View Poll Results: what's your tire choice?
Protoform
46
30.67%
HPI
104
69.33%
Voters: 150. You may not vote on this poll
4318LikesU.S. Vintage Trans-Am Racing Part 2
07-10-2012, 02:09 PM
#1234
I would take issue with saying Tamiya's are fragile.... the thing is, they have a wide range of models from beginner to expert (and several past VTA champions have been Tamiya to boot!).
To break it down.... the "TT" series is the very beginner level stuff. Plastic chassis, bushings, limited tunability. Great spec racers though in the Tamiya Championship Series.
The "TA" series is the club racer stuff... on par with your TC4's and TC5's. Full ball bearings, mostly aluminum performance parts. Highly tunable. Tub chassis, yes, but you can get them in carbon as an optional upgrade. Lots of upgrade parts too in aluminum and graphite. Full Exotek graphite kits available too.
The "TRF" seriers is all high-end stuff. Right up there with the best kits from Xray and Associated. world championship level stuff.
So it depends on what you run. A lot of old schoolers think back to their first Grasshopper and think of Tamiya as only a beginner hobby level brand, but they have full on race stuff too. Their TRF201 just won the offroad 2wd buggy nats, and with Marc Rhienhard at the wheel they have been dominating expert spec ifmar touring car for quite some time :-)
07-10-2012, 02:49 PM
#1235
Tech Addict
iTrader: (8)
I would take issue with saying Tamiya's are fragile.... the thing is, they have a wide range of models from beginner to expert (and several past VTA champions have been Tamiya to boot!).
To break it down.... the "TT" series is the very beginner level stuff. Plastic chassis, bushings, limited tunability. Great spec racers though in the Tamiya Championship Series.
The "TA" series is the club racer stuff... on par with your TC4's and TC5's. Full ball bearings, mostly aluminum performance parts. Highly tunable. Tub chassis, yes, but you can get them in carbon as an optional upgrade. Lots of upgrade parts too in aluminum and graphite. Full Exotek graphite kits available too.
The "TRF" seriers is all high-end stuff. Right up there with the best kits from Xray and Associated. world championship level stuff.
So it depends on what you run. A lot of old schoolers think back to their first Grasshopper and think of Tamiya as only a beginner hobby level brand, but they have full on race stuff too. Their TRF201 just won the offroad 2wd buggy nats, and with Marc Rhienhard at the wheel they have been dominating expert spec ifmar touring car for quite some time :-)
To break it down.... the "TT" series is the very beginner level stuff. Plastic chassis, bushings, limited tunability. Great spec racers though in the Tamiya Championship Series.
The "TA" series is the club racer stuff... on par with your TC4's and TC5's. Full ball bearings, mostly aluminum performance parts. Highly tunable. Tub chassis, yes, but you can get them in carbon as an optional upgrade. Lots of upgrade parts too in aluminum and graphite. Full Exotek graphite kits available too.
The "TRF" seriers is all high-end stuff. Right up there with the best kits from Xray and Associated. world championship level stuff.
So it depends on what you run. A lot of old schoolers think back to their first Grasshopper and think of Tamiya as only a beginner hobby level brand, but they have full on race stuff too. Their TRF201 just won the offroad 2wd buggy nats, and with Marc Rhienhard at the wheel they have been dominating expert spec ifmar touring car for quite some time :-)
On top of that Xray, AE, 3Racing, and even Serpent have decent parts support around Hotshots. So I'm not sure why anyone around here would run Tamiya.
07-10-2012, 02:52 PM
#1236
Hello all,
after some hiatus from radio control, i am considering a relapse. this would be my second relapse actually.
Now, for the first time ever, i live near a carpet track. Upon visiting this track I discovered vta. I said what the hell is that. Then a series of rules were explained that halfway made sense.
