805LikesTamiya Championship Series
01-18-2010, 10:09 PM
Hi all,
First, Any Orion Lipo that is 3400 or lower will fit fine in the F104 with the simple plug I made. There's no grinding of the chassis needed. The only thing I modded slightly is the plastic piece that keeps the battery from moving forward. (TCS Legal) Two, Reedy makes some nice rounded hard case Lipo's that have a plug that comes right out like an old school stick pack. (Dave Jun runs these) As long as you stay with these two configurations you're fine with the F104. For those who want to stick 100C bricks, good luck. Why do you even want to spend that much money on a pack and why do you need that much power and capacity? Do I really need to limit the class to 3400mah and 30C Lipo's????
Rubber guys. Here's a tip for the Tamiya track. The stock rubber tires that come with the Ferrari F60 are B like compounds. That means they are for warmer weather. In two weeks we will be announcing a Type A compound for cold weather. You will need these if you race carpet and you will need these if you race in track tems that are below 65 degrees F. Here's another tip. Build your rear tires with some type of air gap. The stock foam for the Tamiya track at least fills the tire too much. I built them stock and with air gap and air gap is way better. It's night and day. Some people have built the rears with no insert, but I think that's too much. It works for sure, but you wear the rear tires more. My next test will be with fron air gap. Also, a normal 24mm shaped touring car insert will work fine for the rear. You will just have to cut a half inch or so and re-glue. Don't make the insert too tight around the rim as you will close off the hole in the rim.
While I'm at it. There has been a lot of talk about banning speed controls. Kevin Cole. You weren't fooling anyone on Saturday. I know full well that you were running a 17.5 with some new speedo. 13.5 RIGHT???? That thing was a missle and it was no 13.5.
I know Scotty banned certain Speedos and firmwares for his Novak race, but at this point it would be premature and not right to start changing rules that people have been basing thier purchases on. We will see how GT-2 plays out for the first few races and see what's what.
Don't be surprised if tracks and certain racing series adopt one make motors and speed controls for true brushless spec or intermediate racing in the very near future. At the current advancements, 17.5 is going to kill on-road racing for club racers. The firmwares and speed controls coming out negate the speeds that intermediate club racers are used to and can handle.
Mini guys. There will be RPM rules for TCS. What that number is??? Don't you worry. Just think out of the box numbers. How we test for these out of the box numbers is TBD.
Good night.....
First, Any Orion Lipo that is 3400 or lower will fit fine in the F104 with the simple plug I made. There's no grinding of the chassis needed. The only thing I modded slightly is the plastic piece that keeps the battery from moving forward. (TCS Legal) Two, Reedy makes some nice rounded hard case Lipo's that have a plug that comes right out like an old school stick pack. (Dave Jun runs these) As long as you stay with these two configurations you're fine with the F104. For those who want to stick 100C bricks, good luck. Why do you even want to spend that much money on a pack and why do you need that much power and capacity? Do I really need to limit the class to 3400mah and 30C Lipo's????
Rubber guys. Here's a tip for the Tamiya track. The stock rubber tires that come with the Ferrari F60 are B like compounds. That means they are for warmer weather. In two weeks we will be announcing a Type A compound for cold weather. You will need these if you race carpet and you will need these if you race in track tems that are below 65 degrees F. Here's another tip. Build your rear tires with some type of air gap. The stock foam for the Tamiya track at least fills the tire too much. I built them stock and with air gap and air gap is way better. It's night and day. Some people have built the rears with no insert, but I think that's too much. It works for sure, but you wear the rear tires more. My next test will be with fron air gap. Also, a normal 24mm shaped touring car insert will work fine for the rear. You will just have to cut a half inch or so and re-glue. Don't make the insert too tight around the rim as you will close off the hole in the rim.
While I'm at it. There has been a lot of talk about banning speed controls. Kevin Cole. You weren't fooling anyone on Saturday. I know full well that you were running a 17.5 with some new speedo. 13.5 RIGHT???? That thing was a missle and it was no 13.5.
I know Scotty banned certain Speedos and firmwares for his Novak race, but at this point it would be premature and not right to start changing rules that people have been basing thier purchases on. We will see how GT-2 plays out for the first few races and see what's what.
Don't be surprised if tracks and certain racing series adopt one make motors and speed controls for true brushless spec or intermediate racing in the very near future. At the current advancements, 17.5 is going to kill on-road racing for club racers. The firmwares and speed controls coming out negate the speeds that intermediate club racers are used to and can handle.
Mini guys. There will be RPM rules for TCS. What that number is??? Don't you worry. Just think out of the box numbers. How we test for these out of the box numbers is TBD.
Good night.....
And thanks for the tire insight, although how soon can we expect to see these A's here in the States?
My rubber tires are waiting at the hobby shop with no rims to go with them.
Not bitching, just wondering if these are going to be an order from Hong Kong deal or not
And quite honestly, I would limit the C rating if I were you. All this rapid Lipo development is completely defeating the purpose of running lipos in the first place. If a battery is good for 1000 cycles and is deemed obsolete before you have run 100, how much sense does that make?
