Chris.B

Got the last upgrade delivered. It's the 53354 TG10 stabilizer set. On the front... ...and on the rear: And just for the protocol: That's the reason, why every project takes such a long time. One project interrupts the other. Built my TRF104 in between.

Thanks for the hint. That's really helpful. In the TG10R manual it also looks extremely close to the gears. I hope this will work like it is. Destroying the gear would be an expensive loss.

I only plan limited upgrades to this chassis. Besides hex screws, dampers and the low friction king pins, the most important one is the 53359 2-speed transmission. This is really hard to get and therefore quite expensive. But shifting the gears is somehow one of the key emotional things with these nitro cars. At least for me. After some impatient waiting, I finally received it. You have to be careful with the screws of the brake callipers to screw them in deep enough. There is very little space between the lower gear and those screws. This is one of the disadvantages with the TNS. The manual does not give you good advise on how to build things because they were sold preassembled. Maybe there is a more detailed manual which I did not find yet.

While stil waiting for some parts, I realized that the original rear TNS dampers are longer than the front ones. I completely missed that fact. So I had to disassemble the rear ones and used longer piston rods (50601) to compensate this as well as some bling and the M-05 Low Friction King Pins (54237) because they are hex.

Next are the dampers: I had a set of 42102 TRF Special Dampers (hard black coating) at home and decided to use them instead of the original ones (left). Using the long V6 ball sockets, you get the same length as the TNS ones. The 42102 manual describes the use in a Tamiya TGS, so I took this setup: 2 piston holes and 600 oil, one O-ring to limit the droop. Mounted to the chassis: In the meantime, also the new tires and rims arrived. Now I have to wait for the delivery of parts for the only major upgrade of the chassis.

There is some progress. So, what happened until now: All parts have been cleaned in my ultrasonic cleaner and came out like new. Then it was time to start reassembling everything. I rebuilt the front and rear gearboxes and the suspension. The movement of the wishbones was not as smooth as I like it. I had to sand the lower wishbones a bit and used a reamer so that they fall under their own weight. What I changed: I had some CVDs (53792 with 54623 axles) for an other (unfinished ) TA04 Pro project at home which are compatible with the TNS and used them instead of the dog bones. I also changed all screws to hex-ones, at least where possible. By the way. I don't know if it was standard for the TNS, but there are almost no grub screws used on this chassis. I also added some new wheel hubs (Tamiya 9404205) and - most important - ball bearings all around. The chassis plate has some scratches but is still perfectly flat. It is still available but I think I will keep this one for some patina. Next was the steering rack, nothing special here. And finally front and rear mounted on the chassis.

To be honest, I am also still at the beginning of this journey. 😀 But what I found out so far is that it shares some suspension parts with the early TBs. But most of the other parts are nitro specific. Alu chassis, top deck to house fuel tank, engine, ...

While most of the other parts are enjoying their bath in the ultrasonic cleaner, I inspected the diffs. They do not have seals, so filling them with oil is not an option. To my surprise, there is absolutely no visible wear on any of those almost 20 years old gears. After cleaning everything, I added some grease and assembled both again. A pleasant start for this project! Hopefully, the engine turns out to be in a similar condition. That's my biggest concern.

Quite a long time ago, this mysterious voice in my head told me, that an RC collection can never be complete without owning a nitro car. Since I know that the attempt to resist these whisperings is never successful for longer times, I started to look out for something that would fill the gap in my collection. Then, almost a year ago, I found a used Tamiya TNS for a reasonably price which - at least on the photos - seemed to be in quite good condition. I bought it and...stored it my basement next to all the other "I'll start this as soon I have time"-projects. I almost forgot it until this voice once again became louder and I decided that now it's time to restore it. So it's almost a barn-find in my own house 😀. I pulled it out for an inspection. The Mercedes body has not been used and is in perfect factory condition: Awesome! The chassis itself has been used. But besides the dirt all around also seems ok. Only the rims show severe signs of being raced. Since I have absolutely no experience with nitro cars, this will be a real adventure for me. Next step: to disassemble everything, checking the internals and cleaning all the parts.

Months later and only because I found a finished body for sale, there's some progress on my Sand Scorcher: The shell has been used on an other chassis, so I will have to design something for the rear. Maybe some V8 engine dummy?

This is really a great project with an awesome result.

Why only Group C? I grabbed the remains of my first iteration of upgrades and wanted to fit a body. But something different. Then I found an HPI Chevrolet Monte Carlo body and thought: why not? That's what came out using the shortest wheelbase. Perfect fit!

That's the common lie of all populistic parties around the world. Producing everything local to secure jobs sounds great at first glance. But what they never admit is the fact, that everything will of course be much more expansive while salaries will not be higher. This then results in inflation everywhere and reduced standard of living. There is simply a reason why companies are producing in Asia or other low cost countries. And as you said, most of those local products will never be competitive in the global market. So instead of imposing useless and counterproductive tariffs, countries should do everything possible is to strengthen the competitiveness by unleashing the maximum of innovative power of the local industry. It is a shame, that so many people fall for it when it comes to all these incredible populistic lies all around the world.

Your car came out really awesome. Super nice paint and absolutely great selection of parts 😃.

I like that ProMarkt design a lot. Nice one!