*I see the discussion has evolved since I last posted, but since you quoted me directly, I'll respond to that:
Originally Posted by
terry.sc
Remember, this is just one championship in one country and has nothing to do with the racing rules anywhere else. As far as I know the rest of the world, and even other championships in the US, don't allow the FGX to race, it certainly isn't legal in the UK.
Yeah, I move around between Asia, Europe and the US for work. I was referring to the UF1 series specifically. I'm quite aware that rules are different in different parts of the world. Funny, your writing reminds me a lot of my UK colleagues. BTW, that is neither an insult nor a compliment.
Originally Posted by
terry.sc
Tamiya made the F201 for their main market of car park bashers, not the racers, to try and sell more of them. It was never designed as a more advanced racer. After all, in a race between the F210 and an F104 my money would be on the F104, so that to me means the F104 is the more advanced design while the F201 is overcomplicated.
The rwd F1s were hard or even impossible to drive for a novice just bashing in a car park on kit foams. By making the F201 4wd it made the car drivable on unprepared tarmac. The F201 was more a scale model that was radio controlled rather than an all out racer, as you can tell by the lack of useful features such as a range of gear ratios for a start.
Considering everyone racing F1s in Japan were still running pan car F1s then Tamiya had the option of building something that could actually race with the other F1s, or they could have built an independent suspension car for the bashers. I would presume the F201 wasn't the success they hoped it was so the best option is to come up with a viable race chassis, the F104.
Up to the 414x; Tamiya used to NEVER made purpose built racing cars. Sure, they had TRF and Pro versions of kits, but they traditionally liked to send out a basic kit, then flood the market with "Hopup" options.
You are correct, the F201 seemed to be aimed at the "basher" crowd. Like the Mini chassis though, people still tried to race them as if they were some sort of high performance machine. Yes, that's a little jab at the Mini guys...
IMHO, The F201 was a pig plain and simple. Sure, you could put a little lipstick (hopups) on it, but it was still, well, a pig. To me, it was over-engineered, too complicated, and it should have been 2wd. I think it was produced to fleece the Tamiya faithful of their $.
I see the FGX in the same way, it requires a lot of hopups, and the design seems like it is more complicated then it should be. Sure the price is low, but a new chassis and a few aluminum bits later, and your in already $250+ invested into the car, not including radio gear. I get it, there is a few of you that like the thing, and that's fine. However, the fact that it was made 190 and not 180 or 200 really bugs me, and does not help the F1 Class in grow, it makes it more confusing as to what the rules should be.