TOPIC:

The body has arrived! Together with another very pleasant surprise from ducdennis :


The blue alloy servo saver horn is for the C11.

Some unxpected developments on this one! And I think it'll have to go to custom builds because of it...

Today I got a whole bunch of Group C parts. I responded to some suspension arms and got a treasure chest instead!
There were wheels, a incredible heap of parts (even assorted in a box), a clear F1 body, a servo, an Acto Power Formula motor (!) and chassis plates... if I'm not forgetting anything.

At first I hadn't even really noticed this in between all the goodies :


And I couldn't identify it - but it looked very Group C-like...
Turns out it's a carbon chassis deck for an F102!


I've compared it against a Group C chassis and it looks like the perfect length for a short-base car.
Which is what the F40 is... but I'll try to explain that.

A Group C chassis can be varied in length by using a different hole to attach the front on the chassis.
For the longer setting (on the C11 for example) part A6 is attached :


The first hole in the chassis is then used :


The F40 on the other hand does not use this plastic part :


And thus a shorter length can be created by using the last hole :


This shorter length should match with the carbon deck.
Here it is, on top of the longer C11 chassis :


Which would lead to a custom carbon based C-F102 Ferrari F40!
I think I'll also put the cool vintage motor mount I received from Lars on it :


If I can figure it all out...

I wrote:

But at that time I was an even bigger fan of it's rival - the 959.
Have to say I was a little bummed out when the F40 beat the Porsche on top speed by a few kilometres...
A quarter of a century later, the Ferrari has actually stood the test of time a bit better I think.

I now declare the F40 and 959 to be equally impressive and memorable.
All the Porsche would need are some bigger rims.

What's actually quite bizarre is that I just found out that the motor mount I received on Friday has number 53106... and the carbon chassis (that arrived a day later) is #53105. Didn't know about either a week ago...
How's that for unrelated events?

Edo,
I did not know about the different lengths of the Group C chassis, so now I have to do some correcting in the Chassis section of The DataBase.
The Jaguar and the C11 is long wheel base, the rest has short wheel base?

-Lars

larbut wrote:

The Jaguar and the C11 is long wheel base, the rest has short wheel base?

Yes, exactly right.
Among the first 100 only the short and long wheel bases are used.
But the Mazda (think it's the only one) has the A6 part fitted the other way around - which leads to a middle setting.
Smart construction really...



But not relevant for the database.

Edit :

I wrote:

But the Mazda (think it's the only one) has the A6 part fitted the other way around

The 58174 Street Devil (last one in the chassis line - apart from reissues) is the second car with the middle length...

Thanks, The DataBase has been updated.
www.tamiyabase....assis.html

-Lars

Maybe you could also add that the Jaguar spaceframe is blue?
And I think I should be able to gather the general overlap on the rims and tyres.
Looked into that earlier for the tyre database topic .

Here's a small build update...
The FRP plates that came with the carbon chassis had been recently sprayed black.
I heard that they were a lighter colour before because they'd been used in racing...
But that became clear when I put them in some breaking fluid.
I am a notorious FRP restorer so I just had to see what was underneath out of curiousity.


That didn't disappoint at all. I can see the plates still have a lot of potential.
More on that soon...

@Lars : there's another (smaller) chassis variation by the way - the height of the rear, adjusted with parts D3...



58088 C11 - low
58091 Nissan - low
58092 Jaguar - low
58094 NSX - middle
58098 F40 - middle

There is also a high setting possible that's in all the manuals...
For that there are no D3 parts used and items D10 are moved to the underside of the chassis :



This last bit it just to complete the info here of course.

Edou wrote:

@Lars : there's another (smaller) chassis variation by the way - the height of the rear, adjusted with parts D3...


58088 C11 - low
58091 Nissan - low
58092 Jaguar - low
58094 NSX - middle
58098 F40 - middle

There is also a high setting possible that's in all the manuals...
For that there are no D3 parts used and items D10 are moved to the underside of the chassis :

This last bit it just to complete the info here of course.

Yes, I have seen this, but decided to keep it out of the description because the ride height is adjustable. Maybe I should add something about ride height though...

Updated now.
-Lars

Cool. Really like all the details. And Mr T officially says that the second pair of D3s is not used on the higher cars :


Don't get me started on another parts evolution (although I suspect inevitability) - like how they solved it on the F103...

The parts for this project are looking more promising every day.
I dove into a few manuals and it looks like I can easily use a Group C (front) bumper.
That should solve half of the biggest forseeable hurdle - how to get the body posts right...
Other than that I think I will use a Group C rear axle and diff parts so I can use the wheels that are on my C11.
Group C cars, the F101 and F102 share the front suspension and gear case.
Need to look into the details a bit more but the rear axle is assembled differently - along with how the wheels are mounted.

My fascination for the F chassis is undeniable now.
Closely related to the Group C and even the hop up numbers are in between those of the Manta Ray and Top Force!
Fits the whole Tamiya journey well...