Originally Posted by terry.sc

I suppose I am one of very few people who would notice the original front end, having had one the first time round in the mid 80s, so I suppose I'm the only person that it would be obvious that Tamiya have just dug out the old mould for the front end parts of the new car, rather than make a conscious decision to go with an old school front end. It just amazed me how much discussion was concentrated over the merits of the different types of front ends as if Tamiya had deliberately designed an old school front end.

I just consider more important the plastic rear end and that after buying the kit you will have to pick up the oil shock and aluminium motor mount upgrades if you plan on putting any serious power.


Tamiya aren't really innovative, I would describe their approach to anything as 'different', just look at the TA06 which is a cross of the HPI RS4, Pro3 and the CAT SX. Tamiya have only started being successful on the track when they started producing their own versions of other cars. The F104 is seen as innovative being different to what most people had seen, in reality it was a narrow version of the old Tech Racing TF108 and is only competitive when racing in its own narrow class.

Tamiya releasing a 1/12th chassis is a surprise, and it's hard to work out what Tamiya are thinking. On the one hand the basic Racing Master chassis would make an interesting class in the TCS using the 380/LiFe combination, and is a good way into normal 1/12th scale classes with the simpler chassis design, but Tamiya have also built serious competitive cars in other classes so could we see a Pro version in the future with a carbon chassis and aluminium pod that can fit standard 1/12th wheels.


This version is very much an entry level car.
The term "Racing Master" is what Tamiya have called all their 1/12th scale fibreglass chassis cars. The Mk1 and Mk2 RMs were overcomplicated, but since then they were all simpler designs that were targeted at first time 1/12th scale racers. The original Toyota Tom's, the Racing Master Mk6, had one single adjustment to adjust the handling balance, and one adjustment to remove tweak from the chassis. Nice and simple for the beginner, it was cheap to buy and easy to drive but never as fast as the high end cars.