Team Associated TC4 RTR good car for first time racer?
 

Hey, I used to race nitro trucks a few years ago, but now I think Im going to start getting into the Electric On-Road thing. Is the TC4 RTR good car to get into racing with? Later on I will upgrade radio and I will also upgrade the parts with the Factory Team Kit.

Im thinking about picking one up tomorrow.

Thanks, Mike.

If you know you are going to upgrade do it now. You will learn to drive better sooner with a more consistant car. Plus you won't waste money on swapping the parts out. If that is too expensive, buy one used from the for sale threads here. You can get a nice used fk05 for only a bit more than a brand new team tc4 (they are about 220, right?) thats how I would spend my $$ I went from a team tc4 to an 05 and it is the difference between day and night. The xray was WAY more consistant and easier to drive for me.

I don't really agree with the post above. My reasoning is this:

First of all if you are looking for a high quality car and want to get into touring for a low starting price, you couldn't pick a better car than the RTR TC4. A person just starting out in touring will be just as fast with a RTR TC4 as they will with ANY car out there (yes this includes an Xray). The main difference between the RTR and the Xray will be you just saved about $1000.00. This is especially good if you are just interested or are seeing if you want to pursure touring further. If you decide you like touring, there is no easier platform to modify as your skills increase than the TC4. You are almost always guaranteed better parts support at any hobby store with an Associated than than almost any other car out there. The TC4 is also way easier for a beginner to set up and run fast with as there is not as much to confuse the beginner with.

If you want to spend money and want to jump in with both feet, by all means buy any of the top brand tourers out there. As, regardless of what others may say, they are all competitive and can all win on any given day.

One final tip and not to start a debate:

Shaft cars offer better throttle response and can, at times, feel more nervous or less consistant.

Belt cars have a softer throttle response but are usually smoother and more consistant to drive.

Thanks for the responses guys, yeah. I don't want to go all out right away mostly because of cost. I think this would be a good car to get into touring with.

Anyone else have input?

RTR TC4 is your best bet. Plus...if you like racing...you could eventually upgrade all the way to Factory Team specs with the Factory Team upgrade kit. ;)

I agree with AndrewD.

I dont know what type of money you are looking to spend but best bet is to go down to your local place where you plan on racing and ask around and see what people are running there. If you have the money to get what most people recommend then i would get what people there say works best.

If your place has an asphalt track, you could be ok. Carpet is another story. I run a TC3 and its brittle compared to other cars out there on carpet. I break parts all the time while XRays continue. With so many parts that break and the inconsistency of setups with my car i am saving for an XRay. If you are racing on carpet i would highly recommend looking into another car.

I started with an RTR TC4. I found it a bit frustrating as no matter what I adjusted, I could not get the car to inititiate turns well at anything over very moderate speed. Instead, the car would just run very wide in any turn at a decent speed. Others have had this experience as well. As a result, I gave up on the TC4 and gave it to my son for bashing (he is 5 so he isn't all that concerned about precise turn in response yet). However, people may have found a set up that solves this problem by now. Try looking at the TC4 thread to see.

Another consideration is that the electronics included with the RTR TC4 are pretty low end. The steering servo is quite slow and does not always center well. The motor is fragile and tends to break in moderate to severe crashes. The speed control will overheat and shut down if you accelerate and brake hard over a 4 minute run. Also, the speed control does not have a lock-out for reverse, so many tracks won't let you run with it. The radio, while acceptable, cannot be upgraded to Spektrum.

Thus, if you think there is more than a 50% chance that you will want to race, you might want to think about buying low cost but race-ready components and a kit. One choice is to purchase the Team TC4 kit or the HPI Pro 4 kit. I have seen both of these at less than $200. Then purchase low cost, but decent parts like the Futaba 9451 servo (about $80), Monster Stock Pro motor (about ($30), Hi Tech Aggressor SRX radio (about $100), Spektrum module (about $160), and a decent Novak or LRP speed controller (about $80). If you get into racing, you will likely want or need all of this stuff anyway.

On the other hand, if you really are not sure about racing, the RTR TC4 does get you going enough to play around and decide. Just note that if get serious abou racing, you will need to start upgrading all of the above parts. Fortunately, if you get the RTR TC4 for about $220, then you are only spending $35 over the TC4 kit for things you will replace. Note, that the RTR TC4 does have inferior shocks compared to the TC4 kit, so you will want to upgrade these at some point as well and this will cost about $40.

Good luck,
Ira

Thanks guys. Main reason I want to buy this now, instend of the kit is because it's ready to go, I don't have the money to buy the kit, plus the stuff I need to make it running right away.

Plus, Im looking at getting this so I CAN upgrade little by little, race it how it is, see what happens, tune it, upgrade it, etc...I think thats half the fun too. I would like to upgrade it all at once but money is a big issue right now because this "present" is for me, from me...and I have to buy everyone else presents and stuff during the Holidays you know how it is, the girl be costing me money, etc...

Well Thanks for telling me what upgrades I will eventually need later on the roade, but like I said it will be my very first time ever racing touring so I don't want to go all out right away.

I think this is still my best bet for the money, or should I go with the Losi XXX-S? But isnt that sorta "outta date" in essence, because the new JRX-S or whatever came out?

Thanks, Im looking to go buy in a couple hours!

- Mike

If I were you I would seriously consider a used FT TC3 or see if you can still find one new at a big discount. You can get them for around $100 and are still very good cars with plenty of parts support. I think it's safe to say that the FT TC3 is a better car than the ready to run TC4. If you end up wanting to upgrade you should be able to sell the TC3 for about what you paid for it and then get something better.

If you want new and RTR, then the TC4 is your best choice as it has the best parts support and can fairly easily be upgraded to the FT chassis which will make it a much better car. None of the other RTRs have this kind of upgrade path.

Also, if you get an RTR, make sure to get real racing tires immediately. The RTRs come with generic tires that don't stick well compared to a $30 set of pre-mounted wheels/tires. Just ask the folks at your track what they run.

Ira

can't go wrong with a TC4 RTR

parts support
upgrade potential
nice neutral setup out of the box
well priced

I just picked up my TC4 RTR. Im going to buy some tires tomorrow cause im hitting the track tomorrow.

pics:

http://img271.imageshack.us/img271/4...ture0138ds.jpg

http://img271.imageshack.us/img271/2...ture0104xd.jpg

http://img333.imageshack.us/img333/1...ture0129vr.jpg

Now its time to come to So Cal RC Raceway and run it :)

Enjoy and welcome to the endless money pit we call 1/10th scale touring car racing ;-)

THat's a pretty sick car. A guy at the track I race at had one, and he was very fast, and very consistant with it. It looked very nice on and off the track. Me gusta.
-Josh