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Top Force Racer

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About Top Force Racer

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  • Birthday 03/19/1976

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  1. Sorry to hijack the thread, but before I bolt the rear end back together, I have the option to stick with the normal Egress rear shock tower or use the rere Avante shock tower. I know they attach at different places, but I like the idea of the CF shock tower attaching to aluminum standoffs. The standard Egress attaches to a plastic piece and seems to be an area of weakness. TIA.
  2. I'm rebuilding my Egress 2013 runner with a mix of new and vintage parts and this thread has been so inspirational! Thank you for posting everything thus far, but I would love to see more of that front end in detail!
  3. One of my favorite models! In fact, I'm running a stock Vanquish front end (bigger bumper, front gear diff, and G8 part) in my Egress runner.
  4. A true labor of love! I really enjoyed your post!
  5. Top notch work! Quick question, for a runner, are the metal rear arm mounts (part BB30) required? Can I get away with running the car with just the carbon fiber reinforcing plates and a screw/nut securing the rear training arm?
  6. OMG, I dribbled a little bit, but I will wait to lose my bladder and bowels until more information is released!
  7. I think maybe your logic on plastic shocks vs. aluminum shocks is a little off. One shock doesn't perform better than the other because it's lighter in weight. A good performing shock unit will have tight tolerances as to resist leakage, a stiff cylinder (shock body) and end cap to resist expansion so oil will go through the piston and not around it, and durable coatings to reduce internal friction and prevent premature wear. Many good quality metal shock units have these qualities, in addition to fine and quick spring tuning capabilities (ie. threaded shock bodies), as well as coated shafts. Tamiya's CVA shocks don't have most of these features, although if you're just backyard bashing (even club racing), they will perform quite well. If you're looking to do some serious racing, then an upgrade to quality metal units is advised.
  8. As Tenzor posted, the Avante was the first 4wd car to be used by the TRF team. They had high hopes of winning international races with this car, but as we know now, the Avante was not capable of effectively competing with the offerings from Kyosho, Yokomo, Schummacher, AYK, etc. Tamiya desperately wanted to dominate the 1988 IFMAR World Championship and had high hopes for the Avante, which was an obvious and radical departure from the Hotshot design. Unfortunately, what they cooked up was an overweight, over-engineered, and overly fragile hunk of soft aluminum and FRP. The 1988 team of TRF drivers were a skilled bunch and to take 7th place at the 1988 IFMAR with this car is a feat into itself! Commercially, the car failed as well. All those exotic materials and the Technigold motor bumped the price of this car up -- way up from previous Tamiya 4wd car offerings. Because of it's price, the gaining popularity of high performance 4wd cars during this time, and solid options from other manufacturers, it also marked one of the first times when large numbers of Tamiya devotees cross-shopped with other manufacturers for competitive 4wd vehicles. Despite its shortcomings, the Avante did usher in some new designs, primarily it's drivetrain and rear suspension. Most people would say that the Avante design had flaws, but in reality, the Avante was designed for a different era. The biggest flaws were in the choice of materials used. Back in the day, tracks were rougher than most race tracks today. If they introduced the Egress first and TRF raced that in 1988, I'm sure they would have had better results. Ironically, the Avante is more popular today than it was when it was introduced; and it's more expensive to secure one today! Folks hoping for a re-re should remember how fragile those aluminum parts were and an Avante re-re would re-open old wounds and probably add bad press/PR for Tamiya. If they were to re-re this design, it would make more sense to re-re one of its variants instead (Vanquish, Egress, 2001).
