[/QUOTE] The most common ones are the Tamiya F103 and F104, and the 3Racing F109. To be honest all three of them have a similar level of competitiveness and none of them have an advantage on the track over the other two. The simplicity of the f103 rear means it's simple to tune the rear end. The F104 and F109 need more work to tune them but they are more consistent and have a much wider range of settings than the F103.
Currently we race on a small carpet track with a mix of an F104, some F109s and a couple of F103s with a mix of 13T and 13.5T brushless, 27T and 32T brushed, all on 2S. They all lap at more or less the same speed with the F103 cars having a small advantage over the modern chassis right now, but they are the also the ones using brushed motors which seem to give better power delivery for the F1 chassis so the motors used is the bigger reason they are ahead.
If you want to go for an F103 the price isn't bad at all, but it does depend on whether you want the carbon chassis or not. Standard F103 chassis can be found for £30-40, and if you are lucky they will have the alloy motor mount which is an absolute necessity to stop you destroying spur gears. The 15th Anniversary chassis is pretty, but you do pay over the odds just because of the printed badges on it which is why they cost twice as much as the standard carbon parts. The carbon chassis isn't a necessity, I prefer the kit chassis as the extra flex helps generate grip although the full length top deck is useful if you use high power motors to help stabilise the flex.
Don't even think about going for an F102. They are cheap to buy but if you are racing with one due to their age you are guaranteed to break the front suspension parts and you are then guaranteed to not find a replacement, and you can't replace the front end parts with F103 ones. Every one of our club members who raced back in the 90s now has a dead F102 in need of spares.
The F109 is good out of the box, but you do have more parts to adjust on it will run faster than the Tamiyas as long as you know what you are doing regarding suspension setup. I could never get mine to suit my driving style which is why I went back to the F103, but all the others love them. I just couldn't get the hang of the suspension tuning, which went against many years of pan car setup experience and I don't like link suspension on 1/12th scale either so the problem with the F109 was me rather than the car itself and I took the easy option rather than spending more time getting used to it. All the other F109s run fine, lap as fast as anything else, and seem to be more consistent race after race than the F103s.[/QUOTE]
the f103 is a good choice as there are many about so more spares available too.if you can buy a new f103 anniversary 1 for £150 and that 1has been converted so is not an original 1.
whats wrong with an f102?had a few nice smashes with mine never broken it n its about 20years old. fair enough parts can be hard to come buy but you need the part numbers to get them and you may have to order from hk
also whats the crack with people on oople fair enough most of the advice is good but telling people not to buy something basicly because they dont like it.
have a look round fela set your budget and see what you can get for your money you just need to bear in mind that these cars are very similar and its down to driver skills not the car.
fair enough the pro's use top tackle but if you gave a pro a bog standard f103 to race with they will get it set up proper hot and do mint with it.
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