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TT-01 build on a tight budget, then rebuild on a loose one

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With the TT-02 having been on the market for a while now, you may wonder why I am bothering with a build thread about its predecessor. Well, apart from the fact that I enjoy writing about my hobby activities, the TT-01 is still a good first car for a beginner, and many are available used for reasonable money, so perhaps this thread may help a newbie or two.

The car in question is one that I built a while ago, when I used to race at an informal "club" consisting of a bunch of folk who met once a week at an empty parking lot and tried to have as much fun with as little money as possible. There were no rules as such, but rather a gentleman's agreement to the effect that cars were to be plastic-chassis, Johnson-powered, and hopped up to the minimum for reliable running. "Chequebook racers" were not smiled upon.

As such, the car was initially built and modded on a shoestring budget, incorporating hop-ups that made racing cheaper in the long run by preventing breakages, but avoiding those that were pure bling or gave an unfair advantage. The first part of this thread will deal with the mods I performed, and will hopefully show how to get the most out of a TT-01 without throwing much money at it.

The thread will then go on to look at my more recent mods to the car. Now that I no longer race, and have a bigger hobby budget, I am rebuilding the car to be a quick and capable parking lot basher, incorporating a few mods that fall in the nice-to-have-but-not-vital category, and generally having a bit of fun with it. I am still avoiding bling for bling's sake, but the car will soon feature a bit more alloy than my former clubmates would have liked. :)

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Sweet, another XV Pilot thread. Subscribed with popcorn in the microwave.

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PART 1 - THE BUDGET BUILD

Most of the build went exactly according to the manual, so I won't bore you all with how to build a stock TT-01. Most of you could probably do it in your sleep anyway. Instead I will show you what I did differently.

First order of business (obviously) was to ditch the plastic bushings and replace them with bearings.

Rally%20conversion%20tut%20014_zpsxanzbp

Rubber sealed ones went in the hubs, on the diffs and on the exposed ends of the propshaft cups, while metal shielded ones were used in the gearboxes. The rubber seals caused more friction initially, but proved their worth in the dirty conditions in which we raced. Had our venue been cleaner, I would have gone for metal shields throughout for less friction, possibly removing the inner shields entirely.

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The less rotating mass there is in the drivetrain, the better the car performs. With this in mind, I decided to lighten the diff outdrives by removing some unnecessary material. I did this by spinning them in a drill press while holding a file to their sides. They came out looking like this:

Rally%20conversion%20tut%20008_zpsuqoxl1

I could have just used DF-02 outdrives instead, but they cost extra. Modifying the stock ones cost nothing.

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I realised that Super Mini CVA shocks were a perfect fit for the TT-01, but Mini CVAs were significantly cheaper. They could still be built really short by using spacers on the shaft inside the shock body, so on they went. (We agreed that trying to race on the stock pogo sticks was an exercise in frustration, so oil shocks were universally accepted hop-ups.)

Rally%20conversion%20tut%20010_zpsivl2bx

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Adjustable tie rods are a good idea, but ordinarily they cost extra.

However the CVAs came with both short and long ball connectors. The short ones were used on the shocks, leaving the long ones free to be joined together with a short piece of threaded rod and used as replacements for the shockingly poor stock plastic tie rods.

Rally%20conversion%20tut_zpsqgzjqhwz.jpg

The shocks also came with extra brass ball studs, so these were used to replace the sloppy step screws.

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I have 4 TT01 chassis in my collection, all in various states - I think one of them even works!

My only concern so far would be that removing material from those drive cups has probably reduced their rigidity somewhat, and that barely any weight saving will have been recognised. I can understand removing the nibs for better steering angle, but even this reduces their strength.

There's lots of hop ups out there for the TT01 and I firmly believe most of them are just bling and serve no purpose, but it didn't stop me buying loads of them back in the day!

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There is a saying amongst cyclists that goes "An ounce off the wheels is worth a pound off the frame."

I doubt the mathematical relationship is as exact as that, but the gist of the saying holds true - small savings in rotating mass can have significant effects, especially when there isn't much power available.

Lightening the outdrives undoubtedly removed some rigidity, but since they were over-engineered to begin with, this has had no effect on the car's reliability. All three of my TT-01s run lightened outdrives, and none have failed, not even on my rally car that has seen hard use over jumps, etc. I am therefore confident that the (small) gains outweigh the even smaller disadvantages.

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We ran the stock plastic steering racks on our cars, which were rather sloppy. This drove us to seek ways of reducing slop elsewhere in the system to compensate. One thing we came up with was this:

DSC04974_zpsstexcn16.jpg

The soft rubber O-rings fitted to the ball studs before clipping on the connectors reduced the tiny amount of slop in the linkages to pretty much zero. A tiny dab of dry lube stopped them from causing undue friction.

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The O-rings do indeed have the potential to impede the suspension action, and their use is not advised on anything that has significant suspension travel. I don't use them on my rally TT-01 for example. However we were running our race TT-01s very low, with only a couple of mm of travel, so the effect on the suspension was negligible.

TBH, the reduction in slop was also tiny, but with so much slop in the stock plastic pre-E rack, we were grateful for even tiny improvements.

Another thing we did to improve the slop situation was to drip cyanoacrylate adhesive into the holes that the stepped portions of the step screws passed through, while keeping the screws turning with an electric screwdriver so that they wouldn't stick. This built up a thin layer of hardened cyano between the plastic and the step screw, further reducing slop.

