1992 TRF211X Build from parts

[pUs 336]

Time to get my second build thread started, this time I will do Tamiyas prototype from 1992 which later was put into production as the Dyna Storm.

Even though the box says my car has serial number #24 it's not really true. The majority of it will come from parts I've collected. It won't be 100% accurate since some stuff is missing, but I still feel it's now close enough to get going. I'll start uploading some pictures tomorrow!

[kontemax 1793]

WHOAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Max

[pUs 336]

I'll start the actual build tonight, but first a few teasers Of course this is not a new 211X, that would've been pretty awesome. But I can at least pretend that it's new, after all most of the parts I will use are new Below is the original box for serial number #24, along with instruction manual and some stickers.

The stickers with the drivers name is a nice piece of history and I guess today should be considered pretty rare. All the drivers received this sticker sheet with their kits, containing the names of all the other 211X-drivers. I've been told that my decal sheet is complete except for the spanish drivers.

[spinkle 15]

This really is amazing stuff, surprised more people aren't all over this. This is Tamiya's Holy grail in terms of racing history! Thanks pUs for posting and sharing with us!

[pUs 336]

This really is amazing stuff, surprised more people aren't all over this. This is Tamiya's Holy grail in terms of racing history! Thanks pUs for posting and sharing with us!

Thanks Perhaps people who like the old TRF stuff simply aren't that active in this forum, at least myself would never have expected build threads like mine to pop up.

For the record, I haven't forgot your steering arms either, just haven't taken the time to find a good bag for it. I will do it though, please be patient..

Will also try to kick off the build this evening, the 411X keeps stealing my time.

[pUs 336]

Here we go then.

The car will not be a totally accurate 211X. These parts are missing;

* Rear damper mount

* Slipper centre piece

* Damper top caps

* Gear cover

* A selection of Tamiya vintage titanium screws.

The rear damper mount could easily be made if somebody could provide a good quality scanned image of it, but I haven't found anybody willing to do so yet. So there I will use a damper mount from the Dyna Storm. The slipper centre piece is simply a lost cause, I can't find it. So, same here - will use one from the Dyna Storm in metal instead. Damper caps will also be taken from the Dyna Storm, where I've done my best to remove the anodising. Looks so-so, the finish could be better but it's good enough. Finally, the gear cover will be a lexan cover made for the Dyna Storm instead of the original 211X item. No visible difference. Screws will be those horrible Yokomo ones, until a miracle happens and I find a good supplier for Tamiya items instead..

I've decided to keep the build documentation fairly simple and concentrate on the parts that differs between a 211X and the production Dyna Storm since I think that's where the most interesting stuff is.

In general, my impression is that the 211X was almost close to a production car already in its prototype, limited-prodcution form. It had a proper building manual /instruction set (although not of the usual Tamiya standard), a proper parts list and in general was pretty well though out. It even had a very cool, custom made body - a bit simple but still with character. It's still a bit of a mystery why some solutions found later on the production car was actually worse. You would have thought that the whole point with producing a "prototype" like this was to learn and make the end product even better, but I'm not really sure this was the main goal.

[pUs 336]

I still haven't fixed myself a proper place to work on cars since we moved to our house, so I simply have to use my home office for that. Of course, I had to put together a good playlist, just consisting of good old tunes from 92 and 93, just to get the atmosphere right

Beginning with the transmission - all internals are identical between the Dyna Storm and the 211X.

[jeekelemental 528]

Bottled inspiration! I like it

[Plopes 140]

This is so COOL!!!

[pUs 336]

However, there are some parts in and around the transmission which do differ a bit from the Dyna Storm. Some make sense but some really don't (I'll comment on these later on). For prototypes like the 211X, it's understandable to try and keep the tooling costs down as much as possible. This is obvious for the rear motor guard (aluminium) and gear cover (lexan). However, for the slipper centre piece they did the exact opposite - the 211X received a nice, moulded plastic piece while the production Dyna Storm had a metal item. Perhaps the plastic piece wasn't very good for reliability reasons (screwing the spur gear screws straight into plastic) or something like that, but it still seems like a weird decision. Especially considering the fact that the Dyna Storm was very heavy - almost 100 grams heavier than the 211X..

Anyway, here are the first parts which differ. Fibreglass reinforcement plate is a bit differently shaped, the aluminium gearbox plate is slightly different and the gear cover is of course made of lexan.

[pUs 336]

Almost all parts I'll use for this build are brand new and never used. However, had to make an exception for the rear motor plate and connecting rod. Just can't find any newer than these;

[pUs 336]

The aluminium motor guard looks a bit rough and doesn't really fit with the rest of the things, but it does fit extremely well and wraps nicely around the bottom of the gearbox.

[pUs 336]

Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, the plastic centre piece for the slipper is missing. So the Dyna Storm metal housing must be used instead. Probably one of the worst features of the Dyna Storm - the car was already too heavy in the rear as it was, and to have this additional weight quite high up in the rear, and rotating as well.. not ideal. But I guess it looked nice..

[pUs 336]

Completed transmission with lexan gear cover. The only missing feature is a slipper nut cover from the Super Astute which I will put on later (motor guard still sits a bit loose on this pic, haven't tightened it yet).

