Tamiya Astute and Top Force Team Cars - Alan Harman

[spinkle 15]

Hi,

In an old RRC magazine there was a toy fair that featured Tamiya team cars the Astute and Top Force. I think they were Alan Harmans. The Top Force below was featured in a RRC magazine.

Has anyone seen any info on the Team car Astute that partnered it, it had the same Mclaren Marlborough livery?

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa378/percymon/58100%20Tamiya%20Top%20Force/TRF1.jpg

Thanks,

Andy

[JWeston 493]

That's Alan's Toppy, yes. Jamie Booth raced a replica at the 2014 Iconic RC & A1 Racing Revival. I also race a replica. You'll see mine on the cover of the current RC Racer Magazine.

I don't think I've seen an Marlboro Astute but there's an article on Jamie's works Astute on Iconic in the files section.

[spinkle 15]

That's Alan's Toppy, yes. Jamie Booth raced a replica at the 2014 Iconic RC & A1 Racing Revival. I also race a replica. You'll see mine on the cover of the current RC Racer Magazine.

I don't think I've seen an Marlboro Astute but there's an article on Jamie's works Astute on Iconic in the files section.

Wow thats cool. Will have to look out for RCRC cover.

I have an image of the astute and top force at a toy fair, will have to dig it out!

[Thommo 1217]

but there's an article on Jamie's works Astute on Iconic in the files section.

J, is that article on your website or FB page ? I don't do FB is all and couldn't find it on IconicRC.

Also there was a red Astute running at your recent meet. Does that belong to a TC member ? I would be interested in sharing information re: set up etc. Cheers.

[JWeston 493]

J, is that article on your website or FB page ? I don't do FB is all and couldn't find it on IconicRC.

Also there was a red Astute running at your recent meet. Does that belong to a TC member ? I would be interested in sharing information re: set up etc. Cheers.

Thommo, I've sent you a direct message.

The Astute belongs to Jonathan Cryer. I'm not sure if he is signed up to TC. He has it hopped up with printed parts and it flies. He won a trophy with it at the 2014 Iconic RC Revival.

[LongRat 616]

Thommo, Jon Cryer is a good friend of mine. He isn't on TC. His Astute runs the Super Astute gearbox, and he's currently using front uprights from a Yokomo BMax2 if I remember rightly. Shock towers are machined carbon parts that I make (http://www.fulloption.co.uk) with different mounting points to allow more travel and to give the handling required from experimentation on track. The other mod is the front bulkhead, which was a printed plastic part available from someone on IconicRC. This broke, so I replicated it in laser melted titanium alloy. This however, was an experiment and 100% one-off, but it will never break and adds useful weight to the front end.

He drives it pretty well and with all of the changes I would say it's probably one of the fastest Astutes in the world around a race circuit.

[Thommo 1217]

LongRat this is pretty much exactly the info I'm after. I've seen pics of Jon's Astute and that front damper tower looks to be what I'm after. I'm setting up a Super Astute and the only problem is that the TRF dampers bottom out before the chassis, which loads up the tower and bulkhead.

I see that Jon is also using TRF dampers. Can you tell me please if your front shock tower allows the chassis to slap the ground rather than the dampers bottoming out ? Cheers

Thommo

[LongRat 616]

Thommo that is exactly the reason the tower was originally designed, so the chassis bottoms out first.

[Thommo 1217]

The tower looks to be thicker than the original. Did you shave some material off the lower part of the tower or did you make custom the front bulkhead to suit the thicker tower ?

I'm certainly interested in your work so please flick me a PM or let me know if your interested in cutting another or helping me out with a template. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[LongRat 616]

The front tower is 3mm carbon and Jon tells me fits the standard bulkhead with no mods.

[LongRat 616]

Jon has just informed me that while the current tower design works with Astute front arms, if you are running Super Astute arms you will need a different tower with the mounting holes even further up. This tower is yet to be made, but I'll have one out soon.

[Thommo 1217]

Yeah I agree with that. You might get away with using the outer mounting hole only on the Super Astute arms but it would have to be tried and tested I guess.

[pUs 311]

Hi,

In an old RRC magazine there was a toy fair that featured Tamiya team cars the Astute and Top Force. I think they were Alan Harmans. The Top Force below was featured in a RRC magazine.

Has anyone seen any info on the Team car Astute that partnered it, it had the same Mclaren Marlborough livery?

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa378/percymon/58100%20Tamiya%20Top%20Force/TRF1.jpg

Thanks,

Andy

I know what picture you mean, I also have it in an old mag somehwere (RCMC I think).

However, that was not a Super Astute - it was an early version TRF211X with an Astute bodyshell. You could easily see that on several details. From my knowledge he started driving for Tamiya in 1992 so most likely he did not use the Astute much at all. The TRF211X was "officially" released to Tamiya teams around the world in June 1992, so from that point onwards that's the car they used..

I would guess the main reason for having the Astute body shell on was that the 211X shell simply wasn't available (yet) at that point. I remember some shots of Steve Haynes' car from the same time, and it also had an Astute body on it..