Jeff Hoy, American

After nearly three quarters of a decade away from the R/C hobby, I can finally say I’m back in the game baby!  WOO!  YEAH!  This Christmas I received a gift that keeps on giving, Tamiya’s Baja King kit, which is a very welcome addition to my box of R/C stuff.  This model isn’t the top of the line, in fact it’s one of the cheapest hobby grade R/C kits available, but it’s still a good performer and a fun backyard basher with plenty of hop-up potential.  The Baja King is not going to win any championships, but winning my Backyard Invitational is certainly possible.

Features

The Baja King is based on Tamiya’s old TL-01 sedan chassis, with a minor modification.  Tamiya replaced the TL-01 sedan suspension with a longer armed version more suitable for offroad and gave it the TL-01B designation.  This chassis features shaft driven 4WD, sealed front and rear gearboxes, gear differentials, friction spring dampers, and large diameter, off-road wheels and spiked tires.  Also included, much to my surprise, is a electronic speed control, instead of the mechanical unit that is usually included in low cost and entry level kits.  The speed control is Tamiya’s entry level TEU-101bk control which only supports 27 turn stock motors and six cell battery packs.  Some nice features of this control include reverse (with a lockout for racing), a rudimentary form of BEC, simple one button setup, and a built-in failsafe that cuts the throttle and beeps when no signal is available.  It’s prewired with bullet connectors for the motor and a standard Tamiya style battery connector.

Not everything you’re going to need is included with this kit.  To finish it off you’re going to have to purchase or otherwise have available the following:

• Radio system with one servo
• Batteries and battery charger
• Polycarbonate paint for the body

It’s not a very long list, but it’ll cost about $85.00 (according to Tower Hobbies prices) to make the Baja King drivable.

Assembly

There’s nothing quite like peeling the shrink wrap off of a brand new R/C car kit.  To make things even better the Baja King comes in a sizable box with some very cool cover art.  Once inside, the box is split down the middle with the polycarbonate body shell on one side, and all the parts bags and trees on the other.  The bags are lettered A to C according to when you will need the parts in the assembly process.  The parts on the trees are clearly numbered making them easy to find and snip off.

The Baja King’s manual is easy to read and understand, I didn’t have any trouble trying to figure out what I needed to do.  One tip that everybody should know and use is to fully read the instructions from front to back, top to bottom, beginning to end, etc., etc., etc., before starting assembly of a kit.  It will really help you out and may go a long way to dispelling some confusion you may find yourself experiencing.  The book for the Baja King is printed in four languages, Japanese, English, French, and German.  When manuals and such are printed in multiple languages they usually go light on the words, and that is certainly the case with this manual.  The illustrations are more than enough to fully understand what you need to do.  Each step lays out what pieces and parts you will need to complete it.  All of the illustrated parts in the manual are easy to identify and match to their real world counter-parts.  Some screws do look similar, only being differentiated by being polished or black in color, and the manual does reflect that, so pay attention to the thread patterns and colors as they appear in the manual.  There’s only 26 steps in the entire process, so even a novice should have no trouble assembling this kit rather quickly.  I didn’t time myself with a stopwatch, but I would estimate that my total assembly time, not counting body painting and trimming, was only about two and a half to three hours.

Tamiya is pretty well known for it’s high quality parts.  The Baja King kit is no exception.  All of the plastic parts trees were well formed with minimal connecting points between the tree and the parts.  There was no flashing (extra plastic that may have seeped through the molds) to trim off, and all of the parts fit together perfectly.  The self-tapping screws did their job just fine, but obviously you should take care when tightening them.  Do not crank on them hard, just screw them in until the they stop, don’t tighten them any more than that.  Trying to crank the screws in further will only result in you stripping out the threads that the screw just cut.  I have only one other recommendation for assembly of this or any kit.  If you can afford it, buy as many hop-up parts as you can before you assemble your kit, especially if they are internal parts such as ball bearings, drive shafts, or differential upgrades.  If you buy them before assembly you can then insert them in place of the stock parts.  Doing this will save you time and decrease wear and tear on your kit since you won’t have to disassemble it to install these parts later, not to mention the increased performance you will experience.

