grip-wolrd

Its in Schaffhausen! I live in Bern but a friend is in Zurich so we travelled there. It's a nice track and has some decent facilities.

Does anyone know if there are other Stabilizers from other kits that will fit the FF-03? I'm having a hard time finding an FF-03 set.

I decided to take the Sauber F201 for a spin, as keeping as a shelf queen just didn't fly with me. It was an interesting drive! The stock tires are like plastic and the whole time it just wanted to drift; you need careful with the weight transfer. The tires also didn't really last much longer than 2 runs. I think Tamiya makes some grippy versions that might be worth trying out!

Managed to finally head to the track again; only the second time this year unfortunately. The main changes I had on the FF03, as where described above: Switched from stock ratio (6.80) to longer ratio (4.58). New 3Racing big-bore shocks. Spec 17.5t Hobbywing Justock setup. Matrix MX-EPA036 tires. The gear ratio combined with the new 17.5t Justock is decent, but I need an even longer ratio for this larger outdoor track. The acceleration is not bad, but I hit top speed like 10% down the back straight. I can't tell much difference with the shocks, but I did make some alignment changes to even out the tire wear, and also increased the front damping (down from a 4-hole piston to a 2-hole with 400wt) to make it more stable and seemed to work really well. I tightened up the front ball-diff and seemed to improve traction. The tires obviously made a huge difference compared to the stock Tamiya tires, and also lasted longer as they were obviously not slipping as much. Next steps: Control the body-roll with stabilizers; if I clip the curb on the inside it can cause the car to flip. I tried widening the car a bit and also lowering it, but I think I need to control the roll. Lower the ratio even more!

Haven't driven it in a while due to being busy at work, but it's ready to run now with the 17t stock brushless setup! Hopefully I'll get some time one weekend.

Good to know; i might make my own spacer and run a shorter bolt. Minor update: I got a Tamiya Acto-Power motor when I bought another second hand kit (an old Kyosho no less), and I figured it would fit perfectly in the TA-02.

Some minor updates: Got a couple more spares in like rear suspension arms and steering link so was able to finish the rear end and start putting the chassis together. The original suspension arm bolts dont really work in the CF shock towers as the towers are much thinner. I might change the fastener and make a bushing or just add spacers to the original screw to get rid of all the slop:

Finally got some parts in to continue the build: Tamiya 0009611 - C-parts TA02 Blue Tamiy 50482 - D-parts TA02 body mounts GPM HM1041SF - Out-drives Tamiya 9000744 - TA02 Front suspension arms Tamiya 4035034 - FRP front shock tower Tamiya 4035035 - FRP rear shock tower Tamiya 9405619 - Pivot and axle shafts Tamiya 445246 - Uprights Blue Yeah Racing TA01-042BU - Alu steering kit Yeah Racing TA01-013BU - Alu motor mount Carson 500904023 - TA01 bearing set (which I now realised the TA02 one is different) Tamiya 9335609 - TA02 Chassis tub Tamiya 9805901 - Cardan drive-shaft Built the gearboxes back together after the clean and fitted the new shaft-drives. Looking 'almost' like new again and I've got a few spare internal gear sets available if needed. Also fitted the rear shock tower; for the front I will need to make a small bracket as is required. Not sure if this comes in a kit somehow but I haven't been able to find anything so far. Now I've very quickly come to a stop where I will need to find some more parts before I can continue and I'm not sure how long it will take to find all the parts.

To be honest I would be ok with a used tub; I used all of my RC cars to it will get scratched either way!

I can still find the FRP chassis kits here, but I'd rather have tub, and yeah it might be harder to find.

I bought a bag of bits. I will make something out of it. So, I bought a bag of bits and I had no idea what it contained; I saw a few interesting plastic pieces and decided to just buy it. In the end it had a few parts from numerous different models that I've only come to learn of as I've researched. It included, but likely isn't limited to: Manta Ray, TG10, F103GT and some TT parts. I didn't want a TG10 and the F103GT is really only a couple of parts, and I'm not even sure which TT parts they are, but for the Manta Ray there were 2 complete gearboxes and some arms. Now I don't want a Manta Ray, but I've since learned that the TA01 and 02 shared a lot of the Manta Ray parts and that sounded way more interesting to me. Firstly I disassembled the gearboxes to check their condition and clean them up: Overall they looked pretty good, but they are both geared diffs as opposed to the front ball bearing type on the TA models. The Manta Ray was obviously involved in an incident: Cleaned and ready: This is basically all that I have of the future TA02, but I do plan on building it up in a sort of modernized retro racer. I'll be fun.

Finally got some parts in and was able to mount the new brushless setup. To fit the motor I needed an adapter plate or the terminals of the Justock 17.5t motor wouldn't fit between the brace and the chassis, and I also got the new gears with the longer final drive ratio. Obviously the larger pinion gear doesn't fit over the original motor bolts so I had to find some lower profile countersunk bolts; ignore that I didn't have the same screws or washers With the adapter plate now I have to mount the pinion gear flipped, with the set screw on the inside; not sure if people are managing to mount it the other way but the output shaft from the motor just isn't long enough. It should be all ready to test out again now and I think I've got a lot of setting up to do.

Really amazing build thread; I've learned about the Racing Special and it's been a great read!

