Typicray@rainmans wrote:How important do you guys feel the tamiya sand scorcher was
The Rough Rider and Scorcher were released together in 1979, and were the first true off roaders. Before them of road buggies had no suspension and used big rubber or foam tyres to give some form of suspension. Technically the Rough rider is the more important, being the first one and adopting a body style that influenced racing buggies for many years; the RC10 prototypes used a lexan version of the Rough Rider body. The Scorcher is more important to collectors purely down to its looks, the bug body just looks great on it. They were what started off road racing, before then you either ran 1/8th nitro or 1/12th electric, both purely on road.
The Rough Rider/Sand Scorcher had many firsts, the first buggy with independent suspension, the first r/c car with waterproofing and the first with semi pneumatic rubber tyres.
A big part of their legacy is that they were the first buggies with a 3 gear transmission, driven by a large spur gear. The same design is used in all rear motor buggies today.