TRF102 Black Edition

[Jonathon Gillham]

After a very wet winter down here in New Zealand and having 3 race meets cancelled due to weather, I decided that I should give indoor racing a go, which meant entirely new cars as the rules are completely different to outdoors.  Rather than go for indoor offroad which to me looks a bit strange I decided to switch to onroad, as I’m sure its easier when there is one less dimension to worry about.  I wouldn’t be able to run my outdoor cars indoors either, as they are setup for 17.5T stock class for both 2wd and 4wd, and indoor run 8.5T 4wd and 10.5T 2wd, and of course the car setup would be completely different so it would mean at least an hour per car to switch between indoor and outdoor.

 

I had decided at the start of the year that the TA07 would be my touring car if I did race onroad but wasn’t sure on the second class (you need to run 2 classes otherwise it’s a long night of sitting around waiting for your next race) and I was expecting it to be M05 or TT02 until @Jason1145 started a thread on F1 and @TurnipJF provided encouragement then I found a TRF102 at rcjaz for about half what it should cost.  Its the Black Edition and while I would rather have the original with the Tamiya blue bling I wasn't going to pay a few hundred dollars more for it!  I also like the idea of having a 4wd and 2wd car to run. I was impressed with rcjaz – it took a week from ordering to arriving at my house.  Initially I was a bit worried as it went out of stock the day after I ordered and I hadn’t received anything, but it looks like I got the last one.

The parts list so far is:

TRF102 Black Edition

Speed Passion Reventon Pro 1.1 140a ESC

Speed Passion Competition MMM 21.5R motor

Tamiya F104 bodyset

Trackstar  TS-D99X servo

Sanwa RX462 rx

 

The colour scheme will be based around Tamiya PS4 dark blue to match the other cars (its hard enough trying to race without having to work out what car is yours!) but I haven’t decided on that yet.  I will no doubt start a thread in the general section looking for ideas, and then inevitably end up painting it a single colour with no stickers.

 

 

I don’t have wheels and tyres yet either, but the club runs on foams and I will be buying them from one of the guys at the track.

 

 

Initial impressions are that this car should actually be art and not a toy, and I should probably leave it in the box and not embarrass myself and the car.  I have a couple of Kyosho buggies of similar quality but bought those secondhand, so this is my first build of a car of this quality and I’m impressed.  I’ve also accepted the fact that the mess I make of the body will mean that the car won’t be art so may as well be driven.

 

 

This is my first F1 car so each step is a surprise, I don’t really know how it goes together unlike a buggy where I could probably bodge it and have something that worked at the end.

Step 1 – charge the battery.  Storage charged lipos should be good enough…expect a thread in the all things electric section asking how to revive lipos when I forget they were only storage charged.

 

Step 2 – Fit the hinge to the T-bar.  I realised at this point that I had no thread lock, so off to the hardware store, which was closed.  So off to the bigger hardware store, which had a 16yo who didn’t know anything about Loctite (I asked for the blue one but he pointed to both the red bottles, shrugged and walked off) but I managed to find it.  I was a bit hungover doing this so I found it a lot more fiddly than it would normally be, just screwing this on.  I have to say that I’m loving the hex head screws though, makes life so much easier than the pretend Philips heads.

 

Step 3 – 5 – Fitting the rear end to the main chassis

It comes with 1.5mm and 1.8mm T-bars, I went with 1.8mm but I have no idea why.  Just because.  I thought it would be easy to change later but now that I’m further through the build it won’t.  I also have no idea what it really does so will find out soon, I hope.

 

 

Step 6 & 7 is attaching the lower brace to the chassis.  Step 7 is a badword.  Those are 2mm e-rings which aren’t easy to fit at the best of times, and while I could put the first one on the rod and slide that through, one had to be installed in place.  Obviously I chose the side without that extra ball connector as there was more room, but I’m pretty sure a designer was having a bad day at Tamiya and made himself feel better by including that step.

