Wednesday, December 17, 2014

R/C Tractor Kumamon Version

I received a surprise package from a friend in Japan today! It will be a Merry Christmas indeed.

This is such a fun kit, I will build it with my girls over the holiday break

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Tuesday, July 15, 2014

TRF damper pliers



Just got the new TRF damper pliers, I was curios as to what it could do. There's some nice features, especially for kits that have damper end balls. I haven't spent much time with it yet, so I can't say how good it is yet. But it's very light and compact, so it will stay in my pit-box.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

My first ever TCS race

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Today I competed in the Tamiya Championship Series for the first time, in mini class (M05) and in GT3 (TA06). For the longest time I have been apprehensive about participating but a co-worker really wanted to do it but not alone so we basically made each other go. And I’m very happy we did, there is so much knowledge gained and shared I should have brought a notepad to write it all down. I got lots and lots of help with my setup. My mini gained 3 seconds a lap after “the mini car whisperer” looked at it a couple of weekends ago. My TA06 (and radio) was tuned by another local car whisperer. I was at first going to only run mini, but while on the registration page I figured, it’s free to race, no harm in entering two and withdrawing from one. I am glad I did. I made it to the GT3 A-Main and placed 8th, which was quite unexpected. In the Mini class I qualified in the C-Main (those A-B main mini guys are QUICK with their new brushless power) and I managed to get from middle of the C to 1st but walled it all by myself… should have just gone a little wider.

Thank you to Tamiya for putting on such an amazing (and free) event. Thank you to all the guys at the track (you know who you are!!). I will definitely do this again.

Monday, January 20, 2014

New short shocks for TA06 (maybe others)

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Just finished building the new TRF Short Damper #42273. From Tamiya: “These TRF Short Dampers are fitted as standard equipment in Item 84339 TB-04 PRO Chassis Kit. They are now available as a separate Hop-Up-Option for any Tamiya touring or M-chassis car. Users will find them particularly beneficial on high-grip, twisty circuits, as they give exceptionally fast response when cornering.”

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Above on left #42102 (TRF Works Damper), middle #42273 (TRF short) and right #54000 (M Chassis Alum Damper). The spring on the right is overly compressed from me trying to get more ride height on my m-four before switching to (full length) TRF works (I should have returned the collar to top before taking the picture). I’ll have to take #84318 (TRF Works M-Chassis) off one of these days and compare all four.

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From the back of the box it shows that these shocks are 4mm shorter than the regular works edition. Car has not been on track yet so I can’t yet say how it changes the car for me.