1. the driver in the car-- spirit or not, they are dinky imho
2. motor/esc -- Novak only? why not regulate the turns/kv rating-- not the brand. without competition we will forever be stuck paying whatever novak says we will to run VTA class? thats sucky
3. wheels and tires -- HPI only? I just dont get this brand limiting. I understand that the rule was put in place to even the playing field. that said, why would any company produce competitive products if hpi has the whole class on lock via THE RULEBOOK. That cant be good for the industry or growth of the class?
4. Bodies -- about 4 choices? cool.
All that said, this class sounds really fun and competitive, it just irks me to be forced into a brand and not a style/format, you know? the novak setup is like 150-175$-- a hobbywing setup is practially half that and could double the speed of the same chassis. it just bothers me. spend more money to go slower to be competitive. just feels like backwards logic.
Are people happy with these rules? I was told it was a budget class, but seeing as how (unless you buy a sprint2) you are looking at 250$ish to convert any old TC to VTA regulation, it seems to be expensive enough.
Convince me otherwise, cause i wanna race!
ps they race vta and a gt class at this track (hotshots rc Marietta GA)
and i am most likely getting a TA-05 regardless of class.
thanks for any perspectives, comments, or input.
-Scott
after some hiatus from radio control, i am considering a relapse. this would be my second relapse actually.
Now, for the first time ever, i live near a carpet track. Upon visiting this track I discovered vta. I said what the hell is that. Then a series of rules were explained that halfway made sense.
1. the driver in the car-- spirit or not, they are dinky imho
2. motor/esc -- Novak only? why not regulate the turns/kv rating-- not the brand. without competition we will forever be stuck paying whatever novak says we will to run VTA class? thats sucky
3. wheels and tires -- HPI only? I just dont get this brand limiting. I understand that the rule was put in place to even the playing field. that said, why would any company produce competitive products if hpi has the whole class on lock via THE RULEBOOK. That cant be good for the industry or growth of the class?
4. Bodies -- about 4 choices? cool.
All that said, this class sounds really fun and competitive, it just irks me to be forced into a brand and not a style/format, you know? the novak setup is like 150-175$-- a hobbywing setup is practially half that and could double the speed of the same chassis. it just bothers me. spend more money to go slower to be competitive. just feels like backwards logic.
Are people happy with these rules? I was told it was a budget class, but seeing as how (unless you buy a sprint2) you are looking at 250$ish to convert any old TC to VTA regulation, it seems to be expensive enough.
Convince me otherwise, cause i wanna race!
ps they race vta and a gt class at this track (hotshots rc Marietta GA)
and i am most likely getting a TA-05 regardless of class.
thanks for any perspectives, comments, or input.
-Scott
07-10-2012, 04:01 PM
#1237
I may paint the spoiler and leave the "outside the lines" part clear for 'looks"
07-10-2012, 04:52 PM
#1238
Hello all,
after some hiatus from radio control, i am considering a relapse. this would be my second relapse actually.
Now, for the first time ever, i live near a carpet track. Upon visiting this track I discovered vta. I said what the hell is that. Then a series of rules were explained that halfway made sense.
1. the driver in the car-- spirit or not, they are dinky imho
2. motor/esc -- Novak only? why not regulate the turns/kv rating-- not the brand. without competition we will forever be stuck paying whatever novak says we will to run VTA class? thats sucky
3. wheels and tires -- HPI only? I just dont get this brand limiting. I understand that the rule was put in place to even the playing field. that said, why would any company produce competitive products if hpi has the whole class on lock via THE RULEBOOK. That cant be good for the industry or growth of the class?
4. Bodies -- about 4 choices? cool.
All that said, this class sounds really fun and competitive, it just irks me to be forced into a brand and not a style/format, you know? the novak setup is like 150-175$-- a hobbywing setup is practially half that and could double the speed of the same chassis. it just bothers me. spend more money to go slower to be competitive. just feels like backwards logic.
Are people happy with these rules? I was told it was a budget class, but seeing as how (unless you buy a sprint2) you are looking at 250$ish to convert any old TC to VTA regulation, it seems to be expensive enough.