Step 6

Step 7 - you can see where the e xlip needs to go.

 

Proof of success

 

Step 8 & 9 – Motor mounts and rear bulkhead

There was a choice of where to attach some aluminium posts (can be seen sticking out in the photo below), which will probably have something else attach to them.  The manual showed the middle hole being used so I went with that, on the assumption that the manual will be consistent with using the middle when there is an option.  This was proven correct in the next step, but I’m not sure what the consequences could be later on.

 

 

Step 10 – 12 – Rear axle, ball diff etc

 

 

The first part was selecting the spacer to use, which would raise or lower the axle height.  As above, I went with the middle which the manual showed.  This was quite fiddly as there are some small screws which need to be put in from the inside.  The first one was easy as the other side was open, but the second side was harder as the part I had just installed was now in the way of the driver.  Got there in the end though.

 

You can see the spacer that I'm referring to which fills in the large hole on the motor mount, and there is a bearing in there.  The bottom of the spacer is a crescent shape and that is screwed in (note the hole at the bottom of it), the spacer itself is an oval and not screwed in.  Those are the bits that can be changed to change the axle height.

Step 11 was assembling the ball diff which was fiddly as badword but I found it really interesting.  Despite having ball diffs in my other cars I’d never built one.  It also explained why some spur gears have all though holes in them, I had assumed it was to save weight (rotating mass and all that).  I really hope its right, it took about 4 attempts for me to get it “right”.  The big test will be when the car is complete and I can actually run it.  Step 12 was just installing the diff cap

 

So this is how it sits at the moment, waiting on the motor to arrive.  Its in the country but its been in transit to the local depot for 2 days now.  I live about 10mins from Auckland Airport and the international mail centre, its a shame I can't just go and pick it up.  Hobbyking have mucked me around with my order though and the servos are still in Hong Kong.  I have a couple of options there though, mostly parts being donated from the offroad stash.  I have a spare Savox 1251MG which could go in this car, but I keep it as a spare for either of the offroad cars as I expect them to break every time I take them out.  The servos going in the onroad have slightly better specs than the Savox but I doubt they would last in an offroad car, but its worth trying them as they are 1/3 the price of a Savox.

 

This is it for now, more once the motor and body arrive

 

 

 

[Wooders28]

Looks like it's going to be a really light car, ideal for a speed run!! 🙄 

I've still not got my F1 out of its hiding place to even work on it.

The clubs sound strict, if you turn up with any electric car at Glasgow, you'd get to go round the track, which means loads of options.

Shame about hobbyking, you'd have thought a computerised system would update stock levels in real time.

I've been recommended Savox MG / TG servos, I was hugely disappointed finding out that the metal geared futaba bushless servo gear were brass and plastic!

Looking forward to see it built and running 👍

[TurnipJF]

Looks great so far!

 

I know it is a bit fiddly, but if you can, I'd recommend swapping out the thick T-bar for the thinner option. The thinner the T-bar, the more it flexes, and the more it flexes, the more grip you have at the back. F1s tend towards tail-happiness at the best of times, and the more docile you can make your rear end, the easier your initial racing experience will be.

 

You also ought to be able to proceed with the rest of the build without having to wait for the motor. Even when the chassis fully built, removing and refitting the motor is pretty simple, easily accomplished between heats for example.

[Jonathon Gillham]

28 minutes ago, Wooders28 said:

Looks like it's going to be a really light car, ideal for a speed run!! 🙄 

I've still not got my F1 out of its hiding place to even work on it.

The clubs sound strict, if you turn up with any electric car at Glasgow, you'd get to go round the track, which means loads of options.

Shame about hobbyking, you'd have thought a computerised system would update stock levels in real time.

I've been recommended Savox MG / TG servos, I was hugely disappointed finding out that the metal geared futaba bushless servo gear were brass and plastic!

Looking forward to see it built and running 👍

I doubt this will give a speed run a go, I expect it will be too low to run on a road unless I sweep it first, and I'm not keen to do that!

