KYOSHO CELICA GT:

The one setback to R/C modelling is that , “one is never enough”..I decided it was time to join the growing craze for street machines..My favorite car (1-1 scale) is the Toyota Celica GT..The only thing that I had to decide was which manufacturer to go with.

Off to the Hobby Show. The first Celica I saw was the Kyosho model. I looked around, but price wise, this seemed the best deal.

In its stock form this car sports a belt driven 4wd, Lemans Stock 05 motor, spring over oil shocks and double wishbone suspension. The Celica is built on the same platform as the Laser Alpha and the ZX-R race buggy. Its a fun vehicle for “taking it to the streets” and is capable of kicking up the dust off road as well. My Celica was built as strictly a street machine though and I wouldn’t suggest taking the lowered body to the dirt track..

I wasn’t very impressed with the way this kit went together..Every thing lined up o.k., but the front gear differential didn’t turn very smoothly. I took it apart and put it back together a number of times trying to get it right. If you run into a similiar problem I would suggest buffing up the shafts with steel wool or even using a metal cleaner to smooth things out a bit.

This car is basically stock.I added HPI 5 Star chrome rims wrapped in the stock rubber. I have no complaints with the way this car runs on the street. Because I didn’t spend as much attention to hop-ups as I did to looks, I didn’t expect too much in the performance department. However, the stock Lemans motor really got this car moving . Its very quick off the line and the overall speed is pretty respectable also.

The stock body paint scheme is white with red Repsol “splotches”. It is pretty cool looking for a rally car. I put this all together with a Futaba Magnum Sport Radio,two Futaba FP-S148 servos and a Futaba FP-R112JE Receiver.

The Paint:

The first thing I did was to black out the windows by hand. I used black pinstripung around the doors and windows for a more realistic effect. Because this is a fairly dark paint scheme the pinstriping doesn’t stand out very much, but you do notice a difference. The purple paint is transparent so you have to back it up with white. This makes it kind of hard to tell how much paint is enough paint. I would suggest practicing on a scrap piece of Lexan until you are happy with the results. I had to paint the mirrors on the outside, with a brush, using a matching bottled paint. You just keep adding coats until the mirrors are as dark as the body.

FINAL THOUGHT?

As a Rally R/C, this vehicle can be a lot of fun, but as a street machine, I feel its too bulky to be very competitive with whats available today. Therefore, I wouldn’t recommend this car to a racer. But its another decent go anywhere (almost) R/C vehicle for the economically minded R/C sportster.

NOTE:

This car has been discontinued by Kyosho, however there are a number of entry level Kyosho vehicles that are built on similiar platforms in approximately the same price range.. ie; EP Mantis Series Touring Cars.

HOW MUCH??

Reviewed by: The R/C Guy