I'm going to be super picky here, but it's far from perfect.

Diff is not the best. If yours doesn't leak, you're in the minority.

Front spool is too sloppy in the bulkheads and needs lots of shims to stop it moving side to side.

Lipo mounts are a very cheap solution.

Spur/pulley system is not precise and gets sloppy fast.

Ball cups should be open ended from factory, but persisting with a 10year old moulding.

Belt tension (outdrive bearing holders) are very simplistic and outdated. VBC and Yokomo are much better.

Shock towers suspect to tweak, and should be keyed in some way.

Extreme Offset of the motor mount is stupid, means very picky for motors/pinions and they must be mounted "backwards" (nose in). Some motors can't be used at all in a satisfactory way - LRP for example.

Steering bridge posts need to have a flat surface - you can't easily grab then to torque down the screws without scratching them. EVO6 are much better - this solution should have been adopted.

Having said all that, I looked at a TC6.2 today - now there is a car with some slop!

Hahaha yeah associated has fallen far behind.

Now that you mentioned them, I see a lot more places for improvement. My diff leaks very little,not enough to bother me but I would prefer if it was bone dry outside. Haven't experienced any sloppiness in the front spool or center pulley/spur assembly yet, time will tell. The battery mounting is very cheap but I guess the inclusion of double cardan cvd's and a floating motor mount make up for that in a way.

I'm hoping they rectify these issues in the next car, but by then the other brands will have some new innovation and Tamiya wont.

The sway bars are mounted like 20 years ago, not that anyone short of the new Xray T4 is much better. Some solutions of the past were much better (in TC I think only Xray used them, but they were a carryover from 1/8 nitro cars), but somewhat costly (complicated) and heavy.

Tamiya has a lot of catching up to do, but they instead chose to play with things that were good like shock absorbers (their were always some of the best in the business and a pleasure to build, not sure why they needed to put money into developing the large bore shocks when other parts of the car needed serious updates).

Seems they finally decided to go with the Yokomo type split suspension blocks, so that's out of the way. They did manage to get a good motor mount (could be improved still), and almost did a good gear diff (if it wasn't for the fiddliness of putting it together). Still needs shims in the kit (Tamiya are you listening?) so we don't need to borrow from other manufacturers or rely on our spares box.

And then it's the never to go away problem of plastics which are still fragile (C-hubs, arms, etc).

I don't have an issue with the ballcups, I don't drill all of mine and I don't see that as such a big deal. I actually think they finally solved the problem of slop in their balljoints with the new ballnuts (TRF) which for once fit nicely and without any play and I think their plastic is better than most being soft so you can pull it off quite a few times before it becomes sloppy.

One problem I found was that if you need some higher than normal ground clearance (our track is very bumpy) so your chassis doesn't drag on the floor, the lower shock balljoints are too short. They are also very soft, but paradoxically develop slop when pulled on and off a lot.

The irony is that all the fanboys who could not stomach my criticism a year ago now are silent or did an about face or sold their cars and moved on.

I took a chance for the last race and changed the camber to -0,5 call around. The car was even better on the asphalt track. (running the Ride USGT tyres) It may have had something to do with the parking lot surface. This time around it was really clean and the guy who sprays it did a fantastic job.

I finally did break my first C hub.. passed a guy on a turn and he decided to take me out in the next turn, hit me in the left front wheel.

If only I could have that x ray bumper run the perimeter of the whole car ;)

@Sir Raman,

With all of the "factory defects" mentioned above, which chassis would be a good choice for my next project this summer? In terms of durability, technology, and completeness...

A kit that doesn't need much tweaking and modding.

With all the defects stated in this thread, this is the best kit I have ever owned. The only kit where out of the box, it has handled incredibly well with respect to my driving abilities. With every race my confidence grows.

Prior to this car, I raced a BD7 13 and TRF416WE. I always struggled with those cars.

For an average driver like me, it's the perfect car.

I will follow suit this summer. Thanks Sir Raman.

I think the problem with these manufacturers and Tamiya included is they are changing the car too much redesigning to suit a couple of drivers and making circles of their changes over the years back to the same kind of flex in the car or whatever.

