I need to make a choice pls help!
 

Hi all.... new to this forum and generally it has been 15 years since last drove a RC car....

Thinking of getting back into this hobby now I can afford a little luxury ..... I want to get a good car, and I intend to run it with stock motor P2k etc...

What I like is to be able to set up the car the way I want and experiment with different options and setups... and its gotta be quick and fairly ruggered....

I am down to the following chassis:

TC-3
TA04R
RC Lab 7even
XrayT-1

I have one reason for each car:
TC-3 : I like shaft drive for its simplicity and durability
TA04R: Its all hopped up and good documentation of parts....
RC Lab : really cool concept and very believable
Xray T-1 Amazing quality and design...

So.... they are all valid reasons and please don't tell me to buy all of them ..... also I did not include others due to availibility of bits in the UK.....

Thanks!:D

Those are all good choices. My personal opinion is to find out what car has good parts availability in your area and what are other drivers in your area running. If you have access to parts easily and people to help you with setups, then it should make your choice easier.

Out of those I would say TC3, cause the FT version comes with every concievable hopup. The X-ray comes with alot too, but the ppl here who have seen it think the geometry isn't very good. I don't know much about the rc lab, though everone who has had one has seemed happy with it. My advice is to not go tamaya, the TA04R isn't even their top of the line car.

Speedo

sonneteer,

All of those models would be a fine choice.

I am going to get flamed for this... but

I would never suggest a TC3 to someone new (kinda new), as no matter the the magazines say, the car is still pretty fragile. It is blazing fast, but those arms still break. And if you are hitting the boards a fair amount, you will have broken arms, that is not fun and pretty discouraging.

The Xray.. well that is a nice car.. pretty expensive, pretty adjustable.. pretty hard to get parts for.

The Tamiya, well tamiya is not popular around here so I realy would not comment other than..If I bought a Tamiya.. I would get anything TRF

The Seven 6.0 even.. Well it is a nice car, comes pretty well equipped and is pretty tunable. They just release a second evolution of the car to trim some grams and improve it. Drives nice...

I agree with KerryG.. look what the people are running around you, that will help you a great deal with setups, and chances are that the LHS will have parts.

Being in the UK... why are you not looking at the new MISSION, from Schumacher... out any day now.

:cool:I agree with spooky,you being in the UK go with the schumacher mission out in a few days.

I only got into R/C racing this year and the track I run at (SoCal Raceway) is said to be one of the hardest tracks. I run a TC3 and broke an A-Arm fairly quickly. After that I installed the wide front bumper from BRP and have never broke an A-Arm again.

I would go with the TC3. Simple, fairly durable, and very easy to work on and maintain. The only adjustment I wish the car had would be a wheelbase adjustment on the front end as well as the rear. Easily fixed by narrowing the caster blocks an 1/8 of an inch on each side and using a spacer.

car choices....
 

Thanks to everyone so far helping me out....

I have to confess I have not much track experience, except I use to use cans to make my own circuit when I use to run cars...

I have checked out what people run here:

Out of say 20 cars I have seen, the majority choice are roughly:

5 TC-3 and 6 Schumacher..., then there were 2 Xrays... , one looked like a Yokomo... and the other are 4 Lossi and the other 2 are beyond me.....

I do tend to drive my cars quite hard.... (rolled a real car on a oval track a few months ago!) and I am not afraid of braking things, just dont enjoy it.... but that is not where I get most of my satisfction (driving hard , not braking !!!) ..... I get the biggest buz when I change a setup and I really find a difference (good or bad is besides the point!)

so I guess I like a car that reacts to the changes.... That was my interest on the 7even as everyone is saying that it does just that, plus it is ruggered.... and its cheaper than the X-ray!!!

Thing is I never had a belt drive, so I dont know about their characteristic nor maintenance much.... I am however helping my girlfriend to build her first car! A Tamiya TA03F Alfa 155 DTM fully ballraced!!!! So I guess I can see how it all goes!!!

The other cars like the HPI PRO3, looks nice but there was something about it I didnt feel right about it... no offence to anyone.... manybe I will keep an eye on the new Schuey Mission.....

So far the list of preference is (from advice/price/availability having something different from others!):

RC LAB
TC-3
X-RAY
MISSION : Under investigation!!!!

(Where is the TA04??? There is NO TA04 here!!! hahaha...)

Thanks all so far, but keep them good advice coming....

Tell me is it me or the TC-3 suffers from chassis flex???

Another thing, what do you guys mean by "TWEAK"??? Over hear the word "TWEAK" means fine tuning!!!

sonneteer--
I had a look at your website... looks like some NICE stuff. I used to be something of an audio buff years ago.

If you're interested in a car that responds to setup changes, you might want to consider the Losi. I'm very happy with that aspect of the car. IF it's going to be hard to find parts support in your area it may not be the right choice, however.

I've heard nothing but good things about the RCLabs cars, I don't think you'd need to worry about choosing theirs.

The Mission could be another good choice. I've owned one Shumacher before, an Axis Pro. I couldn't say anything negative about the car other than that it was a bit difficult to find parts at most of the local shops. That ought not be an issue in the U.K.

Tweak-- in our context, tweak refers to what is called "wedge" or "crossweight" by full scale racers.

Best of luck with whichever you choose...

Trips
P.S. Is any of your audio gear suitable for use on 110-120V mains like we have in the U.S.??

Thanks for your compliment on my site..... That is my no.1 passion next to cars......

Lossi I heard the parts are difficult at times, but then each time I saw one on track side it was broken!!!

