wtcc5

@Chris.B: Yes, foam tires gave this class a massive boost. ETS might vary, but in my region F1 is rare, especially on practice events. If you make a race with a F1-class, you have 50 entries for touring car and 1/12 with three F1 drivers. The season continued and I was very happy with the car. If I remember correctly, I became club champion in that year. For the next year I tried more things. From my old AE touring car, I stole the front suspension and installed it on a carbon plate and then on the F104 chassis: Even with anti-roll-bar: The front end was fantastic now, but the rear needed more grip. You can see it in the next picture. I made a large multi story rear wing to fit between the rear tires (which became huge): You can also see the rear motor. As the motor had no regulation in our F1-class, I switched to a 10.5t Later I removed the huge tires and exchanged them for 30mm touring car foam tires. Therefore a wider F103GT axle from YeahRacing was installed. I also wanted to change the outfit and fell in love with the Brabham BT45 body: I remember that body with the large tires being oversteery, but looking great on track.

@Anthroxoid: To be honest, I cannot remember anymore. The rear pod carbon brace was mostly for the look and then for the toughness of the rear pod removing stress from the axle. The front suspension has rigid lower arms and moving upper arm with a kingpin at the end and a small spring below. Pretty much the standard until today. No hidden dampers (so far, be patient though ). This chassis is pretty sensitive to spring rates and oil weight. So setup-wise you can do a lot to get more steering or rear end. Drifting with F1 pan cars is on another level! Sounds like a great time! Unfortunately most people find these chassis to slow and difficult to drive, so there is not much response for F1 or LeMans classes. With the Corally driver so fast, I bought all the setup springs for this chassis from Tamiya and even invested in AE pan car front and side springs. I wanted the car to rotate better in the slower corners and be stable enough over the bumps. As tires play a major role for pan car handling, I used sponge tires A in front and A or B in the rear at that time. That made the car less understeer and more to my liking, but also nervous in some corners. So what does a 1:1 F1 have, that my F104 doesn't have? Yes, downforce is the right answer. The F60 wings do something, but not enough for an R/C car. I tried different configurations made of touring car rear wings, like that middle wing: In front I hid a wing behind the front wing: In the end I went for a rear wing extension and no middle wing: This was very much a different car on track now. Very planted, much more full throttle ratio. I liked that a lot! The club race came and I sweeped all three finals that day. Definitely the best memories!

Thanks guys! @Anthroxoid: 1990 should be F101 or F102 type F1 chassis. These were wider and had other cool rear damping solutions (friction discs). It is very hard to control these F10X chassis with strong motors. Needs a calm and controlled finger and a good remote. My dad and I had RC10 pancar clones and drove them in a parking lot in the 90s. These were nearly uncontrollable even with Esprit Turbo Stock motors. @Pylon80: For me this car is car emotionally loaded and unthinkable to sell. The rear end works so fine, that I would say you don't need anything newer, because it is hardly better. On the other hand, these seem so rare, that it definitely should sell well. After the success in the first race the car deserved love in form of Hop-Ups. I bought the rear carbon brace for the pod, the carbon plate for the pod damper mount, the carbon rear axle and the aluminum rod to further stiffen the pod. A new electronics layout reduced the cable length between motor and esc. Therefore I made carbon plate as front battery stopper: I also removed a bit of material from the front wing support plate to reach the 4mm nut better: The car with the new layout: The next club race was ok. The car was as fast as before, but the Corally driver now was better prepared and made the pace. I became a distant second. The car was nice to drive, but the bumps made it very hard to be at the grip limit all the time. And I needed to be to catch the Corally F1...

