Hopperboy

All good advice here but going right back to the first posting I do think that a 4000kv motor in a TL01 (especially with stock differentials) is going to be far too much power for the chassis to handle effectively. It will be pretty nasty to drive, been there and done it with a 13.5t brushless setup and it was horrible.

Battery is actually a lot more protected by the exoskeleton cage than on a regular touring car. Let's be honest on something like a TRF419 the battery overhangs the chassis so the battery case is the side protection.

Don't let the motor position thing get you too excited. In reality you'll probably never move the motor from the "kit" rear position. Car has tons of steering and moving the motor forward makes it hyper-sensitive.

Appreciate you've bought the TA05 now and it's a lovely chassis, my TA05v2 is one of my favourite chassis. I've had my TA07 for a couple of months now and it's nice and seems quite robust. We run brushed HPI Saturn 20 motors and a Hobbywing Quicrun 1060 ESC. The motors are £9 and the speedos are about £19 UK or ish £14 on eBay. They've been utterly reliable and round a small track the lap times are within a second or so of a 17.5 brushless blinky Touring Car. The HW speedo is also Lipo compatible and you can disable the reverse function if needed. And if you want to go really fast it'll easily take a 15T HPI Firebolt motor too.

Hmm, one belt? So it's got to be some sort of TA06-esque rear gearbox? Dunno now, it's got a distinct whiff of trying to be too clever and ultimately not being outstanding at anything. Bit like a TA06. Hope I'm wrong though.

Love my TA05v2 to bits but it's positively antique now (although it's still competitive in the heats I run in). The TA06 was one I happily ignored as it just looks "wrong", so I've got high hopes for the TA07. Just a shame it'll probably not be available until the end of the summer so I'll have to get something else to run with for the outdoor season.

Watching this with interest. I bought a Dirt Thrasher on ebay last month, I didn't even know they existed and was looking for a Manta Ray. The seller wanted £80 for it, I offered £40 and got it for £50 delivered. Came with a Techniplus radio and a wall charger for the Tamiya 7.2v nicad pack, a manual, a box, a copy of the 1996 Model Cars mag with a review of the Dirt Thrasher and best of all a Tamiya Acto Power motor that seems virtually unused and the box for it too. I put a battery in it and ran 3 packs through it at the weekend, it was brilliant. Really nice to drive. I did put a new silvercan motor in it though before I ran it, I've put the Acto into storage. It needs a good strip and clean and some bearings (its still on bushes) but I'm looking forward to running this over the winter.

I saw this coming! The motor was wired up ok first time, but you transmitter was set up wrongly for the Tamiya speedo - it's a common thing. Just reverse the throttle channel, most transmitters can do this so check your manual or the Internet if its not immediately obvious how to do it. Put your motor wires back how they were first time round. Reverse always had less power than forward. You'll also notice that - when its all set up properly - when you go from forward to reverse you will need to let the throttle on your transmitter sit at neutral first before it lets you reverse, it's to allow for braking and to protect the gears. However when you are reversing you can if you wish slam it straight forwards with no delay. Good luck.

Can anybody suggest some suitable replacement rear shocks or even just some softer springs so I can actually get some rear suspension rather just having the back end buck around like a bronco on speed. Some slightly stiffer front springs would be nice too but I'd settle for some rear end travel right now.

Had mine for a couple of weeks now, just no time to put it together. Plus I have a 99% finished original new build in a box somewhere and a sound but well used original runner that I've just put a new gearbox in so I just don't have the motivation to start on the re-re yet. Oh and when I did get a spare afternoon I decided to throw together an M06 to see what they're like out of curiosity.

I got sick of my 03 throwing its battery out after a crash so I put a pair of the much more secure stoppers on from an M05 which was fine with my NiMh cells but now I want to run my LiPo packs. Trouble is both are Orions, a 4000 IBS Rocketpack and a 4200 Rocketsport and they're too long. If I space the stoppers out by 5mm they will fit but then the stopper looses a lot of stability and wobbles around more than I'm comfortable with. Can anybody recommend a set of LiPos that'll fit snugly in the stock configuration? The Jamara 5000 pack looks ideal but its too expensive and looks difficult to get here in the UK.

West Bridgford is too much of a trek round Nottingham for me, prefer Broxtowe as its a straight run off the M1 but both are popular. I wouldn't worry too much about whether anyone is a member on TC, I know there is / was a good Tamiya mini cluster at Bridgford.

Mardave or an M-chassis would be my vote. At Broxtowe (off J27 M1 on Saturdays) there's alway a healthy heat or two of Minis and they take some serious abuse.

