The next evolution of electric touring car design: the TCX

The next evolution of electric touring car design: the TCX

The HB TCX has been in development for over a year, and has been test-driven by multiple World Champions to make it the fastest, most reliable and tunable machine on the track. It has been fully optimized for use with the most recent achievements in battery and motor technology. The HB TCX is the latest evolution of the world championship winning HB touring car platform.

Perfect Balance - Optimized for the Latest LiPo Gear

The main goal of the TCX chassis design was to place all components as close as possible to the center line while maintaining the left-to-right balance with the latest LiPo technology.

Motor Moved 4.5mm Inside

To move the heaviest items (the motor, servo and electronics) closer to the centre line of the car, also known as reducing the moment of inertia, a whole new layout of the chassis and the drive train is required. The configuration of the drive belts in the TCX has been reversed to create more room for the electronics to shift inwards. In addition to the radio gear moving inwards the unique TCX design also allows the motor to move by 4.5 mm, making a huge difference in overall weight distribution.

The Best-Ever HB Touring Car

To put it in pure and simple terms, the TCX has been designed with all of the above factors taken into account, driven by former IFMAR World Champions Atsushi Hara and Andy Moore at tracks around the world to make the it a first class racing machine.

We will present to you the facts of the TCX design so you can see how it is an almost completely new car from the ground up, and how we feel it will make YOU the local champion. 

All-New Chassis

The TCX chassis is extra-narrow, more narrow than the TC car, helping to prevent any rubbing in tight corners, which would scrub off speed and make the car pitch unexpectedly from side to side. The 2.5mm woven graphite was chosen precisely for the TCX and is of the highest possible quality. A moulded battery holder is included for racers who prefer to not use strapping tape to hold their battery packs in place.

 The one-piece top deck ensures completely equal flex over the entire car, from front to back, left to right. This gives you a more balanced drive and equal handling, with a much lower chance of tweaking the car after a crash. The fully symmetrical top deck features 4 mounting holes at both the front and rear bulkheads, allowing you to fine-tune the level of flex for different traction levels. You also have a central hole to allow the mounting of TC-style single bellcrank steering. The 2mm thick woven graphite is of the same quality as the main chassis, meaning it's the absolute best we could find. Finally, the top deck also holds a belt tensioner, which keeps the front belt in place during hard braking.



Compact Bulkheads

The bulkheads on the TCX are a brand new fully symmetrical design, and are now the same front and rear, and also left to right. Featuring a more compact design, they are 3mm closer together than on the TC, allowing you to run longer top links for more suspension action, and the belts are also able to run closer to the centerline of the car. Our eccentric cam belt tensioner is used to tighten up the be

 

The TCX uses nearly all of the same suspension parts that the TC kit uses, with reversible lower arms for extra shock positions, droop screws, turnbuckles, plus easily adjustable wheelbase, track width, anti-squat, toe-in and roll centre for complete adjustability. The narrower bulkheads are taken advantage of with longer top links, which make the car easier to drive faster through the turns.




Fine Pitch Shock Towers
 

With the new bulkheads come new shock towers, which are again made from the highest-quality woven carbon fiber. At 3.65mm thick, they easily support all the load from the shocks and wheels! These are extra tough, extra stiff units, with 7 front shock positions and 8 rear positions in a linked hole style, for extra-fine track adjustments.







Threaded TC Shocks

The shocks fitted on the TCX are the same that came on the TC - meaning they are the best touring car shocks you can find anywhere. The upper and lower ends of the shock body feature extra fine-pitch threads for the shock caps, and the bottom end uses a single o-ring design for minimal 'stiction' - that initial grab that an old and tired o-ring can give the shock shaft. A finely threaded shock collar gives you easy and instant ride height adjustments, and perfectly fits the full range of HB High Quality Matched Springs, #66961-#66965.


 Twin-Crank Steering

New for the TCX is a twin-crank steering design, which makes the most of your control inputs and gives you a much better driving feel on the track. The all-aluminium steering rack floats on shielded ball bearings to maximize efficiency and give extremely smooth response. The steering Ackerman angle is also easily adjustable with shims under the rack ball studs. Our drivers say this steering design gives them more corner speed over the older TC-style central steering system, but if you prefer the TC steering, it is possible to fit the centre steering system directly onto the TCX. 

Full Set of Sway Bars

Infinitely adjustable ball stud sway bar mounts are included to let you instantly de-tweak the car so it's quickly ready to go for your next race. In the TCX kit you will get a full set of front and rear sway bars to fine-tune the suspension at each end of the car. The kit includes 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4mm sway bars for the full range of HB options.







Centralized Low-Profile Motor Mount 

Another all-new area of the TCX, the design here allows the motor to move 4.5mm closer to the centerline of the car for vastly improved balance, while the motor does not touch the chassis in any way, removing the possibility of unwanted flex or tweak from the motor. Horizontal motor mount screw slots make the motor mount as low as possible, while keeping the motor mount completely below the top deck - a unique feature to the TCX, and something that helps keep the motor as close the centre of the car as possible. The mounting slots also allow for easier gear meshing.