There is always the alllcomers class which any 10th scale can enter. The clubs are strict on cheaters but I've found that pleading ignorance works too

I run Savox 1251MG in 2wd and 1258TG in 4wd buggy and can't fault them, so far. I bought them secondhand as well, I figured I was better getting 3 for about 60% of the cost of 2 new ones and having a spare.

 

11 minutes ago, TurnipJF said:

Looks great so far!

 

I know it is a bit fiddly, but if you can, I'd recommend swapping out the thick T-bar for the thinner option. The thinner the T-bar, the more it flexes, and the more it flexes, the more grip you have at the back. F1s tend towards tail-happiness at the best of times, and the more docile you can make your rear end, the easier your initial racing experience will be.

 

You also ought to be able to proceed with the rest of the build without having to wait for the motor. Even when the chassis fully built, removing and refitting the motor is pretty simple, easily accomplished between heats for example.

Thanks, I will swap the t bar out before going any further. It should be pretty easy as it should just be 6 screws. They are all loctite'd though, but I used the blue/medium so they should come out ok.

I should have checked ahead in the manual to see that. I think I need the servo about 3 steps ahead too, so will have to make a call on those. Hobbyking have finally shipped those, if they look like they'll arrive by the weekend I will wait til then, otherwise I might carry on with the Savox

[Jason1145]

Were you shocked at how little stuff there was in the box when opened ... they are hardly there!

Great thread Jonno, made me laugh most of the way through as you sound just like me when I built my first F103GT, I had no idea what was going to affect anything else.... but atleast you had the foresight to know what those crescent shaped spacers holding the rear axle did (raise/lower the ride height) as I should've gone for max ride height as I will be attempting to run mine on a car park and not a prepped race circuit so you should be fine.

Another thing, those e clips, I had the same issue , first ones were easy... second ones were fitted on a wing and a prayer.

I've treated mine to a Special TRF Damper on it's way from Japan as we speak, it will give mine a splash of blue which it needs, and it's "Special"... if it's rubbish I'll post it your way to brighten up your dark knight edition here!

Well worth the wait for your first build thread, you've set a high standard now though.

[Jonathon Gillham]

5 hours ago, Jason1145 said:

Were you shocked at how little stuff there was in the box when opened ... they are hardly there!

Great thread Jonno, made me laugh most of the way through as you sound just like me when I built my first F103GT, I had no idea what was going to affect anything else.... but atleast you had the foresight to know what those crescent shaped spacers holding the rear axle did (raise/lower the ride height) as I should've gone for max ride height as I will be attempting to run mine on a car park and not a prepped race circuit so you should be fine.

Another thing, those e clips, I had the same issue , first ones were easy... second ones were fitted on a wing and a prayer.

I've treated mine to a Special TRF Damper on it's way from Japan as we speak, it will give mine a splash of blue which it needs, and it's "Special"... if it's rubbish I'll post it your way to brighten up your dark knight edition here!

Well worth the wait for your first build thread, you've set a high standard now though.

Haha glad you liked it.

And yes, when the courier handed me the box I thought it must've been so cheap as it was the display box with nothing in it, or like those wrapped boxes around department store christmas trees...

[Jonathon Gillham]

The car is getting pretty close to complete now  I spent Saturday on the chassis and Sunday painting the body.  We’ve had pretty bad weather all weekend and I took my time (although the body will still be average, at best).  The order with the motor arrived but the servo’s haven’t so I decided to push ahead and use my spare servo to finish the build.  I will swap that out before the race meet as I really want the Savox as the spare since it should be more durable for the offroad buggies, and will stick to Trackstar for the indoor cars.  If the Trackstar servos break then I’ll have to try to find some more Savox as while the Trackstar are reasonably cheap, they aren’t cheap enough to be throwaway items.

 

I don’t have photo’s of all the steps as my father in law was staying with us this weekend and watching some of the build.  I didn’t want to take loads of photos and have to explain that they are for my imaginary friends around the world who also play with toy cars, so I only got a few.

