WORLDS: Inside Christopher Krapp's prototype Kyosho touring car

0 Oct. 11, 2014, 6:52 p.m.

10/10/2014
By Aaron Waldron

LiveRC.com

German Euros and Worlds finalist Christopher Krapp has been racing for Kyosho for eight years now, competing both in electric off-road as well as the touring car division - despite Kyosho's TF6 SP not receiving an update in over two years. That's all about to be changed now, though, as Krapp's car at this year's ISTC World Championship is nearly completely new - and he's even got an outside shot at making the final as qualifying heads into the final round. Adorned with beautiful red-anodized aluminum, the prototype TF-6 SP update gets my vote as the most attractive chassis in the pit area!

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Factory Kyosho driver Christopher Krapp

Chassis: Kyosho prototype

Motor: Team Orion 4.5-turn Lightweight

Battery: Team Orion Carbon Pro 7200mAh

ESC: Team Orion R10.1

Radio: Sanwa M12

Servo: Sanwa SRG-BLS

Body: PROTOform LTC-R

Notes: According to Christopher, the aluminum pieces on the car are pretty much ready for production. The plastic parts, however, are still rough prototypes and may not necessarily reflect what's going to be sold - especially the suspension arms.

Christopher said that one of the biggest differences are the new bulkheads, which are considerably more sturdy - and that helps to keep the car more stable and carry substantially more corner speed when accelerating with high-powered brushless systems.

Without a cross brace, the front end of the top braces flexes more for greater stability. The dual-bellcrank steering system with carbon fiber brace is new, and gives the car smoother steering response.

Shorter shock towers are bolted at both ends, and the shocks have been shortened as well.

A floating servo mount is used to isolate chassis flex.

Like a floating servo mount, the new floating battery mount on the Kyosho car removes the battery from the chassis so that it doesn't disrupt any flexing or twisting of the chassis. The mount can be detached from the car with the battery still taped in place.

The chassis design and its cutouts are new, altering its flex characteristics. A new one-piece motor mount (similar to the unit found on the Yokomo car) is used, and mounted further forward than the previous Kyosho car.