Having gone from an M03 to a blinged M03R then to a similar M05 Pro and back to my M03R again I am now getting the building bug again and have an FF03 Pro on my list for consideration. Question is, is it any good. It will be used in the local club's indoor carpet track and I am thinking of using a brushless setup, probably a 17.5T or a 19T. I can't really find any comprehensive reviews on the 'net about the FF03 other than a comment on rc-mini.net saying it was the worst racecar the reviewer had run, but in the same piece he went on to say that a "developed" one was OK. So, what do you guys think? Is it worth it or should I look elsewhere?

Going a bit (lot) off topic here but I don't think re-tooling for that chassis would cost an awful lot really, it wasn't exactly the last word in complexity was it, fold here, fold there, cut this bit off and drill a hole here here and here, job done. And most of the bits are still available from Tower (so one would assume there is a factory somewhere still churning them out) and whats not can be relatively easily adapted from current tech in Associated's parts bins. I think they haven't bothered because they don't look to the past and are making a decent return from selling "current" stuff. That being said, if the world suddenly stopped buying B4 4.1's and suchlike I suppose they'd have a rethink.

Ah, stand corrected, was speaking from personal experience, my GH was an ebay buy which had Hornet shocks (which I knew were upgraded) but I assumed the rest was stock.

Thanks.

Also just been wondering if anybody has used alternative springs and/or shocks on a WO to actually achieve something like a reasonably balanced suspension setup (accepting the limited travel of course). It may just be mine but the rear seems way too stiff yet the front has no rebound in it whatsoever. I mean, I know it's a massively rear-biased design but surely it doesn't need to be THAT stiff.

That is a fine question. Anybody know? I have a spare Stealth transmission in my pitbox and a runnable Wild One so if it could be done... The motor is mounted on the opposite side and I'm not sure what the driveshaft lengths would need to be (or if there are any suitable shafts that would drop straight in eg, Frog re-re ones) but I may have to go and have a look. Sticking to simplicity for a minute though, what bits are needed to do the Frog 'box conversion and is it possible to use re-re Frog CVD shafts in a Wild One/FAV?

Yep, this is the way I want to go with mine too (got a spare LRP set up that I used to have in my X6 when I was racing) but will any steel pinion 17 & 19 tooth pinion fit? Don't really want to use a stock Tamiya alloy one if I can help it, they seem to wilt quickly when used with anything other than a stock silvercan.

I've already put the money to one side for a couple of these, one NIB (just like everybody else probably) and one to run/thrash/destroy/rebuild/shelf And, also like everybody else I suppose I am eagerly anticipating they'll punt out a Wild One in due course so I can run one totally guilt free that I'm not reducing the finite numbers of good ones still in captivity.

Oh yes, it's quite up to the job. It's also pretty rubbish design that'd make any suspension designer shudder. Most of the weight in the car is in the gearbox/axle/motor assembly and it's all unsprung. IMHO it works better in the Grasshopper with a 380 motor, it's lighter and the meagre performance doesn't show it up so much. Still it adds loads of character (probably why I've got one or two lying about the 'shop). You hadn't asked about the front end, that has plenty of problems of it's own, LOL.

First thing to do to minimise grip roll is get rid of the Ansmann wheels IMHO, I too started with a stock M03 and went on to Ansmanns because they were cheap and frankly all I could lay my hands on at short notice. They were fine when I ran Nicads but as soon as I went to a LiPo the lack of weight in the chassis combined with the soft compound meant grip-roll all the time. Went to stock kit radials on the front and M-grips on the back with hard inserts or M-grip fronts and S-grip rears depending on how grippy the carpet is. Main thing is to keep the back grippier than the front and also I run stiffer front springs and soft rears. Dial the end point back on your steering (if you can) also. Adding some weight low down on the frame should also help. Can't help with the diff as I run only a geared diff although it has a lexan washer (made from an offcut from the corner of the bodyshell moulding) in it to tighten it up quite a bit.

Thanks for the comments, I couldn't remember what the pitch was, I couldn't shake the thought that is was 0.4 rather than 0.6 so glad I asked. I've ordered 2 of each from Fusion so that should be the problem fixed once and for all.

Hi all, I've just rebuilt my M-05 geartrain due to a stripped spur and am getting a bit bored replacing the stock aluminium pinions as these seem to be the cause of my problems. They just don't seem to be able to take the punishment from a 15 turn brushed motor, maybe the torque reaction from running a semi-locked diff and S-grips doesn't help but I digress. Does anyone know of a supplier of steel (or hardened alloy at a push) pinions in the 16,18, 20T sizes? Am particularly wanting some for the M-06 project as that has a semi-hot brushless motor ready to go in it for a laugh when it arrives from Stella.