The Eye-Catching New Tamiya Touring Cars For 2025

Paul Onorato March 31, 2025 Stories

AUDI 90 QUATTRO RACING

The Eye-Catching New Tamiya Touring Cars For 2025 — Item #58744 Audi 90 Quattro Racing (TT-02)

About the Audi 90 Quattro Racing body

Inside the box of this assembly kit are the things you need to recreate a 1/10-scale version of the Audi 90 Quattro Racing car including a highly detailed polycarbonate body and ABS plastic parts for the side view mirrors and rear bi-level wing. The full-size Audi 90 Quattro Racing car achieved success at American races in 1989. It was equipped with a 2.2-liter inline-5 turbo engine that was capable of churning out over 700hp. This serious power was harnessed by the 4WD Quattro system to give this Audi superior traction. When compared to your standard road car, the Audi 90 was wider and setup with a large bi-level rear wing. To keep its overall weight lower, it utilized carbon and aluminum for its body panels.

About the TT-02 chassis

Underneath the body of the Audi 90 Quattro Racing is the race proven Tamiya TT-02 chassis and that is why you will find it used on numerous Tamiya kits including the Porsche 911 GT3 R featured below. The TT-02 chassis is very easy-to-build design and delivers great out-of-the-box performance. Designed with a 4WD shaft-driven drivetrain offers the chassis a longitudinal layout where the battery is housed on the left and the motor, speed control, steering servo and receiver are installed on the right to give excellent stability. Dependable gear differentials sit at the front and rear and require very little maintenance. Tamiya designed into this chassis platform a range of ten possible gear ratios, so you can tune your touring car to the type of driving or racing you plan to face. Other tuning options include two different wheelbase choices, two ground clearance settings and two tread set-ups. Friction shocks help keep the cost down and identical left and rear suspension arms and uprights keep the TT-02 chassis from becoming over-complicated.

PORSCHE 911 GT3 R (992)

About the Porsche 911 GT3 R body

By far our favorite of the eye-catching new Tamiya touring cars for 2025 is the awesome Porsche 911 GT3 R. In normal Tamiya fashion, they did an incredible job at capturing the stunning looks of the full-size 911 in a highly detailed polycarbonate body. Along with the body molded from polycarbonate, there is also a rear wing and light buckets molded of the same material. Added to those items are separate ABS plastic parts that are molded in black to realistically depict the rear wing stays and side mirrors. Tamiya did not stop there and selected accurate black mesh-type plastic wheels that are wrapped with rubber slick tires.

Tamiya choosing to recreate the Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) is pretty obvious since it has proven to be such a dominate force on racetracks around the world. Porsche developed this version of the 911 to abide to the GT3 race regulations. This allowed customer teams around the world to compete in races such as the Fanatec GT World Challenge Powered by AWS and the SRO Motorsports Group in Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia. The success of this car can be attributed to several key factors. One is the heart of the vehicle, a water-cooled six-cylinder naturally aspirated boxer engine that pumps out 565-horsepower. Tied to that is a body made of super lightweight carbon to reduce vehicle weight and results in a car that has increased agility and precision unparalleled throughout GT racing. This car was built to win!

About the TT-02 chassis

(See the Audi 90 Quattro Racing section above.)

PEUGEOT 306 MAXI

About the Peugeot 306 Maxi body

Small hatchback sport cars are a blast to drive and a racing rally version must be incredible. Here Tamiya delivers us a model of a 1:1 Peugeot 306 Maxi which was a force to be reckoned with out on the rally course. It is based upon the front-wheel-drive hatchback Peugeot 306 and was developed with dedicated components for rallying. Back in 1996 and 1997 during rally races in France, the Maxi achieved many racing successes including class championship in the 1996 rally in Monte Carlo and third place in the 5th and 6th races on the 1997 global rally circuit. Under the hood is a small yet potent 2.0-liter naturally aspirated engine putting out 280-horsepower. Other race specific features are it enlarged fenders, roof spoiler and lightened body.

About the BT-01 chassis

Since the Tamiya Peugeot 306 Maxi is a smaller car, it was the perfect vehicle to be mated to one of Tamiya’s newer and smaller touring car chassis, the BT-01. A special feature designed into this platform is the capability to choose between two wheelbase lengths and front- or rear-wheel drive system. This is achieved by simply changing the attachment directions of the final gears and steering linkage, without removing the battery pack, motor and RC gear setups from the center chassis frame, you can switch it between front- and rear-wheel drive. On top of that, the Tamiya BT-01 makes it possible to run front (FR) or midship rear (MR) motor position when the chassis is setup for rear-wheel-drive. In an effort to keep assembly and parts accessibility as simple as possible, the four-wheel double wishbone suspension features symmetrical parts and easy-to-build and maintain friction shocks. Maintaining the BT-01 is made easier with combined sections such as the motor mount, suspension and final gears.

