Quailane

The TRF420 was just released. Most of the TRF420 hop-ups are for different cars to run TRF420 suspension bits or just to tune the chassis a bit differently for different track conditions. The TRF420 rear toe hop-up looks cool though. There isn’t going to be any game-changing or even “better” TRF420 released for several years. It will mostly just make a couple of minor tweaks or the thickness of the carbon or aluminum plates. If you want to do the project, do it now. A 230mm wheelbase TRF420 Porsche 934 would definitely be really cool. No car is “best” though. It all depends on what metrics you are basing it on. The TRF420 934 will stand out only because that is Tamiya’s current most expensive, newest, and top competitive chassis. That is what you get cool points for, but in a few years when touring cars progress, it will lose a lot of its panache. For me, a RWD, rear-motored 934 with lots of blue aluminum, shiny carbon-fiber, and TRF420 suspension would be very slick.

One last way to reduce rear toe is to use 1, 2, or 3 degree rear uprights on the wrong side.

The Tamiya chassis that support 251mm wheelbase without modifications are the TA-02, TT-01, TT-02, and DF-03ra. None of them are going to be any good RWD. More tuning and setup options are needed to help a car drive better as RWD than those chassis can offer. A gyro will help a lot to control it though. Your best bet is to modify a higher end chassis to reduce the wheelbase. I’m currently have a 251mm wheelbase RWD project car on the back burner. It’s a TA-06 converted to RWD and with TA-04SS rear arms to shorten the wheelbase. I have a Futaba GY450 gyro for it to help keep it in the right direction. Driving a RWD car is easy if you’re in the driver’s seat. But without that butt gyro telling you how to steer and apply the throttle, driving a grossly overpowered RWD car from the outside with visual cues alone is very difficult. For the TA-02 there is a one-way you can install inside the case of a gear differential. Installing it backwards will do the trick. There is also a costlier center one-way that should perform better since the front differential will still work as normal. The TA-02 just doesn’t drive very well as RWD. We’ve all tried driving our AWD cars and trucks as RWD at some point to increase realism, but the truth is that without some serious tinkering to make it drive ok as RWD, you’ll get tired of it quickly and go back to AWD.

This kit came out in 2006 and was the first modification of the TA-05 chassis released. Other TA-05’s followed along with continued evolution of Tamiya touring cars. The two main shortcomings with the 49400 kit are lack of stabilizer bars and the differentials. There is an old TA-05 stabilizer bar set but I’ll try to find something newer that will fit with black bars instead of the red yellow and blue bars. The ball differential joints are a problem as they are plastic and prone to melting. There are TA-05 aluminum differential joints, but I’m wondering if there are more recent differentials from other cars that will fit with minimal modification. If any other differentials or differential joints can be made to fit the TA-05, I’m all ears. I’m really hoping not to spend a lot of money on trial and error just to have to go back and buy expensive OOP TA-05 hop-ups anyway. One thing I really want to do is have the car be RWD with all-wheel braking. I need a center one-way for that. There is a specific one just for this kit (53952) and one for the TA-05 (53841). I’m really lost as to what the difference is between them and why I couldn’t use the TA-05 center one-way with this kit. Another desire is to use narrow tires up front and wide ones in the rear. Hopefully 24mm up from and 36mm in the rear. This will require modifying the wheels to make the fronts match the rears or the rears match the fronts. Likely doable. If not, then I’ll run 26mm in front and 32mm in the rear. Lastly, I want to run TRF420 suspension from the toe blocks on out. Should be able to without any problems. They are more durable and offer more adjustability. I would need to replace the toe blocks and suspension arms anyway for the new wheels I want to run.

Absolutely gorgeous. Those wheels look superb.

I’ve never found M2.6 self-tapping screws either, but when I have fresh plastic I try to use M2.5 machine screws. Works fine.

I’ve always wanted one of the 30th anniversary Porsches. The closest I was able to do was buying two of the 40th anniversary kits several years ago when they were released. I don’t like the TA-02 chassis though. It’s very crude and inelegant compared to more modern chassis. I always like to tinker with everything and again, the TA-02 is limited in this regard. I shied away from the 49400 kit due to the cost and the fact that I would be torn between keeping it pristine in the box, built completely stock as a shelter, or customized and run for bashing.buying two would be out of the question... or would it? I was perusing a famous auction site recently and came across a listing for TWO 49400 kits together! One was built and one was still mint in the box. The price was “reasonable” so I just had to have them. A Canadian gentleman shipped them promptly and packaged well. They were better than I expected and I am extremely thankful for the transaction. This is how they arrived. Beautiful. I plan on keeping the one mint in the box for the foreseeable future. The built one will be disassembled and rebuilt with every imaginable upgrade that has become possible in the 14 years since the 2006 original release. I want something realistic and fun to drive. Not sure if I’ll make it RWD, AWD, or RWD with front braking. I have a nice gyro for it. It will run with wider rear tires for sure. Not sure how many TRF420 parts will be on it. I’ll start work on it within a month, but I don’t see completion happening until 2021.

Very interesting. What is that driveshaft from? I’ve never seen one like that on a TA-02 before? I would like to get one.

