Help me pick a F1 chasis please !
08-06-2013, 05:02 PM
#31
Sure the modern bodies will work with the F103 front end. It will just look a bit...off since the wheels/tires will be 20mm wider than the front wing and smaller diameter than the F104 wheels/tires. At 190mms it looks fine so if you go with the F104v2 or another 180mm car and widen it to 190mm with the R-Sector kit it will retain its scale looks (If your concerned with that). Theoretically the wider car would have the advantage in handling so some people would want to build the car to the max possible to get any advantage they could. But from 180mm to 200mm all on rubber tires the cars are going to be so close it is mostly going to come down to driver and setup
08-06-2013, 07:44 PM
#32
If I were you, I would consider getting a car that is supported by your local hobby shop. I have owned and raced a few different cars including the F102, F103, F104 pro, F1R, WRC F-One, TRG F111, F104 Ver.ll (current), and a freshly built Serpent F110. I think the biggest deciding factor should be if rubber or foams will be used, and maximum width allowed. Of the cars listed (excluding the Serpent, as I haven't raced it yet) the fastest being the Ver.ll and the TRG. We adhere to UF1 rules, which dictate rubber tires and as of this season, a max width of 190mm. The TRG (wide) that I experimented with last year was very easy to drive. It felt so planted, that I could drive the car hard under most conditions. Funny thing was, it was slower than my Ver.ll. I found that the narrow cars transitioned a lot faster through the turns. The downside was that the quicker transition speed translated to a less forgiving drive. Locally, there is one guy (Mantisworx) that is always my main competition. Most times, our lap times are nearly identical. So every .1sec counts, especially in a 15min race. I just couldn't keep up with him with my wide car. Now with foam tires, that's another ball game. There's where a wide car is going to have a clear advantage. With all that being said, I don't think that you can go wrong with a Ver.ll as long as you can get parts. I can't comment yet on the Serpent, but from what happened in the ETS and from what I can tell from the build, it's going to be very good.
Hi,thanks for the heads up. In here I don't think the whole F1 scene is that big yet,it's pretty much anything goes regardless you have 180 track or 235 track. Tyres are strictly rubber tyre only.
It's quite sad in Australia the whole hobby thing is not all that big I guess due to our low population therefore all the hobby shops out there are only there to make their money and only stores whatever their supplier can give them so there is no real supported model from any hobby shops. All of my rc purchases are done 90% thru online shops.
The only F1 I could get some spare parts from the shop would be the F110 or the tamiya cars but most of the time anything you buy from shops here are almost double or triple the prices then buying online so most of the time I ended up buying from online anyway.
Question on the 104 ver 2. Can it take a normal size battery ? Cause I have wolf pack 6500 and I saw some post saying the upper deck needs to be chopped for the wire to clear. I can see that you are running the short packs I'm assuming that would be the better option ?
Thanks
Rick
08-06-2013, 07:48 PM
#33
Sorry...forgot you use rubber tires there.
Sure the modern bodies will work with the F103 front end. It will just look a bit...off since the wheels/tires will be 20mm wider than the front wing and smaller diameter than the F104 wheels/tires. At 190mms it looks fine so if you go with the F104v2 or another 180mm car and widen it to 190mm with the R-Sector kit it will retain its scale looks (If your concerned with that). Theoretically the wider car would have the advantage in handling so some people would want to build the car to the max possible to get any advantage they could. But from 180mm to 200mm all on rubber tires the cars are going to be so close it is mostly going to come down to driver and setup
Sure the modern bodies will work with the F103 front end. It will just look a bit...off since the wheels/tires will be 20mm wider than the front wing and smaller diameter than the F104 wheels/tires. At 190mms it looks fine so if you go with the F104v2 or another 180mm car and widen it to 190mm with the R-Sector kit it will retain its scale looks (If your concerned with that). Theoretically the wider car would have the advantage in handling so some people would want to build the car to the max possible to get any advantage they could. But from 180mm to 200mm all on rubber tires the cars are going to be so close it is mostly going to come down to driver and setup
Ahh I see. I'm very real anal about the whole scale thing,has to look as real as possible. I guess I'll even live with the track as it is if it looks off.
I did see the R-sector kit and maybe that's what I'll go with instead of the F103.
08-06-2013, 07:51 PM
#34
08-06-2013, 10:56 PM
#35
F104, overall a good car, do yourself a favour and bolt a F103 front end on they are quicker and easier to drive in wider config. I had an Exotek F104 as my previous F1.
Lots of parts support, car was very stable when setup right, but took a little time to get there, required lots of upgraded parts from stock.
Now I wont recommend a Speed Passion f1, they are just too weak at the moment, you will spend more time broken then running.
Beth.
Lots of parts support, car was very stable when setup right, but took a little time to get there, required lots of upgraded parts from stock.
