05/23/03
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The True Scale Racing Federation, or TSRF as it has come to be know, is gaining momentum in the slot car world as the fastest, out of the box chassis available. Believing that the end of the hobby the first time around was caused by the increased performance, and decreased scale of the serious professional racers of the '70's, TSRF has set out to create a standard by which serious racing and serious scale can exist on the same track, in the same car. Over the last year TSRF and winning have become synonymous, and a household name. Even the freshest novice could build a potential winner, with minimal investment, minimal skill, and maximum enthusiasm. |
| After a successful launch of the TSRF chassis, both in 1:32 scale and 1:24 scale, TSRF set their sites towards producing ready to race cars based on those chassis that worked so well. Though not really ready to race, these cars are more of an "almost ready to race" kit. I |  |
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received a Porsche 962 body for review. Included with the
body is a rear ground effects tunnel, wing and interior. The interior I received was, what I'm told, a pre-production interior molded in clear. TSRF tells me that the final release interior will be molded in black. Though not available at the time of this review, I'm also told that a dash board will be included with the actual "kit". Looking over the body I have to say that this is the nicest vac-formed body I've ever seen. The lines are extremely sharp and clean, and the overall body is free of imperfection. |
| The chassis supplied with this kit was the basic 1:24 scale chassis, which, except for the larger size looks to be basically the same as the 1:32 scale chassis. If something works, don't fix it. I'm not clear if the actual ready to race "kits" will come with the body installed, though the TSRF suggests that they will, but if they don't or you're mounting a TSRF body to your own TSRF 124 chassis, there is one thing you need to be aware of. |  |
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For the Porsche 962 it is necessary to extend the chassis
to it's longest length. On the older chassis, such as the one I tested,
there is a potential of a short where the motor leads can come in
contact with the chassis pan. This is described in detail on the TSRF
Service page. TSRF assures us this problem has been corrected and
this applies only to the older chassis. With the chassis extended, the only thing left to worry about is the body... |
| Included with the "kit" are computer designed
masks for the windows, which will make painting a clear body many times
easier! With that said, let me be the one to say (before everyone else
does) that I am the worlds WORST Lexan body painter! Give me a hard body
any day. With that said, I gave it my best shot, and with almost ZERO prior experience, I attempted a two-tone paint job. Well, it |
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looks okay, but in my own defense, I was in a bit of a hurry to get the car ready for this review. That's my story, anyway, and I'm sticking to it... The most difficulty I had was getting paint into the extremely thin fins on the rear. I never did get it all the way in, but because I used black it didn't seem so noticeable. Again, if I'd taken a bit more time, used lighter coats and more of them, it may have worked better. |
| Rest assured that it's only a matter of practice, patience and creativity that stands between you and a great looking vac body. Pictured to the left are some awesome paint jobs done on the same body I received, and you'd never know they were Lexan bodies. How they do it, I do not know, but I am in awe of anyone that can do this quality of work. My biggest mistake was doing more than one color, and not having a set of decent decals to make a believable livery. But next time... ( Note by TSRF: They are Tamiya TamTech injected bodies. The new TSRF bodies are similar in shape and detail.) |  |
| On the track, just like it's 1:32 scale little brother, this car is a ROCKET! Using Carrera 18 volts for power, this car is absolutely untouchable with any 1:24 scale production car available today. I have never seen a car this big be so fast on my Carrera track before, and it reminds me of an HO Super G-Plus car on steroids. The combination of powerful motor, light body, sticky tires, and strong magnet makes this car unbeatable on plastic track. | |
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TSRF was also nice enough to send me a set of aluminum
rims and sponge tires for the rear. These are primarily designed for
wooden routed tracks, and though I couldn't test on this type of layout,
I did put them on the car to do some hot laps on my Carrera track, and
those rims do add a lot of visual appeal to the car. So for those of you that have a track large enough to enjoy 1:24 scale racing, it is my opinion that you haven't seen a 1:24 scale race car until you've tried a |
| TSRF powered car. These ready to race "kits" might just be the way to go. If you're afraid of Lexan, there are may alternatives, such as the Porsche 956 plastic kit by Tamiya, or any other GTP body. TSRF tells us that true RTR cars will be coming, but for now production costs make factory painting and detailing cost prohibitive. Until then, we're going to have to try out hand at painting our own bodies. |  |
| I'd like to thank Philippe at TSRF
for providing his great car for review. I highly recommend that you get
one or more to test yourself! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to E-mail me at ken@slotcarillustrated.com. |