Tamiya F103 GT // FPV CAR

This is short guide how to setup a Tamiya f103GT chassis up for FPV.

It involves extending the lower chassis to 150mm with 3mm fibreglass.

the chassis i used:

• Tamiya f103GT chassis
• LRP asphalt touring tires (just for the looks)

to extend the chassis i used

• a 2.5mm thick fibreglass for the lower deck
• a 1.5mm thick fibreglass for the upper deck

the usual RC car components as there are:

• a 2 channel RC car remote
• ESC, in my case a cheap LRP 2way with brakes
• battery in my case a 3cell 2200mAh
• motor in my case the silvercan that came with the f103
• a steering servo in my case a no-name with metal gears

the fpv stuff:

• ImmersionRC 25MW fpv Rx/Tx combo (or any other)
• 90° angled connector for the antenna
• mushroom antennas for more distance

the camera

• a Sony 700TVL "review mirror" cam

the driver and faux-steering

• a Tamiya 1:10 drivers doll for the steering wheel
• a micro servo and a servo splitter for the steering wheel

First i disassembled the lower chassis and put it on a copy machine and made a copy of it.

Next i flipped the paper and draw all relevant holes and the fork where the T-bone fits in.

Next i put it on the semi transparent fibreglass plate and marked the holes and everything there and drilled/sawed averything. voila

As the f103gt chassis is so simple it's really just mark a few holes cut four cuts and you're done.

After that i rebuilt the chassis with my new chassis and the old lower chassis put together like it was one plate.

So it gets a bit (2.5mm) thicker but A LOT stiffer too.

I built the upper chassis like the lower one, except that it was even easier, because i already had the holes in the lower chassis and could use that to drill the holes of the upper chassis.

As you can guess the RC components are nothing special, just the usual suspects in an RC car.

Throughout the whole build i tried to seperate the ESC/motor from the FPV transmitter, and the FPV transmitter from the RC-receiver. So you can see some components beeing located more together, and spread around the whole car to get interference down to a minimum.

The FPV components also are nothing special as it involves a relatively well known transmitter with the ImmersionRC combo, and an also very often used TVL700 sony cam for 20€.

You can find this cam or those cams in general on amazon when you search for review mirror cams for cars.

It's better to use those instead of GoPros because they react to changing light situations way faster then GoPros.

I built a small fake steering wheel with a micro servo and the steering wheel that came with a 1:10 rally driver doll made by Tamiya.

Nothing special so far, it gets the same signal as the steering servo buy using a simple servo splitter cable.