akura2

I know it's an HPI Super F1 and I think it's an option inner body that they offered... but I just found this pic and I need some info on the carbon inner body

Core Creations

iTrader: (108)

My guess is that it's one of HPI's F1s

ixlr8nz

Im pretty sure it is an HPI F1 as well. I remember there was a several page write up about all the different F1 cars and hop up parts in a RC Car Action magazine around about 1994 or so... there was a piece about this carbon underbody.

I had this magazine but chucked them all out when I moved house recently.

If I remember right this was a fairly rare thing to have.

Mike

icon

That inner body is very rare. Laid carbon graphite (much like the limited Pro 3 chassis) but i don't remember whether its for HPI's own F1 machine or the Tamiya F103 chassis. The front end looks like an F103 suspension with a modified carbon lower arm. Very unique piece of HPI history.

Matrix Concepts

iTrader: (24)

That chassis was a upgrade for the Tamiya F103. We (Carbon Wurks Inc.) made a total of 90 of these chassis for HPI. If I recall correctly 85 of them went to Japan and 5 stayed here in the US, I know where 3 of the 5 are today. One is in my office as I write this, 1 is in Texas, 1 is in San Diego, CA., 1 we ran over with a car to see how strong it was, and the 5th used to sit in Tatsuro's office at HPI. These were hand layed and vacuum bagged in two half's then bonded together. There also was a different F1 body (Lexan) for it not the Lotus, we also made the master tooling for it too.

Carbon Wurks Inc. no longer exists, it now is Matrix Concepts Inc. still based in San Diego, CA. We made many of the original body masters for HPI. The Ferrari 355, McClaren F1, Pajero mini, and many I can't remember.

We also made full ground effects cars that ran at the Velodrome, for the likes of Bob Novak, and Shawn Ireland.

If you have any questions about the above piece's feel free to call,
Robert @ Matrix Concepts Inc.
760 591-9323

I tried uploading some pictures of the one in my office, but the files were to big. I'll try again sometime.

P.S. these are very rare

daveaustin5

iTrader: (1)

A link if it helps: http://hpiracing.com/kits/heritage/f1-m.htm

InspGadgt

Actually Dave that's a link to the HPI Super F1 which this car is not...This is a Tamiya f103 with the HPI aftermarket chassis.

Matrix...are you the same guys who started out in TRD or something...if so I think I met you guys at the very last RC Velodrome in Domingues hills before it became the Norrca Oval Nationals or whatever they ended up calling it.

nagatahawk

I used to race the old f103 when foam tires where in.
I smoked the HPI version which ran the larger 1/10 pan car foams.

the original f103 on foams rocked. we ran 6 cell stock motors at revalation raceway. they were rockets. my skills were lot better back then also. used to race twice a week, now once every other month or less.
Now, Where did I leave my Crawler? lol

Matrix Concepts

iTrader: (24)

InspGadgt- Back in the Carbon Wurks days, it was Robert Bartlett (me) and Craig Stafford. Craig had worked at Dan Gurney's AAR before coming to NPTI (Nissan Performance Technology Inc.) NPTI built and raced the famous Nissan GTP cars. I worked in the composite shop, and the windtunnel at NPTI, doing alot of R&D. Craig worked in the windtunnel also. We actually ran our 1/10 ground effects cars in the NPTI tunnel and got some real interesting numbers out of it. Such as 15 lbs of downforce @ 75 mph.

I left NPTI in 1990 and started Carbon Wurks Inc. In the begining we built racecar parts and the first carbon motorcross parts. Then we built the cars for the velodrome and started our relationship with Tatsuro at HPI. We also shaped all the master body molds for BBR scale racing products in No. California, the Ferrari 333SP 1/12 body, Dodge truck, Chevy Monte Carlo, and many others.

I then dissolved Carbon Wurks in 2000 and started Matrix Concepts Inc. we are a full machine and fabrication shop. CAD design, CNC machining, tube chassis fabrication, composite fabrication etc. etc.

I started another thread over in the Nitro offroad section about 1/8 chassis made out of carbon.

akura2

Thanks for the replies guys.... The above pic is indeed from the offices of HPI Racing... so I'm assuming this is Tatsuros' car.. I have an HPI Super F1 from when they re-released them again about four years ago... I raced/practiced with that car at SoCal Raceway and it smoked everything else that was on the track and it only had a stock motor.... I was using Jaco foams with full wash traction compound on the rear and half on the front and that thing handled on rails...

That carbon inner body is absolutely BANANAS! ad I'll be calling this week

Thanks again

Here's mine:

InspGadgt

That sounds about like the guys we met up with. I remember the car was running 2 springs on each side of the front suspension because the downforce from the ground effects was so high. I noticed that the arms were flexing more then the springs were compressing. I remember Bob Novak I think it was was supposed to run one of the ground effects cars in that year's insane speed run but for some reason ended up not running it. My buddies and I were the guys who came out from Hawaii and ran EV10 SS cars and kept getting the "long distance award" every time the announcer would read off where everyone was from. That was a great trip...I'll always look back on that with fond memories.

Matrix Concepts

iTrader: (24)

InspGadgt- That was us for sure. The 2 springs weren't enough for it. It ended up producing so much downforce that it sucked it to the ground and shut of the air from coming in, which in return created what we call a hick-up. No air the alot of air all at once, and the car blew over backwards.

akura2- I will try to post some pictures of the F1 chassis, and the ground effect chassis we produced. The last I know Shawn Ireland still had his sitting on a shelf in his office too.

Thanks again.

Robert
Matrix Concepts Inc.

InspGadgt

Did you finally get around that or did you end up with a different front end? From what I saw you could have locked the suspension and still had too much movement just from the arm flex.

dougmartin

iTrader: (14)

It's definately a Tamiya F103 in the first post.

I have a HPI F1 sitting in the original box in my basement. Bought it when it first came out ran it indoor on carpet for 3 years and at 2 Canadian National Asphalt Championships. These cars were very fast.....and the front arm flex was unreal...I ran mine solid..no springs....after a few club races I'd change out the arms for new ones...you could see the stress marks. Sure brings back memories of some fun racing.

I'm going to pull it out of the box and see what it's needs. I know a body for sure...wonder if any hobby shops have parts for these babies anymore.

Later