New Belt Layout
 

The drive belts front and rear have been arranged so the rear belt is now on the left side of the car, with the front belt on the right side. This allows the servo and electronics gear such as receiver, speedo and transponder to sit closer to the centerline of the car, improving the balance immeasurably.








New Layshaft and Pulleys

The all-new one-piece pulleys fit on the layshaft with a simple pin fastening, eliminating the grub screw of earlier designs. The layshaft is narrower, owing to the more compact drivetrain design, and also uses a simple one-piece spur gear mount. The 20T pulleys are brand new, and combined with the 39T pulleys the TCX is more efficient at getting the power to the tyres.






Extra-Lightweight Front Spool

Every racing electric touring car these days is fitted with a front spool to eliminate diff action, greatly enhance braking and increase traction and the spool fitted in the TCX is an extra-strong lightweight 3-piece design. The central part of the spool is machined from lightweight aluminium, then anodized bright purple. The outdrives are made from lightweight POM material - feather-light, extremely durable and very stiff - and then fitted with aluminium sleeves to prevent splitting under acceleration and braking.



Super-Smooth and Lightweight Rear Diff

The rear differential is made from lightweight POM plastic fitted with 12 3mm ceramic nitride diff balls for extra-slick and consistent diff action with the latest high-power motors. Our drivers consistently use motors in the 3.5 turn range and tell us the diff is so durable that they have to rebuild less than half as often compared to the older diff - so you know it's up to the task.






Aluminium Universal Drive Shafts
 

With aluminium driveshafts (laser-etched with the HB logo, of course) for light weight and steel axles for durability and strength, the TCX driveshafts are the perfect fit for the job. The front driveshafts have been lengthened by 2mm because of the narrow bulkhead positioning, and the constant velocity design eliminates wasted power, ensuring that when you want the power to hit the ground, it will.







 Even the smallest details are looked after on the TCX, and our World Team Drivers are always telling our designers what they'd like to see on the newest kits. Below are some of the minor, yet still important, details the TCX offers kit owners.

Battery Mounting System
Pro racers like to use fibre strapping tape to hold their batteries in place, which is lightweight and perfect for their needs. The TCX kit also comes with a quick and secure battery mounting system which doesn't require any tape at all.

Hex Hardware
The TCX uses a full set of black-coated hex-head hardware throughout. Every screw, bolt and fixing uses standard-size hex wrenches, ranging from 1.5mm to 2.5mm in size.

Off-Road Style Antenna Holder
HB designers came up with an antenna holder that will keep your antenna tube locked into position: a steel grub screw secures the antenna in place from the top, gripping it securely, no matter how rough a race you might find yourself in.

Bonus Pictures

HB TCX Spec:
Length: 365mm
Width: 190mm
Wheelbase: 258-262mm
Weight (approximate, race-ready): 1350g

Features

• Optimized design and balance for modern LiPo batteries
  
• New narrower 2.5mm thick chassis
  
• New one-piece symmetrical 2.0mm top deck
  
• New more compact bulkheads 3mm narrower
  
• New compact motor mount moves motor 4.5mm towards centre
  
• New narrow layshaft and 20T pulleys
  
• New flipped belt drivetrain layout
  
• New twin crank steering
  
• New bulkheads are fully symmetrical front to rear and left to right
  
• Adjustable top deck flex with bulkhead screws
  
• Motor mount completely under top deck
  
• Servo and radio gear sit as close as possible to centerline
  
• 20T layshaft pulleys and 39T front/rear pulleys combine for increased efficiency
  
• POM rear diff with 12 3mm ceramic nitride balls
  
• Aluminium/POM front spool with aluminium sleeves
  
• Aluminium/steel driveshafts
  
• 3.65mm shock towers, 7 fine-pitch adjustment holes in front, 8 in rear
  
• Worlds-winning suspension design with longer top links
  
• Reversible lower arms for extra shock positions
  
• Adjustable anti-squat, toe, roll centre
  
• Droop screws
  
• Full set of turnbuckles
  
• Threaded shock bodies with single o-ring construction
  
• Complete set of sway bars included (1.2mm, 1.3mm, 1.4mm)
  
• Infinitely adjustable ball stud sway bar mounts
  
• Fully equipped with ball bearings
  
• Wheels, tyres and inserts not included
  
• Also requires body and electronics

#68700 HB TCX Touring Car

Racing touring car kit with newly designed chassis, top deck, bulkheads and more. Bodyshell, electronics, wheels, tyres and inserts required to complete the car, see below.

What You Need

• Radio system with receiver
  
• Steering servo
  
• Battery pack
  
• Battery charger
  
• Electronic speed controller
  
• 540-size electric motor
  
• Bodyshell
  
• Wheels
  
• Tyres
  
• Inserts

All infomation from www.hpiracing.com