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This may have been answered, and frankly I'm too lazy to read through a zillion posts, but is there a reason Yokomo only did 4wd and did associated ever do 4wd until recently? And what was behind the co-sponsorship with Misami Hirosaka? Were AE and Yokomo connected somehow? I got into R/C in the early 90's and always wondered.

Im no "expert" on this, but some of it is due to 4wd being the More/Most popular class in Japan back then. Same for 2wd in the States. By "partnering" so to speak, both benefitted. It wasn't a total partnership though, some Associated drivers ran other 4wds. If you look back through old mags, you'll see a lot of Losi guys ran Kyosho Optima Mids and Lazers in 4wd too. Some of the former sponsored racers that are members here could provide more indepth/backgrond information about this too...

Interesting. Any experts to chime in?

chrisisacoolguy wrote:This may have been answered, and frankly I'm too lazy to read through a zillion posts, but is there a reason Yokomo only did 4wd and did associated ever do 4wd until recently? And what was behind the co-sponsorship with Misami Hirosaka? Were AE and Yokomo connected somehow? I got into R/C in the early 90's and always wondered.

Frankly I'm too lazy to answer this











































AE began importing Yokomo cars after the 834B or RPS (Ranch Pit Shop) Yokomo edition beginning with the Yokomo 870c US version (YZ10 or C4) and the Yokomo side began exporting AE vehicles to Japan at about the same time. Yokomo and AE were (for the most part) paired up from about 88' until about 99' as I can recall but 4wd wasn't the most popular class here in the US either- I do know that AE drivers were not required to run Yokomo cars in 4wd classes as there were many running the Lazers too-

AE/Yokomo/Reedy was a Masami deal from 88 ish through..... I think the Yokomo part came first though,

I have a strong feeling that Yokomo also made a few parts for AE. Take a close look at the universals from that time, that look like they are made in the same factory. AE and Reedy also used Yokomo motor parts. The two had a great relationship in the early years, however I do feel that with the onset of the TC3, things were never the same. This was one of the first times they would be going head to head on the tracks around the world, now Yokomo would start to develop a 1/12, Masami would step away from the RC12 but continue to run a B3 and later the B4!