Tamiya is a very large company, probably one of the largest in this industry. Their sales come from plastic models, RC, paint, tools, educational material. To my knowledge, their financials are not public, so whose to say which segment contributes the most to their total revenue.

They have their reasons for deciding to walk away from having a racing team. I personally doubt it has "only" to do with money.

Nostalgia? Yes it does draw sales and Tamiya has been profiting from it since 2000 or even earlier. Associated and Kyosho finally realised it a decade later and jumped on the band wagon. I have spent plenty of money in their nostalgia offerings.

On this forum, we assume we are the hobby when we are just a fraction of these companies sales. We assume that "everyone" is into this hobby for racing, when it's a very small group of that races. Every year a new version of these chassis' appear with 1% we convince ourselves that they recreated the wheel and buy it.

I personally believe they will continue with the TRF series. It's prestigious and Tamiya is a proud Japanese company.

Curious quote from the 4x champ

Well, it's correct for TC....

Bulkhead spacing is back to 22mm now so maybe? Unsure of top v bottom screw centres though.

When will we hear a statement from Tamiya regarding this and their future plans for racing car kits? It would be time for that now.

I wouldn't be surprised they are struggling because 5-10 years back they released a lot of different and interesting RC kits, bodies etc. every year. 2016 They have been pretty dead I think. I would guess RC sales are going down, competetion is geting thougher and Tamiya seems to be a very conservative company. To survive you have to be innovative and create new things, thinking outside the box and not only re-release some 25 year old kits.

Post a few pages back

http://www.liverc.com/news/special_f...acing_Factory/

Tamiya Japan is closed on Holiday Break till after New Years. So I would expect a statement some time in January.

Has anyone found any of the white low friction belts that fit the 419

They took their time....

"TRF has long contributed to Tamiya's successful R/C product designs via the valuable race data gained through its racing activities in elite races such as world championships. In 2017 TRF will look to provide Tamiya R/C fans of all abilities across the world with even more comprehensive support. We will be present at official Tamiya-sanctioned events around the globe, ready to forge a closer bond with local racers and R/C fans, our goal being to provide a truly all-encompassing experience for the hobby. We look forward to your support and participation in 2017 and beyond."

http://www.tamiya.com/english/e-home.htm

http://www.tamiya.com/japan/cms/tami...1-trf2017.html

https://kentech.wordpress.com/2016/1...g-factory-trf/

Fully agreed with Kentech blog summary. Great again.
Hopefully future of trf cars will be much better in terms of quality than recent communications from HQ.
419x is awesome but if they go against the "world trend"...there is high chance to fall...and lose "bluecar" customers
Investing in local racers make sense to me however running a separate cup (again) will not work... ETS is very strong, modified, stock, Formula are the popular categories...Tamiya cup was great couple of years back but disappeared....nobody interested anyomre at least here where I race.

Not at all impressed by the Tamiya announcement today. The TRF car future is still in much doubt. I have been running TRF cars since 2005, will be interesting to see if the current one will be my last.

It's a difference in culture, this is how they prefer to communicate which to most of us equates to "a lack there of"

We do however have the US agent, Fred from TamiyaUSA saying "We will still make race cars - there will still be TRF kits and TRF hop-ups"

I found these trf419x lcg shock towers they are custom made , it moves the shocks down 1mm lowering cg a bit, it also gives way more shock positions
I got a set to try but I had to order 5 sets so I have 4 extra sets if someone wants to try a set pm they only cost me 40 a set so should be able to do 45 shipped anywhere .

I did not make these I am just trying them and offering the other 4 I have to anyone that wants to try them as well. they may work well, they may suck I don't know yet.
here is a few pics sorry I did the best I can taking pics

pic of both front and rear


pic of stock front and lcg front side by side


pic of stock on top of lcg to help see how much it lowered the shocks

I don't think so. It probably won't be the last TRF TC - just the last run by a factory sponsored team (for the immediate future anyway) - and it doesn't have amazing racing pedigree.

The ones to get are the world championship cars like the 417 - or even the ones that won big races like TITC or Reedy (which the 417 also won!)

I've been out of commission lately due to the holidays and a couple of colds.

In any event, I replaced a chassis on my oldest 419X and captured a time lapse of the rebuild.

+ YouTube Video