Out of the way Focus the Escort is back in town (Escort WRC)

Member Name: Hot_Jam

Product:	Escort WRC
Date:	04/12/01 (476 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The Price, The Speed, The Fun

Disadvantages: Finding 1 is hard

The Ford Escort Electric remote controlled car made by Tamiya is an amazing piece of kit.

When you first open the box of your new Car, you are faced with an overwhelming amount of plastic bits and metal thingy-whatsits and you suddenly feel disheartened. This feeling is soon overcome when you take out the instruction manual from the box and find that it is all set out in easy to follow diagrams.

After the initial shock you can get down to building your little beast. Equip your self with a good strong screwdriver, some bull nose pliers and some determination. The mandatory Allen keys are supplied in the kit and away you go. The build quality of the kit is outstanding all of the pieces fit as they should and the build of the car should go relatively smoothly. I did however have some problems with the Dampers, which are of the friction type and are very hard to assemble. Soon you should have something resembling a car chassis (It took me the best part of 2 days) and then all that remains is to attach the wheels. These are very realistic 2 piece units (Tyres and Rims), which have to be attached together using superglue.

The body shell is now all that is standing in the way of you and the open road this comes as a clear polycarbonate moulding which you have to cut out to the desired shape. This is very easy just follow the helpful guide lines and you should have a 1/10 scale Ford Escort WRC on your table this then needs painting using a can of white spray paint just coat the inside and you have a white Escort, apply the decals and your sorted.

Attach the body shell to the car and you are ready to go…

An electric 540 motor drives the car via a 4-wheel drive shaft, which gives the car superb acceleration and handling. With top speeds of up to 20mph (scale speed of 200mph) this is no toy. It is a superb piece of machinery, which you will soon find yourself thrashing the little kids with shop built cars that live on your st
reet.

This car can be upgraded so that it is capable of much higher speeds and this is when club racing comes in. My TL01 is now capable of speed in excess of 40mph and wins class B of my local club easily nearly every week. The upgrades are easy to get hold of too most model shops stock them and soon you can have a car, which can go faster than some real cars.

If you are thinking of getting one of these think about where you can use it first a simple back garden will no be enough space as the car is over 30cm in length and travelling at speeds of over 20mph. Get in contact with a local club and see what they suggest. Once you have found a place to drive just let it rip but be prepared for everyone who passes by to stop and watch.

These cars are also very easy to maintain unlike their petrol counterparts. They just need a wipe down after a run and the battery to be put on the charger until the next time you want to drive (which will be very soon).

If you can find a Tamiya TL01 at a good price then my advice to you is too get one there not the best R/C car that you can buy but with some additional up-grades it will go as fast as you will need to race at a club or just play with in a local car park. And there very good value too.

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