Reference models are used in many control algorithms for improvement of transient response characteristics. They provide desired trajectories that the plant should follow Most control systems have bounded control inputs to avoid saturation of the plant. If we design the reference models that do not account for limits of the control inputs, control performance of the system may be deteriorated. In this paper a new approach of avoiding saturation by varying the reference model for TDC(time delay control) based systems subject to step changes in the reference input. In this scheme, the variable reference model is determined based on the information on control inputs and the size of the step changes in the reference inputs. This scheme was verified by application to the BLDC motor position control system in simulations and experiments. The responses of the TDC with the variable reference model showed better tracking performance than that with the fixed reference model.