Yokomo RS2.0 - Incredible budget 1/10 TC chassis

 
    The Yokomo RS 2.0 is a 1/10 scale racing car chassis, which is not only a Yokomo, it's also insanely cheap. In the UK, MB Models (Yokomo's UK distributor) has this priced at £150, and they throw in a set of pre-glued racing wheels & tyres.

    The RS 2.0 is a belt driven, 4WD, low centre of gravity chassis with racing specs and great levels of adjustability. It's highly driveable straight out of the box and comes with everything that people have been clamouring for in the low price space from the established brands. This is Yokomo taking the fight to the likes of 3Racing and Xpress in the entry level racing market. 

    To reach this price point Yokomo have opted to make the kit of plastic. But the plastics all feel great. We also have ball bearings throughout, plastic adjustable oil shocks, adjustable turnbuckles across all four corners of the suspension. There's space on the deck for full length and shorty packs, and for various internal arrangements. As you can see in the picture to the right, in my case I've put the ESC on the same side as my shorty LiPo in order to help balance out the left-right weight distribution. Even with my stubby servo and tiny radio receiver the motor still outweighs the battery and ESC. Maybe I'll try some bigger batteries?

    The kit all goes together perfectly as per the instructions, althought there is one omission from the instructions that I think is a necessary step. It misses out the lower belt tensioner piece from the instructions. It is an included part, with bearings, but just seems to go missing. The steps for building and installing it are in the RS1.0 manual though so you can check that out.

    Yokomo's "Rookie" cars are gaining traction and offer a great entry point to people looking to get into any class of racing. This RS2.0 is for the on-road touring car racers, then there the RO2.0 for your offroad buggy racing, and there's also the RD2.0 for the drifters. The kits all deliver well rounded adjustable cars, which you just need to add the electronics to.

    My RS2.0 has a Hobbywing Justock system in it, with the XR10 G3S ESC and Justock 21.5T G2.1 motor. This is the spec for the series I want to run it in. BRCA's latest on road series; the BRCA Sportscar Endurance Championship, based loosely on WEC LMH. It's an open chassis, with open tyre choices, but stock motor and blinky ESC. I've paired that with a SRT CH6012 low profile servo, which is a fast and plenty strong enough servo for lower speed 1/10 on-road racing. All I need now is a Montech LMH body shell and some RC friends to make up a team!...

    On my first test outing with the car, running basically kit setup (slightly higher, 6mm, ride height for my running spot) and no shell on it, I was amazed at how easy it is to drive. The 21.5T motor with stock gearing is actually a really good fit for the space I test my cars. I have some other cars (namely an upgraded Tamiya TA03RS and a Yokomo SO1.0) with lower turn motors and they can be a bit of a handful at speed here.

This is a quite excellent car that is priced immensely well. There's really not a lot more to say about it. The kit setup drives great out of the box and it's upgradeable to a decent level. It really is a superb car, let alone for the money!

I'll write an update when I have the shell and some track running under my belt!

UPDATE #1

    New shell for this car. I went with a hatch-back style frontie/rally shell because frankly I don't really like the modern TC shells (they don't look like actual touring cars). This is the Mon-Tech WR4, and my second paint job this year. I really quite like the shell. It's got a lot of nice details and it comes with some pretty decent decals to finish the look off. If you look too closely you'll see there are some paint bleeds on some edges (thanks to some old masking tape) but overall I like the colour combo and layout. Some of the worst offences are covered by the stickers and decals so got away with a few of them!

     I also now have a bit of track running time under my belt after a little trip to West London Racing Centre. The track over there is really nicely maintained and has a great surface. The grip levels are vastly higher than my home running/bashing spots and I was pleasantly surprised that the car could nearly flat out round the whole track bar a couple of the tighter corners. This leads me to thinking I'm definitely going to have to gear this car up a bit more as the stock gearing doesn't suit the 21.5T motor I currently have installed.