Tamiya 42333 TRF419XR Aluminium Lower Deck and 42334 Upper deck Review
I do most of my racing on carpet and it has not escaped my attention that that many of my competitors have been running aluminium lower ...
https://www.thercracer.com/2019/02/tamiya-42333-trf419xr-aluminium-lower.html
The new lower deck comes in a well finished Matt black. It has all of the same holes that the carbon chassis has, so you have full compatibility with the new motor mount and centre brace settings, but there are a lot of changes in this to the std chassis.
The chassis is 2mm thick, and it is still quite flexible. It is stiffer than the carbon chassis but not by that much. This is due to the 6 large diagonal cut-outs on each side. Saving both weight and also ensuring that it is not too stiff.
The chassis itself is approx 2mm more narrow than the carbon chassis at 83mm wide. The front differential cutout is also slightly deeper, and the front sides are slightly more narrow.
The rear section is quite different in its shape, more narrow, whilst the rear cut-out is the same.
The total weight of this new chassis is 89.5g That is only 19.5g heavier than the carbon chassis. So it will not be an issue for anyone that wants to keep their current set-up as the TRF419XR is so light that everyone is running a lot of weight normally to make the chassis legal at 1320g
The top deck has the same form as the the standard XR kit version but is now 1.75mm thick. This makes it more flexible so it will be more responsive to the flex-characteristics of the alloy chassis.
The deck weighs 6.71g a saving of 1.0g of the kit version.
So overall when running the two new decks, your Tamiya TRF419XR will be just 18.5g heavier. The good thing about this is that the weight is lower down in the chassis. This will affect the balance of the car, making it more stable.
Another factor is that the chassis is 0.25mm thinner. It might be a small amount but you can run your chassis lower to the ground, the compound affect of both the lower weight and also the lower height of the chassis will make a big difference in how the chassis will handle.
I will report back once I have had a few more races with the conversion, on first impressions though I am impressed.