Originally Posted by macavant

Completed the re-livery on my F201 today. Kudos to BPShadow - another awesome decal set from F1Paintlabs. CF pattern body left intact.

Here is the Ferrari - back to the dominant days of the F2004:









I used a different media for the front / rear wings with this project. Instead of plastic paint (like my other cars); I applied airplane repair vinyl film on the surface prior to applying the decals. The vinyl is self adhesive and comes in a variety of colors. It is about the same thickness as MonoKote film. I ran the F201 on the track and it sustained a rollover and an incident with the barrier.

Originally Posted by terry.sc

Replaced mine with Tamiya low friction pads as they are machined rather than moulded and then run them dry or with various damper greases depending on how much grip there is on the surface I'm running on. If you need as much rear grip as possible run them dry with no preload on the springs. The same with the front kingpins, adding grease will dampen the front end.

The pivot ball will let the rear end rock freely from side to side with the only control of the cation being the grease used in the friction pads. The o-ring setup isn't as free but it can be easily adjusted to tune the rear end. I race on carpet so the rear end is loosened for weekly club racing but screwed down almost solid for big meetings with much higher grip. The ball setup is much more loose so good for generating more rear grip especially on bumpy surfaces.

The carbon reinforced one is stiffer, but won't make a difference to the handling. The reason I always run the carbon one is that it's much stronger and needs a much harder hit to break it compared with the plastic one.

If you need more overall grip then ditch the full length top deck and carbon chassis and replace them with the standard fibreglass ones. Generallyy the change of chassis will change overall grip, and the full length top deck will understeer more than the standard one.

Can't help with gearing, we run 21.5T here and running between 40 and 60mmpr depending on the track.

Originally Posted by Howler

HI all, A few quick questions on what people prefer for brand of traction compound on their Shumizu rubber tires for use on carpet. Thanks in advance for any help!

1. Brand
2. How do you prefer to apply it. Soak and clean prior to race, or Apply and run it.

Originally Posted by Howler

HI all, A few quick questions on what people prefer for brand of traction compound on their Shumizu rubber tires for use on carpet. Thanks in advance for any help!

1. Brand
2. How do you prefer to apply it. Soak and clean prior to race, or Apply and run it.

Originally Posted by Tracy B

Question on painting these shells.
How are you all painting the cockpits & radiator openings??
Are you painting these parts first??

Originally Posted by Tracy B

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Originally Posted by terryh1313

those look like hpi f10 bodies but what wiings are those

Originally Posted by GundamWZero

What is the difference in popularity between the F201 and the F102/F104s?

Are the F201s acceptable in club-sanctioned racing?

Why isn't many aftermarket hops available (Bodies, Chassis, Front/Rear Wings) for the F201 as opposed to the F102/104s?

Reason why I am asking is because I am about to take possesion of a Tamyia F201, but the popular car here seems to be the F104, which I think came out earlier. Now, I have a Kyosho F1 (no body), but there are no aftermarket nor spare parts available. I am afraid that if I drop a 3300 or 4000 nimh with a Cyclone TC2/Onyx package (or a GTX/Velocity 17.5 Brushless package), into the Kyosho, that this car will disintergrate on the first roll over.

Originally Posted by k_bojar

the F201 came about about 8 years ago and its a 4wd F1 car. It was a cool idea, but wasn't widely accepted by the F1 'purists' for obivious reasons. The F103 came out before the F201 and was re-released after the F201's production stopped

the chassis layout is awesome, very realistic (the FGX based a lot of their designs off this car IMO), but was kinda fragile...not much cooling for the motor (without dremeling the chassis) and gearing is severly limited (olnly 2 or 3 different tamiya-pitch pinions worked, with 2 different spur gears -- think TT01)

if you put a F201 on the track vs a F104 or a F103 - it will be left in the dust...i'm sure some people will argue with me, but i remember an article on tamiya usa's site that did a comparison between the F201 (new at the time) and the f103 - and it was several seconds slower a lap

you're best bet is too look for a cheap F103 or F104 and build the F201 as a shelf-queen...competing against other F201, they'll be cool - but will be outmatched against a F103/F104