Originally Posted by Skitee

The shocks are the first thing you should notice, the shocks don't attach with balls like the Tamiya shocks and the shock caps are shallower than the original TRF caps too. The aluminum on the ball diff outdrives has a yellow/gold colouring compared to the Tamiya outdrives. It's going to be pretty difficult to spot the other slight differences in a picture though.

Originally Posted by Spencer Beck

so ive been lurking on this page for a couple days now just to read the 31 pages of post.

Long story short i bought what i thought to be a real 416 of ebay and it came to me as a 416we clone.

So super pissed and talking to ebay there is no way to get my money back i decided to just run the thing.

First off the car just looks plain cool. all the blue and the "carbon Fiber" decks just works for me.
While sitting in my pit i had loads of on-road guys come look at it. Hiyato-(2007 world champ) looked at the car at the car and said "maximum awesome car" and then told him it was a clone "maximum bullshit"!! Its a japanese thing he was very angry that there was these clones on the market. But i did fool him until i told him it was a clone.

But anywho beyond it looking nice it does have problems right off the bat...

The plastic is crap. Popping off ball cups just broke them in two. broke a shock eyelet. The diff was locked down and had to be rebuilt. screws heads where way too big for my bits and just stripped.

But was presistant and wanted to at least give the car a chance on the track. First couple laps where dialed! It turned, it stopped did everything... Hit a dusty patch on the straight and turned the car into the wall and broke a rear hub. Super plastic is junk

but honestly it wasnt a bad purchase and worked ok for the laps i did have it running.

And as far as the Chinese companies making clones i dont see a problem with it, as long as they say clone on the ad. And since Tamiya isnt stomping and raging they must not have a problem with it too. Have to buy real tamiya parts to keep a clone running.

I would love to see a comparison between the real deal and a clone. Pictures of the changes so the cosumer is informed.

The clone is fine for club racing. Keeps breaking those parts to keep the hobbystores open. As far as being competive on a national level I highly doubt it. If you are competing on a national level you have a chassis sponsor anyway.

Thats just my thoughts and experience with a clone. Just buy a real tamiya kit.