Tamiya Land Rover Defender Project

The Tamiya CC-1 (Cross Country) chassis was originally released in December of 1993.  Most chassis configurations evolve over the years and are incremented with new numbers, but the CC-01 has stayed the same for 25 years and is still for sale.  I count at least 14 different bodies which have been used on this chassis in that time, and that does not count another 10 color or trim variations.  The hard shell Pajero body was the first and was sold as 58132.  Despite the Land Rover Defender being one of the best known off road vehicles of all time, it didn't show up until 2018 as set 58657.

This is a 4WD shaft driven chassis with independent front suspension and a solid axle on trailing arms in the rear.  It is a pretty small model so the 540 silver can motor is plenty to move it along as fast as you would reasonably want a vehicle like this to go.  It is one of my favorite to drive in that I can pretty much stay at full throttle all the time without worrying about anything.  With relatively little ground clearance and open differentials, it isn't excellent off road.  On gravel or low cut grass it is really at home.  Trying to crawl over anything it will get stuck pretty quickly.  The rear differential can be locked, but only by opening it up and replacing the spider gears with a plug.  The model has proven exceptionally durable without any needed repairs so far.   I am still using the stock motor and ESC along with a cheap analog Futaba servo which seems to be just fine.  Battery space is limited so a 7.2V NiMH works best.

I've have several CC-01 models and some are heavily upgraded while others aren't.  This particular example is completely stock apart from a lighting system and the addition of a driver figure.

I reached a point in which I had 5 CC-01 models and I felt that something had to go.  Since this one seemed to have the least number of upgrades and I would prefer a Defender with a hard body (which is easy to find), I sold this one.