HKS Opel Vectra JTCC

JANG's Impressions

In early 2007 an old local hobby shop was having going out of business sale and I decided to finally pick up a couple items from their healthy collection of Tamiya kits I had only casually eyed from time to time. Imagine my surprise when I came upon this rare 12-year-old FF01, still in factory shrinkwrap, for under $100 US! My initial intention was to turn it into a project car, but a year later I decided to do the right thing and build it exactly as its maker had intended and share it with folks like you!

With such a simple drivetrain, screw-type suspension pins and plastic camber links, the build was very very straightforward and faster than normal. Along the way, though, a number of features delighted me. The shocks are all of the oil-filled variety, with one-hole pistons specified for the front and 3-hole units for the lightweight rear. The bodies are the basic plastic type, but they seal up well and do their job nicely. Up front there's a ball diff to provide smooth power delivery. Gear mesh is fully adjustable, and two different-sized spur gears are included in the kit for tuning options. Though camber links are non-adjustable, the steering rack uses threaded rod. At the rear, the output hubs borrowed from the TA series cars and the Manta Ray are reversible for 1 degree of toe in or out, depending upon the layout of the course you want to drive on.

While the chassis is simple, the body is a bit of a different story. While most RC kits may specify one color of spray paint to use on the body and decals take care of the rest, the HKS Vectra needs four -- white for most of the body, black for the rear section, Tamiya's translucent Smoke to tint the windows, and yellow for the side view mirrors. You have to provide your own masking materials to separate the black & white areas. Once the painting is done, though, the hard part begins. There are approximately 120 stickers to apply, many of which need to either overlap or connect to eachother perfectly, while stretching to within millimeters of their lives around complex curves and across seam details molded into the shell. All told, the body detailing process took me over 10 hours spread across a week's worth of evenings!

Hitting the road for the first time was a very satisfying experience. The car tracks well in whatever direction you want to go and the ball diff does a great job of ensuring traction under many conditions. On-power there was far less understeer than I expected. Off-power, the 65/35 front/rear weight distribution leaves the rear end light, and if you're on a mildly dusty surface you can bring the rear all around with a tap of the brakes, also unexpected! The stock tires feature a soft rubber compound that does well on asphalt for non-racing, kit-stock treads.

Videos

Building tips

• Applying the endless supply of decals requires more than patience and a steady hand. Some of the bends you need to make, especially around the windows, bumpers, and front grille, are impossible under normal conditions without tearing the vinyl. For this, you need to cheat. A hair dryer or adjustable heat gun (set to low) will save your sanity and allow you to pull off a few magic tricks of 3D geometry by softening the vinyl and allowing it to safely stretch. This still requires patience and care, as too much heat can melt or boil the decals or worse yet, deform the body. Always work from one side of a sticker to the other, burnishing it down and pushing out any air to avoid trapping unsightly bubbles under the surface.
• The tires may be made with a good rubber compound, but they don't include any inserts to maintain their shape. If you can, supply your own inserts before gluing everything down. Because of the extremely uneven weight distribution of this car, you may want to use medium-weight inserts up front, and soft ones at the rear.
• If you're going for the authentic box art paint job, be sure not to spray the body all white as soon as you get the window masks in place! Make special note of the rear section that needs to be black! Ideally you should paint this section first, then do the white second. White behind black does nothing. Black behind white darkens the white. Another option, though, is to mask off the rear section, paint several coats of the white, then spray a layer of silver to seal and protect the white from the inside. Now you can remove the rear mask and paint everything, and I mean everything, black. The silver layer is opaque and will prevent any bleed-through of the black, and by finishing the entire inside of the body with black you get a finish that looks more realistic on the road because you see darkness when you look in through the windows or under the fenders, rather than a toy-like bright white.

Photo gallery samples

Visit the full Tamiya HKS Opel Vectra JTCC gallery >

• Home
• Vehicles
• • Cars
  • Buggies
  • Trucks
  • Semi Rigs
  • Tanks
  • Other
• Projects
• Forums

1. About Us
2. Advertising
3. Contact Us