Monthly Archives: May 2013
TRF Aluminum Direct Servo Horn
Tamiya product photo of the servo horn mentioned in my last post.
42248 Aluminum Direct Servo Horn (Tamiya / Futaba)
42249 Aluminum Direct Servo Horn (Sanwa / Ko)
First Race with the TRF417 V5
Finally did my first race with the TRF417 V5 as summer has arrived up here in Finland too.
This race was the first outdoor national round, round 5 in the 7 round national championship with the first 4 held indoors on carpet during the winter. The track was Kuusankoski, the only decent asphalt track in Finland and one where I have done most of my testing during the last few summers so even if I had not done any testing with the V5 I was pretty sure the car and setup would be ok.
I set up my car according to the best setup I tested here last year with the 417X (can be found in a previous post). The difference being that last year I run modified while this year I run pro-stock (which was not run last summer), and I must say as usual I enjoy pro-stock a lot more. The first run was not good though, but after that I switched to softer diffs front & rear (same as I found best last year on this track) and after that the car was really good. I made a few further changes during the day and you can find the final setup below.
One new part I had on the car that arrived last week was the new TRF alu servo arm. Really like these.
A picture of the track from testing last year.
TRF Wins 2013 Reedy Race – Press Release
TRF Make it a 1-2-3 in the 2013 Reedy Race Touring Car!
TRF (Tamiya Racing Factory) drivers put in an awesome display to dominate the podium in the 2013 Reedy Race of Champions Invitational class, held from May 23-26 at Nor-Cal Hobbies in California, USA. Racing the TRF417V5 chassis, Marc Rheinard took home a well-deserved victory and was followed in 2nd by rising Japanese star Akio Sobue with last year’s champion Viktor Wilck making it a TRF 1-2-3 under the watchful gaze of mechanic Kiyokazu Suzuki.
The Reedy Race line-up includes 17.5T and 13.5T motor touring car classes and an F1 class, but the star of the show is traditionally the Invitational class which is only open to a select few drivers invited by the event organizers. The pressure-cooker atmosphere of the format sees eight races with a new grid order each time: every corner of every race is vital to the drivers and consistently high finishes are the order of the day.
With the cars running on unfamiliar control tires and taking into account the sugar water coated track, car set-up was always going to be tricky, and the TRF drivers took advantage of the first half of the race week to get to know the Nor-Cal circuit, with timely feedback from Suzuki helping to get the cars in top shape. And when the racing started, Marc showed that the testing had been worth it as in a blistering display of driving he won 5 of the 8 rounds finished second in the other 3, leaving the field in his wake.
All told, TRF drivers competed in 15 of the 16 races (8 rounds of 2 heats each) and left no room for doubt as to their dominance by winning an incredible 11 of them, Viktor and Akio taking 3 apiece to add to Marc’s 5. That included three back-to-back wins for Akio in rounds 6-8 and a 1-2-3 finish in the final round to punctuate the supreme TRF display. Akio may be an unfamiliar face to international race watchers, but he is a rising star in the world of Japanese R/C touring car races, a fact confirmed by a recent victory in a domestic meet.
With next year’s IFMAR Touring Car World Championship looming on the horizon and Tamiya gunning for an unprecedented 4th consecutive victory (6th overall), Tamiya’s driver line up of reigning World Champ Jilles Groskamp, Marc, Viktor and Akio is looking good!
2013 Reedy Touring Car Race of Champions Results
1 Marc Rheinard – TRF417V5
2 Akio Sobue – TRF417V5
3 Viktor Wilck – TRF417V5
4 Christopher Krapp – Kyosho
5 Paul Lemieux – Xray
6 Rick Hohwart – Associated
7 Keven Hebert – Associated
8 Eric Albano – Associated
9 Juho Levanen – Associated
10 Tyler Vik – Yokomo
Marc Rheinard ETS Apeldoorn Winning Car
As we have become used to, when the racing season gets to the classic asphalt races, it’s Tamiya TRF that dominates. So also this year at the ETS race in Apeldoorn, however this time with a Raceberry conversion on Marc and Viktor’s cars. The Reedy TC Race is this weekend and Kiyo, the designer from Tamiya Japan is attending, so I would not be surprised if we see them running some new TRF stuff at this race… 😉
Another interesting, and very good looking product seen at the ETS race is this new upcoming Muchmore Fleta Pro ESC. Expect an autumn release.
Full Option TA06 MS @ Shizuoka 2013
Full Option TA06 MS.
TRF Aeration Dampers with Mica Blue springs.
TRF101 @ Shizuoka 2013
First pictures of the TRF101 from the 2013 Shizuoka Hobby Show, held this weekend.
Source: Waigo Hobby on Facebook
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