The Tyco Turbo Outlaw is a 1/14 scale radio controlled car manufactured by Taiyo (Japan) and released onto US, UK, and global markets in 1987.
It is the Tyco version of the original 1987 Taiyo Outlaw Sprinter. A mini version was also released, the 1988 Taiyo Mini Outlaw.
Background
For those unfamiliar, Sprint cars are custom built 6.7L 900 horsepower V8 race cars popular in America, Canada, and Australia, which race around an oval dirt track. Sprint cars have been common stepping stones for famous Formula One, Indy 500 and Nascar racers such as Mario Andretti, Al Unser Jr, Al Unser Snr, Johnny Parsons, and many others.
Features
The Outlaw Turbo looks exactly how you’d expect a radio controlled Sprint Car to look, with the features to match.
- Realistic Sprint Car Detail
- 9.6V 8xAA battery power
- Top speed of 22km/h
- Front and rear shock absorbers
- Rear wide off-road tires
- Front street-style tires
Tire Changes
In catalog and promotional photos (such as below) the Turbo Outlaw is shown with Turbo Hopper / Jet Hopper style front tires, and extra fat rear tires. While we love the look of those fat rear tires, we much prefer the front tires it eventually shipped with which are unique to the Outlaw.
Performance
The Turbo Outlaw is essentially a Turbo Hopper MK3 at its core, with considerable modifications to allow for the large Sprint Car body.
Nevertheless, it’s still that peppy 9.6V Turbo Mabuchi 280 driven blast that you’d expect, with a slight reduction in speed due to the extra weight of the Sprint Car chassis.
Recommendation
The Turbo Outlaw has increased in popularity over the last few years, potentially as a result of photos being shared (as seen here) of a truly great looking Outlaw which had some minor touchups to enhance its detail.
Keep in mind there are two versions. This, the original 1987 version which uses 8xAA batteries, and the 1988 version that comes with a 9.6V battery pack. The battery pack version may be more popular as it’s less common and many people think it’s faster due to the 9.6V Turbo pack, but in fact the opposite is true. This is because the battery version allows inserting fresh Alkaline 1.5v batteries (8×1.5V) which provide a full 12 Volts, considerably more than the 9.6V obtained from the rechargeable battery pack.
In any case, this is one really nice car, becoming rarer by the day.
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