and you'll probably want to get some rubber hosing and cut out some bump-stops for the rear suspension so she doesn't bottom out harshly - but then you can beat the ever-loving crap out of the thing. Also - would recommend some washers to negate the slop in the wheels after assembly (it's a kit targeted at the beginner level - so the tolerances are pretty wide. Everything fits, but some of the running parts of the drive-train may do better long term if the clearances are tightened up a bit.) This is an EASY recommendation for an RC modeler of any experience. Just plain fun.

Great starter kit and car. Very tough which is good because we've been crashing it a lot. I think the springs are a little soft as it bottoms out very easily even set to the higher ride height setting. But with the oil filled shocks and high torque motor it's fast and fun to drive. It was a great summer project with the kids and I think they've learned a lot.

I'm a Tamiya lover, but this car isn't doing it for me. We also have a DT-02 Sand Viper that is just as lovable as heck. (it comes with ball bearings AND oil shocks for like $128) But the Racing Fighter kit I got has FRICTION DAMPERS. And it didn't come with ball bearings, but I knew that from the start. And no ESC, but I was expecting that from other reviews. It's the friction dampers that are killing me - the car just goes "boing boing boing". Totally unacceptable on the dirt race course we have. I'm going to buy the CVA dampers (which came stock on the Sand Viper) as I'm doing this with a summer school camp group and this is just unacceptable. Also, this business of shifting what comes in different kits of the same name is just unworkable. Some people got a Racing Fighter with CVA shocks (oil-filled) AND esc! That's $50 more stuff right there! Boo. I really, really wished I'd bought 3 sand vipers instead of 3 of these things. I actually did pick up a used Racing Fighter from Ebay, and it was pretty good, but the damn chassis broke. Bought a new one and installed it tonight on that one. It already had the upgrades. That car has been okay, but honestly the handling of the DT-02 is more stable and fun. None of the updates to the DT-03 (over the DT-02) seem that great. Yes, no bump steer. Yes, longer wheelbase. But I still think the DT-02 handles better (though it needs knobby front tires for sure!!! Or it understeers like the dickens.) Honestly, it seems to me that the ECX AMP BTD (build-to-drive) kit for $140 for EVERYTHING just absolutely slays everything that Tamiya is doing. I have another parent who just bought that, and we'll see how that one goes. Having said that, my son absolutely LOVES the DT-02 Sand Viper, and with it's tiny size, there's just no reason to need LiPo and you can throw a 12T brushed motor in there and go super fast and your battery will last a long time. That little car is really a winner in it's own right. Joe (on wife's account)