The Brand and the Chasis
Schumacher FT is a new chassis, 1/10 scale electric powered front wheel drive from Schumacher.
The choice of FF chassis on the market
I first came to notice this chassis from the youtube and I find it rather interesting. My first front wheel drive rc car is tamiya FF03 and the latest one that I have driven is VBC F18 Ligtning. I also have driven ABC Grande and MST TCR. Except for VBC F18, all the other chassis that I have driven is a direct gear transmission. The latest design of FF car is a mid motor layout and the most common one in the market is Xray T4F 2021. The Xray T4F21 is not the budget chassis and I am looking for a budget chassis within USD200.00. The obvious choice is Express FT1S. When, Schumacher released the FT chassis, I have decided that I should give it a try.
About the chassis
FT chassis is made from FRP materials, for the lower deck, upper deck and the shock towers. It has a differential gearbox with the plastic bulk heads, plastic steering, semi alloy dampers and alloy motor mount. It is a belt driven with mid motor layout.
The Packaging and the Manual
Like all other assembly unit you have to buy the wheels, body and electronics separately. The packaging is very systematic as all numbered in accordance with the instruction manual. Each bag must be assembled based on the number of each stage printed in the manual. I find the instruction is very straight forward and easy.
My Vote
Overall, I am happy with the kit except for one issue. The pulley that hold the spur gear will only fit the spur gear from the kit. I have tried to install the common or standard spur gear and the holes of the spur is rather large to fix on the pulley. It means, I have to use the spur gear from Schumacher should I wish to reduce the gear ratio. I think for a front wheel drive, the suitable motor would be brushless motor 17.5T. I find it the power of the motor is very smooth, easy to drive and has long running time. 13.5T motor has slightly more powerful torque and you may use it should you prefer 13.5T. The standard spur gear is 85T with 48 pitch and the maximum number of pinion that you can fit in is 31T. With the internal ratio of 1.8, the maximum final gear ration is around 4.94. This gear ratio is rather high to run at the local track. I would prefer 4.1 gear ratio for my 17.5T motor. I wish the manufacturer would take this into account should they release a second version of this chassis in the future. The other drawback of the chassis is the position of the shock tower for the front and rear. I find the shock towers are rather high for the current standard. The current standard is lowered design to use with the short dampers. I find the dampers are rather too long for a touring car.
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