Going to put the Soft T-Bar on the F104 soon.
Also, I got my hands on some hard friction damper grease. Last time I was at the track it was a fail of epic proportions, my F104 was un-drivable. The weather was cool for southern California (60’s F), not sure what conditions they recommend this for but I bet it’s hot. Tamiya makes a medium and a soft version as well. I’m interested in getting the soft one to see what the difference is.
When I first got my F014 I used the silver can motor with a gear ratio of 4.16:1 and it felt pretty good to me. But when Tamiya announced their Formula Tuned motor I had to try it out. At the time the only place I could get it from RCMart and on their product details section it said that the recommended gear ratio for this motor is 3.7-3.75. I’ve only used this at the Tamiya track in Aliso Viejo, CA with a gear ratio of 3.72:1 a couple of times and it made for a lot of torque that didn’t fit my driving style (I’m still a Novice don’t forget :)). Had to be super careful on the throttle coming off the corners or I would spin.
The last time I went, my car suddenly stopped. I thought it was a receiver or battery problem at first, but when I popped the body off I found that the end bell had popped off and that one of the brushes had broke! So now I’ll have to find a different motor to use in my F104. Any recommendations?
Yesterday I picked up my GoPro HD Hero from my local REI store, I know it might seem like a weird place for an RC enthusiast to pick up a camera. But Since everyone is selling this for $299.99 the smartest thing for me was the free in store pickup shipping option and the 10% dividend :)
I already have the GoPro Hero Wide and the first thing I noticed when getting the HD version was that it was heavier. I quick check on my cheap spring loaded kitchen scale confirmed this. Fully loaded the HD camera weighs ~185g/6.5oz and the wide weighs ~150g/5.25oz. About half of that weight gain comes from the camera itself the other half is the difference between the new battery and a couple of AAA lithium batteries. Adding more weight up high on an RC car is not good news, but this camera more than makes up for that with it’s phenomenal quality.
The HD version is also slightly bigger than the Wide version, but not by much. See pictures below.
From left to right the (crappy) epic stealthcam, gopro hero wide and gopro HD hero.
The HD hero comes with two rear plates, the one that comes mounted is waterproof and the optional one is not waterproof but is great for anything moving less than 100mph (according to the manual). I instantly switched the plates and the sound quality is much improved.
The HD version still takes SD card slots, but supports higher capacity SDHC cards. I picked up a 8GB Sandisk Ultra II card.
I did a couple of very quick runs outside my house with the two settings I’ll use the most.
1920x1080p @ 30fps (Angle of View: 127º)
1280x720p @ 60 fps (Angle of View: 170º)
The results are just AMAZING, what a great camera! I’m really really impressed by this and can’t wait to take it to the Tamiya track in Aliso Viejo, CA. Another great thing about this camera is that it now records MP4 files that you can just pop right into your PS3 and play (the hero wide had a less common avi codec).
Full specs for the HD Helmet Hero
Full specs for the Motorsports Hero Wide
If there’s one thing I would improve upon it would be to offer a cheaper version of this camera without TV out capability. I can honestly say I will always play the videos/pictures from SD card and never ever connect the video cables that come with the kit. Other than that, another great product from GoPro!
I bought an Alfa Romeo a while back, but I really don't like driving it. A couple of guys at my work have S2000’s so I wanted to show them how good the Tamiya kits are. (and if I got someone else bitten by the RC bug, that would be an added bonus).
The Alfa uses the 60D wheels, but the S2000 uses GT sized wheels, I found someone in the UK that had the S2000 wheels (but realized later that Tamiya has them #0445588 doh!)... I had some spare Racing Semi-Slicks (50810) so I put those on.
The Alfa is M04M and the S2000 is M04L, so I needed the little piece that goes between the gearbox and the main body, this comes with the M04 F Parts (50851).
So, do I like driving the M04L in S2000 form better than the Alfa? No, not really, I think I need to spend some time on the setup, it still wants to swap ends all the time…
The Porsche Turbo RSR 49400 kit was pretty carbon fibred out, except for the battery plate cover. Which is plastic. So the idea is/was to tape a TLU01 and TLU02 unit to either of the two covers and be able to more quickly swap that way. But there’s a snag. The carbon battery plate fits rather poorly, at least it does on the 49400. Some dimensions for comparison below.
| Battery Cover | plate thickness | Post hole diameter |
| Plastic | 4.9mm | 6.2mm |
| Carbon | 2mm | 6.5mm |
you can click on the images below to see a larger view, notice the much tighter fit of the plastic part on the left.
