11 replies to this topic

[Mulsanne]

Hello All. Instead of going for the usual timid noob post, I thought I would just jump straight in at the deep end with a meaty post. This site came highly recommended after I started posting some questions in scale model section on www.pistonheads.com

I have an FF01 Golf VR6, which I bought new in 1995. It had a bit of a hard life before retiring to the loft for ten years or so. Anyway I recently decided to dig it out and start using it again. When I mentioned it to my mate he gave his old box of bits from when he used to race, said I could scavenge any parts I wanted. It is now fully ball raced, has an ESC and a Trinity Midnight 2 motor with a 24 tooth pinion and 71 tooth spur. I have some new 1500 batteries, because that's the biggest my old mechanical fast charger will handle. There is an on-road tuned spring set in the post along with some new tyres and wheels.

Heres a pic or 3......







I'm really pleased with how it's running, and just plan on using it as is for now. In the medium term I'd like to get second car, maybe a 4wd buggy to go with this one. However, I am keen to make the most of it so I have quite a few questions.

1) Has anyone any experience of fitting bodies to this chassis from other tamiya touring cars? I want a nice body for when it's on the shelf and was thinking the new MKV Golf TT01 body looks good (and maintains the VW theme). I am concerned that it may not fit because of the front motor on the FF01.

2) I just took a pure guess at the gearing, I have a 66 or a 71 tooth spur and a large range of pinions should anyone think a different ratio would yield better performance. I only hae the 101BK speed controller, but it seems to be coping OK with the Trinity motor as things are.

3) A 'feature' of this chassis seems to be quite a lot of slack in the suspension especially the steering linkage. This can't do the handling any favours, are there any tps for tightening things up?

3) Is there anything obvious I have missed that I could do to increase performance/handling? I don't want to heap too much more money on this car. A lot of the Hop Ups for this model are getting quite rare now, but I did notice a carbon gear shaft set for not too much, worth having, or not?

Appreciate any help.

[irenL]

did someone mention a Mk. V golf on a FF01?







been there, done that.. you'll need to be a bit creative with the rear body mounts, otherwise it fits like a glove.
the chassis is a full aluminium GPM set.

the only few tamiya upgrade worthwhile having are: heat sink motor mount and caster blocks. the carbon gearshafts saves a little bit of weight, not much at all. The other place where you may be able to pick up more response out of the drivetrain is by using TA03 ball diff set for the narrower gear, and lighter? pressure plates, along with hassle free 1 piece thrust bearing.

you can tighten up the steering pitman and idler arms by super gluing them, then drill them to a closer size. otherwise you can use some of the brass tubes and drill the screws through the chassis, secure them with locking nuts. the next step is to upgrade to the FRP chassis kit and then replace the bushes with bearings.

you can run 66T spur with 27T (out of TA04 parts bin) pinion for a 5.93 final ratio. Make sure the motor got enough torque. Internal ratio is 2.43:1.

[Mulsanne]

Thanks irenL. Just what I wanted to see!

It looks like a straight up vertical mount is your solution. If I re-drilled the new body could I retain the same mounts that I have? I want to still be able to use the old one for bashing. The only other body style I'm interested in is the 306 Maxi, you don't know if that would be more friendly towards the existing mounts do you?

I thought what you said might be the case for the steering, I'd been wondering myself about putting some sort of bearings on the pivot points. I was just hoping that there might be a less labour intensive route. Already had my eye on Ebay, for both the carbon chassis and motor heat sink, they don't seem to crop up too often.

I'm not familiar with the castor blocks, what are they for and do you have a link to some?

See, told you i had loads of questions

[irenL]

pictured here is the 306 maxi mounted on the FF01 as well.



if you look closely to the golf picture in previous reply, you'll see that one of the post is straight up, while the other is toward the front. The later is to fit the 306 maxi body. The body itself fits perfect, other than the fact that it bottomed on the FF01's front bumper.

