Traxxas Street Sport

[Dangeruss]

Released by Traxxas in 1996 was the 1/10 electric parking lot racer dubbed, the Street Sport. Using the same all plastic construction as the Rustler/Bandit/Stampede the Street Sport, beyond some random hardware, shared no parts between any of Traxxas' other vehicles. With a wheelbase of 10.313in its angular molded chassis was nearly an inch shorter than the Bandit, and the 4-wheel independent suspension's narrow 7in. track width would use extremely short lower a-arms and fixed length plastic upper camber links at all four corners. The front bulkhead served duty as a lower arm pivot, shock tower, and forward mount for the inverted servo steering system with Kimbroough style servo saver and adjustable turnbuckles. Traditional style camber and steering blocks up front and stub axle carries in the rear were unique to the Street Sport as well. Short plastic bodied oil-filled coilover shocks with clip-in spring tensioners used all the way around were Street Sport specific too. The low-slung rear shock tower attached to the cars most interesting feature, its transmission. Rather than use a multi gear trans or direct drive hung off the side of a motor pod Traxxas created their own direct drive system. Mounted centrally in the chassis and enclosed in a plastic transmission case with an integrated motor plate was a ball diff equipped spur gear driven directly by the motors pinion. This allowed for the extremely short telescoping driveshafts to be equal in length, however, the motor sat heavily biased to the left side of the chassis. Power was provided by a 20T Stinger motor and three step mechanical speed controller with reverse and sent to 2.1 wheels with interchangeable center covers wrapped in highly crowned Centerpoint slicks, all riding on oillight bushings. Available as an unassembled kit with an unpainted body, less radio, or in RTR form with painted body and TQ radio system:

1996 copyright corrects commonly believed '97 introduction:

Early days of the internet... Traxxas gets a web address:

[Lowgear]

Please allow me to quote myself from 2022:

I bought one new back around 2000. I'd bring it to work with me when I was a night security guard to drive around an empty parking lot. It was really fast but handled poorly in stock configuration, especially with those worthless crowned slicks. What a terrible choice for a tire which really hurt them. If I recall, back then there weren't too many options to improve it or much info to do so at least. I ended up not keeping it long enough to even attempt any.

At the time I had money burning a hole in my pocket, and it being completely RTR was the enticement.

[Dangeruss]

Please allow me to quote myself from 2022:

Ha... reminds me of the line from Austin Powers... "Allow myself to introduce... my...self"

Yeah, the tires (and even the foams) definitely looked like they belonged on a motorcycle more than a car. Racing in the parking lot on the job is brilliant... car dealership or office/retail lot??

[Lowgear]

I knew I subconsciously got that from somewhere.

It was a 235 acre condo community nestled in the forest with 474 units. I was hired for the 11:00pm until 7:00am shift. I had a partner, and one of us would stay at the guard station while the other went on patrol, then we'd switch after 4 hours. It got really boring sometimes as there were no smartphones or even WiFi back then so no prevalent Internet access. I bought it to blast around the main offices parking lot at like 3 in the morning. It was kind of hard to see as there wasn't much lighting but was fun and passed the time nevertheless.

[XLR8]

Captain Obvious here,
It appears this model was meant to compete directly with the Dual Sport.
So I'm curious, did Losi or maybe Yokomo or Kyosho make a equivalent model?

[Elkcycles]

Such a terrible car... and yet I can't resist the urge to get one again. I buy them, get reminded of what dinosaurs they were, sell them, then get misty eyed all over again. This has happened three times now.

[Dangeruss]

I knew I subconsciously got that from somewhere.

It was a 235 acre condo community nestled in the forest with 474 units. It was kind of hard to see as there wasn't much lighting but was fun and passed the time nevertheless.

...all the sudden wanting to be night security on a construction site... All the dirt a stadium truck could hope for with none of the sunburn.

Captain Obvious here,
It appears this model was meant to compete directly with the Dual Sport.
So I'm curious, did Losi or maybe Yokomo or Kyosho make a equivalent model?

Nah, no worries
Not so much Traxxas trying to compete with Associated as much as them both trying to compete with Tamiya and Kyosho. Tamiya created a parking lot series for their cars to compete in and Kyosho did the same but with their F-1 cars. Both in 1994. Parking lot racing got big and Traxxas and Associated joined the fun in 1996. Closest Losi and Yokomo got were the Street Weapon and YR-4 ...but they were 4wd touring sedans not parking lot racers.

Such a terrible car... and yet I can't resist the urge to get one again. I buy them, get reminded of what dinosaurs they were, sell them, then get misty eyed all over again. This has happened three times now.

Don't let your thoughts betray you... press the BIN button and give in to the dark side...