 

The chassis is finished now but doesn’t have any electronics installed, and the body is cut and painted but needs screwing together and stickering.

 

Step 13 – installing the motor.  There isn’t really much to say here other than it was much more fiddly than expected.  It goes onto a motor spacer which means trying to line up 2 moving parts and getting the screw through.  It would have been a lot easier if my father in law wasn’t watching – getting anything done like that is 10 times harder with someone watching!  It could have been the beers the night before too…

 

That was the rear end pretty much complete, so onto the front.

 

Steps 14 – 20

This was assembling the front end.  It was a strange job for me as you sort of build the front end around the servo.

 

Step 14 – bolting the lower arms to the chassis.  There is a gap with a couple of bolts going through and I was wondering what it was for.  If I had read ahead I would have seen that the front wing mounts under it, so you actually have to remove that later to mount the wing.  Strange that the wing is part of the body set too, or maybe I’ll learn on my first race that they are disposable when I break it 2mins in.

Step 15 - 19 took a while to work out, mostly because there are 2 sets of instructions depending on if you are using a low profile or standard sized servo.  I am using low profile so it meant I didn’t have to cut the mounts off (would be really reluctant to do that), so that was step 15 skipped.  The kit comes with the servo saver with 3 metal rings.  That was a mission to work out how to get the second ring on, I was worried about bending it too far.  Got there in the end though.  That was step 16, centering the servo and putting the servo saver on

Step 17 was making the turnbuckles and it was useful having my father in law there as he held both ends with pliers and I used the turnbuckle spanner thing.  I should have looked at the instructions as little more closely though, as you’ll see in the pic that I made them with both ends facing the same way.  I found that error later on.  Surprisingly not step 18 which again showed them correct, and different to mine.

Step 18 was actually a bit of pain too as I had to find the right spacers to get the servo mounted correctly.  Of course it was the 3^rd combination that worked.  The servo is screwed in at one end and then double sided tape is used on the sides to hold it tight.  As I’m swapping the servo out I didn’t tape it, but if the new servos don’t arrive I’ll have to tape it so it will need disassembling regardless.  Step 19 was screwing the mounted servo into the car, and once again I didn’t notice my turnbuckles were wrong.

Step 20 was just putting the upper arms on.  This was interesting (for me) as they are mounted on ball joints, so they move a bit.

 

Step 21 is assembling and attaching the uprights and I thought it was going to be much more fiddly than it turned out to be.  They need a C-ring at the bottom, then a spring (I chose the medium) below the lower arm, then some spacers etc between the arms, and an E-ring on top to hold it all together.  I’m glad it was easy as that’s how you change the springs on the front, so I can see that being possible trackside (as long as I have enough C & E rings for all the ones I will lose).

Step 22 – this is where I worked out I had made the turnbuckles wrong, as they had to attach to the hubs.  So they are no longer the 21.5mm length they need to be but they fit.  I will adjust those when I get some wheels.

Step 23 seems random – its attaching the rear body mounts.  Nothing special, just seemed out of place.

Step 24 – 26 was building the shock.  I was paranoid about scratching the shiny gold shaft, but didn’t.  The only thing that stood out for me was they were the first I had built with a threaded spring retainer on the shock body.  You have to put an o-ring in it.  It makes sense now, but I thought it was weird at the time and I triple checked as I really thought the o-ring would seal something.  I just built it with the kit supplied spring and yellow oil.

Step 26 is for some reason split into 2 (maybe Tamiya lost the licence for manuals with more than 35 steps so merged them together?) as you also have to make the roll damper.  Its this weird friction damper with grease in it which controls the roll of the rear pod.  I covered it in grease and it all came back out when I push the piston inside, hope theres enough in there.  I figured that if it comes out like that then it probably means that they all end up the same.

