Nothing better than the F103s :)

[Feanor]

Greetings all!

This is my first post here and I'd like to first off say that I am extremely glad to find such a great site for info on Tamiya products particularly the R/C cars.

I've been in RC since the Jerobee .049 powered cars (anyone remember those?) and from there I've gone off and on in RC cars all the way up to racing the 1/8th scale Serpent Nitro on roads, but of ALL the cars I have raced and bashed about with, and there are ALOT, Nothing has that fun/skill/enthusiasm/bang-for-the-buck ratio like the Tamiya F103 F1 cars had

I've just recently broken out my F1 collection from mothballs (anyone else as anal as I am and do things like make sure that when cars go into cold storage they are in perfect running order? ) and Its still as fun as it was years ago!

My nephews have every current whiz bang 4wd sedan, with mods up the whazoo and the latest in electronic cutting edge, but when I pounced all over them on a nice clean surface with the F1 cars (lotus 107b and Ferrari 312T1) they could not believe it! Not only that, but with my lowly 1200 scr packs and endurance gearing I was getting longer runtimes then they were with their 75 dollar 3300mah NiMh packs *laughing* and they were not so thrilled about that...

I actually did get the Airtronics M8 radio and receivers in the cars and the speed controls, which were hot stuff at the time, still seemed to do very well. Also I reconditioned the packs I used after years of disuse with both my Triton charger and Litco Alpha 4 that I use for my flight packs and electric heli's...

As the day wore on, they did actually develop some driving style changes that let them overmatch me particularly in the corners, and it was odd to see my Lotus 107B and all the other sedans on completely different lines of the track, and yet still all crossing the start finish at the same moment lap after lap after lap

The Ferrari is almost straight stock except for the motor and front suspension, but the 107B is heavily modified with suspension, motor and aluminum and graphite bits and pieces all around. That makes it pretty to look at, but not significantly higher performance than the Ferrari.

In fact, the rear pod of the Lotus is almost entirely blue anodized aluminum, and I haven't seen much said about that particular mod in the forums so I'm wondering if I was the only one that went the all metal route on the rear pod...

When they examined the F1 Cars closely, all they could say was ' "Is that it?! there's nothing to it!" As if complex designs were always going to win against a straightforward, simple design They instantly recognized why my run times were so exceptional with the straight pinion spur drive and live axle, and couldn't believe that the cars hooked up so well with the live axle rear, t-bar and single shock. In truth, they would have been all over me if the playground we were driving on hadn't been recently resurfaced (hadn't even painted the lines on it yet), but I left that little bit out...

I told them that there is a new 4wd version of the f1 cars that superseded my cars, but they were all disappointed that the f103 design was no longer in production.

So am I...

Have a good one all!

Feanor

[CarKing]

Welcome to the boards man, this is an AWESOME place and get get an sort of help you could ever think to ask here.

I agree with the fun factor of the F103 chassis. The thing is small, lightweight, and very direct. You can lighten the badword out of any sedan around and the F103 stock will still weigh much less. Check this thread out I started a while ago, got a lot of very interesting responses to it: http://www.tamiyaclub.com/xforum/topic.asp...earchTerms=F103

[Feanor]

Thank you CarKing!

I'll have a gander at that thread right now

Feanor

[GPZ1000RX]

I'm with you on the subject of the F101/2/3 F1 cars Feanor, they were brilliant, simple, light, cheap and fast.

I really don't see the point of the F201, it's to all intents and purposes a touring car all dragged up as a Grand Prix car!, same weight, same drive config., same complexity, same handling and the same (high) price.