The belts are not RC specific; they are just belts. The belts are manufactured in practically every reasonable tooth count in any of the various standard tooth sizes. The factories just manufacture very wide belts to those two parameters. When you place an order with a supplier, they cut off slices of the belt in your desired width. You can have a minimum order of a single belt. That’s where the confluence of China’s manufacturing base and eagerness of many people to do a lot of work for little profit come together to benefit the hobbyist. When I was restoring a TA-04, I ordered belts that were the same tooth count and width as standard as well as more wide and with one less tooth to experiment a bit.

You can buy the Mustang body shell separately. Part number 51614.

I’m flying to the US tonight and bringing along two TA-02’s and four body shells. They’re gifts. I’m going to play with one of them for a week before giving it to it’s owner.

I built this exact kit three years ago, and even if you wanted to use them, I don't believe it even comes with the wider rear axles.

Exactly. The chassis is built as the normal width, with short wheelbase. The width comes from the wide wheels with maximum offset, not spacing the the wheel hubs out further.

The M08 does the 210mm short wheelbase as well.

The Dark Impact uses ball differentials in the front and rear. They are more maintenance intensive than gear differentials. Take the ball differentials apart and rebuild them as per the instructions. Also check to see if there is anything amiss with them.

For sure it will come with a glass-reinforced chassis, probably the new black one that will be coming out. It will also definitely have hopped up diffs. It could have a front spool and rear oil-filled diff or two oil-filled diffs. An alloy propshaft and motor mount seem likely to be the other hop-ups to differentiate it over the original TT-02S kit.

The TT-02 is also a lot simpler, spares and hop-ups are a lot easier to find, and new ones in kit form, including the body, are half the price of an XV-01. That being said, I'm no longer very interested in the TT-02 after having hopped it up as much as possible, looking at the price, and the performance, and tunability.

It is easy to screw into soft plastic, but much more difficult for harder things. I bought the thread forming tap and the handle. It serves no purpose for soft plastic, and can actually make things worse if you're not careful. It is helpful on glass reinforced plastic, and amazing with carbon reinforced plastic. Without it you risk some wrist pain trying to screw anything in. I really dreaded screwing things into fresh plastic before, but now it is a breeze. It is just a bit more time consuming.

The TA06 rear ball diff is a direct fit into the XV-01, M-07, and M-08. It has aluminum outdrives that require you to use the plastic parts over the end of the axles. I bought two for my XV-01, but I installed one on my M-08. I'm a little worried about the diff being able to take punishing crashes in the rally XV-01. The FF03/TRF201 diff uses hardened steel, so I might try that. Thanks for the tip. The parts number for these is 19804410. The plastic gears used for the TA-06 and FF03 are the same part though.

Modern radio gear is so much more reliable. I have bought some older cars with vintage radio gear installed, some of it the most expensive available in the 90's. Rarely does it work properly and sometimes it is irreparable at my skill level. It also doesn't compare to the cheapest used FHSS Futaba transmitters and receivers you can buy rather cheaply these days. Back in the day when these older radios failed on cars and trucks, the worst that happened was running into something. My father was very active with aircraft, and I saw some pretty horrific radio-related accidents in my youth. When he brought home his first spread-spectrum frequency hopping Futaba radio, that changed the whole game. It isn't fun to drive around and have radio glitches. It really isn't. If you want to run your car or truck with older radio gear that is fine, but I for one will never go back to it.

Yes. I bought a Sport Tuned in 2017 and it was greenish brown. I thought it was very strange that it wasn't black like all of the pictures I saw.

Did the cracks occur through the screw holes? Did you tap the threads first? Were you gentle and patient with screwing them in? I don’t think TA01/2 gearboxes shouldn’t crack so easily, but I’ve only seen them with self-tapping screws. I have built one car 90% with machine screws. Now I’m worried.

I thought the gray ball cups were lower friction? That is probably what makes them last longer for you, although I feel they can get sloppy faster than the black ones. They are definitely softer than the black plastic ones though. Tamiya makes reinforced ball cups, but they are black and use a lot more material. They are for buggies but you can use them on whatever you want if you trim their length. Tamiya's ball cups I think are fine. I have no problems with them during usage, but putting them together can be a pain. I need to buy Tamiya's ball cup adjustment tool. That should help a lot. The cheap steel turnbuckles that Tamiya provide in their kits are usable, but not very user friendly. The tiny part where you are supposed to use a wrench on them rounds off too easily, and the steel rusts easily as well. My plan now is to never use them again. Tamiya makes nice aluminum ones which look nice and are a lot easier to adjust with a turnbuckle wrench, but I find that the blue coating scratches off too easily. Tamiya makes titanium ones which I don't want to buy. It is easy to find turnbuckles. They are all the same across brands. You just need M3 turnbuckles in the correct length. I'm planning to buy some titanium turnbuckles from a company called RTW for less than the price of Tamiya's aluminum ones. The best part is that they don't have a blue coating that can scratch easily.

By long dampers, they mean to be used for something longer than the super-short big-bore dampers. Don't know if they mean something as long as the regular TRF dampers or something in-between them and the super-shorts.

I think you were able to find it now because Tamiya just released a much improved modern version of the exact same body and stickers.