niznai

Larger pulleys are fine, but you need to adapt the centre pulleys to spec racing requirements otherwise you're killing your market share. I for one hate intergalactic size pinions and 64 pitch is not always feasible for outdoor tracks.

I have managed to adapt Kawada center pulleys (the largest I've got - 24 tooth) for use in some for my older cars (TA05R is one) but newer cars (Tamiya, Yokomo do not allow this move because the top deck is in the way.

Back to diff internal gears, it's all in the pitch used. It can be done, but costly. Real cars use straight cut satellites/planetary and they are notchy as well. Cutting (moulding) a better tooth profile becomes very involved the more precise you want to get. Don't know how they do it in printers and other applications, but it can be done. I have found in some older machinnery some really nice spiral bevel gears (too big for our diffs), but I have no idea how much they would cost to manufacture. This was out of an old punch card reader. Who said innovation was a new imperative?

cplus

iTrader: (11)

The competitors cars are at a higher internal ratio anyway (most are 2.0). So even if they went to 40t, keeping the same centre pulleys will simply make them the same.

Salkin

Tamiya's disappointing result at the 2014 Worlds left this thread stone cold.....

cplus

iTrader: (11)

Disappointing?

4 cars in the Amain is pretty decent.

It's been quiet cause there is zero news! Better than 20 more pages of crap...!

TB03Racer09

iTrader: (1)

Main reason the thread is stone cold is because the car is being released in December where the Yokomo and Xray are already for sale. We ran out of things to talk about since know one has bought one yet

Salkin

Would have thought that none of the top brands are settling for anything less than a victory.

It can never be a good marketing platform to boast a 4th place at the worlds when the main competitors did better.

Hope I did not spark off another 20 pages of crap...

addicted2blue

I think these kind of reactions don't do justice about the tamiya product or all the efford they have done towards the worlds.
Tamiya is still the nr 1 when it comes down to overall world titles, that should give them a lot of respect even when it wasn't ment to be the winning team/car again.

That's just my 2 cents opinion.

Salkin

Well, I agree, but newcomers to TC will be much more prone to see who won the Worlds titel, it is an easy understandable yardstick for the lessor known.

The company and people who uses the winning brand will certainly be using this as an argument, even if the serious and knowledgeable users know that the best car may not necessarily be the one on the top of the podium, and that a win is a combination of "man and machine".

I drive in a local club with 85% of X-rays T4's, so....

Clawhammers

+1

And the competitor also holds 14 world titles, all from several IFMAR EP classes ... This is something to be taken into consideration.

Tamiya earned their respect for the development of TC (and 5 titles), but I'd also look up for other brand, which holds 27 titles (AE), 16 titles (K) and 14 titles (Y)


Just sharing my $0.02

atomic garden

iTrader: (1)

i would like to add that they had 3 cars in the main final

at that level every car that got into the final will be a great car
it will come down to a bit of luck, staying error free and driver/setup talent

Hara an ex-WC also drove a yokomo (the winning car) and he didn't make the final

winning is ofc great for marketing, but will anyone here be a lot better or worse if they change between a Tamiya, Yokomo or xray? i don't think the car is the limiting factor for most of us

Salkin

Wasn't it Enzo Ferrari who said: "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday"?

goin2drt

iTrader: (77)

Nicely stated. I would also assume that most of the top drivers could have switched cars and the results would have been close. Give the driver credit here. All those cars are top cars. The better driver won that day. I assume Volker could pick up a clapped out TC4 and get it running pretty darn close.

Very similar to golf. We all want the latest and greatest equipment. Give a top golfer a set of clubs from 1980 and he is going to score very close to that of the best equipment.

Juan Aveytia

I dont think winning the worlds has much to with selling kitsbat all. Only Manufactor bragging rights. People aren't that nieve to think just because the car did or didn't win makes it the best. Tamiya sales more plastic tub cars than their highend stuff. Xray appears to be the dominant chassis in terms of people using them in the usa. People buy whatever they see is fast locally to them. My opinion is that Tamiya makes the best looking cars and thats what I use.

niznai

Yeah, but you can only get by on looks so much.

People are lazy. They buy what everybody else runs because that's the easy way. Local support of course has its own weight to add and that's how you end up racing the car with the best distribution system on the ground. Xray has done their job quite well all over the world. There is hardly any shop on line worth its salt that doesn't carry Xray. You can buy them in Europe, Asia, America. The rest are good at the most at local distribution and Tamiya is expensive as poison outside SE Asia (even in Japan). This made a lot of distributors drop it. In Australia there isn't even an official importer. There is an Xray one though. And a Yokomo dealer (and Losi, and AE, and Team Durango, Schumacher, etc). In Europe I have spoken with a lot of shops that told me they just dropped Tamiya because it was too expensive. And so on.

The only place where you'd probably struggle to get an Xray is Japan, and that is because of its draconian import tax.

In Australia, you'll probably see the same situation, most people race whatever is supported locally, or cheap imports (thank god for Hong Kong). My own home track is dominated by Xray and Yokomo (in this order) plus some Schumacher cars. And yes, you guessed it, we have one Xray shop, one Yokomo and one Schumacher locally (plus many more interstate).

Simmi

Why too expensive?
The BD7 2015 currently costs € 479 without steel spool outdrives and no Double Joint Drive Shafts (I think) and no Aluminium Servo Mount.

The T4 2015 currently costs € 469 without steel spool outdrives and with no Alu steering and no Alu Spring Holder.

Tamiya has all included with the same Prices.