Foxy

HPI adds to their bizarre lineup of vehicles with a new touring car, no doubt aimed at the noobie crowd. It's a direct drive (yep, you heard that right, the brushed motor powers the rear axle) rear wheel drive 1/10th touring car, and it's called the TC10

Call me hard and cynical, but what possible use HPI thinks the market has for that, I have absolutely no clue...It's double weird because Hot Bodies' (HPI sister firm) new competition 4wd touring car is called the TCXX and Hot Bodies also has a FRONT wheel drive touring car called the TCFD

Curiouser and curiouser. All I can say is that it better be less than $100 rtr with a brushed motor and what looks like a ESC from the 90s (probably no cutoff either, maybe I'm being unkind).

Tell me I'm wrong and someone is excited to own this? Or even tell me that someone new to the hobby will be encouraged by owning such a car? It looks barely above toy grade, which is kinda scary for a company that calls themselves 'Hobby' Products International.



Picture courtesy of BigSquidRC.

The Hedgehog

SOLD, I love RWD touring cars

The Mad Modder

This is another one of those products that we'll have to wait and see how it is once it's released. I'm open minded about front or rear wheel drive cars. However, hpi's been releasing a lot of duds lately, so I'd wait on this one until someone's done some in depth testing of it.

Foxy

@HH

Bah, there's always one weirdo on every forum.

Don't forget to tell us how bad it is if you do buy one. lol.

Eman77

Maybe because it's more realistic? That way when you put your classic Mustang or Vette or 370Z body on it, it's actually RWD like the real thing. Maybe it makes folks feel cheap and dirty to put a muscle car body on an AWD platform.

I don't know much about the TC scene, but how is this any worse than a 2WD buggy existing?

Foxy

Because.....well.....look at it for starters...

But also, 4wd touring cars are hard enough to drive in a straight line.

Don't get me wrong, if this was a well honed, well balanced, shaft driven rear wheel drive, made to be scale, like the 1:1 rear wheel drive cars, that would be something else. What I see above looks barely hobby grade.

Like theMadModder says, we'll have to wait and see. I'm not reviewing one though, even if they give it to me. lol. I don't think I even have an nimh battery any more.

Eman77

So maybe it's more about the quality of what you see right now, rather than the fact that it's RWD? That I can understand.


Tamiya has weird stuff like front mounted motors, FWD, fun stuff like that, so this doesn't seem any weirder to me. But I suppose whether or not it's something you can actually race is another story.

Foxy

Tamiya has the good sense to have somre real good flagship racing models though, they've earned the right to throw a little weirdness in the pot. HPI has just discontinued everything they made that was any good except the Blitz (and even that had its problems) and the Savage, and replaced them all with bizarre off-beat stuff.

Yeh, I'm firmly in the 'ok, this could POSSIBLY be a diamond on the rough, but omg, it looks like a total turd' camp, and given HPI's track record lately, that's what we have every right to expect.

As always (and as I said about the HPI gas engines, and where are they in the end), I would be happy to be wrong, but I don't think I am on this one. It really looks bad to me. It'll depend on the price. If it's $99 RTR, then I could see myself at least saying that its one of the cheapest ways to try the hobby. From what I'm looking at though, inside myself, I'd still be thinking, that's about $50 too much.

Eman77

Well, it's got nice tires.

Foxy

Even that remains to be seen. Bet they're hard as hell.

EDIT: Actually, they look like the standard 1/0th HPI rally tires, so yes, they're hard as hell. lol.

Eman77

...at least the orange bits are pretty?

Foxy

Orange makes me puke. Bleeeeeuuuuuuuuggggghhhhh.

Eman77

C'MON MAN, THROW THEM A BONE! [8D]


Wait wait wait - the Xray TC uses orange like mad. And you like that! Admit it!

Foxy

Hmph...Xray orange is classy, HPI orange is pukey.

OK, I'll throw them a bone, they do bodies well, and that GTR looks ok.

Eman77

Horrible, horrible Xray. For shame.

(I still like the orange bits though, and still want an Xray...)

