How much are trf103’s going for if I want to try and find one?

is hard to find but is a great F1, i saw on ebay likely one month ago

. Thank you

Found one Now not sure I’ll have time to run it…lol. Suggestions on set up Upgrades and electronics? Thanks

congrats!! its a great car!

for update i recommend the gear diff besides this, dont need just make a maintenance and run to win :lol:

for setup, recommend start with Simon Lauter setup

Car Setup Parking Lot Track
 

So here is the car setup used for the Revelation Raceway 2022 TCS Race in full detail. This was a tricky technical track layout with alot of bumps, a dangerously tight back straight chicane and low grip at the start of the day. The body used was the Tamiya 2017 F104 on maximum downforce settings. Ball diff was loose/medium tight and droop/height in the middle was 8.0mm to clear all the mega bumps of a parking lot track. No aluminum screws were used, all steel/titanium hex where applicable. Tires were tamiya softs with tamiya inserts and sauced using Gravity RC LG2 Asphalt tire sauce. Used Tamiya Aluminum servo saver on a Futaba low profile servo. ESC was placed inline next to servo with capacitor sitting on top of ESC. Middle of chassis had 5g weights on both outer ends as a battery stop/ballast. Transponder and receiver were placed on outer ends of chassis. No motor fan or ESC fan were used and max motor temp was 142F.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...54ace06967.png

I'm shocked the f104 rears worked. We're you able to try other tires?

I would have normally used Gravity RC or Hudy tires of the event were open tires, but due to the low grip of the track, the tamiya soft tires were the way to go. Even though the track was well over the heat range of the tires, they were way faster than the tamiya hards. The tires did however blister and tear a little bit, which is why I opted to not practice with my qual/race tires too much. Only 6 runs (5min each) on them total

Could you put a photo of the rears? If would be nice to see examples of wear, I see so many tires that I think are way past good but guys cover them with traction compound and go at it.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...5821c4629.jpeg
Heres the close up of the Tamiya Softs Front and Rear after about 40 minutes of total run time. While it’s somewhat aggressive wear, you can still see the rear seam lines

Those seem to be in pretty good shape. The comment about the seam is a good observation point.
Is that some buildup on the front right and some graining on the right rear? Are you hand balancing your tires? And did you use the kit tire inserts?

Sorry for all the questions but it fun to discuss a real setup.

So the track was Counter clockwise, so naturally all of the right side was building up. After each run, I would manually use some 220grit paper to lightly scrape off the build up on the edges only (never sand the contact patch, that will greatly ruin tires). For this race I did use the stock kit inserts. I did try an alternative tire set with softer inserts in practice, but that doesn’t work on a parking lot surface; way too bumpy and loose.

All of my tires were hand balanced/glued (Extremely tedious work, 3 hours for 2 sets). I don’t like doing this as it makes the class a little bit of an art in tire prep/build, which is not what the hobby/class is about. I really wish that the Organizers/Tamiya would have made all F1 tires a spec tire (These are not easy cars to drive by default of 2wd). Having to pick from Hard or soft and hand gluing makes for an unfair barrier to entry for the class. This is why I liked the TCS carpet race at 702, you had to use their spec tire and it was fair for everyone.

Thanks for the feedback. The "art of balancing tires" is no joy to me, watching a tire spin is not my idea of excitement, but to win is to get things right that others...don't.
I am not sure about all pre-mounts. I have had lots of luck with them but back in the winter I had a set of new carpet tires that straight out of the clear plastic box that had a vibration in one of the rear tires. This was a real body blow as that was almost $100 basically for three tires.

Thanks everyone for the set up tips. Great car but we are now allowing non Tamiya cars will shelf the trf103 as worried about parts in the future

A suggestion is to get spare parts now, don't wait for things to break. Have them on hand, because things only break on race day and the track won't have what you need.