Tamiya Terra Scorcher Project

Page 1: Assembly

The chassis of the Terra Scorcher is almost identical to that of the Thunder Shot which I've already documented in detail. Please see that page for more information. I'll only discuss the relevant differences here.

The Terra Scorcher box features some lovely box art. It has been updated slightly from the original to change the sticker logos and remove the resistor. The parts packed inside the box are shown on the right and are arranged the same as the other Thunder Shot chassis models.

This is starting to look familiar. I spent this month building my full backlog of Thunder Shot chassis cars, and this pile of parts looks just like the others. Almost. There are a few key differences. The Terra Scorcher contains some upgraded parts compared the Thunder Shot, but some of those are different than what was used in the 1988 Terra Scorcher.

My 2005 Thunder Shot came with a stamped steel motor mount while the Terra Scorcher comes with this nice machined aluminum version (left). This is an improvement to the 2020 re-release that was not present in the 1988 model. The Terra Scorcher comes with a full set of ball bearings as opposed to the pathetic plastic bushings in the Thunder Shot. It is interesting to note though that the original 1988 model came with ball thrust bearings for the bevel gears but the re-re does not. On the right you can see the nice CVD style axles which replace the dogbones of the Thunder Shot. The 1988 model retained the dog bones in the rear but used universal axles in the front.

On the left (sorry for the blurry image) you can see the adjustable control arms which replace the blue fixed length arms of the Thunder Shot. The 1988 model used threaded rods while the 2020 re-re uses turnbuckles for easier adjustability. The most obvious difference from the Thunder Shot is the use of 4 shocks instead of 3. The rear (longer) shocks look just they did before, but the front shocks are now shorter and built slightly differently. They have a shorter rod end cap with 2 o-rings but no support glands.

These pictures compare the Thunder Shot rear suspension (left) with the Terra Scorcher rear suspension (right). You can see that the shocks are mounted at a shallower angle to a different shock tower. The difference in upper control arms is pretty apparent. A close look will also reveal the CVD axles and the addition of a rear sway bar.

The differences in the front suspension are much more obvious. Like the rear, the upper control arms and axles have been altered. More obviously, there are now two shocks and a different shock tower.

I decided to show the copyright on the polycarbonate body to show that this is an alteration of the original 1988 body shell. The difference appears to be the omission of the slot for the resistor. On the right I've test fit the body and wing to the chassis. This body does not use any rear body posts. Instead the rear of the body slips under a bracket and is adhered with Velcro.

This body has some tricky angles to trim. I smoothed out those curved slots at the rear with my Dremel tool and a sanding drum. This kit does not come with any window masks so I had to do the work manually. I also masked the vent in the rear to paint it silver. The results can be seen on the right along with the addition of the stickers.

Here is the completed model! I didn't record any special pictures of the driver, but I did the helmet in red to add a little contrast.

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