The Tamiya Wild One MAX has been revealed by The Little Car Company, a manufacturer of hand-built electric scaled cars. The full-scale vehicle is based on the original Tamiya Wild One, a well-known remote-controlled car that was first released in 1985.
A total of eight swappable battery packs are now used to power the 500kg vehicle, capable of delivering a total capacity of 14.4kWh, an estimated range of 200km – when driven on the road – and a top speed of 100km/h. Furthermore, each Wild One MAX has been developed to include a road-legal pack in compliance with L7e quadricycle regulations for the UK and EU markets.
The manufacturer has made several modifications to the full-size car to improve safety and comfort. The cockpit has been widened to create room for two adult occupants sitting in a pair of Cobra bucket seats, and there is a four-point harness to enhance safety.
Other revisions include smoothed front suspension turrets for added visibility, and the front suspension is now a double wishbone design instead of a trailing arm. Damping is delivered via adjustable Bilstein dampers combined with Eibach springs. Brembo brake discs feature on the front and the rear axles, with grip provided by a full set of 14in Maxxis off-road tires.
“Here at The Little Car Company, we are on a mission to show that electric cars can be fun,” said Ben Hedley, the company’s CEO. “We believe that you don’t need 1,000hp, stomach-churning acceleration or electronic torque vectoring systems to make EVs enjoyable. We’ve striven to make the Tamiya Wild One MAX an exhilarating drive by following Colin Chapman’s ethos of ‘Simplify, then add lightness’.
“In my opinion, modern cars are now too large, too fast, too complicated and too heavy. We believe that there is an alternative. Our goal is to create innovative, lightweight vehicles that bring the purity and fun back into driving.”
Production of the Tamiya Wild One MAX will begin in early 2024.
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