TOPIC:

maybe the second stupid question of the year but does any vintage tamiya have a nitro engine?
you dont see too many posts on here about nitro engines. is it possible to fit a nitro engine to my hopper?

I knew Tamiya also had some nitro cars but I didn't have a clue about any details.
Wikipedia list these though - all from this millenium :

Tamiya 1/8 nitro Wiki

I know there's also the NDF-01 (Nitro Thunder and Blaster) in 1/10...
More a fan of electro myself. It's just as fast if you want (low speeds even faster) and better on the ears.
Dunno about a glow enigine on a Hopper...

i guess you could lose weight from the battery but you would have to mount the motor and a gas tank and a MSC, then an exhaust but probably the hardest part would be getting the drive to the rear wheels

I really only know anything about 1:1 cars but I think any sparked engine doesn't do well without a transmission either.
With an electro motor torque is present from the first rev but fuel engines need enough rpm first to have optimum traction.
Usually solved with a tranmission (with multiple gear changes).
Variomatic should work pretty well actually but I'm sure that's not a scale option.
Getting kinda curious now...

Check this out...

Looks fast enough.

Ah, the need for speed - it comes to us all

Can't see the point of IC RC cars TBH - the running in, the tuning, antisocial noise, the fumes,the difficulty starting them - seriously, I've seen people struggle so long I've got through a battery (or two) by the time they've got it running.

It used to be the only way to _really_ fast, but modern electrics have changed all that - I think you could get a motor, esc, and even a Lipo pack & charger for the same cost as a nitro engine, fuel & starter kit ... new of course, there's little to no used brushless/lipo kit about...

Start with one of these, a 10 tooth 0.8 mod pinion & the motor adaptor from a lunchbox/pumpkin/pajero ... I have one of those combos in a TA03F & I can't use more than 50% throttle even in a straight line & with a really delicate thumb

Run something like this on a 3S (12.3V) Lipo (giving 70.000+ rpm) and it'll put any 1/10 in orbit.

it was just a thought, i am not serious about it, yet. but i like the sound of real engines

the sound of real engines

Can't deny there's something to it...
But if you wanna go ultimately awesome on your Hopper, then put in one of these fuell cells :

got some water in my ESC



And a sound module of course.

Edit - wonder how fast that really is but it looks very Back To The Future.