Maxxum FF to the lineup

[1911Colt]

How did these things go back in the day? I would have thought FWD would be an advantage on the loose tracks we had back then. They probably suffered a little on acceleration, but we didn't have crazy jumps to get over. I remember seeing the FF in RCCA and thinking Kyosho was onto something. Then nothing. Never saw one on a track or elsewhere.

I seem to recall reading that they were forced to run against 4WD (which seems like sour grapes) and that is why they weren't developed further.

[Frankentruck]

My friend had one. He did not enjoy it. He struggled against RWD and 4WD buggies in turns and jumps. I felt sorta bad for him.

[RichieRich]

This is a pretty cool car. Excellent work with the paint and restoration. I've ordered MCI decals in the past and they've been just a couple of hairs too large. If you decide to upgrade the shocks, the Kyosho golds are the best. Stay away from the platinum shocks. They are hard to tune and finding new seals that have not turned hard is a pain in the rear.

[TokyoProf]

Like you I got one recently as well. You have a nice find there. I love the frontish mid-motor design, and for how uniquely engineered it is. Sort of like the overengineered Avante. The rear suspension brackets that attach the dampers to the link suspension were cracked (a very fragile design). I ordered expensive spare ones on ebay that were new. You are lucky if there were no cracks.

[sandkil]

How did these things go back in the day? I would have thought FWD would be an advantage on the loose tracks we had back then. They probably suffered a little on acceleration, but we didn't have crazy jumps to get over. I remember seeing the FF in RCCA and thinking Kyosho was onto something. Then nothing. Never saw one on a track or elsewhere.

I seem to recall reading that they were forced to run against 4WD (which seems like sour grapes) and that is why they weren't developed further.

You are correct on all points. They fly pretty good over jumps as the weight is all way front just like a dart. Just don't do break mid air

My friend had one. He did not enjoy it. He struggled against RWD and 4WD buggies in turns and jumps. I felt sorta bad for him.

Well it definitely needs better shocks to work properly and a slipper wouldn't hurt.

This is a pretty cool car. Excellent work with the paint and restoration. I've ordered MCI decals in the past and they've been just a couple of hairs too large. If you decide to upgrade the shocks, the Kyosho golds are the best. Stay away from the platinum shocks. They are hard to tune and finding new seals that have not turned hard is a pain in the rear.

Thank you! I will leave this all stock as it's a shelf queen. Regarding the MCI decals I had to cut all striping out and adjust to fit. E.g. the top side dam decals were about an inch too long in total. You can kind of see the size differense on the Shoei FF decals on the B-pillar compared to box art.

Like you I got one recently as well. You have a nice find there. I love the frontish mid-motor design, and for how uniquely engineered it is. Sort of like the overengineered Avante. The rear suspension brackets that attach the dampers to the link suspension were cracked (a very fragile design). I ordered expensive spare ones on ebay that were new. You are lucky if there were no cracks.

Cool, Yes I was very lucky. This one had never been run by the looks of it. Tires are all original and no broken parts.


Paint is all done. As earlier mentioned the MCI decals are way too big and I also had to paint the black area at the rear "bed"?! area. The wing is a bit small compared to original (this is the Penguin custom body) Other than that it tured out really good.

[1911Colt]

That is a great body, and well done! I think Kyosho in general had some of the better looking bodies. They often had a "fastback" design instead of just chopping the body off at the back like so many others did. It probably cost them a billionth of a second per lap, though, having more weight up high

[sandkil]

All done!

[Dunc72]

This is awesome reading back. I’m on the hunt for parts for mine too.

[Biggs]

I bought the Maxxum FF back in the day. I was 14 when it came out. Wow, that makes me feel old... It was a weird little car. Nobody knew what class to put it in. It handled more like a 4WD in a lot of ways, but was faster (on the right tracks). So the 4WD guys didn't want it in their class. And the 2WD guys hated it for its 4WD like handling.

I remember its handling a little differently, but in my defense that was 34 years ago. I remember mine being HORRIBLE on jumps and nosediving. But the track I used most weekends was actually a full size motocross track on a friend's farm. It had REALLY big jumps. Very loose and rough track too. It was rare a session didn't end with all the cars broken. We tried to build our own track to keep it "cleaner", but his brother decided we had just made a new section for his motocross track...

I don't remember how exactly I did this, but I moved my battery back and it handled jumps better. I also experimented with 4 wheel steering. The radios I could afford back then though were not smart enough to make that effective... Looking at the Maxxum FF I have on my shelf now, either mod would be pretty easy to do.

I really want to grab a set of SKYRC corner scales. With the modern resources available these days, it would be pretty easy/inexpensive to have a custom top plate made for this. I could even DIY it out in the workshop, but the time spent to get it to look factory would cost me more than the fee to a CNC service.

I HOPE that Kyosho does a rere of this car! It would be SUPER COOL to see what would happen with the refresh treatment Kyosho has given their other re-releases.