according to the mag articles,the composite materials for the RTR were supposed to be of a differnt material...a little more flex in them......I compared the 2 cars and could see a difference...
what I did notice is that the RTR chassis is a CHEAP duplicate from thunder tiger..and bends like a pretzel...so thats the firts thing I'd replace..
fastharry et. al.,
when I finally do wind up bending my RTR chassis, I plan on getting a team chassis since it is a little stiffer (it's held up pretty well so far but I haven't done a full throttle blast & nailed a board square with the front end yet. Not something I want to try).
I'm sure that AE sent a few sets of molds to Thundertiger so they could outsource the parts locally to save on shipping. I have an RTR & have compared it to the team kit. The team kit parts seem to have less sheen indicating they are out of a slightly harder material. Now the Factory Team parts are stiffer than either the RTR or normal team parts These are the top of the line parts that require great driving skill to use effectively (i.e not breaking them by bouncing of the boards).
A quote directly from the 3/19/03 Associated newsletter:
"The carbon composite or graphite parts are favored by experienced drivers because they are stiffer, not because they are less resistant to breakage. Being stiffer, they are more responsive to the driver's control. We recommend you use the molded composite parts until you learn to keep off the boards. The molded composite parts have more flex."
HTH
Bill (Nitro TC3 RTR Racer)