The Sand Scorcher

VolksWorld is proud to bring you the story behind the most faithful replica of the iconic Tamiya radio-controlled Baja Beetle you could possibly build

Walter Jelinek, the creator of the wild beast you see here, is the owner of The Bug Box in Weiden, Germany and before he had hit double digits in age many moons ago, his passion for wild VWs was flamed by this Baja Bug. Well, not this one, but the scaled-down radio-controlled model. 

Fast-forward to a grey October day in 2009 and the phone rings in the Bug Box workshop. Walter picks it up to hear his friend Helge Ohmes telling him about his new passion of radio-controlled cars, and that he would love to have a Tamiya Sand Scorcher one day. Walter explained how he had a Sand Scorcher but in order to buy it he sold his beloved Revell Jeep model and his roller skates to the boy next door to get the money together. He recounted that this was a milestone in remote-controlled car history as it was the first model with a completely sealed, waterproof radio box. Throughout the conversation one thing came to his mind time and time again – what would it be like to have a real size Sand Scorcher? – and as soon as he hung up, Walter knew this was the right time to go for it. He had to build a 1:1 Sand Scorcher!

Before the guys could go ahead and build the Sand Scorcher, Walter wanted to get approval from Tamiya itself and shortly after making the enquiry Walter received a call from none other than the owner of Tamiya in Japan, who was delighted to give his blessing but had one request – to have the full size Sand Scorcher on display at the international Toy Fair in Nürnberg, Germany in February 2010, where Tamiya would be celebrating its 30th anniversary and, to celebrate this occasion, it was re-releasing its legendary Sand Scorcher model. Coincidence or what?

For Walter, the only way to go was to build from the images on the packaging as that was the memory he had. This would have been based on a 1968 to 1970 sunroof model, so the hunt began and after looking at a few not so good Beetles he found a solid 1968 sunroof model body. Next on the shopping list was a chassis and as if to affirm the right place, right time theme, Walter’s friend Ralf Winkler had just put the chassis from his old Trekker up for sale. Walter snapped it up because it was perfect for the project as it increases ground clearance by around two inches compared to a standard Beetle.

With less than four months to go to the Toy Fair, the Bug Box team launched into the project, starting by replacing the 'pans. One of the reasons these were cut out is because, like a Ghia floorpan, the Trekker ’pans are wider than those of a Beetle. The front and rear clips were cut out in preparation for the Baja kit, but this was not going to be an easy operation. The basic kit would be a Bug Eye kit. Trying to find an undamaged one is virtually impossible but Walter was lucky to have found the front nose section as well as the shortened bonnet and front wings. However, the rear wings proved problematic, which was mainly down to the fact that the rear tyres are so large they were never going to fit under normal Baja wings. A body lift would allow more clearance but ultimately Walter had to make his own rear wings, using a set of CSP Widened Street Car wings, to get them looking exactly like the model. Next up was to prep for paint and with only a small amount of welding required after the blasting, it was smoothed out and ready for the top coats. The shade of blue has been matched with the original box art, as have the graphics, but don’t think that this was an easy two-tone paintjob because it wasn’t. In total it took the paint shop 180 hours to turn this car around. 

Prior to fitting the body, the chassis received a few tweaks and a lot of detailing, which included a cross shaft to connect the steering box with the steering column due to the body lift, a chromed steering box and shaft coupler. Front brakes are CSP discs with special powdercoated hubs and the rears are NOS stock Trekker units. The entire chassis is gloss black and almost all bolt-on components have been galvanised and yellow chromated.

With the body now sitting on the chassis it was refit time and as with the chassis, detailing was top of the list with many of the original latches, hinges and mechanisms were galvanised and yellow chromated to give that fresh-out-of-the-Tamiya-box look. A NOS MPH speedo was installed into the stock dash with the only deviation being the Grant 14.5-inch steering wheel. The doorcards are race-look pressed aluminium with EMPI door pulls. The front seats are plastic bucket seats with raised consoles and have been dressed up with diamond-stitch covers. The seat belts are by DIEST and have been made to look like period Simpson harnesses.

One of the most striking features on the exterior is the front bumper, which was made in-house by Konrad using steel tubing, TIG-welded and finally chromed. It was the one piece that took the most time to get right. The motor was next to go in, and this was an H Series which has been finished and detailed using NOS parts to give that zero mile look. The project is finished with a Baja header and chrome stinger. 

There have been a number of Sand Scorcher replicas built over the years but nobody has gone to the extreme lengths that Walter has to build an exact 1:1 Sand Scorcher. This is as close as you can get to the actual toy and if you don’t believe us then how about the owners of Tamiya who, having seen it at the toy show in Germany, liked it so much they bought it. It now greets guests as they arrive at their Japanese Headquarters.