[pUs 336]

On to the chassis!

The 211X has a really nice dual plate graphite chassis, with a very characteristic top plate. Tamiya decided to skip their very thick, one-piece carbon chassis on their 1991 Works Astute's to use this instead. Even if Tamiya often went their own way back in the days, they were also very much inspired by common trends at the time. Late 1991/early 1992 Associated had just won the World Championships with their "Stealth" RC10 prototypes. I think this did inspire their choice a bit.

Rear of the chassis is almost identical to the Dyna Storm shape, except for the mounting holes in the rear.

Starting with the base for the rear suspension, the arm mounts is an obvious special item for the 211X. They look much like the Dyna Storm mounts, but these are a bit beefier. They lack the bronze bushings found on the Dyna Storm, and are instead just of solid plastic. Once again they switched to (in my opinion) a worse solution on the Dyna Storm - the 211X mounts are not only more reliable, they're also lighter..

Suspension arms are from the Super Astute.

[pUs 336]

The whole setup before mounting it on the chassis. Classic, good old pressure nuts, which we all love. Not really good for anything - difficult to actually keep them on your car, and difficult to stop them damaging whatever piece you tried to keep on the car..

[pUs 336]

Front battery mounting assembly comes straight from the Super Astute. Between the upper and lower chassis, Egress/Avante/Astute deck posts are used.

[pUs 336]

In front of the car there were also some - for Tamiya of the time - unusual choices made, probably because of cost considerations. Instead of a standard plastic pickup plate which was used throughout the Astute family of cars, Tamiya used a 30-degree angled aluminium plate for the 211X. It was also mounted a bit differently than usual - through the underside of the chassis plate. Luckily this plate is brand new and unused, along with both the chassis plates.

If moulding or machining a piece was considered too expensive for this limited-production series car, then having a chassis with moulded pickup probably also was. So I guess this was a good compromise.

[pUs 336]

Last pic for todays build is the steering setup. Almost the same plastic arms as on the Dyna Storm, but the posts are different and consists of an aluminium spacer to put a bit of distance between the lower chassis plate and the steering arms.

As you can see, those lovely pressure nuts are used again for managing the front screws of the pickup plate. They come pre-pressed into the lower carbon chassis.

[Aussie Top Force 3]

Very much liking this build thread as well. Great photos, only showing the different parts of the build. The whole car isn't revealed to the final post! Builds the anticipation, good work and keep it coming!

[pUs 336]

Sorry for the lack of updates, and the fact that I'm not really as enthusiastic about this build as it would deserve. But after having built the 411X, everything else doesn't feel as exciting anymore I'll do my best to get it going again.

Going through the rest of the parts in the front end that are unique to the 211X and different from the Dyna Storm.

The bulkhead looks about the same, but once again it's missing the bronze bushings from the Dyna Storm. Instead, it just has a little more plastic material which makes it both lighter and a bit more solid. On top of the bulkhead sits a small fibreglass piece. Also different is that the top plate screw holes are angled, so no need for the Dyna Storm plastic 30 degree "guide" on top.

Mounted on the kickup plate, the whole set up looks like this.

The damper mount is also a bit different on the 211X, it only has one hole for the camber rod and also a lot more material, in fact it almost touches the underside of the top plate. Will switch those screws which are way too long, but once again it's difficult to find vintage Tamiya titanium screws.. :/

Finally the bumper is also a one-off, not moulded but instead looks bent out of some soft plastic material. Mine is unused and brand new, but still shows signs of age. Not at the same level as the rest of the car really, but I want to keep it as original as I can

It's mounted at the bottom of the kick-plate.

[pUs 336]

Front of the car uses Super Astute suspension arms, just like the rear does. Nothing really exciting to show here, the 211X has new front hub carriers but they are identical to the ones later released on the Dyna Storm. One spacer is needed to fill the gap caused by the thinner 211X hub carriers.

For some reason, the 211X kit uses clear / transparent o-rings, as you can see here. I might have missed it but I've never seen these on any other Tamiya kits from this period. If anybody knows any other kit where these may be available, let me know.

With the arms mounted on the car, the front end is now beginning to shape up nicely!

All adjusters used on the 211X are from the Top Force evolution, the grey 6mm adjuster set.

[pUs 336]

Moving back then to the rear of the car. Having mounted the arms and transmission, this was pretty much how I left it earlier on...

Time to show the 211X-special parts once again. The bulkhead part for the rear is different and special for the 211X, and for one single reason only: to make it usable also for the 411X. It has multiple mounting holes for different transmission offset, which can be clearly seen on this picture.

Apart from this and the slightly different reinforcement on the Dyna + shape of the transmission brace, the rest is the same.

It should also be added that the rear damper mount is obviously not original 211X. It's taken from the Dyna Storm since I simply can't find one. Even a scan of the original would be 10 times nicer than this, but until I can get somebody to scan it for me then I have to live with this. Also annoying to see how the camera make it look scratched and old: It's actually brand new despite some small scratches, just like the front damper mount..

[pUs 336]

And this is how the car currently looks, before moving on to the assembly of the 211X prototype shocks:

[jeekelemental 528]

Really nice! I love double deck 2wd cars :-)