Toyota MR-S
Model Number: 58290
Released
TBA
Drive
4WD (2 belts, mid motor)
Suspension
Four wheel independant double wishbone
Chassis Description
TA04 (ABS molded tub)
Body Type
Lexan polycarbonate, lexan wing (2 bodysets provided!)
Motor
RS-540SH
Width
189mm
Length
404mm
Height
117mm
Weight
1,630g (incl servo, CPR, battery)
Scale
1/10 Touring Car
Tires
front:26mm Slicks, sponge inserts
Rear:26mm Slicks, sponge inserts
The Toyota MR-S made its debut on the market in October 99 as a Mid Ship 2-Seat Sports Car. With its agility and high traction capabilities, this well transformed machine has excelled in the Japanese GT Championship. Tamiya is proud to present the R/C replica of the hard top racer Toyota MR-S featuring projecting front and rear fenders and oversized rear wing.
Short Wheelbase TA04-SS Chassis
The TA04-SS chassis has been developed from the TA04-S chassis and features a shortened wheel base with specially designed suspension arms. The wheel base has been shortened 10mm to provide sharper turn capability. The agility of the TA04-SS will provide you with true R/C excitement.
[from Tamiya]
Reviews
DaveB
This review/build comments were taken from my showroom description.
As you would expect the car went together with no real problems. I was a little dissapointed with the steering though as this was fully ballraced (4 in all) but still had noticable "play". This seems to be mainly down to the link between the two steering arms as it only uses metal bushings and seems to move about a bit. Also the standard steering rod length suggested (from the servo to the steering arm 6.5mm) seemed to be too short to centre the steering correctly. I had to adjust this using the turnbuckle to centre the steering as it would have required the trim on the TX to be fully to the left. The "anti-wear grease" supplied for the drive shafts was a little odd. Never seen this before, very, very sticky stuff! The main drive belt to the front gear diff. was quite tight and didn't require very much tensioning at all by the supplied tensioner (which incorparates two ball bearings). Im sure this will free up over time. The rear (short) belt seems a little loose but there is no way of tensioning this. The car sits very low and has minimal damper travel but the dampers are fairly stiff so they should keep the chassis well planted. The plastic damper units operate beautifully and apart from wear (and looks if your that bothered) I would see no reason to hop them up to the metal super low friction set, especialy at £60uk per set of four!! My only other gripe was the fact that there was no where to run the reciever cable from the ESC to the reciever. Obviously the reciever is on one side of the chassis and the ESC is on the other and there is a central "wall" down the chassis for strengthaning and also the drive belt runs down the centre. So there is very little scope for rooting the cable! You have to either run it inside the belt where it would be prone to catching on the teeth, or underneeth the belt which has very little clearance. I went for the latter option and taped the wire down over the central wall and there is about 4-5mm clearance, close!! I think I will probably cut a small gap in the central wall to run the cable a little lower. I think Tamiya should have considered this and moulded a hole to fit the reciever cable and connector through. As for running the car in, my first impresions were that it was quite slow. I was running a standard Tamiya 540 out the box but I would of expected more speed from such a modern belt driven 4-wheel-drive setup. The acceleration was fine and quite nippy really but it topped out at about 15mph which seems a little slow for an on-road touring type car. My Madcap would kill it in a straight line with a standard motor. The gearing does seem a little short for a tourer and I'm gonna' look into getting this up'd! My friend's TA03 Corolla was about twise the speed with a Yokomo 19T double pro-stock! Anyway, I have now installed my M-Troniks pro-vision modified 14T double and am yet to run the car with this motor. I would imagine that over time the car will loosen up a little and be a bit more free running. As for the handling, absolutly supurb! So squat and stable and very planted. Corners brilliantly with a little understeer on slightly damp, cold carpark running the supplied slicks. In the dry this car is gonna' rock!! One word of warning though: the rear diff. is quite exposed as I had a stone come up under the body and lodge itself between the diff pully and the gear housing. It managed to shread a bit of plastic off the diff and completely stop the car in it's tracks! No real damage but I'm planning on making a small plate to cover the exposed diff pully. So to sum up, apart from the few (minor) above mentioned gripes this is a top car out of the box and would no doubt be very competative with a few hop-ups. With the extra "carbon" body thrown in and the major chassis adjustability as standard, this is an excelent buy. Highly recomended.
bridggar
What a fantastic kit.
The build process follows the typical Tamiya gearbox(s), chassis, suspension, shell route and is clearly laid out. Easy to follow, but perhaps not the best kit for a Tamiya first timer. The inclusion of two shells is welcome, as at least you get to practice the cuts!! Shell clearance is very good and I think it looks great.
This was my first TA04 build, and I can't help but be impressed by the tuning capability of the chassis. I ditched the stock motor for a 17T double which works a treat. With the standard gearing, it takes a while to wind up, but really does handle well. Beware, it is very low so carparks & tennis courts are needed for maximum enjoyment. My car has more than a few scuffs underneath, but nothing too bad.
My only gripe is that it really chews tyres!!
I have a Ferrari 360 TA04 on the way - I'm extremely keen to see if the SS and standard chassis handle any differently.