TAMIYA AVANTE

[lazerboy]

Does anyone know if this is a good car? I saw one on ebay, and it looks extremely adjustable to me.

[terry.sc]

Depends on which Avante you mean.

The original Avante was an overengineered piece of junk on the track. Alloy front uprights snapped as soon as they looked at anything solid, huge metal balljoints came with loads of play as standard. Fully adjustable multi link suspension looked pretty but was never any good on the track - it was so good every other car in the range had normal wishbone suspension.

Laydown shocks meant nowhere near enough suspension travel for off road, but handles reasonably well on road (not useful in a buggy though!) Odd shock sizes mean there aren't any alternative springs either. shock mounts need braces fitted to support them, but you have to remove the braces to get the body off if you trim it to the cut lines.

Tiny geared diffs weren't up to the job of handling decent power, centre ball diff meant all the power got transferred to whichever end had the least traction. Motor mount design means you have to take the top off the gearbox to adjust pinion mesh.

I was actually sponsored to run an Avante back in the 80s. Free car and all running costs taken care of. It was so good that I gave it back within 2 months.

After all those faults it is still one of the prettiest race buggies there has ever been. The swooping, chassis hugging body looks great and really complments the 'high tech' chassis. It looks great and therefore very popular amongst collectors.


Alternatively if you are talking about the Avante MkII then it is a rebodied Dark Impact/Keen Hawk.

[lazerboy]

i guess it's really not woth $70.

[terry.sc]

Originally Posted by lazerboy

i guess it's really not woth $70.

Actually if it is in good condition you'll find it's worth a lot more as they do look really pretty sitting on a shelf and as a lot of people saw them as the highest spec buggy around when it was released there are a lot of vintage collectors who want them.

Current prices for an original Avante in very good condition is $400 - $500. If it is well used it is worth considerably less but I wouldn't think twice about buying one for $70.

[lazerboy]

if i changed all of the metal ball cups to plastic ones, and put on new wheels and tires, maybe longer shocks do you think it would be racable?

[terry.sc]

It wasn't raceable in the 80s never mind today. Fitting longer shocks won't give more suspension travel, the travel is limited by the suspension design.

If you want something to race the are much better options than a 20 year old car that you won't be able to fix if you break anything on it unless you spend a fortune. The parts that don't break are cheap, everything else costs a lot. For example the front uprights are known to be weak, break one of those and you could be looking at up to $80 for a pair. Break a suspension arm and you are looking at $45, suspension uprights are $40.

Rather than throwing money at the Avante you are best ebaying it and investing the extra money you make in something newer. What you can make on the Avante will go a long way towards buying a modern buggy.