A caster angle, otherwise castor as some may say is the angle of the king pin when viewed from the side. the further forward the lower point is, the more stable the steering is, as it gives the steering a tendency to center up, thus helping in straightline stability. The other benefit of running additional caster is the camber gain you get when the wheels are turned, without having to set massive amount of negative camber, thus maintaining good tyre foot print where necessary.

[Mulsanne]

I'm well pleased with what you said about the mount for the 306, it looks to be the same as the one I use now for the VR6. I think that's the body I'll eventually go for.

Thanks for the clear explanation of castor angle, what parts do I need to alter this? If it makes any difference, I broke the front upright today......



......is there any reason not to replace it with another stock tamiya one?

[mansellpants]

[quote name='irenL' date='Feb 20 2009, 02:32 PM' post='312168']
pictured here is the 306 maxi mounted on the FF01 as well.



Love that 306! Is it painted with spazsticks chrome or another make?
Always wanted a 306 bodyshell, now i might need 2 (one chrome, and one boxart)

Colin.

[irenL]

I'm well pleased with what you said about the mount for the 306, it looks to be the same as the one I use now for the VR6. I think that's the body I'll eventually go for.

Thanks for the clear explanation of castor angle, what parts do I need to alter this? If it makes any difference, I broke the front upright today.....
......is there any reason not to replace it with another stock tamiya one?

part number for optional caster block is 53226
as for the upright, go for aluminium after market part. The plastic upright always crack at the king pin boss, replacing with aluminium units simply beef it up. Look up GPm and Yeah Racing (TA03 is the same)

Love that 306! Is it painted with spazsticks chrome or another make?
Always wanted a 306 bodyshell, now i might need 2 (one chrome, and one boxart)

Colin.

I used tamiya's PS-48 semi-gloss silver anodized aluminium.

[RichieRich]

What caster blocks are you talking about? Do you have a part number?

[irenL]

What caster blocks are you talking about? Do you have a part number?

part number for optional caster block is 53226

[Mulsanne]

I decided to order the standard Tamiya uprights, just because they were a quarter of the price of aluminium ones. My thinking being that I wont break them often enough to justify the expense. That was before discovered the upright I believed undamaged, also had a crack in it. That's my spare used up now, so it'll be aluminium ones next time.

Whilst I had the spanners out I swapped the rear wheels from toe in to toe out to see if that kills the understeer at all. Will run it tomorrow to find out.

[irenL]

toe out in the rear generally is better suited for smaller tracks.
for bigger tracks, I actually prefer 0 toe in the rear with this chassis. 0 toe rear uprights can be obtained from TL01. And it gives you the benefit of being ably to alter wheelbase by 4mm by use of spacers.

You can also widen the front by running the hummer's front lower arms. These I found to be wider from hole to hole by 2mm compared to standard the TA02/FF01 equivalent. I prefer this more to just running the TA01 front upright (red ones) as it actually widen the track.

Still, the best method I find to give the front more grip is the CEN GX4 arms. Same inner pin offset as the TA02/FF01 series being it was based on the TA02. You can flip these arms forward thus bringing the motor closer to the front wheel axis. To use the CEN rear arms, however, you'll need to cut a new chassis plate as the GX4's chassis plate fall in between TA01 and TA02 chassis plates lengths. But I ended up with a 255mm wheelbase, not changing the chassis.

In other words, this experimental chassis of mine grips. And it's been proven on the track with the same setup some 3 years ago against a field of AWDs.

All these widening of track width allows me to run standard -widely available- offset 24mm wheels, where most good rubbers live. And bydoing all these, at least I can live another day without having to spend on the HPI's inline battery chassis for it.. (last one I saw on ebay is sold for a good $150 and is no longer made since 20yrs past)

[Mulsanne]

Well I tried the toe out rear wheels this afternoon, I can see how they might be good on a twisty smooth track, but on the bumpy street outside my house it was close to uncontrollable. Very difficult to keep in a straight line and not easy to catch the back end when it slide. The camber of the street was enough to get it drifting in a straight line. I've switched back to toe in, which suits me better.

Does anyone know in the TA02 front and rear FRP shock mounts will fit the FF01? If so, what about the TA02 rear anti-roll bar?