People get turned off when you can't run certain parts on your 1 version old car at all. The 418 was moved on from fast. They discontinue parts fast. My 416X I should still be able to buy a Lipo Chassis for it, but no.

That said the 419 is high quality and work of art. The Xray may be best quality and definitely a work of art in everything they do, but they are actually seem to be less durable for tapping the walls on the track and breaking. Where's their championships? Tamiya has the most World's in 190mm 1:10 EP TC and look to at least keep that going forward with the most talented world stage set of 3 drivers of any manufacturer with their recent signings of Matsukura and Krapp joining Rheinard.

It's a great kit. It's not perfect (no car is) but out of the box it's all good.

The areas that are discussed are

Stronger C hubs - the older ones are stronger I've broken 2 myself in the last 3 months one was an acceptable break when I hit a board at full tilt, the other was more soft but it could have been because an earlier large impact had caused it to fracture. Personally I am more bothered about the movement of the c hubs at the king pins but the new packet I opened seemed to fit perfectly so maybe there was a dodgy batch or the have modified the mould? Other plastics parts are great quality the new 418 arms are very strong and after a full year of racing my 418 I still had no slop in them and no breakages (including the uprights as well), this was racing on the rug not outdoor though and that will increase the wear and tear.

Diff leaking - After a few months I noticed a slight leak in one out drive, others at the club have had that as well. No one is that bothered as it's a small leak and they just service it once a month or so. Although it seems using the black o ring and AW grease has stopped it leaking for some. Still it's an area that could be better as I never noticed a leak on the older ones even if I left it in for months.

Stabilisers - Erm I am fine with this style, the X-ray ones seem nice but I would rather have lighter bulkheads etc.

As to the lipo holders I love em but that's because they are light and I hate weight overhanging the chassis that doent need to be there. I took mine of the 417 when it used to have them and ran this

Regarding shims etc I have built loads of kits, all can benefit from extra shims here and there if you are really picky. The 419 is no different but it doesn't need them to be a great car at the track.

The 419 seems to have attracted more fanboys back to the Tamiya cars, at our club even the die hard anti tamiya guys are looking at it now as it's proving itself to be such a good car. The most annoyed racer at our club ATM is the t4 2015 guy who honestly wishes he had kept his older car as he has had nothing but issues with the new one.

Thanks for the further enlightenment Sir Qatmix. Please note that I am NOT a competitive rc racer like you. I love rc technology, building and enjoying myself around the track when there are no events.

We all get different things out of our hobby, just do what you enjoy and have fun doing it :) You should consider going to a rc club as it's great fun and you can learn lots of new things (I've been doing it for years and am still learning) you also get to see lots of other cars and other rc tech.

I would but the nearest decent track from where I live is a good 40 miles away. Plus my work hinders me from joining rc clubs.

You are actually one of my "guides" as I acquire new cars. I read your reviews first before taking the plunge. Heck, I am even acquiring a TT02 because of your article.

Thank you and more power!

I agree it is a great kit. Pleasure to build and I've found my 419 (and 418 before it) to be strong.

I've only broken 1 c-hub and it was the old style not the new! And that was a well deserved hit to a board mid last year. I'll be back at that track soon for AOC - maybe I should order some spares :lol: I've got the pair that came with the 419 kit on now and they are sloppy at the hinge pin - pretty sure I have some NIP, so be interesting to see if they are the same when I change them out this week.

Shimming I definitely don't have a problem with when its just getting rid of small 0.1/0.2/0.3 mm tolerances - but the 0.5/0.6mm of play in the spool is quite poor. Once you start chasing slop, your own tolerances get tighter - I've got 0.05mm yokomo shims, should never have bought those....!

But as I said, I was being very (very) picky. After seeing some other kits up really close recently (the AE as mentioned plus a VBC, Serpent and ARC) the TRF is definitely a good thing.

Niznai - you'll be buying the hollow Ti grub screws to suit the ball studs in no time ;)

cplus, are you double sure you have your diff cups assembled right? There are 2 pairs of holes on each cup, one of which reduced the width of your diff

What were the serpents, vbc and arc's suffering from? Excessive slop?