Went fox hunting: caught a red one - Hot Trick Tamiya (CIB)

[rangerg]

Backstory: Two cars in particular are my nostalgic favorites, the Optima and the Fox. My buddy and I both got two used cars as teens in the mid to late 80s (me the Optima and him the Fox). My car was faster and handled better, but broke more. I liked the Fox. It did not seem toyish like some others Tamiyas. When I saw pictures of the Red Fox in RC Car Action, I thought it was the coolest looking car. It made the Fox look like a high-end racer. Specifically, as I read and re-read the Tower Hobbies catalog I always imagined how great one of the full racing kits from Hot Trick would be. They were so expensive, but you would transform your Tamiya.

Skip ahead about 25 years and I finally bought a Red Fox off eBay. It is used and not complete, but it’s in good enough shape for me to be a shelfer. While searching for some information online concerning the Red Fox (to fix up the Ebay one), I stumbled across a Craigslist ad. It was already four days old and half way across the country, but the price was great and the pics showed a Red Fox Racing Kit, with parts all in the bags! I even saw a box, which I always thought would be really cool if it all came in a sleek boxed package.

Well, look what came in the mail yesterday. Two of the parts were out of the bags and partly assembled, but I put them back in for the pictures. This is how you would feel if you had ordered the racing kit back in the day. I know there are those that are not Hot Trick fans, but how could you not be impressed by this bag of goodies (25 years ago or today)?

[rangerg]

Opening the box . . .

[rangerg]

[rangerg]

One more shot

[rangerg]

One nice aspect of the parts I already have is that this is the UL (ultra light) kit and I have a SD (super duty) chassis already. I’ll take comparison picks and weigh them. There is a big weight difference I can tell.

[rangerg]

I forgot - here is where the trophy will sit.

[losiXXXman]

That is one cool catch. Do you already have a stock donor fox to meld with the Hot Trick Kit? I have a soft spot for the Fox, but will probably never see one in my garage. I have this feeling that they'd be a lot of fun to drive. If I were ever to go to a vintage event, I'd love to run a fox against the RC10s and see if It could hang. Have to come across one and get it running first though.

[rangerg]

Thanks Losiman. Yes, I have a stock Fox that I was building to be a runner. It is in really nice shape and should go well with the new Hot Trick find.

[rangerg]

Here are the Ultra Light and the Super Duty together. The UL weighed 4ozs and the SD 6 ozs, so the SD is 50% heavier and noticeably thicker.

[Coelacanth]

Although the actual performance improvements of a lot of Hot Trick stuff is dubious at best, it sure does make a car look awesome. As was said already, do you already have a Fox victim in need of multiple-bypass surgery?

[rangerg]

Yes, I have two donor cars that I'll pick from to get the better parts. It will take me awhile as things are busy, but I enjoy these projects so much.

[Coelacanth]

Yes, I have two donor cars that I'll pick from to get the better parts. It will take me awhile as things are busy, but I enjoy these projects so much.

I'm like you, I just don't get thrills building something up exactly the way it's *supposed* to be.

[Mad Racer]

I love the Fox and have 3 of them.

All pretty much standard and they go really well in stock.

Looking forward too see this one very modded Fox of yours.

Oooh I dig that car stand. That's a really nice touch.

[rangerg]

Update: I finished everything in the box. It was such a fun build. I'm working on the body, but I really think Hot Trick's look better without the body, so I decided to take some pics.

[LurkingCAT]

Really nice to see this Red Fox, and the kit box is just sooo cool! The Fox was my first real car, and I soon got a full Hot Trick conversion with RC10 shocks and Thorp drive line (and this, as already mentioned, didn't exactly equal a quantum leap in performance).

Actually I was the only one known to have the Hot Trick Red Fox in Norway at that time. Custom fees and trades profit made Hot Trick awfully expensive here… Since it was a one of a kind, my car got the nick name Pensel Fox, as I used to be called Pensel... Still have my old Red Fox (luckily never sold it!), a couple I got later and a standard. A picture of one of mine is in this thread: http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=27601

Super nice find and build!