BloodClod

Enjoyed reading this thread. I'd recommend adding weights to the front end, from my experience it will help a lot for high grip running. The TD2 front end is very light - good for stability on lower grip surfaces, but I've found it makes it hard to tune the suspension when you need to.

I suspect it's a possibility a product of Tamiya's "build it modular" design philosophy, where in this case the arm and driveshaft dimensions were designed to be the same length as the front. I'm not an engineer or rc designer, but I'm guessing in other race buggies the front and rear geometries are more bespoke for some reason.

Awesome build. I'm toying with the idea of an Astute build and yours has many great ideas implemented. I wanted to ask you and guys like @BuggyDad as well who have been using BBX gearboxes in your builds - are you guys buying the parts individually for these projects - if so are they costly when all the bits are totalled up?

Thanks for the very kind comments. I do my best to keep the buggy between the pipes and out of the way of other cars but the lads I run with may not think so. lol!

The TD2 project continues and the car is getting better and better. Put together a short video of the car on the track just this month. Can a TD2 be a decent, fun and reliable club racer? As far as I'm concerned, it's a definite YES! lol!

I've enjoyed reading the custom upgrades you've made on your truck. They really look good and well made! Thank you for sharing.

Nice print. What material did you use? Am curious how a 3D printed part would hold up on a high stress part like the hub.

The main change is that the axle location is higher on this hub so given the same ride height, the suspension arm will not be sitting as flat. It will mean you may need to tweak your shock settings and the roll of the car may also feel slightly different.

A friend of mine is running M05ra rear hubs. These alter the geometry but they do work with the stock driveshafts. You will need to use a thinner 5x10x3 bearing on the inside of the hub though.

TLR35 = 420cst TLR30 = 338cst Our weather here is warmer and that may translate to slightly heavier oils to compensate for the temps. The upright shocks... well, the stock laydown CVA shocks were actually a decent starting point, but I felt they were limited in a few areas: 1) The lack of tunability. Because of the length and bore of the shock, finding a set of springs for fine-tuning was a bit of a challenge. 2) The plastic construction did not present the best of tolerances. As such, I found even for the stock shocks to work I had to run a very thick oil. This again, made it hard to tune accurately. 3) Given the laydown configuration, changing springs or oil was a bit of a pain... everytime I needed to do this it was quite time consuming. 4) The stock setup doesn't give enough up travel. Shortening the shocks is a quick fix but it compromises on the droop the buggy needs. 5) The shocks leaked. Perhaps better o-rings would have helped, but given the other limitations I didn't think it worthwhile trying. A different set of challenges of the laydown position arose when I swapped them out for big bores. 1) It was very difficult to find a spring-oil combo that matched the stock plastics. My friend's laydown setup took a lot longer to dial in and I think it still isn't as close to the stand-up setup I'm running. He had to drill out special pistons and even cut the cantilevers to get the suspension softer and give sufficient up travel. 2) The big bore setup is even more of a pain to take out of the car for setup changes... really. Performance-wise, I think the major downside of the laydown setup is simply that the design moves the electronics back and in turn makes the front end just too light (particularly for high-grip surfaces). The car can't steer on-power and the it is a tad challenging to manage in the air. A lot of weight needs to be added to compensate and it makes the car harder to tune. I don't think it impossible though... recently my friend's laydown TD2 seemed to be running a lot better... but it has taken a significant amount of time and effort to get it in the window. Hope that helps. One very interesting thing we've learnt recently is that the TD2 front end has significant flex in it which impacts its steering response. When stiffened up with bracing the car handling changes significantly.

Sorry missed this post. Not sure if it helps but I'm running Tamiya TRF big bore shocks. TLR35 oil with 2x1.6 pistons up front and TLR30 oil with 2x1.7 pistons in the rear.

The modified TD2 has been my regular runner at the track for the past few months and this car has been more than able to hold its own in dogfights with the AEs, mugens, yokomos and other race buggies. What a blast. Here it is in latest form with a new shell I just completed. I thought this vintage 834B body would fit in well with the quirky and unusual project car. The shape of this body is really... er... different and I suspect many will either love it or hate it. lol! The car has seen a number of refinements over the weeks of testing and running... among them a new front bulkhead, some steering mods a rear suspension brace to prevent the stock shock tower from coming loose in hard runs. Next up I'd like to try a radical change by relocating the battery much further front transversely just behind the steering servo. I suspect this will further improve the car's balance on the astro surface I run on. Really enjoying the TD2 - wish Tamiya would have continued development of this platform... oh well. So guys, this body... love it or hate it?

I've been running PR kits for many years and they have come a long way. Parts quality, fit and finish are top notch and they are very durable cars (esp the 2wd platform). They've won races regularly, and at the local track where I run they have a reputation for being among the best performing cars available. They tend to shine in tight corners while maintaining stability. They feature a lot of adjustability but may not have all the minute adjustments available on the associateds or yokomos, but for me what they have is more than enough. Instructions are decent, but not at the level of Tamiyas. Setup info may be lacking too but if you look they are out there. You may need to enjoy a bit of self experimenting to get them dialed for your track. Problem in some locations is also parts availability. The cars are great value though. For the price what you get in the box in terms of quality and performance I think can't be beat. Hope that helps.

The creativity of the previous "body" was great but I really like the elegant and clean lines of this full body version. This project is really inspiring. Do you have any videos of it running - would be awesome to see it in action!

This is another inspiring project! You do awesome CAD work and I love how the custom bits contribute to the buggy without changing it's essential character... That's a tight line to walk. May I ask what printer you're using? Those arm prints look great and don't look like fdm?