Traxxas Cat
My brother Jim received a Traxxas Cat for his birthday in 1990. It was pre-built and came ready-to-run. It was kinda cool, and if I remember correctly, faster than my Grasshopper.
It had one major drawback—the radio range. It was about 12 feet, I think. My parents agreed that this was really strange, so they took it back to the hobby store to get it checked and stuff. Amazingly enough, this is how it was supposed to work—or at least, it’s how the other one worked that we compared it to. That ended up getting replaced with the radio from my Mom’s old Subaru Brat. (A Futaba FP-2TL, a now out-of-production stick-type radio.)
I guess this wasn’t a bad car, overall. It was a bit more complex than my Grasshopper (oil shocks with neat adjustment collars, floating rear axle) but nothing too great. Something else cool is that it was sealed quite well, meaning you could run it through the mud and water without worry of a short.
Comment from bh on May 31, 2004 at 9:49 PM
No way. Radio range of a Traxxas cat is the same as any normal RC car. The Traxxas radio is a rebadged Futaba radio.
They still make that car today with a different body, called the Traxxas Spirit.
Comment from carvic barrera on July 18, 2004 at 3:17 AM
I had the cat back in '89 i think.. It was faster than the grasshopper. the radio range was more like '1000 ft at least!
Comment from Michael Provolt on September 10, 2007 at 10:51 PM
What a classic! I have one with a brushless motor. that f***er rips!