Tamiya British Army Battle Tank Cheiftain - Complete Kit - 56603 (Radio Controlled Model Review)

  Released by Tamiya on April 22, 2009, the British Army Battle Tank Cheiftain - Prototype (#56603) is based on a plastic tub chassis, with a rear-mounted double gearbox driven by two 280 electric motors, that operate together or individually to produce forward/reverse running and pivot turning.

  The Chieftain tank first went into production in 1963 and had an intimidating 55 caliber 120mm rifle tank gun which was built for the purpose of knocking out Soviet tanks from a range of 4000m. The Chieftain's defensive abilities were also impressive with 150mm thick front armor plating. It was powered by a Leyland 19000cc engine which pumped out 750hp for an on-road top speed of 48km/h. From the first Chieftain Mk.1 to the last Mk.12, approximately 900 units were manufactured.

Rating: 4 RCScrapyard

Choosing a Transmitter

   When you first started in RC, you may have purchased a package that came with the car kit, motor, battery, charger, ESC and radio system complete. The transmitter was probably just a basic steer wheel, or stick type, with nothing more than forward, reverse, left, right and simple trim settings to centralise the servo and ESC.

   After a while, as your enthusiasm grows and your experience increases, you will want to move on to a better radio system, with more setting options, but where do you begin?

   Choosing the right transmitter is a personal thing. It has to feel right, have the balance you like, not be too bulky for your hand size and have all the features you might need to set up your car to your driving style.

Bumpsteer

   In plain language, Bumpsteer is exactly what it sounds like. If your car goes over a bump, it will affect the toe-in setting and can on some tracks make handling of the car in a straight line difficult.

   To check if your car might have any problems with bumpsteer, have it in race mode, with the motor and battery etc in position. Place the car on a flat surface and push down your car at the front. Looking down from above, keep a close eye on the wheels and watch for any angular movement to the side. If there is then you have bumpsteer.

   For off road cars, because of them having longer dampers in comparison to on road, a small amount of toe out is considered by many as acceptable in the lower position and can sometimes be used as a tuning option because of its aggressive effect on turning ability when entering corners. On road cars, because of the shorter damper movement and the greater need for precise steering and stability in a straight line, generally have less of a problem. However if bumpsteer is detected, drivers generally try to eliminate this as much as possible.