Now I wont recommend a Speed Passion f1, they are just too weak at the moment, you will spend more time broken then running.
Beth.
But, you can also bolt on the 103 front end on the car, which means you can use the 3 Racing adjustable 103 front end kit that sells for around $20US with free shipping.
Plus RCMart has now dropped the SP1 to $139US with free shipping. The rest of the car is fine and it actually works very well, it's just it's front end that lets it down.
Food for thought...
Cheers
Rob.
08-07-2013, 12:21 AM
#36
The plastics on the SP-1 are a bit...flexy... which make the front end easy to break. So far the main issues I've had is I pulled the pillow ball through the steering knuckle once, and the short steering link from the servo to the bell crank keeps popping off. I just replaced the ball cups on the short link with some spare AE ones I had that feel really tight to snap on but free once they are on. I'm hoping these hold better. As for the knuckle I just made sure to stock up on spares. SP has said they have new plastics coming out that are stiffer so that should resolve the issues there. SP made a number of small mistakes with the car that add up to something many people are skeptical of...but out of the box it is one of the most, if not the most, versatile designs out there...and it handles very well. The pillow ball suspension makes it much easier to adjust front caster and camber than other designs out there and the adjustable wheel track makes it so you can run the car in 3 different widths stock out of the box (modification of the caster mount is needed to run the narrowest config). The practice days I was able to put my SP-1 on the track was some of the most fun I've ever had driving a F1 car and I left the stand with a smile on my face. The first race day it saw was plagued with the steering link that kept popping off and was frustrating. I think I have that fixed now and look forward to the next time it races...hopefully we'll have enough drivers this weekend to run it.
I would say to anyone considering the SP-1...it is a good car with a lot going for it...but I would wait for the new plastics to come out and see what happens then.
I would say to anyone considering the SP-1...it is a good car with a lot going for it...but I would wait for the new plastics to come out and see what happens then.
Last edited by InspGadgt; 08-07-2013 at 02:01 AM.
08-07-2013, 04:02 AM
#37
The SPEED PASSION F-68 bodies fit nicely and you have 4 different front ends to choose from, rc mart 2 for 45 dollars. It is made mainly for the F104 so fitting it to the SERPENT isn't hard you even cut out the same slots for the front arms and then mark the holes.
08-07-2013, 05:16 AM
#38
Am leaning more towards the serpent especially since I'm only a 15 min drive away from Walter Hobbies so local parts backup is a strong contributor to my decision.
Cheers
Rob.
08-07-2013, 08:27 AM
#39
Question on the 104 ver 2. Can it take a normal size battery ? Cause I have wolf pack 6500 and I saw some post saying the upper deck needs to be chopped for the wire to clear. I can see that you are running the short packs I'm assuming that would be the better option ?
Thanks
Rick
Thanks
Rick
08-08-2013, 03:34 AM
#40
Lads,how much difference are between the exotek F1R 104 conversion and the current 104 version 2 ?
08-08-2013, 09:54 AM
#41
The F1R is not complete...you still need a number of pieces from a F104. As far as design differences they are very similar. The links on the F1R are wider and don't fit as well under the modern narrow bodies and it uses a damper shock for the rear roll where the F104v2 uses a damper tube.
08-08-2013, 03:49 PM
#42
Either way, the links on the F1R are way out wider. You would need to run a different spring than the V2 most likely. Last year, the UF1 MIDWEST was won with an F1R. I sort of think the wider link/spring placement is beneficial, similar to running the shock further out on the arm of a sedan. You don't see too many sedans with the shock way in on the arm.
08-11-2013, 04:53 AM
#43
You'll note the F1R is discontinued, unless you can find one on the shelf.
Either way, the links on the F1R are way out wider. You would need to run a different spring than the V2 most likely. Last year, the UF1 MIDWEST was won with an F1R. I sort of think the wider link/spring placement is beneficial, similar to running the shock further out on the arm of a sedan. You don't see too many sedans with the shock way in on the arm.
Either way, the links on the F1R are way out wider. You would need to run a different spring than the V2 most likely. Last year, the UF1 MIDWEST was won with an F1R. I sort of think the wider link/spring placement is beneficial, similar to running the shock further out on the arm of a sedan. You don't see too many sedans with the shock way in on the arm.
The links on the F1R and the Yokomo are almost identical spacing
With the Yokomo sharing the angled design of the later thinner flex chassis.
I had both the thin and regular chassis and while the flexi chassis was faster it probably wasn't as consistent,
The Yokomo is probably the more stable out of all 3 that I raced.
I think AMain have done a poor job marketing them in the US, they don't really mention the Kit comes with both the narrow and wide front end for the US market.
Beth.
08-12-2013, 08:03 AM
#44
Tech Rookie
Buy one that has good parts availability, then learn to drive it.......
08-12-2013, 08:53 AM
#45
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