Performance

The Baja King is pretty quick off the blocks and reaches top speed in a very short distance.  I haven’t done any timings yet but I would estimate the top speed at somewhere between 17 and 20 miles per hour.  During the course of building I replaced a few stock parts with upgrades.  I tossed all of the plastic and metal bushings for a full set of ball bearings.  I swapped out the steel drive shaft for a light weight carbon shaft and I replaced the heavy stock gear shafts with some further light weight pieces.  I’m not sure what the overall effect is that these parts have had since I never ran it in fully stock form, but I can only assume that they increased drive train efficiency and thus increased acceleration, top speed, and battery run time.

The suspension, being only friction spring dampers and non-adjustable links, doesn’t really do much to help the ride.  It’s much too springy to provide anything near good performance.  After ball bearings I would say the next most needed upgrade would be oil filled shocks with a good selection of springs.  Having this suspension also doesn’t help with cornering or high speed stability.  Small bumps are able to send the Baja King out of control without any warning.  If you are looking to use this car as a somewhat serious racer at your local track, then you will definitely need to upgrade the shocks.  It would also be advisable to upgrade to adjustable turnbuckles for the suspension, which are also available for this kit.  Having those would give you a much more tunable ride.

This car is perfect for backyard bashing, but it will need work to get it in proper shape for any type of racing.  The 4WD makes it easy to get over some rough terrain, including tall, dead weeds and large rocks, which a lot of people will find in their backyards or other favorite bashing spot.  There’s a couple of shock mounting positions on the suspension arms, so you can set the ride height from a low slung racing height to something a little higher and more suitable for doing real 4WD offroading.

Parts availability & customer service

Tamiya cars always have a plethora of hop-ups available.  Most of the after-market parts are made by Tamiya itself, but some companies, like Duratrax, also offer additional parts.  Even though the Baja King is based on a old chassis, there are still plenty of hop-ups to be had.  I was able to purchase a full ball bearing set, many light weight carbon fiber (graphite) drive-train parts, and light weight suspension components.  Some parts that are made for newer cars are also compatible with the Baja King.  Most hop-ups are in the $15 to $20 range.  You can order your upgrades directly from Tamiya, but stores such as Tower Hobbies also carry them, and usually at a much lower price.

There’s also the obvious upgrades such as a better motor, higher performance ESC, and tires.  The only problem is that you are limited in what pinion gears you can put on the motor.  The Baja King has a motor mount that only allows for a 19t, 21t, or 23t pinion.  It appears that you can only use Tamiya made pinion gears.  It looks like they are not the relatively standard 48 pitch gears that most of the industry uses in offroad cars and trucks.  They could be 32 pitch but I don’t have any 32 pitch gears to compare them to.

Replacement parts are readily available from Tamiya’s web site.  It has a really handy parts lookup and ordering system.  All you need is the part number from the assembly manual (you are going to keep it, aren’t you?) and the system will take you directly to the shop page where you can order it.  I actually got to make use of this system in the course of painting the body.  Here’s a tip, once the paint cures, you can’t get it off, so plan accordingly.  Tamiya’s service was very snappy, I ordered a new body on Saturday.  They’re closed on weekends so it was packed and shipped Monday afternoon and I received it mid-day Thursday.  No other internet mail order company I’ve dealt with has been that fast, not even Newegg.com. Usually there’s at least a two day processing time on my orders.  I also contacted customer service by email once with a general, non-critical question and had it answered in a few hours.  Overall, I am very satisfied with Tamiya’s customer service.  The customer service matches the reputation they’ve earned for quality in my opinion.

Final thoughts

If you’re trying to get into the r/c hobby, but don’t want to spend a lot of money, this car is for you.  I am very pleased with it and I was suprised by it’s quality, performance, and hopup potential, especially at it’s price.  For the cost of other cars without all the necessary components, even other entry level setups, you can get this kit and everything you need to run it.  Building it was very easy thanks to the great packaging and excellent instructions.  I highly recommend the Baja King kit for anyone looking to get into, or expand their involvement in, this hobby.  Unless you have higher ambitions, such as winning a national championship, you really can’t go wrong with this car.

Info

Manufacturer

Tamiya, Inc.

Tamiya USA

Product website

http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/item.php?product-id=58301

Where to buy

Tower Hobbies ($89.99)