FF Touring Cars

[K.O.M.]

After impulsively buying an RS4 Sport yesterday, and drifting around at the local Hobbytown (Concord, CA) on road tires and drift tires, I think I just caught the touring car bug again.

I just want to see how healthy the front-wheel-drive touring car scene is for those that currently race on-road. I know that I would have to run it with the 4WD cars, but I have done this in the past in stock class with my Tamiya FF02, and I always made the A-Main.

I was looking and there seems to be two chassis kits that are available:

Tamiya FF03

3 Racing Sakura FF

Anyone have any experience with either? I also heard that Serpent is supposed to come out with an FF Car, but couldn't dig up any info regarding availability.

Comments welcome."thumbsup"

 

[BJoe]

Haven't had a full 1/10 FWD Sedan, I do have an M-03 and love it though.

 

[DioptricStraw]

I haven't had a full size sedan but i too have an M-03 and an M-05 and love them.

 

[CheapTwin]

I have old FF01 and it's a blast to drive. It's the only car i've ever rolled over during hard braking in mid corner i like how it just goes where you point the front tires to without sliding, rear end of the car just follows nicely

 

[BJoe]

I have old FF01 and it's a blast to drive. It's the only car i've ever rolled over during hard braking in mid corner i like how it just goes where you point the front tires to without sliding, rear end of the car just follows nicely

Must be the longer wheelbase, it doesn't take much to make a short WB M-03 to step the back out.

I haven't had a full size sedan but i too have an M-03 and an M-05 and love them.

I just swapped the '05 knuckles and uprights onto my '03, I swear he turning radius is now around 25% tighter than before in low speed, ice like surface, and on worn out 7 year old tires u-turns!

 

[jsu101]

I use to run a FF01 and it was a blast in stock motor class. But if I put 12x4 mod in it the thing was a missile.

 

[BJoe]

I use to run a FF01 and it was a blast in stock motor class. But if I put 12x4 mod in it the thing was a missile.

You should try a 4600kV Mamba on 3s in the short wb M-03 then:shock:

 

[CheapTwin]

I think "problem" with M-03 and FF-02 is that they are mid motored and therefore have too much weight in rear...

Does anyone own a Yokomo YRF-2, at some point i think it was THE Fwd car to have

 

[BJoe]

I think "problem" with M-03 and FF-02 is that they are mid motored and therefore have too much weight in rear...

Does anyone own a Yokomo YRF-2, at some point i think it was THE Fwd car to have

I think you're right on the money there, however there really isn't much room to put a 540 motor between the Rover Mini body's grill and front tires (frankly, I'm amazed with how well the 1:1's were packaged too) so that can cause a problem. I'd be surprised if that wasn't also an issue with the new style Fiat 500 too and since the later FF's were spawned from that........... On my '03, I had to put the stiffer springs on the back to make it rotate when thrown into a curve at speed without any form of rear brake. Can't say what's a stranger feeling though, hanging the rear out with that little Tamiya, or the Lebaron and Shadow turbo's I had via momentum and loss of rear grip:???:

 

[CheapTwin]

Yep, i bet they coudn't squeeze a 380 there either... TA05 M-Four Chassis might have some usable parts if someone wants to have a go

Tamiya America Item #84255 | RC TA05 M-Four Chassis Kit - TA05 M-Four

 

[OSRC]

Serpent's pics are up over on RCCA's forums. Looks SWEET!!!

I've driven FF01, FF02, FF03, M03, and an M05. I've also modded a TA03F for FWD only.

The FF02 was the worst of the 1/10 by far, and the M03 was a bit twitchier then the M05. FWD is cool in that rear stays planted generally, maybe steps out a bit when braking, but not often. It's really point and shoot, and the easier you are on the throttle, the smoother and faster you are.

Prefer my FF01 out of the group just cause I'm familiar with it, have sold off the all the rest.

 

[K.O.M.]

That Serpent FF car looks nice!

I totally forgot about my FF01! Out of all of my R/C touring cars, I wish that I had kept my FF01 and FF02. Time to go troll Amazon and Ebay...:mrgreen:

 

[meatmonkey]

I'm confused.

Whats wrong with the RS4 sport?

What is it about Fwd that is so enticing?

 

[TSK]

If uyou want more options, you can always just run a 4wd car without the rear drivetrain...

Just make sure you take out the one way or braking may pose a challenge.

 

[BJoe]

If uyou want more options, you can always just run a 4wd car without the rear drivetrain...

Just make sure you take out the one way or braking may pose a challenge.

Depends on the chassis set up. If the car is a "Rear Motor" 4wd layout, pulling the belts and/or drivetrain will work against you since the weight bias is on the back of the car and far away from the sole drive wheels. Now if the motor is mounted closer to the front tires like on the FWD M-Chassis' and the old M-03 based FF-02 and the HPI E-10 Drift, it would work, but not otherwise.

 

[K.O.M.]

I'm confused.

Whats wrong with the RS4 sport?

What is it about Fwd that is so enticing?

The satisfaction of beating an entire field of 4wd cars with a 2wd car with the "wrong" wheels being powered.

Well at least that's what it was for me over 10 years ago when I was running touring cars. Running week after week at the front with the usual characters was getting old, so I was the first of my group to get a Tamiya FF01 and soon, we had enough guys to run an entire heat of just FWD cars.

Funny thing was, depending on the course setup, the FF cars posted faster overall lap times than the similar stock class 4wd cars--this may have been a product of more skilled drivers getting into the class.

Now, I'm just trying to re-live the old days...

 

[BJoe]

I'm confused.

Whats wrong with the RS4 sport?

What is it about Fwd that is so enticing?

Well.....for one, the RS4 Sport hasn't been available in many years and the FWD's are a bit of a challenge to drive fast in something other that a straight line at first, but are really fun, and most importantly, a very different and fun experiance than the usual cars. If you really want to crank up the craziness, you can do like me and stick a decent brushless system in a tuned Short WB Mini chassis with a decent 2s LiPo, it can take a turn towards the ludicris

 

[stormridersp]

Forward wheel drive cars can depending on the ground be faster than AWD cars. If you look back in history, it actually took a while for AWD Rally cars to really bloom. Unreliability, Power Loss, Complexity, Extra Weight for basically little or no gain on Tarmac Rallies or even that classic Safari Long Runs meant 2WD cars could still compete and win. But then came the Lancia Delta S4 and this car it was obviously so fast, turbo and supercharged AWD, that it left no room for competition. When Toyota lost their Safari to a AWD car, it was obvious they had to join in. Still as far as I remember also, in 1999, Citroen entered for a few selected tarmac rallies, their Xsara WRC Kit Car, a turbo charged FWD, and they turned out as winners of both Catalunya and Tour de Corse rallies. Make no mistake, FWD cars can be as fast as any AWD specially on high grip surfaces.

 

[OSRC]

Gone, but not forgotten. FF03 was not finished at this time, only pic I have left. Dang nice looking chassis.

Used TA03F's make great conversions to FWD due to the location of the motor- just remove the belt and rear gear.

Realized I have no pics at all of my FF01. Running a Beams Integra body. Need to get some posted!