The brushless debate is a whole nother can of worms. Again, brushless was supposed to bring stability, and things are more out of control than they were before. Do I wanna go back to brushed? Hell No!! but there needs to be some sort of stop gap if you will put on this stuff, because you are absolutely right, its gonna kill the class if not the hobby.
01-18-2010, 10:14 PM
Here are some pics for you F1 104 guys with battery questions 
01-18-2010, 10:19 PM
F104 Rubber tire rims are now in stock. Check out TamiyaUSA.com and your local hobby dealers should be able to order them now. 
01-19-2010, 11:50 AM
Anybody,
Can the F104 rear axle assembly fit and work in the F103?
Can the F104 rear axle assembly fit and work in the F103?
01-19-2010, 12:56 PM
Hi all,
First, Any Orion Lipo that is 3400 or lower will fit fine in the F104 with the simple plug I made. There's no grinding of the chassis needed. The only thing I modded slightly is the plastic piece that keeps the battery from moving forward. (TCS Legal) Two, Reedy makes some nice rounded hard case Lipo's that have a plug that comes right out like an old school stick pack. (Dave Jun runs these) As long as you stay with these two configurations you're fine with the F104. For those who want to stick 100C bricks, good luck. Why do you even want to spend that much money on a pack and why do you need that much power and capacity? Do I really need to limit the class to 3400mah and 30C Lipo's????
Rubber guys. Here's a tip for the Tamiya track. The stock rubber tires that come with the Ferrari F60 are B like compounds. That means they are for warmer weather. In two weeks we will be announcing a Type A compound for cold weather. You will need these if you race carpet and you will need these if you race in track tems that are below 65 degrees F. Here's another tip. Build your rear tires with some type of air gap. The stock foam for the Tamiya track at least fills the tire too much. I built them stock and with air gap and air gap is way better. It's night and day. Some people have built the rears with no insert, but I think that's too much. It works for sure, but you wear the rear tires more. My next test will be with fron air gap. Also, a normal 24mm shaped touring car insert will work fine for the rear. You will just have to cut a half inch or so and re-glue. Don't make the insert too tight around the rim as you will close off the hole in the rim.
While I'm at it. There has been a lot of talk about banning speed controls. Kevin Cole. You weren't fooling anyone on Saturday. I know full well that you were running a 17.5 with some new speedo. 13.5 RIGHT???? That thing was a missle and it was no 13.5.
I know Scotty banned certain Speedos and firmwares for his Novak race, but at this point it would be premature and not right to start changing rules that people have been basing thier purchases on. We will see how GT-2 plays out for the first few races and see what's what.
Don't be surprised if tracks and certain racing series adopt one make motors and speed controls for true brushless spec or intermediate racing in the very near future. At the current advancements, 17.5 is going to kill on-road racing for club racers. The firmwares and speed controls coming out negate the speeds that intermediate club racers are used to and can handle.
Mini guys. There will be RPM rules for TCS. What that number is??? Don't you worry. Just think out of the box numbers. How we test for these out of the box numbers is TBD.
Good night.....
First, Any Orion Lipo that is 3400 or lower will fit fine in the F104 with the simple plug I made. There's no grinding of the chassis needed. The only thing I modded slightly is the plastic piece that keeps the battery from moving forward. (TCS Legal) Two, Reedy makes some nice rounded hard case Lipo's that have a plug that comes right out like an old school stick pack. (Dave Jun runs these) As long as you stay with these two configurations you're fine with the F104. For those who want to stick 100C bricks, good luck. Why do you even want to spend that much money on a pack and why do you need that much power and capacity? Do I really need to limit the class to 3400mah and 30C Lipo's????
Rubber guys. Here's a tip for the Tamiya track. The stock rubber tires that come with the Ferrari F60 are B like compounds. That means they are for warmer weather. In two weeks we will be announcing a Type A compound for cold weather. You will need these if you race carpet and you will need these if you race in track tems that are below 65 degrees F. Here's another tip. Build your rear tires with some type of air gap. The stock foam for the Tamiya track at least fills the tire too much. I built them stock and with air gap and air gap is way better. It's night and day. Some people have built the rears with no insert, but I think that's too much. It works for sure, but you wear the rear tires more. My next test will be with fron air gap. Also, a normal 24mm shaped touring car insert will work fine for the rear. You will just have to cut a half inch or so and re-glue. Don't make the insert too tight around the rim as you will close off the hole in the rim.
While I'm at it. There has been a lot of talk about banning speed controls. Kevin Cole. You weren't fooling anyone on Saturday. I know full well that you were running a 17.5 with some new speedo. 13.5 RIGHT???? That thing was a missle and it was no 13.5.
I know Scotty banned certain Speedos and firmwares for his Novak race, but at this point it would be premature and not right to start changing rules that people have been basing thier purchases on. We will see how GT-2 plays out for the first few races and see what's what.
Don't be surprised if tracks and certain racing series adopt one make motors and speed controls for true brushless spec or intermediate racing in the very near future. At the current advancements, 17.5 is going to kill on-road racing for club racers. The firmwares and speed controls coming out negate the speeds that intermediate club racers are used to and can handle.