Step 27 is attaching the roll damper, which requires a carbon fibre plate with a couple of ball joints on it to be screwed on to the motor mounts on the rear pod.  The friction damper goes across from left to right with one end attaching to the main chassis and the other to the rear pod and this controls the roll.  The main damper attaches to this same plate, but that is longways to control the up and down movement of the rear pod.  I think.  Or I built it wrong.

 

Step 28 is attaching the battery holder, with 2 screws (Whats that all about then??!) and then the shock attaches to this, on the main chassis.  Seems a bit of a pain having to use screws, my buggies use a couple of clips.  I skipped step 29 as that is installing the receiver and ESC, but did install the battery holder and have set it up for shorties.  Confession time, I had to glue the edge of this part and yep, got it stuck to my car stand.  Luckily on the rubber bit so I was able to cut it a bit and free it without any damage to anything.  It’s the underside though so meh.  Better than last time when I stuck one to my thumb.

 

Steps 33 and 34 are attaching the front and rear wings, which I’ve done.  The F104 Pro body set fits fine, all the cut lines etc line up, but there were a couple of differences in how things mounted so it required checking the body set instructions too.

 

I cut the main body out but not the side pods and that’s where I finished yesterday.

Today I did the body and its getting there.  I am going to leave the paint to harden overnight because I need to drill some more holes, oops!  It needs 6 little holes to screw the pods on to the main body.  I ended up going with the F104 theme but changed the silver to blue (its not just one colour, there is some black!) as it should look good with the black and red stickers.

My son painted the helmet for me, he chose black for the helmet and light blue for the visor, but the blue will be done another day.

 

I have also heard from one of the top racers at the club and he runs a 26t pinion and 66t spur, which means I will need to buy new gears as the kit comes with 24t and 96t.  I will change to 64p rather than mod .4 if I'm changing, which will also mean buying new diff balls to fit as Tamiya use 3mm and everyone else uses 1/8 inch, I think.  That is all cheap stuff, it just all adds up.

 

So tomorrow I will put the body together and put the stickers on, but its almost there.  Luckily a TA07 is on its way too so I can keep building.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TurnipJF]

It looks like you are making great progress!

 

If it were my car, I'd keep the Savox servo in there. The TRF201 is a fine model, of superb quality. The same can be said of Savox servos, but I'm not so sure about Trackstar ones. A great model deserves a great servo.

 

The grease roll damper is surprisingly effective - only a very small amount of grease is needed. Some people even run them dry. They are also considered an upgrade over conventional oil dampers as they are quicker to adjust trackside.

 

I know what you mean regarding the screws for the battery hold-down. A lot of people swap them out for thumb nuts. Exotek make some lovely ones:

http://number5rc.co.uk/ex1191-alloy-threaded-twist-thumb-nuts-black-p-2574.html?osCsid=cb79e85efbcb574535bffed52c1d1b6d

 

Looking at the rear bulkhead: are you sure it is on the right way around? The alloy posts for mounting the rear wing don't seem to be in the right place. The motor pod is offset to the left to allow space for the diff. The posts on the bulkhead are supposed to be offset to the right to compensate, so that the wing is central to the chassis and body. Yours looks offset way to the left.

[Jonathon Gillham]

28 minutes ago, TurnipJF said:

It looks like you are making great progress!

 

If it were my car, I'd keep the Savox servo in there. The TRF201 is a fine model, of superb quality. The same can be said of Savox servos, but I'm not so sure about Trackstar ones. A great model deserves a great servo.

 

The grease roll damper is surprisingly effective - only a very small amount of grease is needed. Some people even run them dry. They are also considered an upgrade over conventional oil dampers as they are quicker to adjust trackside.

 

I know what you mean regarding the screws for the battery hold-down. A lot of people swap them out for thumb screws. Exotek make some lovely ones:

http://number5rc.co.uk/ex1191-alloy-threaded-twist-thumb-nuts-black-p-2574.html?osCsid=cb79e85efbcb574535bffed52c1d1b6d

 

Looking at the rear bulkhead: are you sure it is on the right way around? The alloy posts for mounting the rear wing don't seem to be in the right place. The motor pod is offset to the left to allow space for the diff. The posts on the bulkhead are supposed to be offset to the right to compensate, so that the wing is central to the chassis and body. Yours looks offset way to the left.