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After a spate of cracked tubs following collisions with the hard wooden battens that we used to mark out our track, it was decided to allow the fitment of chassis braces. However in the spirit of budget racing, we didn't all go out and buy the rather costly Tamiya hop-ups. Rather, we clubbed together and bought one, which we gave to a clubmate who had access to carbon sheet and CNC equipment at work. He used it as a pattern to make more using carbon offcuts which he was allowed to take for free.

Rally%20conversion%20tut%20016_zpswnaiol

I think he did a sterling job - it looks just like the real thing, and works just as well too.

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The car ran for several seasons with no further mods, first with the stock Honda NSX shell, then with a Blitz Alfa shell when the NSX was too battered for use. Unfortunately I didn't think to save any photos of it in NSX form, but this is how it looked as an Alfa:

RC%20cars%20015_zpsyc31idzm.jpg

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After a while, we decided that racing our TT-01s on Johnson power was all well and good, but some of us wanted to go faster. One of our number had cause to go abroad to Hong Kong on business, where he managed to get a great price for us on Tamiya TZ motors. These became the control motors for our new GT class.

The new motors brought with them the need for alloy propshafts and motor heatsinks, and some of us (myself included) also fitted metal motor mounts for improved stability and cooling.

By this time, the TT-01E had been released, so when the inevitable shock tower and front upright breakages occurred, these parts were replaced with the stronger TT-01E items.

In GT class guise, my car looked like this:

Philip%20008_zpsknmsfdss.jpg

You'll notice it is also wearing a set of Tamiya alloy touring car shocks. These raised a few eyebrows at the club, until I explained that they were bought 2nd hand as part of a job-lot, and effectively cost less than a set of CVAs.

For my birthday that year, my mother-in-law gave me a Protoform TVR Tuscan bodyshell, which I painted in the three metallic colours that my father, brother and myself had adopted as our racing liveries, along with the white stripes and wing that all our cars sported at the time.

Cars%20035_zpsvzjonztv.jpg

I was very pleased with how it came out, and conseqently I couldn't bring myself to subject it to the rough-and-tumble of racing, so when out on the track it wore a hideous pink shell that I picked up for next-to-nothing at a swap meet:

Philip%20003_zpsl5m4acfy.jpg

And thus concludes Part 1!

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PART 2 - THE HOW-I-WANT-IT REBUILD

My trusty TT took me to the podium on many occasions back when I used to race regularly, but since retiring from regular racing, it has spent most of its time on the shelf. The TVR shell looks quite good on display, but I have since managed to add some really attractive models to my fleet which make it pale into the background by comparison, so a few weeks ago I decided that the TT needed a new shell. And to go with the new shell, I thought the chassis could do with a few new parts and upgrades too, in anticipation of seeing some use in a local parking lot over the summer.

The most obvious area in which the chassis was lacking was the steering rack. And since I am no longer constrained by the club's budget ethos, there was no reason not to go for a ballraced alloy upgrade.

I use GPM alloy steering racks on several of my cars to excellent effect, so I thought the TT had earned the same privilege.

DSC04976_zps4dbphx4t.jpg

The GPM alloy parts are very well-made and nicely finished, but the screws supplied for attaching them to the chassis are woefully short, and being machine screws, are not ideal for a tub already threaded to take self-tappers. So I also ordered these:

DSC04979_zpsrxfq9iuv.jpg

That's 18mm of genuine Tamiya JIS goodness right there! :)

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The GPM rack comes with fixings that allow the re-use of the stock plastic link between it and the servo, but I wanted to do away with that, so I replaced it with a steel turnbuckle left over from when I fitted my DF-01 with a DF-02 turnbuckle set.

DSC04980_zpshlpppuit.jpg

As you can see, it is a perfect fit. The steering is now silky-smooth and slop-free, so much so that I have since done away with the O-rings on the ball studs.

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The next pieces of alloy to be added to the car were these:

DSC04978_zpsobgzwyse.jpg

They replace the plastic upper arm holders, which are quite prone to cracking in collisions.

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They simply fit in place of the plastic originals, like so:

DSC04981_zpse4iwg0og.jpg

DSC04982_zpshptskkjv.jpg

It all looks rather tidy with the carbon brace reattached.

DSC04985_zps79wrxjy1.jpg

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More GPM goodness:

DSC04977_zpshp5iuyab.jpg

With the stock ones, I found that the metal pins tended to move within the plastic pieces. No chance of that with the GPM ones! :)

They look nice too!

DSC04987_zpsrquvukph.jpg

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Today I made a bit of progress on the shell. By lunch time it was looking like this:

DSC04988_zpsffjtakak.jpg

And by this evening it had progressed to this:

DSC04990_zps05wyjpp5.jpg

I should have time to sort out the last few bits tomorrow, namely the headlights, taillights, mirrors and wing endplates.

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And the shell is done!

The fullsize car has satin chrome/silver anodised wheels. I will get some matching ones for the model when budget permits (and when I can find some), but in the interim I have a set of white ones and a set of bright chrome ones with suitable spoke patterns. Which do y'all think looks better?

Bright chrome?

DSC05007_zpsz7lqhbnx.jpg

DSC05004_zpsz3yfllnt.jpg

Or white?

DSC04996_zpsscsxicg9.jpg

DSC05002_zpsr6ix19tp.jpg

Opinions welcome!

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I like the silver, not sure about purple nuts though.

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Red or blue nuts and the silver wheels will really compliment the great job you've done with the bodyshell.

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Chrome wheels for sure, and I'd go with standard silver nuts myself. Not that you asked about the nuts...

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Thanks for the feedback. The plan is for black wheel nuts, to be ordered when I tag the satin wheels, but in the interim I'll pop the chrome wheels on it. I'll also see if I have some standard nuts somewhere.

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