SyCo_VeNoM

hmm that looks like the SC15 ESC... didn't like the one I had the whole 2 mins it lasted before my RC looked like it was nitro with smoke comin out, and that was on a 27T motor... put a ESC with a 21t limit on and it worked happily so I know it wasn't the gearing
IMO it kinda just looks like a 1/10th scale pan car, but one thing that worries me drastically is I don't see anything on the rear that looks like a suspension, and with the HIGH QUALITY PLASTICS (need universal sarcasm tag still)HPI have used on the past few models I bought I don't see its chassis lasting more than 2 minutes if that is the case.

Also wonder why the battery isn't centered as it looks really right side heavy seeing the motor is in the center they could have probably moved the steering servo to the middle in between the wheels to turn them, and made a little platform over the center for the ESC, or even put it behind the rear axle to put a bit more weight on it for more traction, and put the battery dead center

Knowing how HPI has lost it this will be $200, and parts will be sold in stupid groups so there's only 3 parts bags for $40 a bag, and correlating parts won't be in the same bag instead they will be randomly distributed so you have to buy multiples(this is ased on what they did with the recon)

BTW this isn't HPI's 1st RWD car they have the F1 Racer still http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXXRZ6&P=7 and from what I remember from a member it wasn't that bad, but he did say it spun out easy.

Foxy

I've hesitated to say it looks like a pan car, since the only real shared characteristic is the direct drive. do you see room for a diff on that rear axle? Imagine RWD with no diff!!!!! :O

SyCo_VeNoM

know what your saying
HPI F1 like I said, pan cars, and theres some others so not a lot of imagining

Still its kind of a weird thing they could have just strapped a blitz, or firestorms rear tranny to a chassis and had a RWD car with a diff.
But like I said I'm more concerned about the weight distribution as it looks really lopsided normally the motor, ESC, and servo are on one side with the battery on the other to balance it out, but on this motor is dead center, and the battery is on the side with only a esc, and servo which are no where near the weight of the battery to try and counter it.
Also where is the suspension? I've seriously been looking at that pic and can't see anything that looks like one. I've looked at another pic and the front too seems to have no shocks...

All I know is HPI REALLY needs to fire the dude that has been coming up with their latest RC's as they pretty much are all turds

heres a pic with foams, but still the rear has 0 suspension, and the front doesn't seem to have any either...

The Mad Modder

Just found a better pic of it.

It appears to have a gear diff; an open one.

nitrosportsandrunner

sweet, a new-old pan car...2wd with the body of a 4wd car, just what I always wanted!!!
can you feel the sarcasm?

I have wanted to see a RC company do a RWD car that has the motor up front, shaft drive to a real live axle. Might not handle well, but it would be scale and look awsome. And for the love of god, put a RWD car body on it!


Mad Modder: the "diff" in a pan car type axle is on the pass' side wheel hub. Its a type of ball diff. Its not a locked axle.
And it is just a modern take on a pan car. The main chassis, drive system and also the front suspsension (if you can call it that) is all pan car "tech"

As foxy said, it had better be cheap. Its easy to pick up a used pan car for $50-$75.

turok007

has the design team been looking at the old tamiya cars thinking they were new releases. lol

Argess

Just to play Devil's Advocate, it may be more realistic for those who are trying to duplicate a 1:1 car in minature. Plus there may be some people who would like the challenge of RWD vs AWD based on how a RWD car reflects a very common layout of traditional 1:1 cars.

I've seen a similar kind of thinking with regards to slotcars. Many of the purists will not use magnet equipped cars. Sure, the performance is better with the magnets, and the challenge is up for debate (although I say the magnet cars hold the track very well making it easier for the less skilled drivers).

So while there may be a niche market for this HPI car, I would suspect it is small based on the overwhelming thirst for performance I see in RCU posts.

turok007

everything on that chassis that is in front of that servo is thinking out side the box. in fact it is so far out the box i can see padded walls.

SyCo_VeNoM

but it has no suspension(wel none able to be seen from any pics of diff angles, and the plate looks one piece) so it doesn't duplicate a 1:1 car very well as I can't think of one that hasn't had shocks on it (well ok maybe a model T and even that I'm not sure about). Without any suspention to tune I doubt it will work very well at all even their F1 racer had a shock setup like a traditional pan car

The Mad Modder

Please re-read my post

If you look closely in front of the spur gear you'll see a bevel gear, so it appears to have a gear diff.