Unfortunately since the OP used the words "COMPLETELY STUPID", I think it may have unfortunately set a negative tone to this thread. Personally I believe that there are many reasons why RC F1 racing is currently where it is, at least in the US.
- The biggest issue is ROAR rules prohibit independent suspension, which many facilities use as a blueprint for their own rules (even if they aren't a ROAR track).
- For many years, F1 racing in the US has been run on either indoor carpet or permanent and/or smooth outdoor tracks. "Pan Car" designs work well on these types of surfaces, so there isn't a need for a full suspension car.
- For many years, there were very few companies making any F1 cars (mainly Tamiya), and the few that were being produced were based on a solid axle design. As such, there were limited tire/wheel choices available which of course were all designed to be used on the existing solid axle cars.
As far as the few independent suspension cars being at a disadvantage, I think this deserves a little more explanation.
- An independent suspension car is going to need more parts (such as more shocks or extra gearbox parts), which will usually result in a heavier car. If a local track doesn't adjust the rules to help equalize the differences in weight between the "pan car" F1 and independent suspension F1, then the lighter car is going to have an advantage. Established F1 racers (those who attend big races or travel to other tracks) typically want to use national rules.
- An independent suspension car will either need a bevel gear gearbox at the rear (such as the F201) or multiple gear setup with a layshaft to rear diff setup (such as the FGX) to be able to get everything under the rear of a typical F1 body. This results in gearbox reduction on these cars which makes it more difficult to get the same final drive ratio as a direct drive car using the same spec of motor. In some cases due to chassis and/or gearbox design it might not even be possible to get the proper gearing for a specific motor. Again a local facility could allow the independent suspension car to run a different motor to equalize the speed of the cars, but we all know how these type of exceptions work in competitive racing.
As far as the durability of an independent suspension F1 1/10 scale car, I can only speak to the Tamiya F201 I owned. There were only 2 durability issues that car had (other than the normal r/c car issues).
- The original lower A-Arms were a bit fragile/prone to breaking. Tamiya updated the design of the lower A-arms which corrected that issue.
- The stock diff screw had a tendency to break which was easily fixed by upgrading to the lightweight diff.
Other than that, I don't recall breaking anything else other than the front wing due to poor driving on my part. Because the car was designed more like a 4wd touring car, you could expect to break the same type of parts (steering knuckles for example) due to poor driving but not because the F201 was inherently fragile. I would say a solid axle car is more prone to breaking axle bearings if you slide the side of the tires into a wall as compared to the F201.
Last edited by IndyRC_Racer; 10-14-2016 at 06:47 AM.