It is looking more and more like a fight between the RC LAB and the TC-3, do you think shaft drive is better? here they say belt drive is less aggressive on take-off good for the crappy wet weather we generally have here!!!!

I will check out the Mission in the next few nights, So far, without considering the Mission, TC-3 wins for parts, the RC LAB wins for desirability.... so does the Xray, but price is a slight worry...

One thing I am going to run the car in stock motor first to get some experience, so would shaft drive do better due to less rolling resistance???

Regarding my gear, we do have US version and we have sent a few units there in the past, but we are now hoping to sign with an distributor in the US so fingers cosses, I may even can afford the XRAY and the RCLAB, TC-3, Mission..... :D

If all goes well I will be at the Vagas CES show to show my stuff off!!!! that would be cool as I have never been over the Atlantic!

Cheers!

sonneteer: Man I would have to say go for the Schumacher Mission. I mean your right there in Schumacher country, and its one of the most adjustable cars out there. But, not to adjustable for someone who been out of the hobby for a while.

After that, the seven even seems pretty good. Its definitely different! And that alone moves it up in my book!:D

I would say look at those first then look at the X-ray T1. It seems like a good car. The many adjustments may be a little over the top for someone just getting back into the hobby though.

In any case, you have already made one good choice.....Getting back into R/C.....:cool:

Good luck.

If you decide to come out for the CES, let us know what your booth # will be. I go to the Vegas CES each year and it's always a blast. I spent an entire day and a half JUST in the car audio rooms last year. I don't know car audio much from the manufacturing side, but I've done some competition-quality installs before. Right now the system in my car is all Premeir components with Oz subs and MB Quart speakers. I would love to do more car audio stuff but I am just in to too many different things... :)

BTW, to hit on the thread topic, I think the Losi is a great car for beginners. Tough to break stuff and easy as pie to set up. However, I have a helluva time gettings parts for it here in the midwest US, so I have no idea how it might be in the UK. But if parts were readily available, I would choose XXX-S over TC3. The Schumacher Mission does look like a winner though.

Well, the Losi is still new, so that is probably why parts are hard to come by at the moment. I think it is a great car, but it doesn't come with anything in the way of hopups, like the yok, FT TC3 and X-ray.

RIGHTY!

1. TC3 - I agree with Speedo about the TC3 Factory Team having almost every upgrade you can get for the TC3 but there are major bad points about being in the United Kingdom ordering a Factory Team from the USA (where all RC10s are manufactured) as this takes a very long time for the kit to be produced and it takes a long while for the kit to arrive, mine took over 3-4 months before it arrived at my hobby shop, but maybe because i ordered a Factory Team TC3 when they were just new and supplys were low. I have to disagree with people saying the TC3 is fragile, I have a full graphite conversion encluding graphite arms, graphite chassis etc, and i have not broken one yet, and are showing no sign of breakage, but if you were to crash the TC3 so badly that you broke the arms and craked the chassis and bulk heads etc you will have to dish out some more of your dough just to repair it, not like a Factory Team TC3 already costs $499.99 (approx. £350.99). So as a conclusion i would say if you were looking at the TC3 go for the racer version :) Associated Website

2. TOA4-r - I haven't got much background knowledge of this car as i haven't driven it, but i have a good idea of what its like... Its like a titanium plated security truck like most Tamiya's no matter how much you crash them they will not, and i repeat will not break, as my TOA3 Pro is made of the same material as the TOA4's chassis plate, i have had no problems with it what so ever, but the lack in hop ups over some of the other cars you stated would disadvantage you as you are paying money for a car with a few hop ups, but if you dished out more money you would probably get twice as many hop ups as you you would for the cheaper version (that might contradict the above abit :D). As this car is based on the 414 series of Tamiya's I should think if properly tuned and cared for his car should go quick. Tamiya Website

3. RC Lab 7even - I haven't got a clue :D But you can Find more information on the RC Lab Website

4. X - Ray T1 - This so called luxury rc car I heard is very fragile indeed, i haven't driven the car myself but i've mostly heard bad things about this car, about it being too pricey, and too fragile needing to replace the parts every so often, maybe someone can prove me wrong but different people have different driving experiences like with the TC3.

5. Schumacher Misson - This would be the safest bet in my opinion as Apex Models is the bigest Schmacher stockest in Europe and is sittuated in the midlands so you can mail order, like me, spare parts that you have broken, and they should arrive in a day or two depending on the time of the week, and where you live. I don't know much information about the misson however you can look at the Schumacher Website for some information on the Schumacher Misson and other cars.

Name any other cars and i'll be glad to help, except for the Yokomo MR4-TC Special :D nah just joking. Yokomo USA website for more information on Yokomo cars.

I hope that helped.

This has been the subject of much debate, but I'm convinced that while a shaft drive car feels like its drivetrain has less resistance on the bench, the belt drive will have less resistance as speed increases and centrifugal force lifts the belts slightly off the pulleys. I did some tests last year and posted them to the now defunct rctouring.com boards. Basically I took a well built TC3 and an equally well built Shumacher Axis and ran them up on the bench at varying voltages and measured the current draw. I used identical final drive ratios to keep things honest.

What I found was that alt low rpms, the TC3 drew less current than the Axis, but as I increased the voltage and RPM's the TC3's current draw increased almost linearly, while the Axis increased its current draw slightly then started falling off on draw as the rpms got higher.

I doubt that there was enough difference overall to matter a lot on the track, but it was measurable on the bench.

Trips