Some minor updates, and @ThunderDragonCy I've listen to your advice on a few topics! Firstly I had to replace the broken front brace from the impact, and got a basic plastic replacement piece; didn't wanna load up on heavy Alu. I've also decided to get some proper rubber for it; they are Matrix tires and wow do they feel grippy. I haven't ridden them yet but you can just tell the difference just on a table. The car is glued to it. The green wheels will just be for show it seems. I've invested in a Hobbywing Justock setup with 17.5t motor. It seems to be the standard stock setup for FWD racing. I'm not sure if I'd ever do a race but it's nice to run a spec setup. And then finally I replaced the stock plastic shocks with some Yeah Racing Big Bores; they feel nice. I'm waiting on a few parts like a motor adaptor plate and gearing to mount the motor and then I should be ready to go!

So the first F1 in the collection is finally finished! I finished up the body on the F201 and mounted all the electronics and it's now ready! For starters I changed the helmet design to Nick Heidfeld as the sticker set was unused; it's a prettier helmet design. The last decals remaining on the body were the barge boards, and I didn't want to apply them directly to the lexan body as instructed in the kit; I wanted it to have actual barge boards. I applied the decal to a curved PET sheet (plastic bottle) and then bolted it to the body with some spacers. It looks really authentic and works well. Overall the F201 is a fantastic kit, and this Sauber C22 edition is even more special. For those that maybe are not aware this Sauber Petronas C22 kit was not an actual Tamiya kit, but a licensed version through a Tamiya retainer in Germany, together with the Sauber team in Switzerland. The F201 kits were repackaged and given a new Sauber decal set and instruction sheet. Here's the finished kit:

Thank you!! The kit is definitely prettier than I expected at first.

Managed to get a hold of some PS-16 in Italy so I was able to continue working on the body and fixing it up. The body was only half finished by the previous owner and as mentioned before they seemed to have painted (very badly) and then removed some of the internal decals: I managed to clean up and reapply the internal stickers before painting the rest of the body as evenly as I could. I think the end results looks a lot better than I had hoped. The internal decals are barely visible, but a nice touch from the designers of this kit. Now with all the stickers applied: Some of the decals on the curved surfaces were challenging, but a hair-drier worked really well in softening them up:

Updates on the F201: Finished rebuilding the F201 chassis and fortunately the previous owner had an extra decal set in the box. Those F1 wheels look so good: Installed a new low profile servo to fit in the chassis. I test fitted the electronics in the small side compartment; I will be using a Hobbywing 1060 Quicrun. The plan is that all the electronics will be able to be transferred between my 3 F1s so I'm using this solid velcro like mounting. It is very stiff and sometimes hard to remove. I had to extend the motor wires to match the routing described in the manual to fit under the body. This kit looks so good!

Very kind of you, but I am located in Switzerland. I may likely buy a new decal set for the MP4/6 for the body anyway and it should include the tire decals. I should update my profile.

Progress is happening. I found some original F103 MP4/6 wheel kits and mounted the brand new F103 foam tires to them; they look fantastic on the chassis. Just need some Goodyear tire stickers now!

So clean and pretty!!

Back to the F102; finished up the front wing and mounted it back on. A little before and after: After applying the glue and the support rod underneath, I sanded and cleaned the upper surface and gave it a coat of white paint. I used polycarbonate paint so that it remains flexible. I mounted the original servo back on as well and kept the vertical position the previous owner implemented:

Just when you may have thought that 2 F1s were enough, another has popped up! It's a Tamiya F201 in the Sauber C22 guise. I think it was a steal for it's condition and what it came with; it's basically brand new, never used, but the body was oddly unfinished. Whats the condition: Body needs finishing; it has been poorly painted and seems like a decal was removed from inside after painting for reasons unknown (on this Sauber C22 body you need to apply a decal from the inside). The paint is uneven and blotchy but it seems to look ok from the inside. It will need more coats to even it out. The front diff wasn't working correctly and has been damaged. Needs new electronics and servo; the servo had a connector I've never seem before. I started dismantling it to see what condition the diffs were in and also because the front drive didn't seem to engage. I thought it was either not assembled correctly or it was damaged. The good news is the ball diff was loose and just needed to be tightened, but the bad news is that the previous owner decided to put a long screw in and it damaged the diff gears. It's salvageable as the damage only appears to be superficial and the engagement is good and still smooth: Putting it back together: It came with Sport Tuned motor, which I think was stock for the F201 kits. The servo will be replaced for something more modern, but it needs to be compact. Oh and did I mention the guy sent a brand new set of F103 tires too?! Just what I needed for the F102.

Made some progress on the Kyosho SR-5 by cleaning up the body and wing. As I mentioned earlier, the Kyosho came with an additional body set and wings, and they are easily much nicer and more colorful than the Sauber C12 bodywork it came with; a lovely Benetton Ford from 1992. Some of external paint needed touching up and I also cleaned and polished the body when it had some older scuffs and dirt: Some of the decals had to be glued down again but overall it looks really clean; happy that it was kept in a good condition.

Really great feedback, thank you! There's a spec series here that run 17.5t Justock Hobbywing brushless combo, so I might get that as a good base, and use the Ezrun MAX10 on something else.