Tamiya Tyrrell P34 Review

The Tamiya Tyrrell is one of the most interesting Tamiya RC cars in my opinion, and that says a lot considering their huge range of products in their history.

As it is based on one of the most unique and interesting cars in formula one history, I have been really looking forward to building and using this car.

 So what is it like to build, and drive?

Let's find out.

The kit requires a number of extra items to get you up and running which includes steering servo, transmitter and receiver, a “shorty” battery and charger, and your paint for both the body of the car, and also the driver/cockpit.

This can add an extra £150 if not more depending on the quality of the items. The more premium and better the items like servo etc, the more the whole price will go up. The build of the kit was really interesting to me.

I have only been used to building Tamiya TT02 kits, so while the bodies will be different, it will be the same old, same old underneath so you get a little bored with building the same chassis all the time.

The Tamiya Tyrrell P34 has a double deck chassis which was something completely new to me, and following the instruction manual to build it, it was a real breeze to build.
While you look at the car when it’s built and you think “There doesn’t look much to it” there is actually quite a lot to the build compared to a TT02.

Maybe it’s just me as I have only been used to building TT02’s in the past, but even though it took longer, I really enjoyed the build of this kit.

The one thing I was quite interested in was how the 4 wheels would steer on the car, and it is really interesting how from a standard sized steering servo, there are the 4 wheels steered from it.

It’s a neat little way how it is done but it works and it works really well.

The body on the Tamiya Tyrrell P34 is really nicely moulded and after painting the body, the stickers are nice to apply on the body. I just take my time with doing the sticker application on any model (sometimes a couple of days just to make sure it’s done properly) but once finished it is worth the time taken to get it looking spot on.

The only thing I struggled with the whole build (and I mean REALLY struggled to the point I was losing my rag! lol) was securing the foam tires to the plastic wheels. You get some double sided tape to secure on to the wheel first, and then you are to remove a small piece of the top part of the tape to start securing the tyre on and then pull the top of the tape off the more you put the tyre on. This was all good, however the foam tyres seem to be narrower than the plastic wheel. I looked on YouTube etc for info and people were saying you should move the foam out so it will fill the wheel.

I was trying it for ages (even on another wheel without tape on it) and it just won't work. I had blisters on my thumbs after trying it so much and so long! That is the only thing that I didn’t like with the kit. I am used to just putting the rubber tyres over the plastic wheels on TT02’s etc so hopefully Tamiya will look at doing rubber tyres that will sit on the wheels better in the future as that was a pain and looked a bit pants on the car when done.

One thing with the kit that a number of people forget is the battery needed to run this is a shorty battery and not a standard NiMH battery like most of the Tamiya range. A shorty battery is generally more expensive than the NiMH batteries you can get for a large selection of the Tamiya range, so it’s just something to bear in mind with the kit.

After charging the shorty battery, I decided to take the car outside wheelspin models HQ for a quick test. The car has had a lot of time and effort spent on the paintwork of the body and also the cockpit and driver so I only wanted to give it a quick test before retiring it on our staff car shelf in the shop.

The car was really fun to drive, and was strange to see the small 4 front wheels doing the steering while the car was driving round the car park. You could tell the difference with the foam tyres having quite a bit of grip and the performance was actually really good. I had fun and before doing anything stupid and damaging it, I decided to get it back in the shop and put it on the staff shelf.

As a kit it is something really nice and different to build compared to TT02’s and the rest of the Tamiya range. It isn’t without it’s faults though especially those tyres to fit on the wheels, but apart from that it was a good fun kit to build.

If you love building your Tamiya kits and fancy having a go at something different, then this is definitely for you!