Kyosho Tomahawk
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The Kyosho Tomahawk. Hands down one of the best looking, best performing, coolest early Kyosho Buggy. This was an unbelievable ebay find. I cant believe how complete this buggy actually was. It was only missing , auxiluary light face plates, original speed control, motor, original front bumper and one windo net. It did come with a CRP front bumper, a Parma modified motor and slide resistor typr speed control. It also came with a working Futaba 75mhz reciever, and two working Futaba servo's. The buggy was in awesome condition though it had obviously been raced. Like most of the buggies I restored of this type, the frame rails were bent slightly, and the bottom of the buggy suffered from the tippical scrapes from being raced. But over all it was completly salvagable. In fact I could not believe how nice the buggy actually was after I started fixing everything and cleaning it up. Introduced in 1983 the Tomahawk was really Kyosho premeir racing buggy and was poised to do battle with the Tamiya Super Champ. It was in my opinion a better set up for racing even over the Kyosho Scorpion. Though they shared alot of the same parts, the Tomahawk had it's own list of unique features that set it apart from the Scorpion. One main featur is there is no radio tub on the Tomahawk. A fiberglass radio plate houses the servo for the speed control, and the reciever. A seperate aluminum plate acts as a frame support and steering servo mount. Two plastic tie straps hold a 7.2 volt battery to the fiberglass radio plates underside, and servo tape and tie strap hold the steering servo to the aluminum support plate. Another thing that sets this buggy apart from its Scorpion counter part is the addition of a 2 bevel gear differental borrowed from the Advance and Assault buggies, and needle bearing type bearings in the rear swing arms for the rear drive axles. Also exclusive to the Tomahawk is a cast Aluminum heat sink which sets atop the gearbox and houses the 3 seperate speed control resistors.
specifications
Type : Off Road Racing Buggy ( Super Racing Buggy )
Chassis : Twin Aluminum ladder frame with aluminum cross members and suspension mounts
Drive : Rear drive via cast aluminum gear box
Suspension : Fully independent cast aluminum trailing arms front and back with aluminum oil filled coilover shocks
Wheels : Plastic injection molded
Front : 5 Hole Pattern 2 piece 2.0" Chrome
Rear : 5 Hole Pattern 3 piece 1.75" Chrome
Tires : Injection Molded Rubber/Nylon
Front : Good Year twin rib
Rear : Good Year Multi Block pattern
Some Later Models had the Sand Super Marked tires.
Body : Polycarbonate molded clear with ABS Auxilaury off road lights, rear exhaust tubes, Nylon window netting, and right side rear view mirror.
Motor : Electric Mabutchi RS540 R
Mechanical Speed Control
Three step speed forward and reverse Tripple external resistor type
Special Features : Fiber Glass radio tray and Aluminum central chassis support Cast aluminum heat sink resistor housing, and Special body details.
Special Details : Properly scaled dimensions, Special body details, Polycarbonite Driver figure.
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The above pics are what it looked like when I got it. The following pics are of the restoration.
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The paint on the body was in very poor shape and had several places that were flaking off. I stripped the body with break fluid and cleaned it thouroughly. I then polished the outside of the body to bring back the glossieness and shine to the clear polycarbonate. The body was in awesome condition espesially for haveing been raced.
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I cleaned and reinstalled all the electronics that came with the car and tested them. All funtioned and the car runs.
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I masked off the outside of the body and resprayed the underside of it with a bright Italian red. To me there are only 2 colors a Tomahawk can be, and thats red or black. I masked off the front, side, roof, and rear windoes as well.
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I painted the top roof panel with Testors Metalizer aluminum and as it started to dry I used a thick wide paint brush to give it a brushed finish. Also note I left all the original decals on the outside of the body.
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Then using a Sharpy Marker I added the Black Highlights to the body. Sharpies work great for fine details and they leave a nice gloss finish. I trimed out the side glass from this body as they had glue residue on them from where the side window nets had been installed previously. Also note in the next pic the black outline around the rear window. This was also done with a Sharpy. It was actually done to center up the window opining slightly. Sharpys can cover up mild mistakes as well.
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And now for pics of the finished product.
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Here is an old vintage add for the Kyosho Tomahawk.
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