BuggyGuy

Surely that would put the car beyond legal width? Though I suppose that wouldn't matter unless your racing

Same story on TD2/4

Though there's no TRF buggy currently available - my TD2 is quicker than any of my other TRF buggies on astro/carpet.

I find this quite interesting coming at this from a racer point of view. We have most new drivers who join (running 1/10th buggy) to start with an 8.5T brushless with a 60% throttle limit for the first week or so. Then they gradually increase the throttle limit and then up the timing when they are comfortable. Nearly everyone who's been racing for a few months ends up with a 6.5T with various levels of boost and turbo to suit their style. All UK buggy racing (none vintage) is done with brushless sensored motors and I doubt you'd ever see much more than a 5.5T / 6.5T in 4WD and 6.5T / 7.5T in 2WD

Another vote here for the Schumacher Storm ST or ST2 They are simply awesome and you can mount a wide variety of bodies. There's also a lot of completely uneeded hopups available as well.

I've built a few TRF201 varients and a DB01RRR from parts. Not cheap

For my DirtMaster I got a brand new set of Xray XB2 dampers from a kit breaker. With shipping from Florida it will still cheaper than buying the DF03/Aeration/BigBoers from

Nah - forged carbon looks nice, but it ain't all that when compared to machined aluminium or proper CF. It's different and it's undoubtedly cool though!

Agama are well established in 1/8th and have been around for a while It's designed to compete with stuff like the Schue LD3 and Associated B7 etc. but it's about 20% more expensive.

There's a lot to this thread! On road first; they are completitive, the TB Evo, and TRF cars are awesome bits of kit like others have mentioned. The TA08 is also fundamentally sound. Off road is harder; Tamiya abandoned competitive off road, and at the point they got out of it, tracks did not look like they did today, grip was lower, and the setup windows on the cars reflected that. I can still race my TRF and DB01s, but I'm selective on the tracks I race on - but even then the cars are not as quick as my B7 or XB4 with the same electrics and tyres. I like the TD2 and TD4 as kits, I couldn't get the TD4 to be competitive, but my TD2 can lap quicker than the TRF211XM (though it's very heavily hopped up and modified).

My shelf queens are unintentional, or race cars that you can no longer source parts for. I've got RC10B2/3/4's, Predators, Xray T1, Supastox and a few others. They aren't really worth that much second hand (other than the Predators) so I just rebuilt them and have them on display. I do have cars with no electrics in though, as I don't want to buy motors/speedos/servos/recievers for 30+ cars. So my CC02 is currently a shelf queen until I take the electrics out of my CR01. Same with my 2WD TRF buggies - the electrics are in my TRF211XM, so the 201XR and the box stock one are currently shelf queens as well.

In the UK it's anything that's on the list for the Iconic series (well pretty much)

I think it might be a bit of a sales flop, which is a bit unfortunate as they are currently the most capable track cars in the the lineup. My TD2 is very capable on astro and carpet (though it does have a clutch, diff upgrade and some other bits). I couldn't make the TD4 competitive though for some reason, just couldn't get the steering right. The rear hub is also a severe weakpoint on these cars (you can swap the rear arms to DB01/TRF201/TRF5** items with the matching driveshafts and the XV01 rear hub as a work around - this lets you use standard rear wheels too).

I run the speed passion 5.5T on a Hobbywing 10BL120. I just turn it down a bit using a combination of ESC and transmitter settings

I've been running the Speed Passion motors in mine. The are an old design (they haven't been made in about 12 years or so) - but spicy winds are available new for £20 https://www.modelsport.co.uk/product/407412?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw3NyxBhBmEiwAyofDYcge6Aj5bkt6vbkjqagJSRmXO3TqjErTprsHtyfue3O7EAedpLIB_RoC3ZMQAvD_BwE

The associated SR10 and DR10 platforms would be the closest successor to the DS cars

Yeah they might look kind of similar - but if this really a ZX5 it will absolutely wipe the floor with even the most maxed out TT02B* from a handling point of view

I'll definitely get one of these - will look good next to the Dirt Master and should drive well enough to be competitive on the grass track our club run on in the summer (assuming the geometry is the same as the ZX5 SP). Will have to keep an eye out for a decent set of dampers for it, as the Kyosho plastic big bores that came with the Dirt Master (I assume they will use the same design here) weren't really up to much and the official Kyosho hopup item is absolutely outrageously priced in the UK

