54879 Tamiya Aluminium front direct cups Review

The Tamiya Racing Factory has continued to release a lot of new parts to ensure their chassis are able to battle at the sharp end of the grid. The Aluminium direct cups are another great addition, so let's take a closer look.

The packet contains two cups, and two pairs of the new thicker front swing shaft protectors along with two pairs of the thinner protectors that are used in the rear. The design of the actual shaft is different to before, they are all thicker and are also make with GRP so are harder wearing.

The benefit of these new cups is that they will lighten the drive-train. Providing a more responsive throttle response and also a more linear steering feel. The standard TRF419 / TRF419XR direct cups weigh in at 4.49g

The TA07 lightweight direct cups weigh in at 3.94g.

The new aluminium direct cups provide a considerable saving at 1.73g! That's a great saving of over 2.76g, which provides a huge 5.52g reduction of weight in the drive train.

The full front end spool assembly is only 11.63g in total (using titanium screws).

The new front swing shaft protectors are 4.5mm thick. 1mm chunkier than the standard parts.

One thing that you need to be careful with is that these spool cups only have one set of holes. They are set to the outer position, so if you run a Tamiya spool and use the set of holes that are closer to the inside then these will not fit.

Overall this part is an essential racing hop-up, it is great to have Tamiya supporting us racers with nice upgrades like this.