Convince me otherwise, cause i wanna race!
ps they race vta and a gt class at this track (hotshots rc Marietta GA)
and i am most likely getting a TA-05 regardless of class.
thanks for any perspectives, comments, or input.
-Scott
after some hiatus from radio control, i am considering a relapse. this would be my second relapse actually.
Now, for the first time ever, i live near a carpet track. Upon visiting this track I discovered vta. I said what the hell is that. Then a series of rules were explained that halfway made sense.
1. the driver in the car-- spirit or not, they are dinky imho
2. motor/esc -- Novak only? why not regulate the turns/kv rating-- not the brand. without competition we will forever be stuck paying whatever novak says we will to run VTA class? thats sucky
3. wheels and tires -- HPI only? I just dont get this brand limiting. I understand that the rule was put in place to even the playing field. that said, why would any company produce competitive products if hpi has the whole class on lock via THE RULEBOOK. That cant be good for the industry or growth of the class?
4. Bodies -- about 4 choices? cool.
All that said, this class sounds really fun and competitive, it just irks me to be forced into a brand and not a style/format, you know? the novak setup is like 150-175$-- a hobbywing setup is practially half that and could double the speed of the same chassis. it just bothers me. spend more money to go slower to be competitive. just feels like backwards logic.
Are people happy with these rules? I was told it was a budget class, but seeing as how (unless you buy a sprint2) you are looking at 250$ish to convert any old TC to VTA regulation, it seems to be expensive enough.
Convince me otherwise, cause i wanna race!
ps they race vta and a gt class at this track (hotshots rc Marietta GA)
and i am most likely getting a TA-05 regardless of class.
thanks for any perspectives, comments, or input.
-Scott
Here are my two cents on the chassis statement...
It has been said, over and over again the the chassis does not make a difference in this class. I agree to this statement and here is my experience. I started the VTA with a tc4. Is was a great chassis for VTA, I didn't like it so much running 17.5. I got an X-ray t3'11 to run in the 17.5 class and got sick of carting so many different parts bins to the track. I bought a used T3'10 for my VTA chassis.
I have been consistently faster than most people on the track and no matter how many times I told them it is all in the driving and setup and small differences in motor, everyone started to upgrade their chassis to newer designs.
People were dumping there TC4's in favor of TC6's, TC6.1's, Xrays, etc... and I was still faster than most. This upset a great many drivers. They finally started to look more to their setups and the gap kept getting smaller and smaller.
Now, the competition is great! There is a new racer at the track with a TC3 and he is much faster than me. He pulls away from me in the straights but I can outdrive him where it counts.
Bottom line, race what you have. A great setup on any car will be fast. True, newer cars have a greater windows of success. i would choose a chassis that is popular at your local club, that way you have a knowledge base to draw from and parts to back them up. What is great is when guys at out local club are able to help each other out and keep them racing
07-10-2012, 07:06 PM
#1239
I'm just saying. if you're going to strictly enforce some of the rules ie. motor; esc; batteries etc. shouldn't you strictly enforce ALL of the rules?
07-10-2012, 07:24 PM
#1240
1. Don't hit stuff [applies to any chassis & class]
2. If you do hit stuff, don't do it when your wheels are turned towards what you hit.
3. Buy steering arms, c-hubs, and king pins by the bunch because when you break rules 1 and 2, these are the parts likely to break or get lost from a broken part.
I use only the carbon reinforced parts now and hit stuff much less but I still go through a steering arm, or c-hub or both every race day. The king pins seem to disappear when the steering arm disconnects from the c-hub at least half the time.
I am not knocking the TA05. It is just reality that these parts are what breaks first when you hit stuff with a wheel turned towards what you hit. I like the TA05 and the rest of it is extremely durable. A pair of steering arms or c-hubs or king pins are around $8.00 each, which is pretty inexpensive. As long as you keep a couple of each as spares, you'll be able to fix the broken bit and enjoy your return to racing.
Don't sweat the VTA rules. They just work. The point is close racing where setup and driving skill are the deciding factor leads to fun. Just sit back and enjoy it.