As a big fan of Formula 1 since '93 it was inevitable to get a F10X chassis one day. I remember we once had a F102 with Benetton B192 body at home in the 90s. R/C wise I was more into Offroad at that time, so it didn't impress me. I reentered the hobby in 2009 reviving my AE RC10T2, then getting a AE TC5, later a AE TC6. The next chassis already was a F104ver.II pro (58534). At that time I was racing in the clubchampionship at the AMSC Augsburg. I wanted to race in a second class and F1 was my choice. Competition and performance was important for me at that time. The F1 R/C car market was thin in 2013 especially for competition chassis. AE would have been my first choice, but they didn't have a car. Corally had an outlaw F1 chassis, but it was sold out. I also think that I wanted to have a slim line body and overall the F104ver.II pro with Ferrari F60 body was the best choice. These were the first pictures after the build in 2013: I already added hop-ups, like the servo saver arm or the front wing support plate (custom design). The use of shorty-style LiPo was mandatory for me to avoid the sideways tilted installation of esc and rx Tamiya proposed in the manual. I really love the look and scale appearance of the sidepods. On track it looked even better: The car then instantly performed on this bumpy, dusty classic flowing track. In the first race, I had to compete with an Corally (PanCar) F1 with wide tires, but could push through for the win that day with this light fast car. Speed wise it wasn't as fast as the Corally, but easy to drive and with the right balance on its Tamiya foam tires. That's it for the first episode. A lot more to follow with builds, conversions and many more cars

The Dyna Blaster has anti-squat designed in its suspension mounts and feels great on track. I used the design for my Fox conversion too. On both cars the rear is planted and has lots of grip. Using this to rotate the motor lower on the chassis is a nice idea!

I don’t see a price?

@ThunderDragonCy: Thanks! Somehow I couldn't find pictures of historically correct full hop-up FF-02... What I always found a bit cheap from Tamiya were the plastic suspension mounts on these TRF-like FF cars. With the FF-04 Tamiya at least added reinforced plastic arm mounts, still I prefer the shiny blue aluminum ones. I found the right ones (wider) in my stock and added them: This look makes a big difference for me regarding the TRF style. A bit hard to see the front mounts

@Pylon80: Thanks! That is a huge compliment Regarding the FF-02: It somewhat bothers me that it is missing in my FF-0X collection, but there is a reason why. Its chassis design is strange and doesn’t fit to the performance type 01 and 03 versions. Does somebody know (and/or have a picture) of what a full hopped-up FF-02 looks like?

In between I had the urge to put all my "Evos" next to each other: My FF-01 runner is of course no real Evo: As I have no FF-02 (yet), the FF-03evo is next here: Then the new-in-collection FF-04evo: And then my inofficial FF-05evo, the KR-MF 2020:

Overall I think some prices in this hobby are becoming ridiculous. Especially for the small hardware (screws, colorful nuts, axles, pins, etc.). Whole kits on the other hand don’t feel more expensive than in the 90s. My limits are the actual prices of Tamiya aluminum lock wheel nuts, that are around 2,30€/piece…

@GermanTA03Guy: I fell for it

Just recently I purchased this beautiful chassis: The previous owner just build it. He did a good a job, followed the manual precisely. Only downside is, that it misses the rear chassis post and some of the additional parts that came with the kit (including no box...). Well for that price, I don't care too much. I ordered the body post anyways. I still want to fiddle with it a bit. The first step is to bring it up to the toy fair look with motor and tires: Motor first: From previous buggy runs with @Quincy, I had one U-GT motor left in stock. Tires next. Not much to do here: Not done yet

@_Ben_: Just bought two sets of bearings. Thanks for the detailed process documentation.

There was a hop up battery holder like this from Tamiya for the f. For the r a holder in that design came with the carbon plates if I remember correct. I cannot see the carbon plate though. Looking forward to your build! Beautiful chassis! Edit:

@Man1c M0nk3y: Minus the turnbuckles @BuggyDad & @ThunderDragonCy: The Super Astute hubs have toe in integrated. The Viper should have at least 3* at the moment. Anyhow, thanks for the suggestions @BuggyDad: Please try the 54543. If they fit and the installation ist successful, I will use them as spare.

@BuggyDad: You worry too much. Tamiya has a system and a lot of stuff is interchangeable or delivers the same measurements To my surprise the parts arrived this afternoon. To give you time to order all parts on sunday , here the sealed oil diff build in pictures. Everything you need: The assembly line (no plastic diff cover needed): The only work needed is to widen the gearbox holes for the outdrives by approximately 0.5mm. So very subtle and easy done: I also just discovered, that you can control the play of the rear arb with thumb screws! I love this chassis more and more each day:

Thanks That is PS-3 rattle can.

Thanks! @Quincy told me that you need to widen the openings in the Gearboxhousing only to push the Outdrives through. I am still waiting for parts. The XtraSpeed is the version that came after the Revo, but should be the same.