  9. TRF Tamtechs...now there's an idea! Seriously though, I can totally appreciate what Tamiya did (and have done) for touring cars and scale realism. I also appreciated how Tamiya once lit a fire under other company's butts. Sure, an Optima could beat a Hotshot, but it was the Hotshot that made Kyosho realize that they had to do something! I also realize that some of their most ingenious designs (Avante, 959) were poor sellers at their time of introduction, and my rant runs deeper than Tamiya. Don't you guys remember when R/C was a true hobby? When you went to the hobby shop to talk and pick up sheet metal, metal rods, and airplane ball links to fabricate your own stabilizer bars?! Everyone who wants a re-re Monster Beetle or Fox or whatever should understand that all Tamiya really should do is re-re the bodysets and let the hobbyist buy a re-re Hotshot or Frog and make their own Monster Beetle and Fox. This should please both collectors and bashers. My point is that somewhere along the way, we lost a bit of ingenuity in our hobby. Sometimes it seems that the only thing that truly distinguishes a vehicle from another are their paint jobs. And think about it...how sad is it when we're more excited about what Tamiya is going to re-re, rather than what 'new' product are they going to introduce? Make no mistake, I'll be the first to buy a re-re Avante, 959, Bruiser, etc...but I have to ask, "where are our future classics?!" Please tell me it's not based on a DT-02 ><
  10. Personally, I hope Tamiya starts migrating away from the re-releases and focuses more on producing new and innovative models like they once did. They've tried hard to compete with 2wd and 4wd offerings from Associated, BJ Concepts, Yokomo, Team Durango, and the like, but what did the TRF really create? Variations on a theme. The 201, 501, and 502 were all late to the dinner party and they all copies from previous designs. They have no competitive micro-series (1/16, 1/18th scale) like the LRP Shark, or micro offerings from Associated and Losi. Where are the short course stadium trucks, and how could they let HPI just dominate the back yard truck basher scene? I can appreciate the scale looks and performance of the Tamiya rock crawlers, but why not introduce something to compete against the likes of Axial Racing? Of course Tamiya have the 3 speeds, semi trucks, and tanks, but they really are niche products. But what happened to Tamiya innovation on their mainstream products? Aside from re-re's, what is Tamiya doing to gain new audiences? What does Tamiya have in the pipeline to entice us after they (hypothetically speaking) release the Wild One, Avante, Fox, 959, and Bruiser, etc?
  11. Actually, the wheels really are from an RB5. I have a set of Optima Mid wheels, but I wanted the fronts to be narrower than the rears. I'll definitely take your advice about the steering and give your rear suspension mod a try thanks!
  12. I'm hooked on nostalgia-series racing and I've been running a Top Force in the 19T spec modified class. It's now time to race a 'new' car and after searching through boxes of old Tamiya parts, I found the front and rear gear boxes and suspension arms from a Vanquish I once owned. I'm not sure what happened to the chassis, but I figured this would be a good foundation for an Avante-class racer. Here's the semi-finished chassis. I purchased the Avante 2001 FRP top and bottom decks from fellow TC member Tamiyoman (Vintage-tamiyaparts on eBay) and went to work. To save money, I modified the car using parts I already had. Vehicular modifications are allowed as long as the parts were designed prior to 1991 (off-the-shelf items only, no custom makes). Some things to note on the chassis: 1) Shocks are from a Kyosho RB5. I'll have to change those in the near future. 2) Rear shock tower and wing mount from a Vanquish was used as Avante 2001/Egress N parts are expensive! 3) I removed the rear sway bar for 2 reasons: 1) the Vanquish-specific rear stabilizer holders will not fit the upper deck properly and the Avante 2001 parts are (you guessed it!) expensive, and 2) the rear sway bar is so thin that I doubt it does anything at all! 4) The rear idler gear is not installed because I'm waiting for some 830 bearings to completely ball-race the car. 5) I'm missing the reinforcing plates and associated (original) mounting hardware for the rear trailing arm so I devised a new mounting system. I'm still thinking about how to reinforce the chassis as the reinforcing plates cost nearly $50 US on eBay! 6) The front plastic shock tower from the Vanquish developed multiple stress fractures. An original FRP replacement was too expensive to buy, so I modified and installed an old aluminum rear shock tower from a Kyosho Optima Mid SE that I had. 7) Dish wheels are from a Kyosho RB5 and the tires are from Team Losi (pink compound).
  13. Heck, the TC3 drivetrain copied the Avante!
  14. The body shell might look better with some side window netting, but I agree that this is pretty ugly. And what's up with the name? Isn't Zahhak an evil figure in Persian mythology?
  15. I've been trying to get my hands on a Dynastorm runner for a long time now and they are not necessarily rare, but I find that people who have them don't want to let them go. As you know, these are great cars eve by today's standards. This car was based off the fabled TRF 211X, which itself heavily poached the Super Astute. I believe that only the relative lack of replacement parts, compared to say an Associated, Losi, or Kyosho, prevent this car from being widely raced at the club level. Enjoy your Dynastorm!
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