TOPIC:

I'd love to have a lathe. But I'd probably forget to eat or sleep when I'm working with it.
Man, I wish I had access to CNC so I could create some alloy Group C wheel hubs... and put 'em on Fleebay also.

The wheelbase is only a few mm off. Can't measure exactly right now because I took it apart to put the F103 T-bar on.
Only to find out I need different rear axle parts to even out the offset in the opposite direction...
Should have thought of that beforehand.
Have to see what I can figure out - need some more F103 parts for that though. Luckily they're not hard to find.

eddrick wrote:

slotting the motor pod mounts

What do you mean by that, making different mounting holes?
If I solve it with parts from the F103GT I could even run the slicks from that model.
That'll give some new adventures though because the wheels have a different offset to fit bodies that are 10mmm less wide.
But the whole quest is great to discover all the subtle differences among the F chassis.

Here's a picture comparing the T-bars...
Left for an F103 and right for Group C and F102 cars (I crossed out the hole that's normally not there) :


I think this build deserves a few new parts so I'm gonna see what would match best to complete the F103 rear setup.

This is a good page for an overview of the (few) differences between the F101 and F102.
Interesting to see how Tamiya adopted the T-bar of the Group C when they introduced the F102.
The original of the F101 (on the right) was a bit different :


Picture was borrowed from the page linked to above...

So far I've discovered that the F103 T-bar will lengthen the wheelbase by 3mm. It has an offset of 4.5mm to the left (to the right when you're looking at the car from the front) so maybe I can create some spacers...
Normal Group C motor case parts cannot be used in this configuration.
But for now it'll stay like this :

Forgive me if I've got the wrong end of the stick, I'm getting a bit confused with all the swapping bits around!
If the above pic is the latest setup, it looks like the wheelbase wants to be 2-3mm longer at the rear. I'm thinking slot the motor pod/rear axle bracket (T-bar) mounting holes (Elongate the holes to allow you to "stretch" the chassis by moving the motor pod backwards). It looks like there's enough meat to slot the 2x holes in the T- bar where the 2x screws go through to mount to the chassis, OR slot these 2 AND the 4x where the motor heatsink/axle bearing blocks fix to the T-bar (If you slot all 6x by 1.5mm, you'll get your 3mm without the slotting being noticeable, I reckon). Does that make sense & look viable?

The wheel base being slightly too short may not be that much of an issue but slotting the holes is a good idea.
It would work on the two vertically aligned holes - the ones for the motor case don't have enough meat on them I think.

I'll stick with how it is for now though and solve it later with the (longer) F103 T-bar.
Because of it being lopsided, I'll need to get a different wheel stopper on one side and diff part on the other to make a correction for the 4.5mm offset to the left.
I thought I came up with something clever tonight but it turned out I overlooked yet another detail.

Sorry to drop the F chassis maze on the neutral reader.

Neutral's ok, it's left & right I have issues with...
Option 3 - see if you can lay your hands on some black FRP sheet (Have a boy racer's bonnet when he's not looking) & copy the symmetrical T-bar but longer? - It might be easier than messing about with special wheel stoppers & diff bits (Been there, done that!). A good starting place to look for carbon fibre sheet might be a motor factor shop, & I'm sure I've seen it on Ebay (Looks like black coated GRP to me though - the holes would also be black if there was carbon reinforcement in it)

eddrick wrote:

Neutral's ok, it's left & right I have issues with

Haha, I've done some switcheroos in my time too.

There's actually some guys in Britain that'll do carbon and SCS manufacturing.
I know a few shops that sell the sheets too - Asiatees and Conrad for example...
But I think I need FRP for the T-bar. The extra flexibility is needed for adjusting body roll.

Thanks for warning about fiddling with the diff parts.
I spent all night last night thinking of something ingenious... only to notice I overlooked the very obvious.
Details of that will follow... so y'all can have a laugh about it.

Chances are I'll receive a F103RS soon so I could check with the parts from that car what can be done with the rear axle...
That'll eliminate the need to involve Santa's accountant for something that may lead to a dead end.

Ready for a test run! More details later but here's the scoop :


I had the C11 and this car both in parts again so I couldn't help switching to the blue TRF damper and Group C wheels...

And from a few different angles :


What a cool chassis. Apart from the modification to fit a lopsided T-bar from an F103 at a later point, it really deserves a fluorine coloured damper and some black FRP steering knuckles. And whatever small upgrades might be possible.
But with the carbon chassis and all the dark FRP it looks like one big hop up already...

I will also try to gather the info on the parts evolution from F101 up to F103 (including Group C) in an easy single overview...
Rather than all the on the fly stuff I have put on line so far.

To be continued...

eddrick wrote:

Neutral's ok, it's left & right I have issues with...
Option 3 - see if you can lay your hands on some black FRP sheet (Have a boy racer's bonnet when he's not looking) & copy the symmetrical T-bar but longer? - It might be easier than messing about with special wheel stoppers & diff bits (Been there, done that!). A good starting place to look for carbon fibre sheet might be a motor factor shop, & I'm sure I've seen it on Ebay (Looks like black coated GRP to me though - the holes would also be black if there was carbon reinforcement in it)

mate you can buy carbon fibre effect or real? carbon fibre on ebay. loads of it about
www.ebay.co.uk/...975wt_1054