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... as illustrated by my TT01E and TRF419. (Not shown: difference in price tag) Someone came up to me at the track, and asked me why I had the front body posts way up into the bumper of the TT. I told him it was so I could swap bodies between that TT and my TRF with relative ease. He looked at me as if I just lit a cup of water on fire, and stammered he never thought about a TRF and a TT having their body posts in the same location. This got me thinking. At some point I discovered that the two holes in the bumper plate of a TT must have some purpose, and a bit of experimentation showed me that it's so you can get some body posts in there and have them be in the same location as their higher-end chassis'. What I also found, is that there is hardly any information about that on the internet. So I've decided to do a little research, and write an article about body posts. Tamiya touring car body posts, to be precise. Tamiya's first proper touring car was the TA01. Isn't she pretty? This car had its body posts on the shock towers, the strongest (and highest) point of the car, but because of the angle of the front shock tower this meant that the forward posts ended up roughly slightly to the rear of the the front axle. On the rear they end up a bit behind the rear axle. I'm not sure if this was arbitrary, or if someone actually put a bit of thought behind it (knowing Tamiya, the latter), but this is where they ended up. Keep your eye out for these, as they turned out to be the de-facto standard for many TCs to come. The TA01 soon was joined by the TA02... .. which had its rear shock towers on a completely different location. But notice how Tamiya made these cool little extensions for the posts? That's so they end up in pretty much the same spot as a TA01. Probably done to maintain backwards compatibility with the older body shells (which, presumably, were already drilled/dimpled for the TA01, let alone the interior sets which had specific cutouts to cater for the rear body posts). As a TA01 and 02 don't differ much up front, the front posts stay put. At this point I presume Tamiya felt they had to keep a standard going. Because when the TL01 was released it came with hatchback-style body sets, which don't really work with the rear body post locations they'd used up until then. So they moved them forward to cater for the higher roofs and steeper rear windows, ending up roughly above the rear axle instead of aft of it. But! Tamiya had to have something to maintain backwards compatibility with the bodies they already had on the TA01 and 02. At this point I can presume they knew they couldn't easily deviate from these locations. so the TL01 came with a different set of rear body posts, meant to be installed with certain bodies, which put the rear posts on the exact location needed for those. Also note how the front body posts (to the right of the photo above) are angled so they still end up above and slightly aft of the front axle, exactly where the TA01 and 02 have them. The TA03, in all its variants (F, R, RS, FS, etc) followed the logic of the TA01/2, and came with a set bent back to suit the rearmost body holes of the older bodies... ...and a set to suit the higher-roofed TL01-style bodies. (Not the best picture, but it was all I could find. Sorry.) The TB01, TA04, TA05, TA06, and TA07 all share the same rear post location as the TL01 first introduced, right above the rear axle. But with the TA04 TRF (and related TRF404x), something else was introduced: Note where the front body posts are! They're in the front bumper, as the holes in the shock towers are used to adjust upper shock location. With the TB02 and TB03 sharing a lot of TA-blood, this carried over, and the TA05, 06 and 07 all had the body posts right above the rear axle and in the front bumper. But does that mean that Tamiya had forgotten about the rear-facing posts? Not at all. With the introduction of the TT01, you had the option to build it with the mounts at the TL01 location, but also the TA01 location! At the front of a TT01, you're to attach the front body posts at the TA01 through 03 location, right above the front axle. But! The front bumper plate of a TT01 has two extra holes, which exactly end up at the TA04 location! Pretty sure this makes the TT01 or 02 one of the most versatile chassis in terms of body post location. The TT02 actually has a slightly more elegant solution for the rear-facing posts. On the 01 they make a bit of a weird bend over the shock tower, but the 02 has these nifty spacers, and allows the posts to be mounted from both ends of the tower. But is that all? As the rear of my battered GT86 shell still has a set of holes unaccounted for, no, it's not. There's a set of weird, outboard holes. Those were first used with the TRF415: This car has its roots in racing, and with racing you want to spread the downforce acting on the rear deck as equally as possible. Hence, two body posts on the rear shock tower, but further outwards than the TA01/TL01 posts. All the TRF cars since the 415 has had their rear posts there. See the first picture above this thread, and notice how much further outwards the rear posts on the TRF (the one on the left, duh) are. Have I missed anything? I'm purposely sticking to the TCs here, and not all the buggy/truck variants (TT02B/DF02/HMMWV) as then the list would probably never end. Do let me know below.

After my heavily modified Tamiya TA05 had sat on the shelf for many years I finally got around to racing it. The Dudley winter series is indoors on carpet and is 21.5 blinky. Slick tyres. My TA05 had never turned a wheel in my hands so I had no idea what to expect or how to drive it ( I an a buggy racer ) A steep learning curve it was !

At the last ETS in Germany, Marc Reinhard announced he would part ways with Tamiya. It will be interesting to see where he's going to go next. Maybe Xray, to battle it out with fellow German Ronald Völker? Or will one of the smaller teams like Infinity snatch him up? And more to the point for us, what does the departure of 'our' front man mean for the future of TRF? Tamiya quietly pulled out of off-road racing a few years ago when they decided to stop updating their offers, and I have a feeling that this could very well mean the end of Tamiya Europe's racing ambitions. In Japan I'm sure Akio Sobue and Naoto Matsukara will continue to be a force to be reckoned with on track, but Tamiya Japan is very much a different company from Tamiya Europe and Tamiya USA. On his last race, Marc sported a classy black-and-white variant of his usual paint job. All I can say, as a fellow racer and fan of TC, is thank you Marc, and the best of luck to wherever you decide to go next. Source The RC Racer

Hi, I recently purchased a TT-02 D for club racing at my local indoor carpet track. I really enjoyed the build and taking my time painting the shell and applying the decals. However, the TT-02 has its limitations out the box. There is no adjustable front toe, front or rear camber and rear toe in without spending upwards of £80 on Yeah Racing aluminium parts and the Tamiya Steering upgrade. I sold the TT-02D on instead of throwing money at it and purchased a Schumacher Mi5 Evo used but I cannot fit my Tamiya Sport Tuned brushed motor to the motor mount because of the pinion shaft collar/bushing and the fact the two holes in the motor could not match up with the chassis motor mount holes. I tried a Etronix 21T tuned motor, which has a smaller bush/collar but still ran into problems. Its not surprising really as I guess its a full fat racer designed for Brushless and LiPo. Our club runs Brushed and NiMH because its a small track and we want it to be affordable for everyone so a Brushless setup was not accepted so I'm selling the Mi5 Evo. I'm back looking at touring cars, from Tamiya. The TA-0x and the TRF Family but I don't know if they are designed to only take Brushless motors or not? From my research from reading manuals the TA-01 through TA-05 all definitely take Brushed motors. The TA-06 and 07 show pictures of Brushless motors in the manual so I assume a brushed motor wouldn't fit? I'm fairly new to Tamiya models and on-road carpet racing so I'm struggling a bit trying to find what will take a brushed motor in the TRF Family, Possibly only the 414? Ideally id like the newest Tamiya that still supports running the Tamiya Sport tuned motor or a Brushed motor so that parts support is still available. Any helps on what chassis take brushed motors would be great. Thanks

I've recently acquired a TA03R-S in an auction, but really just wanted the body shell. Now you can have the rest. The tires are shot from sitting (splits). Price is negotiable, but please no less than $50USD. Here's a pic: and the bottom: