Yesterday I picked up something I’ve been wanting for a while; a Scion tC. It’s not a full-sized one though, but rather a 1/10 scale electric R/C car from HPI.

I stopped in to see Mike at the Scion dealership where he works, so that I could take a look at one of these. He had posted on Facebook when they first arrived, so since then I had been considering picking one up. I was wanting to try one out so that I could tinker with it and possibly also partake in the impromptu races that sometimes happen at the Beyond meets.

Both FR-S and tC versions were available, but as tempting as a red FR-S was I ultimately chose the tC. Why? It’s because a couple of years ago when I was car shopping, one of the cars I was considering along with the Focus was a Cement Grey 2011 tC. Obviously I ultimately chose the Focus (and would buy one again in a heartbeat) but I still like the looks of a tC in that colour. HPI happened to offer Cement Grey as one of the options for the pre-painted body, so that’s what I went with.

Being a ready-to-run (RTR) kit it came with everything needed, even batteries for the remote. When I opened the box I noticed the rear wheels had a bit of poke, so I spent a little while adjusting everything to get the ‘stance’ just so. I lowered the body a little bit to get rid of the wheel gap and removed the spacers (yes, there are spacers for these) from the rear wheels to bring them in a little. After that the battery had had a little time to charge so I popped it in and took it for a few quick laps around the kitchen. This thing is too fast for those tight quarters!

I still need to read through the rest of the manual and do a little more adjusting before taking it out for a real run, but right now it’s going to have to wait while I study for finals. It’ll be a nice treat for afterwards.

-Bill