Mini guys. There will be RPM rules for TCS. What that number is??? Don't you worry. Just think out of the box numbers. How we test for these out of the box numbers is TBD.
Good night.....
Chris and Oliver had the ballistic 17.5's with the new esc. 
I had my TA05 Version 2 with KO esc and 13.5 Team Power motor under the Ebbro body just trying to keep up. I will have the same car out this Saturday (if it stops raining).
01-19-2010, 02:19 PM
tamiya makes rc boats right? this rain is nuts.
01-19-2010, 02:38 PM
01-19-2010, 05:59 PM
Thanks in advance. Does the F104 reduced width come from different size hubs or different wheel widths?
01-19-2010, 06:07 PM
The new Aluminum Diff. Housing Set is made of blue anodized aluminum which helpsprovide a smoother moving action and also looks great as a dress up part. When attached to your F104 machine, it makes maintenance a breeze as it does not come apart when you take off your wheels.
# Can be used with F104 & F103 series chassis machines. (For use on the F103, item 54162 must be purchased as the axle needs to be shorter for item 54158 to work at all)
http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/ite...oduct-id=54158
01-19-2010, 06:08 PM
01-19-2010, 06:10 PM
01-19-2010, 06:27 PM
from TCS F-1 Foam rules:
" 14.The F103/F104 chassis must be built per the instruction manual. Altering its basic structure and design is prohibited. "
Fred,
a) Does this mean the F-103 must use the F-103 rear axle and diff assy?
b) Does this mean the F-103 must use the F-103 rear side pod motor mount?
Fred,
Could you please answer the question posed a few pages back re: On the F-104, must the servo and speedo trays be used? or may you use a lexan tray as shown in RayK's post?
Thanks in advance........
" 14.The F103/F104 chassis must be built per the instruction manual. Altering its basic structure and design is prohibited. "
Fred,
a) Does this mean the F-103 must use the F-103 rear axle and diff assy?
b) Does this mean the F-103 must use the F-103 rear side pod motor mount?
Fred,
Could you please answer the question posed a few pages back re: On the F-104, must the servo and speedo trays be used? or may you use a lexan tray as shown in RayK's post?
Thanks in advance........
01-19-2010, 08:18 PM
Last year I was allowed to use the F104 aluminum gear box/side pods on my F103 per Fred's approval.
The F104 side pods reposition the axle adjusters higher which lowers the chassis making it impossible to run your smaller diameter foam tires without modification to the axle adjusters/eccentrics.
Nice that they are much more durable than plastic but touchin the boards now results in broken axles (mine's steel again), exploded bearings and endbells poppin off the silver can motors.
WCRC has their sweeper as a right hander so when you tag the wall, the left rear hits hard resulting in the popped off endbell.
The F104 side pods reposition the axle adjusters higher which lowers the chassis making it impossible to run your smaller diameter foam tires without modification to the axle adjusters/eccentrics.
Nice that they are much more durable than plastic but touchin the boards now results in broken axles (mine's steel again), exploded bearings and endbells poppin off the silver can motors.
WCRC has their sweeper as a right hander so when you tag the wall, the left rear hits hard resulting in the popped off endbell.
01-19-2010, 09:39 PM
Tech Master
iTrader: (2)
Will be interesting to see what happens in a year or two with BL systems. The crazy thing is Stock and Mod might refer to the ESCs.
I do like the concept of buying a Tekin and instead of buying new ESC every year, just download the software. DONE!
01-20-2010, 12:47 PM
Although about at this time it would be nice if Tamiya came out with a $60-$80 spec BL system. DONE!
Will be interesting to see what happens in a year or two with BL systems. The crazy thing is Stock and Mod might refer to the ESCs.
I do like the concept of buying a Tekin and instead of buying new ESC every year, just download the software. DONE!
Will be interesting to see what happens in a year or two with BL systems. The crazy thing is Stock and Mod might refer to the ESCs.
I do like the concept of buying a Tekin and instead of buying new ESC every year, just download the software. DONE!
Biggest problem with specing one motor brand and one esc brand, there will still be people that have "good" contacts with the LRP's, Tekin's, KO's, Novak's etc. of the racing world that will get the "perfectly matched" brushless motor or the esc with a profile that the regular racer will never find on the shelf of their LHS. And if major races or series start specing specific brands, people will think twice about spending another $ 250.00 + for a brushless esc and motor from brand A because that is what the promoter choose and you have brand B.
From my perspective, this is the funiest part of this whole issue. People are spending money to get 17.5's as fast as 13.5's but people used to complain 10.5 was "too fast" and current 13.5's and probably the newest 17.5 combo's are faster than the 10.5's were. Gee, sounds like when F1 changed from V-10 to V-8 motors to "slow them down" and after lots of money was spent, the 18,000 RPM V-8's were quicker than the V-10's. If GT-1 went back to open mod like it was 5 years ago, a good driver with a 2 year old Novak GTB with a 4.5 who could handle the speed would be a top three finisher. The more you try to slow down classes, the more money will be spent to find ways to be "just a little faster than the rest". Kind of like spending $ 50.00 for a $ 15.00 silver can motor to have the "competitive edge". Welcome to racing.