The Photon mimiks very closely the Tamiya 416 suspension geometry apparently
I have the photon after the Xray 008. I had the 008 as a stop-gap after a schumacher mi4lp, and a cyclone before that.
As to hot-bodies cyclone - it's actually very well made apart from the fact that the rear of the chassis puts the left rear hub in a greater toe in position than the right - it may be a mold problem.
The Schumacher MI4 is surpprisingly solid and well built - I didn't have the skill to drive such a pointy car.
The Xray - put it this way - I've kept it as a trusty car. It's built superbly.
The Photon - has some excellent design ideas - but they are not particularly well built. I got mine nearly new, but unfortunately the idiot that built it stripped loads of the screws, either in the aluminium or the screws themselves. I've never had such issues with any of my other cars before.
I have to say though, that the Photon does feel excellent to drive. You can do lots of 'stuff' to it such as flip the belts as well as the servo. It also has nice touches such as the holes to allow your drivers to go through to carry out adjustments. The other nice thing is that they are using it as a platform on which you can attache new parts/options if or when you want them.
Don't get obsessed with which driver is using the chassis at the ISTC A-MAIN. all those drivers can make any of the others cars work for them - it's not like formula 1 racing in that regard. Jurad Hudy made a point that there were more differences in tyre prep that brought about differences than there were between cars.
I've not seen the TC6, but like the Photon and the Cyclone, it aint gonna change every few months unlike the schumachers, tamiyas, and the Xrays.