@GermanTA03Guy: Upps, must have been a bit tired and read what I have wanted to read @ruebiracer: That also counts for the "E-Revo" term. Correct it is "R-Evo" : This is the set. It was the first sealed oil diff conversion for the TA-01/DF-01. I tried it for the DT-02 diff and it fits: A little modification on the gear box housing is necessary, though, because of the different assembly of both diffs. More on that later. The car got Astute rear hubs and 73mm cardans to widen the rear: Now it is longer and wider. I finished the body, too. This time only a one color wonder with mininmal effort, but bright blue kind of suits this car: Special outdoor photo session:

@skom25: That is correct. I will drill deepenings where the pins would touch the chassis. A bit more subtle and elegant as "the RC racer" did @Zippotech Gutes Argument. Aktuell denke ich, das mehr Radstand auf der Strecke leichter zu fahren sein wird. Da der Buggy mit den Baukastenreifen stark untersteuert werden da andere Tamiya-Pneus zum Einsatz kommen um diese Schwäche auszugleichen. @GermanTA03Guy: I hope you share your TRF201 build I have a weak heart for this buggy, but it is so expensive today The build is in an advanced stage now. I continued with the steering links: Then the front was installed: Followed by the rear section: Now it looks like a buggy. Front tires reveal: Last time on track, I saw @Quincy drive his Viper with the Super Astute / Dyna Storm front tires and he still had that understeer. With the wide grey wheel of the Viper, I asked myself if the TopForce front tire will fit. And it does perfectly! This will add a lot of track performance. Next on my list were the stabilizers. The DT-02 set is sold out for long, so I ordered the DT-03 set: The bar has so much air to move in this mount, that I will need to work on it. Then I made the front arms trick: It works pretty nice. Unfortunately you cannot use the front stabilizer bar anymore with the standard mounts. My work around includes a turnaround of the bar direction and a slot on the inner side of the front section. The bar itself then will be hold in place by the screws to install the front section: Works!

Thanks guys! Nice to learn, that many of you have fond memories of this chassis. Feel free to post more pictures and comments about these precious times! @ThunderDragonCy: Yes, I will do that later. I am a bit concerned about the steering angles though. I continued with the rear axles: Quincy told me that the DF-01 cardans fit. These black ones came from my Super Astute. The Super Astute then got the vintage silverish design cardans as fair exchange. The dampers come from my TT-02B box. It received BigBore in the past and now I have a reason to use the stock dampers. They were already build. I only needed to change the springs and to the shorter shafts in front. Rear shocktower and dampers first: All fit with aluminum hexes and pins. The pins for the rear are a bit longer and I used the Super Astute trick with red o-rings: Same work for the front: Looking good: Chassis and servo: "Nothing but the very best will do." Servo and mounts together have the same price as the whole kit... The servo cable is located at the worst spot and collides with the inner chassis post... I had to friendly, but forcefully bend it for the installation...

FF-04evo for my FWD collection:

As announced days ago, I am fed up with the DF-01 breaking and having all sorts of problems on a day of running. As my father uses it, I want him to enjoy the day and drive. He can wrench himself, but as he was out of the hobby for more than 20 years, it will just take too much time to do these kind of DF-01 repairs. @Quincy every now and then brought his Sand Viper along. This car took the astro turf track in Laupheim as if it was developed by Tamiya there. Based on this experience, I will now build one for my father. And it won't stay stock, I can promise! I made a video last year of @Quincy Sand Viper: The price for this Buggy is very attractive: At the moment you can buy the 58374 for 100€ @ Tamico. Next weekend the weather report forecasts 25°C and sunshine. So I am in a hurry to prepare it! The first upgrades, even before I put in the first screw From my Dyna Blaster shenanigans I have a kind of TRF201 suspension parts left and will use them as well as suspension pins: The turnbuckle-tie rod-set is a must also: Bumper added: This time I tapped all M3 holes and extensively use Titan screws. The diff is stock for now, but will be filled with the E-Revo sealed oil diff housing later: Rear suspension arms with pins and turnbuckles:

@ruebiracer: Yes, the chassis was fresh, too... I still owe you all pictures of the car in its new (old) livery: Shelf queen stance

Awesome work! Great love for detail. It’s a shame what happened with the paint remover, but it’s so hard to see those things. I always find it needs some kind of luck to even paint a new body perfectly.