Check this out! Nitro T-Spec??? Not really... read on.

[agalanis]

Hey

Ok check this out. I'm going through e-bay and looking at the cheap cars there straight from China. I come across this car...

Ebay Nitro Car (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ccategory=19168&item=5918147365)

Scroll down to see the pictures. So I'm thinking man... that suspension system looks TOO familar.

Now look here

Tspec (http://www.radiocontrolzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=160694)

Check it out... I thought it was nuts. Looks like a lot of the stuff is made from the same factory in China. Now I'm not suggesting that this is 'racing grade' stuff. Still pretty intersting.

OK, so maybe I have too much time on my hands. Or I'm the RC Sherlock Holms.

I'd love to know where/how these guys on e-bay are geting their hands on all this stuff.

Later
Nash.

[microrcdude]

Companys like "acme" and "Smartech" make cheap beginner rc cars that dont last. When i saw the shocks, i thaught that this could be a high-end touring car in japan. I just dont know, but theres no T-spec nitro yet(other than the reflexes)

[grimlock3000]

Trinity likely does little more than rebadges an existing electric from the same manufacturer. Much cheaper than designing your own car for the electric scene...

[kitty]

I'd love to know where/how these guys on e-bay are geting their hands on all this stuff.
Look at where the guy is selling from - Hong Kong. A lot of those guys buy direct from the factory or a distributor. With a major lack of the Chinese government cracking down on companies copying stuff made by other manufacturers (and shady back-door deals for getting parts, borrowing moulds, etc), there are knockoffs of licensed stuff all over the country and surrounding countries. With knockoffs, you never really know what you're getting. Take the "Smartech" stuff for instance. They have one truck that's a copy of the early T-Maxx and it seems that a number of people who have bought them because they were cheaper have complained of shoddy workmanship and materials. It's the old "box o' chocklits" thing.

I help find new computer parts for a computer parts sales company. China and Taiwan are two of my biggest search areas. I often run across RC stuff that are knockoffs of stuff that is licensed elsewhere in the world. While some may look good in pictures, you never really know how well they are made until someone gets their hands on one.

Case in point, we once had an opportunity to buy a huge lot of laptops that were manufactured in the same plant as the Sony Vaio. Same parts, just without the nifty imprint on the outside shell. I talked the owner of the company into not buying any. I was very wary of a few things: one being that they could easily be machines that failed QC to be badged as Vaios and the other being the possibility for selling illegal knockoffs.

As always, buyer beware =)

[agalanis]

I had also noticed some Tamiya TL01 knock offs from the guy selling the "nitro t-spec".

I was thinking along the same lines as grimlock that Trinity just re-packaged the electric version.

Like I said, cheap cars, but the whole thing is intersting.

Later

[streetracer]

Well, if you loo at it the right way, it reminds me of a replica of a mugen sieki of somesort. I know nothing of mugen, but I have seen them. What do you think?

[SerialKillinSam]

to me it looks like a hpi rs4 like one of the older models, becuase of the radio bax mainly.