Twinfan

None of the pre-painted body shells are backed. The Fire Dragon, Saint Dragon, Thunder Shot and Thunder Dragon are all just single layer, as is the Top Force Evo and the pre-painted Astute 2022 TD2. The instruction manuals never say to back the paint, so why would Tamiya do it on their pre-painted models?

I think it's the arm from what I can see. If you use the standard servo saver and plastic arm, the arm will be a lot further forward towards the front of the car. It will stick out from the servo and allow a straight link to the steering arms. Your issue is that the aluminium arm is too close to the servo body - it does not stick out far enough. That is why the Hop-Up uses a thick/deep 5100 servo saver and arm on top, like the standard parts.

Your problem appears to be the blue aluminium servo arm. The official Hop-Up is #54799: https://www.thercracer.com/2021/03/54799-tamiya-tt-02-high-torque-servo.html You seem to be using something else?

If you're building as per the kit then you shouldn't have an issue like that. Any standard or low profile size servo should work fine. Are you using the standard servo saver and arm? And which servo do you have?

They're different on each car, and it's PS-3 Light Blue for the Wild One and PS-30 Brilliant Blue for the Hotshot II.

Don't use velcro, it wears out too quick and isn't very solid. I use the same stuff I use on my guitar pedalboards - 3M Dual Lock - which is super strong. No chance anything's falling off if you use this! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221887138699

Yep, that was my thinking too I've just built my set with the large spacers in as per the above link and the final rear shock was a right pain! I clearly kept trapping air somehow and it had a huge amount of rebound. The other three had none at all. I think it most have taken 20+ attempts to get the last one right. To anyone building a set, it seems the way to do it is to build as per the instructions but SLOWLY screw the cap on and very regularly clear the drain channel through the threads in the stock body of excess oil and air bubbles. I'll be fitting them to my Fire Dragon in the near future and will see how they fare...

I find that run time very much depends on the car and the motor, as you might expect. A light 2WD car, such as the Hornet, will run longer than a 4WD Fire Dragon all else being equal.

Yes, the reverse setting in the ESC is for the reverse "gear" so that the car can go backwards.

No worries. I've also just re-discovered this old thread that I had bookmarked: The instructions list the specs and how to build Hi-Caps to fit the Thunder Shot and Thunder Dragon, so as a conversion from the front mono damper. The shock towers are different (taller and wider) for the Terra Scorcher/Fire Dragon (G parts tree) compared to the Thunder Shot/Thunder Dragon (B parts tree) so this may have an impact on compatibility? I guess you could build the shocks as per the Thunder Shot specs and use them with the G-parts shock towers and see how it goes. I'm thinking I might give that a go now rather than chuck the dampers in a box...

Cheers @futureworks, I'll pop you a message now

In case anyone's interested, I've just roughtly built up a front and rear VQS Hi Cap shock as per the instructions (no oil, but including spacers) to compare against the CVAs currently in use on my Fire Dragon and Neo Fighter: Fire Dragon Mini CVA (front) 65mm eye to eye static, 49mm eye to fully compressed Neo Fighter Mini CVA (front) 69mm eye to eye static, 53mm eye to fully compressed Hi Cap (front) 67mm eye to eye static, 53mm eye to fully compressed --- Short CVA (rear) 84mm eye to eye static, 65mm eye to fully compressed Neo Fighter Short CVA (rear) 94mm eye to eye static, 72mm eye to fully compressed Hi Cap (rear) 79mm eye to eye static, 62mm eye to fully compressed So the issue with the VQS shocks in the front is that they don't compress enough. In the rear, they're a bit too short and taking the spacer out makes them too long. I think the fronts would be OK on the DT-03, but the rears aren't that close a match IMHO. I think I'll just throw my set in the spares box in case I can use them on something else in the future.

Thanks Luke, but that's the regular RR (not the Gun Metal version). Cheers anyway though!

I wasn't really interested in one, but ended up with a motor that might suit it and being curious about how good it is. I have no nostalgia for one as I don't remember them back in the day. I was just a basher with eyes only for Tamiya...

Another for the build queue, still waiting on a couple of Option House parts for it in a larger order which should arrive next month...