Tamiya Grasshopper upgrades. Hopper to Hornet 

Fascinating outcome 🙂👍🏻

i just bought new grasshopper fo us50, this is my first tamiya rc

been enjoying your content and am taken back 40 years to the heyday of early rc! big shout out to your daughter who has done an exceptional job capturing all this great footage! the dream has always been to play but also to see the cars in action and taking the bumps and jumps .. it's like you heard my wish from 4 decades ago. so good!

Cool video 👍

That was really amazing video and comparison!! Absolutely loved that!!! Thanks so much!

This was the most fun as a kid to uppgrade the cars between races and practice ☺️ new shocks and wheels.. lots of fun 😄👍 great video and camera work ☺️💕

That's a neat backyard track. Plenty of area for spectators (neighborhood kids).

I would liked to have seen if just the tyres alone with no the changes would make a difference. I also often wondered of its possible to fit the talker gearing onto the little motor. Might rake all day to get up to full speed.

Nice job with the track layout

You need to upgrade the front tyres as you have the rear, makes the world of difference. I found the best combo for the Grasshopper is front wheels and tyres from The Fox and rear wheels and tyres from Hotshot 2 (including adapter/spacer for different offset. It transforms the wheel base of the car and helps stabilize that weight back end. Pins it down nicely. Also think about a few grams of plasticine in the nose for ballast against the rear. May seem mad adding weight, but it's just enough to shift the F/R bias in corners, now that your centre of gravity is lower from the earlier weight savings (shell). Great video!

Great job, lots of effort not gone unoticed

Thats an awesome track you have there. I was surprised that with more horsepower it pulled the same numbers. I also realized that with the bigger motor you got more air tome and air time kills lap time. Your daughter is a great filmographer if thats a word. Lol. I see her having a great future filming motorsports events

What a great effort you put into this video. The plot-twist of losing time with the 540 motor was surprising, but its understandable from the video showing the traction difficulties. I have seen some video where lead ballast has been added to the chassis of the Hornet to improve the handling.

Great video!

Really interesting. Power brings its own problems. Any weakness in the chassis will show up with more torque. You can hear the under-damped hop under acceleration with the RS540. I think Tamiya's engineers knew what they were doing mating the 380 with the 'hopper.

THANK YOU sooo mich! I like hopper style / design but want performance '))

Very cool video… thank you so much for sharing.

Nice video I had a lancia 037 my Freind had the grasshopper Both had 380 motors total fun Also nice xmas clip 👍😀

We should go to the website to Tamiya base they have all past and present motor specs. I have a dirt tuned motor on my grasshopper 17,000 RPM at 7.2 v I run it with a 7.4 v with 50c rating.

Thanks for the detailed analysis. I was about to build a Grasshopper with a silver can 540. I'll be installing a Sport Tuned 370 instead. Cheers.

Great video.

Brilliant idea for a video. I thought I’d watched all your videos, how did I miss this?! Awesome.

Great video. Footage was great. Big up your daughter. Now I am interested to know how it would go if you did the motor swop first.

Cool vid, props to the film crew:^)

the grasshop' is the best...beautifful with that sandbuggy body really fun with a 540 or bigger,not efficient but fun! regards from france! :)

Really great great video, great content and filmed on a phone!!!!

Awesome vids mate 👌

i have Tamiya Hornet already and got another one cheap, i thought i made a mistake not going for a grass hopper. your video game me the idea of putting grass hopper body on a hornet and have an upgraded grass hopper. thanks

GH seemed a lot more peppy with the hornet tires

You should checked it with the hard body too with the pin type tires on the back.

Awesome video, my hopper has the slotted front pivot too (along with ball bearings) but still on the pogo stick friction shocks. Had to glue the tops on otherwise the shocks would fall apart lol. Got a 27t stock motor in it and It don't need nothing more 😂. As much as I understand the Hornet is a overall better car with these upgrades, i just prefer the look of the Grasshopper body shell more

Great video guys. I always wondered what Grasshopper mods were worth messing with.

Meaning with all the changes.

You should do all these differences in reverse too.

Great work! THANK to your daughter roo! I like how you think of things :) sorry for my englisch greetings from germany. Could you do three laps AND eleminate slowest? PLEASE ONE try with softer rear springs AND grasshopper body =}}

Awesome video! I’m currently looking at doing minimal upgrades to my Grasshopper. Are the oil shocks worth doing?

Loved it. You need more laps per test though, sample size of two is statistically too small. 5 min, maybe 10, but the more the better really! 15,30,50,100! 😁

I put a Sport Tuned 540 motor in my Grasshopper with a small LiPo and yeah, it was better before with the 380. I have a Spektrum radio from my Granite on it, which is good because it has a 50-75-100% throttle switch on it, I rarely put it above 75 because the car can't handle that speed without randomly flipping over, especially with the Hornet tires on it. Could you update the description with the suspension parts you used?

@Vintage Backyard RC, did you ever post … 1. Where to get the Hornet Shocks? is it a particular hop up part #? That seems like the one upgrade that was really worth it on its own (or maybe I made the wrong conclusion from the video?) 2. What lap counting system are you using there? Do you like it and have you compared to any others?

you should have taken off the oil field dampers and use the friction dampers normally for it with the pivot rear end and see if there was a difference there too.

Do I need the tune up parts in order to build the car I got or do I not need them?

where;s the antenna don't you need that? it is a pain when it flips but can you still get good reception without mounting it up an antenna rod?

Your friend with the grasshopper is the one dislike...

How to fix honey body on grasshopper?

The slotted front pivot anyone know what part tree letter that is?

' both models are the same parts and different bodys... but two motors are different sizes... better use a 540 than 380

You should have left the grasshopper body on it you just made it a hornet 🐝 big deal. I wanted to see the grasshopper body with the 540 and oil shocks that would have been cool as the grasshopper in my opinion is better looking and I like the sand paddle tires . A little disappointed in this one. I like your videos but am such a fan of the grasshopper body... and tires..

Great video!