07-10-2012, 07:30 PM
#1242
I have been back in RC racing for about a year and a half after being out of RC for 20 years. My driving has improved a great deal but I still have lots more to improve. I have been running a TA05 V2 for about a year. Here are some rules to live by with the TA05
1. Don't hit stuff [applies to any chassis & class]
2. If you do hit stuff, don't do it when your wheels are turned towards what you hit.
3. Buy steering arms, c-hubs, and king pins by the bunch because when you break rules 1 and 2, these are the parts likely to break or get lost from a broken part.
I use only the carbon reinforced parts now and hit stuff much less but I still go through a steering arm, or c-hub or both every race day. The king pins seem to disappear when the steering arm disconnects from the c-hub at least half the time.
I am not knocking the TA05. It is just reality that these parts are what breaks first when you hit stuff with a wheel turned towards what you hit. I like the TA05 and the rest of it is extremely durable. A pair of steering arms or c-hubs or king pins are around $8.00 each, which is pretty inexpensive. As long as you keep a couple of each as spares, you'll be able to fix the broken bit and enjoy your return to racing.
1. Don't hit stuff [applies to any chassis & class]
2. If you do hit stuff, don't do it when your wheels are turned towards what you hit.
3. Buy steering arms, c-hubs, and king pins by the bunch because when you break rules 1 and 2, these are the parts likely to break or get lost from a broken part.
I use only the carbon reinforced parts now and hit stuff much less but I still go through a steering arm, or c-hub or both every race day. The king pins seem to disappear when the steering arm disconnects from the c-hub at least half the time.
I am not knocking the TA05. It is just reality that these parts are what breaks first when you hit stuff with a wheel turned towards what you hit. I like the TA05 and the rest of it is extremely durable. A pair of steering arms or c-hubs or king pins are around $8.00 each, which is pretty inexpensive. As long as you keep a couple of each as spares, you'll be able to fix the broken bit and enjoy your return to racing.
Also to the person above who mentioned no one at the local track runs Tamiya - thats definitely a factor. Its definitely easier on you to run something that the proshop has parts for. I hear what you are saying there.
That being said..... +1 on the carbon reinforced parts for the TA05. A lot of the TRF416/417 parts fit, and those break a lot less (not that things break often, but you know what I mean). Sticking those in, I haven't really had an issue with breaking anything. My track runs a VTA rule variant consisting of a 17.5 motor on a 1s pack though, and we're just a tiny bit slower than what an official VTA setup would be. That probably helps me too.
07-10-2012, 08:01 PM
#1243
Ok what I want to know is how many guys cry about having to purchase a battery that they can only use in that class or 1/12th scale? Or how about using a separate battery for the receiver? Does anyone complain about that? Do they complain that they have to buy equipment just to conform to those rules? Do they constantly show up griping about how absurd the rules are just because they dont like or understand them? I'm just asking?
07-10-2012, 08:21 PM
#1244
p.s. they make hornet spray now!!!!
07-10-2012, 09:38 PM
#1245
okay guys...lets play nice...the rules, like whats been posted work...and work well...lets end it there
as far as the body line...I honestly dont have an answer, other than after talks about it with HPI, you can see the line on the NEW Cuda, thats setup like the Camaro. It just helps make the body last longer...thats all....we wont make this an issue...I cut mine to the line sometimes, and other times I dont....lets just get back to having fun and getting ready for the...(you knew it was coming)
2012 U.S. VTA+ SOUTHERN NATIONALS in MUSIC CITY U.S.A.....SEPT 21-23
as far as the body line...I honestly dont have an answer, other than after talks about it with HPI, you can see the line on the NEW Cuda, thats setup like the Camaro. It just helps make the body last longer...thats all....we wont make this an issue...I cut mine to the line sometimes, and other times I dont....lets just get back to having fun and getting ready for the...(you knew it was coming)
2012 U.S. VTA+ SOUTHERN NATIONALS in MUSIC CITY U.S.A.....SEPT 21-23