Good spotting, it was on the wrong way around.  Fixed now.  How high should the wing be?  Its on the middle setting so can go higher or lower, I tried to get the photo below levelish to give a good idea of height.

 

I know what you mean about the servo but the Trackstar actually has better spec than the Savox.  I had to compromise in some places because I was setting up 2 cars and the servos were one area I did.  I saved about NZD$120 by buying Trackstar instead of Savox for them, which went (and then some) on better ESC and motors.  If the Trackstar's are awful then the Savox will go back in and another Savox will be bought, but probably for next year when the points start (and the currently splurge is forgotten!).

One thing with threadlock - do you need to clean the screw and reapply the threadlock every time, or is it enough having bits stuck to the screw?

[Jonathon Gillham]

So here is the finished body.  All thats left to do now is fit the wheels (ordered and on their way) and fit the electronics.  There is plenty of room for those because I'm using a shorty pack so that won't be hard.  The biggest thing will be choosing the position - the ESC fits really well in front of the battery and less well on the side, but would counterbalance the weight of the rx on the side.

 

Here is the finished car, I'm really happy with the colour scheme but just don't look too closely at the stickers.  At least the marshalls will be the only people seeing it up close!

And is the rear wing high enough?

https://flic.kr/p/ZiuBPm

 

[TurnipJF]

The ideal wing height setting depends on the track you race on. The higher it is, the more airflow it gets and the more downforce it creates, but this comes with a drag penalty. Conversely, a low-set wing gets relatively little airflow and generates relatively little downforce, but also causes less drag. Open flowing tracks benefit from lower wing settings, while tight technical ones benefit from higher wing settings.

 

As for layout, what receiver are you using? A popular solution at our club is to have a shorty LiPo in the rear, the ESC in front of it, a micro race receiver on one side and the switch and transponder on the other side. This seems to give a good balance.

 

Regarding thread lock, I find a quick wipe of the screw sufficient, to remove any major residue. The fresh thread lock softens any small amount left in the threads, re-activating it as it were, making a full cleaning unnecessary.

[Jonathon Gillham]

No idea why that final pic isn't showing, if you click the link you will see the front on pic showing the wing.

Should I have cut more off the main body, specifically the bit above the pods? I like the look as it is, and the manual said it was optional to cut it off, and when I found pics of the F104 Pro body it showed them still on so I let them.

I will be using a Sanwa 451, normal sized. The ESC switch is on the body of the ESC, but the capacitor is quite big, I may be able to get that around the side

[Jason1145]

Great job on the bodyset, will ignore that wing Sticker eh!?

You are going to turn up st the track looking like a Pro for sure... obviously I can't advise you on any race settings but you are getting good tips here and st the track I'm sure, just try not to finish last!

And that was major cheating letting your son do the trickiest part of painting the helmet, well done

[Jonathon Gillham]

14 minutes ago, Jason1145 said:

Great job on the bodyset, will ignore that wing Sticker eh!?

You are going to turn up st the track looking like a Pro for sure... obviously I can't advise you on any race settings but you are getting good tips here and st the track I'm sure, just try not to finish last!

And that was major cheating letting your son do the trickiest part of painting the helmet, well done

The wing sticker was a pain, ended up cutting it in 3 as the wing is ribbed, it actually looks like its supposed to be like that in the flesh. Honest. I should have used scissors not a knife to cut it though, apparently I can only cut straight lines at a 5deg angle.

Haha funny you say that, he insisted on painting something so I masked the visor and let him go for it. He was sad he couldn't paint the visor. I bought paints to do the driver in his Novafox and took one look at it and rang my mum to come over and do it with him. If I tried I would end up with paint all over the table.

