Words: Elliott Hughes | Photography: The Little Car Company
Did you ever wish as a child that you could shrink yourself down to one-tenth scale so you could get behind the wheel of your remote-control car? Clearly you weren’t alone, because now, thanks to Tamiya and The Little Car Company, you can finally climb inside and drive one.
The two companies have teamed up to create the Wild One MAX: an eight-tenths scale version of the iconic Wild One R/C buggy from the 1980s. As well as being big enough to drive, the car stays true to the original by coming in kit form so you can assemble it yourself, complete with a gigantic sheet of all-important decals.
At 250kg the larger version is a little heavier than the 1.9kg of the original, but that’s more than made up for by a 5.5bhp electric motor sending power through those knobbly rear wheels. The buggy has a top speed of 30mph.
Brembo discs and calipers with regenerative braking should help the buggy stop in a fittingly cartoonish, R/C fashion, and they also help achieve its estimated 25-mile range. The Wild One MAX’s chassis is a tubular spaceframe, and it is fitted with fully independent coilover suspension, which means it should handle brilliantly, too.
If the performance doesn’t sound exciting enough, numerous ‘Hop-Up’ modifications are available to improve range, handling and power, just like the one-tenth scale model. Even better, the buggy can be specified with a ‘road-legal pack’, which means it fully adheres to quadricycle legislation in the EU and Neighbourhood Electric Vehicle legislation in the US. The pack includes the fitment of road tyres, indicators, brake lights and mirrors.
The Little Car Company is best known for its creation of scaled-down versions of the Bugatti Type 55 and Aston Martin DB5, both of which are also battery powered and available with multiple driving modes just like the Wild One MAX.
Bed Hedley, chief executive of The Little Car Company, said: “For me as a child of the 1980s, developing an almost full-size Tamiya model, which you can actually drive, is a dream come true. We are honoured to be working with the Tamiya team on the project to bring one of the company’s most iconic models to life for a new generation. We can’t wait to get these on, and off, the road in 2022.”
Prices start from £6000 and deliveries are slated to begin in 2022. The Little Car Company is charging a £100 deposit for a build slot, which can be reserved by clicking here.
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