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Chassis choice - general purpose / rally shell

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While I'm still tinkering with one car and have just started a new kit build, when not concentrating on those my mind starts to wonder... I  feeling the urge for a rally /touring type chassis and car. Must be capable of dirt, so not a surfaced track / indoor type. I quite like some of the M size bodies, but think a "standard" size (257 WB) would probably be more versatile. What differences are there in driving, extras, building fun, options, flexibility, etc. between say the M05ra / MF01X  and the TT02 / XV-01? Any other alternatives? Is it just a case of pick a shell and then a chassis to suit?

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XV-01. It´s the best  option. 

It´s a car designed for rally, and can stand any abuse. You can modifiy a TT01/TT02, but they will never be the same level.

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I agree with @Vaurien83.   XV-01 is an enclosed chassis and m-chassis sized tires are just too small to do any committed gravel drives (my opinion only).

I love the Lancia body too.. that would be the car I'd get for gravel driving.. or do a VA WRX STI body if it fits.

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im stating a rally bug (mf01x) actually now, I have a m05ra as well. I think the wheels and tires are small also.

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I have a M-05Ra and can tell you that it is not great off road. At best it can do light dirt. Any grass and it will probably stall. 

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I would go for the XV01 for several reasons. Plastic quality is good, interesting/more challenging build, is a standard 257mm wheelbase so lots of body choices, will handle the rough stuff* but it also handles like a dream on tarmac as well.

downsides, you need a screwdriver to fit the battery and due to the shape and size of the battery compartment some will not fit, especially lipos.

*define rough stuff: just remember although these models are generally 1/10 scale that doesn’t relate to speed or the size gravel etc. 20mph is 200 mph at 1/10 scale and even a small bit of gravel would be like driving into a rock.

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MF01x is a great chassis, but the wheels are too small in my opinion to be great for off road. 

I've got mine working using larger tires, I've got one chassis with TT-01 Race Truck tires and another with Sand Scorcher rears all round. However this will throw off the scale look if you went this way for a rally car, so I'd go for a larger chassis from the off set.

The XV01 gets rave reviews here and elsewhere. I also feel that you could probably go from XV01 into touring car more successfully than the other way round. 

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If you can afford it then Xv01 will be excellent, but I recently rebuilt my TA02 as a rally car with 64mm cva mini shocks in place of the kit 55mm shocks and it is really quite good. With rally blocks it has over 15mm of ground clearance at ride height with loads of droop. I have put soft buggy front springs on it and it rolls and moves around a lot, but it's good. Nice thing is the suspension as no stops or restrictor blocks in it like the TT0X cars so you can get it properly jacked up. Also because it is mid motor you can fit any shell you like. XV01 with front motor can restrict use of certain bodies. TA02 calibra rere means there are loads around at the moment. I got the shop to split a calibra kit and keep the body, wheels, tyres, silver can motor and ESC and got it brand new for 100 quid. 

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I had done the rally hack with an original TT-01, similar idea as what @ThunderDragonCy did to his TA02. However I just removed the spacers in the CVA and installed longer springs to make it 67ish mm long. However this hack cannot be undone (without replacing parts) and since the chassis was never designed for this, does messed up the handling somewhat. Don't get me wrong, it is great fun as an off road basher, but unlikely to win any proper race. 

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XV-01 no doubt. It's the best all-around chassis with great performance. Greatest rally chassis to date and does well for on-road too.

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Thinking "roughly $200 or $300" might help you decide? 

I haven't built my XV-01 so I couldn't tell you the performance. But that'd be the $300 decision.  

But I did build MF-01X.  I always felt the M chassis tires were a bit small, so I put Traxxas 7674X.  I think these have a better proportion. Tires and shocks would add up to maybe slightly over $200?  

V1Ptok6.jpg

 

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Predictably, I'm going to vote for the XV-01. It's easily the best real-world touring car of all time, and my favorite Tamiya chassis.

The MF-01X is nice and fun, good for mild motors and parking lots. They're fun in smoother dirt, where the limits of the chassis are quickly reached and exceeded. They're limited by their very short arms and lack of suspension travel.

A stock TT-02R with the high ride height, Rally Blocks, and a Traxxas Titan 12t makes a fun real-world TC. It won't keep up with an XV-01, and handles rough surfaces poorly in comparison.

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lots of votes for the XV-01 then, which is what I suspected. Price is quite high though, I've been looking at TT02 and even TT01E kits, which leave lots of room for tinkering. Brilliant out of the box is great, but I won't be racing so absolute performance isn't really a consideration, opportunities for experimenting, upgrading, changing stuff and just general having fun are probably better with the TT kits ?

Silly question coming, but is it possible to put a rally / touring shell on a TT-02B chassis? Will depend on the space in the shell I guess, maybe some modding required, etc, but in theory is it possible? or is there some reason other than higher rear shock tower why it just can't be done? Am thinking that might give better off road performance and readiness than a standard TT02 chassis

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I use my shells on both the tt02 and the xv01 without issues, most problems come from the high suspension stays of my xv01 (long damper version) and not the other way around, as long as you set the body posts in the same positions on both cars you are good to go (without making new holes in the body I mean) 

My vote also goes to the xv01, having both, the xv01 is more capable, the oil differentials allow for more tinkering, the belt drive is smooth, and the front engine gives it a very realistic scale performance if you set up the suspension to a soft setting, and it is a better prepared rally platform overall, but that being said, the tt02 is also a good platform for its price, there are very cheap uprades and some easy mods that you can find online to allow for more suspension travel, the car is easy to build, easy to maintain and easy to upgrade, as long as you are not expecting xv01 performance from it.

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On 1/17/2022 at 1:51 PM, Busdriver said:

downsides, you need a screwdriver to fit the battery and due to the shape and size of the battery compartment some will not fit, especially lipos.

+1 for XV-01.

Battery: As it is the plugs and cable where you typically run out of space, I found banana plug lipo packs (i.e. the ones without cables) to work best in the XV-01 battery compartment.

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Another vote for the XV-01. I've got the long damper version and it gets over some pretty nasty stuff and even short grass. I've found that I can get most standard size 2s Lipos to fit, but the packs with the wires exiting out of one corner seem to fit the best for me. I've got mine set up with a Super Stock RZ and it's plenty of speed to blast over gravel and slide it around.  

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I've had an XV01 since 2015, I built it to have something that's better at mixed use than the TT02 that I was playing around with in parking lots.

The XV01 is on it's third body, it is built just right for durability and handling.  The initial build did seem lengthier than others I've built, for some reason it stacks washers/spacers a lot.  After driving it with much larger RC trucks around, having someone run it into a curb at over 20mph, and a few of my own mistakes... I can attest this is good design practice.  Instead of cracking, bending or breaking .... it just explodes parts and you simply reassemble it.  I've run it on 2s and 3s for years without issue.  I put a different body on it and plastic drift tires then introduced people to drifting with it.  

Sometimes Tamiya just gets it right, and this is one of those chassis.

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