Sepes Racing Products TRF417 conversion and interview

Sepes Racing Products are new on the scene, but they could be a new player in the RC hop up market. They now have their first set of performance parts for the TRF417 available.  They have given us a brief interview to show how they have come about and also what was involved in making their products.

Q- Tell us about yourself

My name is Chris and i live in the Netherlands. I race model cars since 1989 and was a Tamiya Factory driver back in the 90's. I studied precision Engineering a long time ago and have worked since then in the Space, Aerospace and Automotive sectors. Currently I try to race some races in the Dutch National series (modified Touring car and Electric off-road).

Q- What are you setting out to do with Sepes Racing products

I always try to build my RC car better then just out of the box and this brought me a lot of successes. This year i had the opportunity to share my modifications by creating commercial available products.

Q- The TRF417 is a great car, how did you arrive to the decision that a new motor mount would make it be even better?

I always loved the Tamiya products and i love the quality they deliver. However i think the latest TRF417V5 can even be faster/easier to drive with some small modifications.

The conversion set features a brand new motor mount that shifts the motor 4.5mm closer towards the center-line of the car. This improves the side-to-side balance and agility for quick direction changes. A new centre attachment point for the upper deck has been incorporated into the design for improved flex characteristics. The motor mount also locks the bearing of the spur gear and therefore it's possible to only attach the upper deck only to the bulkheads and the centerpost for the best flex properties.To support this the newly designed upper deck has optimized flex characteristics and tuning.

Q- Can you describe the process on how you create these parts

The parts are CAD designed and (proto's) have been tested from the beginning of 2013 against the TRF417V5 and other after market conversion sets.

Cad design

Prototype part manufacture

Parts manufactured ready for Anodising

Q- How to you decide if they are good enough to release? (Do you race them, have a team of people giving feedback etc)

As this moment the parts have been tested and optimized with the latest feedback.

Q- When will it be ready to buy?

It's in stock now, please contact me via the facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/SepesRacingProducts

Final Parts Ready for sale

Q- Will these fit all 417 chassis?

The conversion is a simple fit for the TRF417V5. For the TRF417 and TRF417X, 1mm spacers need to be fitted between the top deck and both the front and rear bulkheads. 

Q- What are your future plans?

For the TRF418 there will be a revolutionary conversion set. It's in development stage and when the TRF418 is available it will be tested. Release date should be around april 2014.
For the TRF off-road models there some new parts in the pipeline.

Exciting times, here is a link to their facebook page, SepesRacingProducts
we will be having a review of this part very soon :)