Tamiya VZ Chassis - Neo VQS first impressions

After a wait that seemed like an eternity, my delivery of the brand new VZ chassis based Neo VQS arrived.

This is the successor to the VS Chassis which is well known for its excellent transmission, but lack of mounting points due to its age making it a much more difficult machine for a modern day build. The VZ chassis has 4 mounting holes on each side for side dampers, stabilisers or rollers. The two front most mounting points would even allow for hidden mass dampers inside some body shells.

The most striking feature of the new chassis is the removable front bumper which makes it possible to build a bumperless set up for tuned class, Tamiya have added a pair of mounting holes close to the front gear box, these had to be drilled in the VS chassis and were the greatest area of weakness for the front bumper.

The rear of the chassis has two mounting points in the same location as the VS. Continuing the trend of the new design, they appear to be much more reinforced and deeper.

One of my biggest intrigues was whether the transmission would be up to par on it’s predecessor, the main area I was concerned about having seen peoples initial videos was the stability of the counter gear. The gear is a looser fit than the VS, but once the cover is on it’s absolutely fine.

The transmission overall is the quietest box stock transmission I have built to date. Even thought there appears to be some wiggle room in the transmission, it flows very freely and there’s almost no sound of sideways gear movement.

Overall the Tamiya Neo VQS VZ Chassis is a really nice kit to build, and it’s nice to see an evolution of such a renowned chassis. I am really looking forward to running the machine for the first time, and seeing how a tuned class build turns out.