The thing that puzzles me the most is that there’s a 3mm difference in plate thickness, but the blue aluminum mount screws that come with the plate (goes nice with the rest of the 49400) have the snap pin holes in the exact same place as the mount screws for the plastic plate!? As a matter of fact, since the pin hole is slightly smaller, it’s a bit higher. The remedy for this (according to the instructions that accompany part 53884) is: “Cut screw-thread in advance using kit-supplied mount screw” I’m not sure what that means exactly… My guess is that they want me to cut 
the plastic posts that he mount screws are supposed to go into? Which maces it impossible for me to switch back to the plastic one (remember what I wrote earlier about being able to trying to have LED units taped on one of these).
Instead of cutting the plastic posts I put some sponge tape on the back of my carbon plate, unfortunately the kind I have isn’t thick enough to prevent the plate from being loose.
The part comes with a different snap pin, which is much harder to remove, I decided not to use it. Below, the plastic plate on the left, notice the gap still present on the right and imagine the slop without the sponge tape!
Finally a couple of shots of the two different plates from further back.
So in conclusion, the carbon plate and the blue aluminum mount screws improve the look of the kit but it fits very poorly out of the bag. Had Tamiya drilled their snap pin holes 3mm further down on the mount screws and made the holes on the carbon plate the same as their plastic plate this would only have been a one picture post about how sweet it looked!
Big thanks to an anonymous post (and zero thanks to Futaba customer service) I was able to find the replacement fuse for my MC401CR. I just ordered from Mouser Electronics two littelfuse 0895030.Z (since I have two of this ESC and this might happen again!) and one 0895040.Z for my MC601. They were only US$3.80 each…
I didn’t have any belt driven Tamiya cars, so I looked into the TA05, but none of the bodies really excited me. I also have a tendency to buy the stock kit and then buy a ton of hop-ups. This time (one might say in a moment of weakness) I got it all hopped up from the start. I was browsing on Ebay when I found “the 49400”. It is by far the most expensive kit I’ve gotten and probably ever will get. Some people will reserve this kind of car for display or keep it in the wrapper as a collectible, me, not so much... I will take this car to the track! I consider it a crime not to :D
The box arrived safely from Hong Kong.
Unboxing the car was great fun, I love how so many of the pieces are on display. There’s very little plastic in this kit, mostly anodized aluminum and carbon fiber. In past I’ve built the car and then worked on the body, this time around I worked on the body first and then started to build the car.
The lexan body almost ready for paint. I chose to stick to the original color and got a can of PS-54 Cobalt green. The plastic spoiler is actually cobalt green, so if you chose a different color scheme you’d have to paint that as well (the side mirrors looked so close in color that I forgot to paint them the suggested semi-gloss black). The 49400 also comes with LED holders, I chose to mask off the headlights etc At some point I will put LEDs in this.
body after two coats of paint, didn’t seem like it needed a third like I’ve had two with the metallic paints.
After painting the car I moved on to sticker the body, the 49400 comes with two sheets of stickers. Some of which was pretty intricate, cutting out all the bits that make up the rear bumper was especially tricky. Honestly I should’ve used liquid mask and spray painted the rear bumper black.
The motor mount and the lower portion of the bulkhead installed. This was before I realized that I had inserted the cap screw on the wrong end of both differential cups (aka the IKEA principle ;P)
Below, the front bulkhead and steering linkage finished, it was great to see how little play, yet how freely the steering linkage moved compared to my TT-01D.
The carbon fiber upper deck went on next, it has “RC 30th Anniversary Since 1976” printed on it (I was only a one year old when Tamiya started making RC cars).
I hope I never have to replace the belts on this thing, it would pretty much be the same as rebuilding the entire car…
The suspension ready to go on the car, I used my Tamiya silicon oil air remover. It gets the bubbles out as well as makes it a nice stand to keep them in. The car is more stiffly sprung in the front than in the rear. One of the spring retainers that goes on the damper cylinder was much lighter shade of blue than all the other anodized aluminum. Quite strange, something I didn’t expect in a package of this quality.
Car is ready to go, I used the Futaba S9551 and put the receiver on the lower deck instead of on top of the servo, that way I can hopefully fit a TLU01 on top of the servo. I’m not sure where I can put a TLU02.. maybe tape it on top of the battery plate?
I really like the tires on this car, I’m going to try to preserve them as much as possible. The wheels are 26mm wide the rears were offset 5 and the front offset 2. So far all the GT wheels I have are offset 0 dish wheels, I wonder if/how they will fit on the track. I’m also unsure of what compound the kit tires are? The f201 tires for instance looked great but became slicks in a very short amount of time.
The Futaba MC601C ESC has 3 wires and uses a Y-connector wire for the battery and motor, because of that I had to route wires over and under the belt. I’m a little nervous about that, I used a couple of zip ties to keep it tight… we’ll see how it goes on the track…
The 49400 all stickered up and ready to go!
And that’s all I have about this spectacular kit so far. I feel very lucky to own one of these and can’t wait to see how it is to drive!
