As the Tamiya Fast Attack Vehicle 2011 kit has been out for a while now and to honour the historical importance of this 1980´s icon, the team of Tamiyablog decided to give the FAV a short review of the 2011 release kit.
I personally have to say that i never owned a Fast Attack Vehicle back in the so called “good old days”. So this was a special moment, and the build of the car a great experience.
Tamiya did some small changes to the car as on most re-release versions of old classics. When you open the kit box, you see no blister packs like on the classic FAV kit. The whole rollcage is molded in black now, which i think the car benefits from. It´s now easier to build “civilian” versions of the buggy and the black cage looks good in every way. The E-Parts are changed to Wild One specification, which mainly means gearbox and front trailing arms. Drive shafts and wheel axles are the same dogbone style type as used on the Tamiya Frog and Subaru Brat re-releases before.
Something really new are the decals on this FAV 2011 kit.
Now everyone can do a nice camouflage paint scheme, even without owning an airbrush.
The included stickers give a very authentic look. The semigloss surface of the decals fits perfectly to the TS46 Light Sand colour, that Tamiya recommends for the FAV.
If you cut out the stickers nicely, without leaving too much clear, you won’t be disappointed with the result.
Our car is equipped with full ball bearings. (8 pieces of the standard Tamiya 1150 bearings are included as a bonus in the kits of the international first batch version). If you want a full set of bearings for your car, you will need additional two 1150 and three 850 bearings.
Furthermore we switched the rear standard friction dampers to custom made black anodized oil dampers of the Tamiya Frog and Subaru Brat re-releases which helps the buggy a lot to perform better.
And the “old” Tamiya Black Sport Tuned motor powers the FAV to attack a little bit faster. It even looks good.
All in all, the team of Tamiyablog is very happy with this new Tamiya classic re-release. It brings this wonderful vintage buggy to a new life. Now everyone can own one again.
Stay tuned for more “variations” of the Tamiya FAV 2011 here on Tamiyablog.
Thanks for watching !
Very nice indeed! Great rear shocks too!
If you have time, I would be very interested in a gearbox/drive shafts reliability report 😉
Cheers,
BHS
@BHS,
I did a short run with the new FAV2011 today.
The gearbox is very silent and smooth. Also the diff works great without any noises, especially in tight corners.
The car runs relatively fast, using the 18T pinion, Sport Tuned motor and a 6.6V LiFe Racing Pack.
The upgrade to the re-re Subaru Brat / Frog Dampers is a big advantage to the standard rear coil spring suspension. So the front end cries for an update too. I will work on it.
I think you will never have any problems with the drive shafts, as the FAV2011 uses the same dog bone style type drive shafts as the re-re Brat / Frog. Gerbox joints are the same ones as on the Brat re-re. Which are slightly longer than the ones on the re-re Frog. So you don´t have to worry about popped out drive shafts. An upgrade to the Hop Up Universal shafts is not necessary in my opinion.
Its a great looking thing the FAV – always was and always will. so glad its a proper rerelease and not a rehash. The true sign of a great Tamiya buggy is that on first appearance it could be a real buggy – this does that perfectly
Looks great, how are the tyres? They look more like on road tyres. Or are they designed for gravel?
@Louisbaby
Those are the classic Tamiya Buggy tyres, as seen on the Rough Rider / Buggy Champ. The rear tyres were also used on some other classic Tamiya cars. They are Off-Road tyres, but work also good on tarmac.
Looks great! I hope it means that we would expect a Wild One re-re.
AWESOME when i get one i will use the parts to finally finish my wild one and slightly mod it
i am defiently get this when i have enough money.
ps. does anyone know where to get it besides ebay?
does it come with a 2.4ghz tranmitter and reciever?
@zephyrin
You can get the FAV 2011 from every Tamiya dealer who stocks Tamiya RC-Kits.
There is no radio gear included with the kit, except for a standard electronic forward and reverse speed controller.
does anyone know what website/s you can get one from?
@zephyrin
A lot of the well known Online Shops are sold out at the moment. Try the big auction sites. There you will find some -“buy it now” offers from dealers who still have stock.
The civil painted FAV 2011 looks great. I’m looking into getting one soon and I’ll be doing similar. Good skills.
FOUND ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
bit expensive though seen some alot cheaper
http://rchobbies.com.au/store/product_info.php?products_id=64737
tamiya usa has restocked and they are alot cheaper than the link in my other comment
When will you restock it? I still have one from the 80’ies but looking for a new one but it is all out of stock!!
FAV for me too!!! Fast Attack if possible.