Yeah, I'd say the 419 is the best option outside Xray, or the BD7 from Yokomo if you're so inclined. The Evo6 may be cheaper but again there is a reason why it is.
Tamiya is not innovative, but has ironed out some kinks in the innovations of others and the 419 (you are lucky you didn't get the 418 which I have) has accumulated all these improvements. The 418 is not a bad car either, but the 419 is better. The 418 is what I would call a transition chassis. They still had the old gear diffs with problems from the 417?, they tested a new sort of suspension pillow blocks (which they dumped immediately for the 419's setup), they didn't have the C-hubs ready, they had an old style motor mount, and old dampers and so on.
The Evo 6 has no chance to get anywhere near the 419 in a race. Tamiya just likes to test things out, and perhaps in the future we'll see a good machine coming out of these tests, but they ain't there yet. Shaft cars are good for stock racing when they get to Awesomatix standard, so Tamiya might have an eye on that market, but in mod, belt cars seem to have the upper hand. Big time. Like 100% big time.
Back to shaft drive, I am wondering if the TB04 would not be better than the Evo 6 looking at feedback from users. That comparison aside, in classes up to 13.5 (talking blinky here) I think the old Yokomo SD SSG would still give the Evo6/TB04 a good run for the money if not beat it outright. I run one of these (amongst many other oddities) in 21.5 and despite my 100g weight penalty, I still make the top three (agains modern belt cars like BD7 and Xray) so there you go. Not that you'd be able to find an SSG nowadays (though you'd really stray form the herd if you did).
Ultimately, hey, if you wanna give it a go, why the hell not? Get the Evo6 and show them what you're made of!
Last edited by niznai; 07-08-2015 at 09:06 PM.