gsxr0311

iTrader: (19)

well i took my f104 out on sunday and raced it against some f103 anv's. the 103 is faster than the 104. one could clearly see that the 103 has faster corner speed.

Arahawak

iTrader: (32)

You are right. But i think the 104s are better in flowing tracks and struggle in technical track

gsxr0311

iTrader: (19)

well i took my f104 out on sunday and raced it against some f103 anv's. the 103 is faster than the 104. one could clearly see that the 103 has faster corner speed.

veecee

iTrader: (34)

The biggest disadvantage is rear tyre width. F103 rears are about 10mm wider than the F104 rears.

gsxr0311

iTrader: (19)

thats what i was thinking. i do love the f104 tho.

sorry for the double post

veecee

iTrader: (34)

The mod that SRBMOJO did solves that problem by allowing you to run F103 fronts. I am working on something similar. I'll keep you guys posted.

Arahawak

iTrader: (32)

You know you can fit 103 rears to the 104s yeah?

In terms of handling.. i feel it was more planted.

veecee

iTrader: (34)

Yeh but that makes the rear end 20mm wider than the front. Ideally you'd want to maintain similar track width front and rear.

Barry White

This is normal. The F104 is based on modern real car rules and the F103 on cars pre 1998. If there will be rules comin out for 1/10 F1 then they should not allow for cars wider then 180mm. I know many people would like running their 1994 Senna replicas ect. but its not fair for newer cars. If the rules allow all widths people will first modify cars from 180mm with big wheels to 200mm with small diam wheels, after that they will change them from 200mm to 235mm (pro 10) with 1/12 tyres, then bigger endplates, then bigger wings... and in the end they will look like the old morphed F1's as CRC made them in 97. People will lose interest becouse they lose their scale looks and F1 will die again. Don't try to compare the F103 to the F104 becouse its another league. Tamiya did their best to make a car that looks and performs great. Look at the wheels for example. They could have made small diam wheels with high profile tires but then racers would true them all down for max performance. Instead they have chosen tho make the outer part of the wheel to look like part of the tire so the diam would remain reasonable.
1/10 F1 IS FOR F1 FANATICS WHO LOVE TO RACE THE REAL THING JUST DOWNSIZED. You want all out performance than this aint the category for you.

veecee

iTrader: (34)

Agreed. But I can also understand people getting frustrated when racing against wider cars (ie every other F1 chassis) and being discouraged. And most tracks/events won't be segregating the F104s just yet as numbers are low. Perhaps TCS next year???

gsxr0311

iTrader: (19)

i agree with both of you. it just sucks that the f104 looks and dives so go but cant compete with the 103. so far it looks like hpi formula ten and the f104 are the only 180-190mm with chassis f1 cars, not sure about the 3racing f109. maby there should be two classes (103,104) so everybody is happy. all the 103 people will not be happy if they cant race their car.

Barry White

Sometimes you need to move on. Rules change. Before you had 190mm touring cars people ran 240mm touring. Thank god they"ve changed. A F1 pan chassis has great performance but will allways lacks downforce. Therefore Tamiya hasn't gone nuts with a 17 turn actopower motor butt have wisely chosen a 32 turn motor and the faster the motor bigger the disadvantage of the F104 will come to light. Tamiya has done it right (and so has HPI) this time not like that stupid 1998 McLaren bodies on a 200mm car or the F201. Lets keep it this way.

Metla

I suspected as much, Major blunder on the part of Tamiya, They shouldn't have released a car with less capability. It may be in line with the real spec (pffft...these are little toy cars) but it shows them up to be a poor car on the track.

I do like my 04 but in hindsight I should have waited for the F109 from 3 racing.

It will be interesting to see if the non-pro F104 handles better.

gtypecanare

F103-15 years of development
F104-4 months

mugler

iTrader: (3)

Interesting RC conundrum with 104 and 103.

This much we all know, if you split the classes racing and participation in general will suffer.

The latest in RC is taken from the latest in full scale, so 104 and F10 should be the standard for racing along with tall & narrow rubber tires just like real F1. Solution is kind of ugly but the day of the 103 and other wide chassis F1s is over. That look no longer exist in real F1 so now you are racing a vintage class. if F1 cars change in a few years and HPI & Tamiya & others follow then RC racing should follow to stay current.

The only other and probably best solution would be sanctioning bodies coming up with class rules just like they did with touring cars but that's not in the cards for now.

As for different motor classes, bad idea again. Don't re-invent the wheel, take a page out of very successful RCGT, one motor and from there drivers' skills organically will split the classes. Dump the cheat prone brushed (it ruined 2wd mini cooper class for all) brushless only and a strict esc rule to go with no SPX etc.

Anyway happy racing