The Taiyo Jet Racer 4WD is a radio control car manufactured by Taiyo (Japan), and released into the Japanese market, and others worldwide in 1987.
It is the English language version of the original Taiyo Jet Racer 4WD (Japan).
Performance
Easily in the Top 10 Taiyo vehicles, the Jet Racer 4WD has just about everything.
- 8xAA 9.6V ‘Turbo’ Battery Power
- Twin Mabuchi 280 motors
- Full time 4WD
- All Round Shocks
- Front Differential
- Maximum Speed of 25kmh/16mph
This would be the ultimate off-road Taiyo up until this point, slightly improved in 1988 with the Max Hopper 4WD which would add some strengthened steel components.
Collectability
In my opinion, the Jet Racer 4WD is simply a must-have in any collection. It’s just such a beautiful piece of toy engineering, unlike anything we’ll ever see in toy stores again – truly on a hobby-grade level, with the performance to match.
Some are upgrading these with brushless motors, but please only do this to an already broken one, don’t ruin one of the few clean cars left.
Good news is, it still has reasonable availability on eBay and elsewhere. Get it before it becomes hard to find.
Unusual Frequencies
Most interesting, this global version has unusually close and specific frequencies:
– White (26.995Mhz)
– Black (27.195Mhz)
We know that the usual Taiyo 2nd car frequency of 49Mhz could not be sold on the UK market, and so potentially this was a workaround until they began selling the 40Mhz variant in the UK.
Passive Steering
One reason it makes a great candidate for a hobby grade conversion is its passive steering – basically the front steering servo is only responsive when the car is moving. This can be quite frustrating when driving in a small space, and so overcoming this by replacing the electronics with modern gear can overcome this problem.
Below are photos of the internal electronics and servo which can be replaced with a modern unit.
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