Ordered spurs and pinions today, so I've been told the FDR for these things is around 2.5! Changed to 64p and 1/8" balls as more people make those.

[TurnipJF]

6 hours ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

Should I have cut more off the main body, specifically the bit above the pods? I like the look as it is, and the manual said it was optional to cut it off, and when I found pics of the F104 Pro body it showed them still on so I left them.

The shell looks great trimmed like that, and ought to be good and strong. I wouldn't take any more off.

[Percymon]

I wouldn't worry too much about settings until the tyres arrive. It would have been better to have them to hand to set the ride height during the initial stages, but starting from a neutral setting is a safe one !

Not sure what club rules say about tyre min max sizing and the extent to which you can shave them - do you have to shave them from new to true them anyway ? 

[Kingfisher]

Great looking car. Really like the paint scheme. 

 

[Jonathon Gillham]

45 minutes ago, Kingfisher said:

Great looking car. Really like the paint scheme. 

 

Thanks, i was really happy with the final look too. The stickers from the F104 worked really well. Its a shame i'm so bad at stickers!

[Percymon]

On the far side of the track no-one will notice, not even the spectators

6 hours ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

Thanks, i was really happy with the final look too. The stickers from the F104 worked really well. Its a shame i'm so bad at stickers!

 

[Jonathon Gillham]

57 minutes ago, Percymon said:

On the far side of the track no-one will notice, not even the spectators

 

Thats what I tell myself, and hopefully anyone up close will be looking at the chassis (pretty sure it will be the only TRF at the club) or concentrating on putting it back on its wheels

[TurnipJF]

It helps not to be too precious about race shells. F1 isn't too hard on them - generally it is the wheels and wings that bear the brunt of impacts - but they do pick up the odd scuff nonetheless. If the shell isn't perfect to begin with, it hurts less when that inevitable first scuff occurs.

 

On the subject of impacts, something you might want to carry spares of is the spur gear. Any impact to the right rear that misses the tyre or is of sufficient force to deform it significantly ends up against the spur. I have been fortunate with my F103 that runs 0.6 module gears, but the guys on finer pitches tend to break spurs before wearing them out.

[Jonathon Gillham]

9 hours ago, TurnipJF said:

It helps not to be too precious about race shells. F1 isn't too hard on them - generally it is the wheels and wings that bear the brunt of impacts - but they do pick up the odd scuff nonetheless. If the shell isn't perfect to begin with, it hurts less when that inevitable first scuff occurs.

 

On the subject of impacts, something you might want to carry spares of is the spur gear. Any impact to the right rear that misses the tyre or is of sufficient force to deform it significantly ends up against the spur. I have been fortunate with my F103 that runs 0.6 module gears, but the guys on finer pitches tend to break spurs before wearing them out.

This is the best of my race shells by far, the buggies are a single colour and no stickers. I expected it to last a bit better than those, fingers crossed.

I wish I had known that before I ordered spurs! I have ordered 64p, luckily 2 76T (main one) and 1 80T (just for different ratios) so I will be ok if I break one. 

[TwistedxSlayer]

After this thread and a couple of others in wondering if i can convince the missus that i need a shelf a queen F1 car in Ferrari livery.... great thread :-)

[Jonathon Gillham]

On 27/10/2017 at 6:55 AM, TwistedxSlayer said:

After this thread and a couple of others in wondering if i can convince the missus that i need a shelf a queen F1 car in Ferrari livery.... great thread :-)

You really do...there is the F104 Ferrari kit which looks good and it comes with everything you need...

[Juls1]

On 27/10/2017 at 1:55 AM, TwistedxSlayer said:

After this thread and a couple of others in wondering if i can convince the missus that i need a shelf a queen F1 car in Ferrari livery.... great thread :-)

There isn’t any question here, if the seed in your mind has sprouted, then the plan will eventuate to fruition. Unless the mrs uses some verbal herbicide on it...