Tamiya recently released rubber tires for the F104. They have been in limited supply so far. And even slower to become available were the wheels. I finally got a set from tamiyausa.com last week. But my tires are still in the mail from Hong Kong… So while I waited I wanted to try some Type-A F201 wheels (as I have tons of them from an ebay auction that I lucked out on) .
First off I wanted to do some size comparison.
| Item | Front Width | Rear Width | Diameter F/R |
| F201 #50936 | 32mm | 36.8mm | 39.85mm |
| F104 #51398 | 30mm | 34.95mm | 44.85mm |
The F201 wheels are smaller but wider than the F104 wheels. The groves that the rubber tires slide over are beefier on the F104 as well.
Some comparisons to the Foam tires.
If you look closely you can see the tire taking on a concave shape. I haven’t driven this yet so I have no idea on how the handling and grip is going to be affected by this. The front tire will have a lot more grip than the foam one, it always puzzled me why the front foams aren’t as wide as the rim.
So there you have it, a F201 tire will fit a F104 rim. Time will tell if it’s a good idea or not :) When I get my F104 tires I’ll take some more pics for comparison.