Which is better will depend on what your using it for - the TT02B will be tougher than the DF03 (which is a bit fragile), but the DF03 will handle better. Both can be money pits for hopups. The DF03 has greater potential for good performance - but many parts can be hard to find. The TD4 Avante is a better car for off road racing in every way - but you need to add the alloy diff nut hopup. Putting very high powered brushless in any of these cars is difficult without upgrades, the DF03 diff will melt without the slipper, and even then a very high power setup put too much strain on the gearbox. The TT02B has no option for a slipper, but upgraded diffs are available - the problem is bumps, the on road variant can take a lot of power, as bumps are minimal - but off road there's too many shock to the gears for them to have a long life. The TD4 can run very high power - but really it's needs the slipper clutch, gear diffs from the TA06 (or alloy diff nuts), and metal bevel gears for the prop, and front universal shafts. I've raced mine with a 4.5T motor and it survived without incident. P.S I think Tony Tamiya parts posted on Facebook recently that the DF03 slipper will be available again soon.

Simply awesome

The colour of certain parts on this car (such as top deck mounts) come in black - but the 5 digit hopups for the standard TA08 only come in blue. I don't think there's anything other than aesthetics that are unique to the R

I've had a few Optima bits from them, quality is okay for the price. For the Ultima, unless you want a mid motor conversion, you might find the Fibre-Lyte Ultima parts to be better (I have the chassis with kickup and it's a thing of beauty!).

I use a Penguin Kyosho Tomahawk with undertray on my B6.4 and it looks awesome. The Penguin Ultima Pro body is also available with an undertray.

Rear motor buggies warm my heart - they look good and remind me a lot of the cars that were around when I first go into racing with an RC10B2. I have my old Rc10b3, a new build B4, various TRF201s, and a Kyosho DirtMaster in my RC room - and they are some of the best looking cars in there. The 201 is basically a metric B4 in a slightly higher quality package, the cars are incredibly similar from a geometry POV and I think it would be fair to speculate that Tamiya probably took a bit of inspiration from it. The DirtMaster is an RB5 - just in lower spec materials than the original. It's also very very similar from a geometry perspective to the B4 and 201. The RB5 was an evolution of the Ultima RB Type R (there were also Sport and Evo versions of this). I don't think the RB Type R was widely available outside of Japan, so you don't see many around. The Type R was kind of like an RC10B4 rear end with an B2/B3 front end. In my opinion these cars are still competitive - but only on more old fashioned tracks like we had in their release period: so they are great in low traction and loose conditions. I picked up the DirtMaster as I don't want to subject my B4 and 201 to the rigours of weekly club racing and regionals - you want to drive a car as hard as you need to without the worry of breaking a part that you can't easily replace. So the DirtMaster is perfect - parts and hopups have been easy to find, it's strong, and the kit was cheap enough. The handling is good enough that I've used it at a couple of regionals when it rained and been significantly quicker per lap than I was with my modern buggy running a wet setup. It's also great on grass tracks as well in the dry, just have to get used to driving a bit differently as you tend to take a different line and use a "point and squirt" driving style with rear motor buggies, the newer mid motor cars favour a better line to maintain corner speed (rather than flying up to the apex, slamming on the brakes to nip round, and then being hard on the power to pull away) DirtMaster also able to take RB5/201/B4 bodies which is handy. Some RB6 and RB7 parts also fit the RB5 so bits aren't hard to come by. I'll probably pick up an RT5 chassis for the DirtMaster, or I'll buy an RB6 if I see one at a decent price (longer wheelbase so would be better on big tracks). I like the Genova - but it's pricey once imported, and you need to import the spares and hopups as well. The PR racing is nice and a high spec but I think it's quite pricey in the UK. If I wanted a full spec competition rear motor car I think the Serpent Spyder SRX-2 RM would be a good contender, as would the Associated RB10 (modern rear motor RC10B5). The RB10 only comes as an RTR, but you can build one from a DR10 Team kit with a few extra parts.

Good topic I was going to immediately default to the TRF211XM... but I actually think the TD2 is a bit of a dark horse and offers a very strong and quite competitive modern package - and its very well priced as well IMO with only the slipper and diff nut or gear diff required to take it to a track and have a good club car. DB01 is the best 4WD - cheap and tough, on par with the TRF 4WDs for handling. Not the best on modern high grip carpet tracks - it's nice enough to drive, but really tough to push it really hard like you can with some of the more modern buggies.