After a season of on-road racing with my TB-03 in the RCGT series, I was ready to take a break and try something else.  I've been racing off-road on and off for the past year, and had decent success at the local club race scene.  However, I mostly did 2WD off-road trucks and short course trucks, I didn't want to start off with 4WD as I really wanted to learn a good trigger finger by driving 2WD first before jumping into 4WD.

With the RCGT series on break, I decided to pick up a TRF511, Tamiya's top of the line 4WD buggy.  In the process of building this vehicle you can see the immense amount of quality that Tamiya has put into the TRF511.  All the graphite and aluminum parts just look imaculate (almost too good to get dirty).  In fact, I think there were more machined parts than molded parts on the car.  While at first glance, the TRF511 looks very similar to its predecessor the TRF501x, the 511 is a complete redesign on many components.  From the aluminum bulkheads, to the suspension components, everything has been refined.

I spent a good amount of time making sure that my first 4WD buggy was put together precisely and it really pays off at the track when you take the time off the track to put together your car/truck correctly.  I had a great first few outing of practice with the TRF511.   The TRF511 responded very well to changes.  The buggy shows you what the changes you made is doing on the track and allows you to fine tune very quickly. 

The TRF511 is also a very durable buggy.  With very little experience in 4WD buggy, it was quite a learning experience at first jumping and landing and getting used to how the power come on for the 4WD buggy.  So I had my share of nasty tumbles, and I'm happy to say that the TRF511 took it all without breaking a sweat.  The only thing I broke during my two full days of practice was a front A-arm and a front C-hub split due to a full speed encounter with a pipe down the straight-away. 

In my next blog entry I will share my first race with the TRF511 at the final round of JBRL electric series.

Steve W.