MINI COOPER RACING

About the Mini Cooper Racing body

This is not exactly a new kit for Tamiya because the polycarbonate Mini Cooper body has been available on other chassis in the past. Now it features updated marking for the body. This is the latest release with this body and spec’d with the innovative MB-01 chassis. A fan favorite in the RC world and full scale world, Mini Coopers are well known and desired automotive machines. They were originally built by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) between 1959 until the year 2000 including the version of the Mini Cooper highlighted here. Being able to decipher the specific year of a Mini Cooper is not easy since the original Minis were built for four decades without model changes. These tiny cars are a total blast to drive thanks to their nimble handling characteristics with great power to weight ratio. BMC developed these cars with front wheel drive which was rare at the time. Inside the cabin was a lot of space for such a tiny car thanks to the compact mechanics. The Mini Cooper soon earned iconic status in which its bare minimum features contributed. Fort this 1/10-scale version, Tamiya has the MB-01 chassis to be built in the short wheelbase configuration with front motor / front wheel drive layout. For the rollers, Tamiya gave the Mini Cooper Racing accurate looking eight-spoke wheels mated to 60D radial rubber tires.

About the MB-01 chassis

Like the BT-01 chassis used with the Peugeot 306 Maxi, the MB-01 that is paired with the Mini Cooper Racing is a compact 2WD chassis and it can be built in three different wheelbases and a front- or rear-wheel drive system. Without removing the battery pack, motor and RC gear setups from the center frame, simply change attachment directions of final gears and steering linkage to switch between front- and rear-wheel drive; low or high motor position can be chosen for rear-wheel drive cars. At each corner of the chassis are friction shocks to handle damping and attach to four-wheel double wishbone suspension that is symmetrical. The drivetrain spins on plastic bearings driven by an included stock 540 brushed motor and HobbyWing THW 1060 brushed motor electronic speed control.

VOLKSWAGEN GOLF II GTI 16V

About the Volkswagen Golf II GTI 16V body

Following one iconic sports car in the Mini Cooper is yet another and this time it originated in Germany. Back in 1974, the Volkswagen Golf made its very first appearance and is arguably one of the most epochal in the Volkswagen vehicle line. It set a benchmark in the worldwide compact car class which all others were compared. In the following decade the Golf II GTI 16V was released in 1986. This added to the second generation model Golf II lineup which had made its debut in 1983. The performance of the new Golf was quite impressive with a 1,781cc inline-4 DOHC 16-valve engine. A tuned version competed internationally in rally scene and here in the US, it became a fan favorite hatchback in the 80’s. This 1/10-scale rendition of the Golf II GTI comes with a very detailed polycarbonate body. Added to that, Tamiya dropped into the kit separate transparent parts that nicely mimic the full size headlights and taillights as well as plastic black molded parts that you attach to the body for the side mirrors and bumpers.

About the MB-01 chassis

(See the Mini Cooper Racing section above)

AUDI R8 LMS 2008

About the Audi R8 LMS 2008 body

Rounding out the eye-catching new Tamiya touring cars for 2025 is the Audi R8 LMS 2008. As you can see this car is not your typical production version of the R8 supercar, but rather a version that conforms to the GT3 racing regulations. Hence the LMS in its name. In 2008, the R8 LMS made its race appearance complete with a massive 5.2-liter V10 midship engine that was capable of putting out over 500-horsepower. Audi designed and developed a lightweight aluminum space frame for the engine which gave it the necessary support while keeping the overall weight down. Further tweaks were made like modifications to the body sections and the four-wheel-drive drivetrain was switch to a rear-wheel drive system. In the following year the race-prepped Audi R8 LMS was being delivered to racing teams around the world where it accumulated numerous racing victories. Now you can get a realistic 1/10-scale version with this latest Tamiya release. The polycarbonate body is 1.0mm thick and comes out of the box crystal clear so you can lay the paint scheme that you like. Even a simple paint scheme will work since Tamiya includes a bunch of stickers that help bring this body to life along with the separate ABS plastic side mirrors and rear wing.