2022 TA-02 build with a little bit of tuning ;)

[wtcc5 5885]

Some weeks ago I got this kit for 99€ when one big german hobby shop celebrated its 15th anniversary. To be honest, I am not a big Calibra fan (and also not as emotional connected to the TA-02 as I am with some other chassis), so I put it on the shelf to bother later with it.

But not much later my brain had this crazy idea to pair this kit with one of the carbon chassis sets I had bought. These look so good on TA-02 and FF-01. Hey! And why not get the speed gear set and other stuff with it, too?! Somewhere on Fb I saw the combination of red plastic and carbon and then was convinced to do it!

This is will be a modern TA-02 build with the focus on available parts, freshly (re-) released tuning parts for this chassis and the use of modern technology to fullfill one or two more tuning dreams.

[M 800STD 591]

You can also buy a tube of CF to make the gear shafts.

[M 800STD 591]

One other thing I did was to purchase the Lancia 037 front bumper and trimmed it to shape of the body to support it.

Also gives you the option of mounting foam bumper

[OnTheTrail 1388]

Looking forward to your build, wtcc5!

[wtcc5 5885]

@M 800STD: Good to see we have the same approach regarding the carbon tubes. Especially the low price and low weight is what I like here 

The bumper will have a foam part, but the design will differ.

 

@OnTheTrail: Thanks! Lets start the build then!

 

Step 1: Strictly like the manual suggests plus the thrust bearing to save the work with the small steel balls. I decided to go for the steel balldiff parts in this case, because I plan to run this car.

 

Step 2: Putting the diff in the gear housing.

 

 

[GermanTA03Guy 1374]

Nice im not an Opel fan, but the calibra is one of the nicest looking dtm cars of all time... The box art can be really nice, with white rims and the right stance (which many don't manage to pull off)... But there are also great alternative liveries, be it test cars or actual driven liveries.... Even the white yellow standard livery had many versions.... I recommend Youtube dtm research, lots of fun, legendary times. In my opinion the dtm afterwards was always just a joke in comparison... By the way, the calibra had CRAZY technologies and development budgets back then (f1 like).... Not like a gt3 car or something. WAY beyond! 

[wtcc5 5885]

@GermanTA03Guy: I loved the active cooling openings in the front of the later "Old Spice" generation  Thanks for bringing up the memories and the livery suggestions!

 

Step 3: Very early in comparison to other chassis, it is time for the motor, motor mount and spur gear. I don't know how my favorite german hobby shop is able to still offer the Dyna Run motor, but they do (as spares). Like that the motor costs nearly as much as I paid for the whole kit...still, I couldn't resist.

I went for the 69 teeth spur in combination with a 23 teeth pinion for a final ration of 7.31:1.

 

The before by @M 800STD mentioned carbon tube mod took place and the outdrive for the Hop-up central driveshaft was used:

 

Everything was added to the gearbox:

[M 800STD 591]

Are you going to do the front one way?

[wtcc5 5885]

@M 800STD: I looked at it several times, but couldn't convince myself to buy it. All my experiences with one ways were negative laptime wise and I don't like how it affects braking.

How is your opinion? Does it suit the TA-02 with that motor?

 

Step 4: At this stage the carbon chassis set comes into play. The rear shock tower was installed.

 

Step 5: Installing the balldiff outdrives with the joint collars used for the TA-02 Racing Special Chassis (58157).

 

I must have been too focused on the build as I forgot to make any picture of the rear suspension  ... Sooo... that is how the rear unit looks so far:

[wtcc5 5885]

Forgot to mention, that I used 3x18mm turnbuckles and 5mm short adjusters as camber links. I also forgot to order the suspension pins. So these will be added later 

 

It is time to build the front gearbox:

I couldn't convince myself to pay 20€ for the one-way-bearing and went for a slightly locked geardiff using anti-wear-grease.

 

 

Again a carbon tube was used and the other hop-up outdrive of the drive shaft:

 

Outdrives with collars:

 

Front damper stand attachment:

[M 800STD 591]

I don't know as I am still building it.

Also changed the wheelbase to 238mm and will be running 3s brushless.

The only other thing I want to change is the dampers, for something super smooth.

[wtcc5 5885]

@M 800STD:  So you make the car shorter, use a one-way and all that super fast on 3S? With a one-way in front you can only brake with the rear tires, so that has a high chance of ending in disaster, especially with that short wheelbase. The car will have a very strong steering, maybe oversteer as soon as you go off throttle or give steering input. I would strongly recommend to start your high speed tests with a (at least lightly) locked geardiff in front.

As far as I know, one-way-diffs were best suited for slow silver can classes, where braking was hardly needed.

 

This time I didn't forget to make pictures of the suspension  Hop-up wise I added universal shafts, ball bearings and the aluminium step screws for the hubs:

 

Proper 3x18mm turnbuckles for the camberlinks, too:

 

Both end so far:

 

At this stage, it is time for the dampers. I could chose between pink 53155 and silver 53571 TRF dampers. I chose the latter, as the pink didn't compliment all the other colors of this chassis.This choice also made more work, as I had to clean and restore the heavily used Surikarn TBevo3 dampers. Especially the upper caps and lower adjusters were badly scratched. Oh, and the oil was black 

 

I paired them with the colored springs of the 53163 set:

 

Looking good:

  

[M 800STD 591]

Made shorter to fit GT1 Porsche body.  Running foams, 30mm at rear.  It will only go so fast due to limited gearing.  Thinking of using Yokomo shocks to help, very good experience with them - so smooth.

I'll let you know if I manage to tame the beast.  

[Alangt4 124]

Would be good to get the TA03 or the top force evo ball diff cases if you can. They are lighter but more importantly much tougher than the grey cast housings of the top force or ta02. The dynarun super touring is a really strong motor that flies with Lipo so it will be tough on the drive splines. 

[Superluminal 3996]

On 3/17/2022 at 6:06 PM, wtcc5 said:

Step 5: Installing the balldiff outdrives with the joint collars used for the TA-02 Racing Special Chassis (58157).

Where did you find the joint collars from? Would like to get some of those!

[wtcc5 5885]

@Alangt4: Thanks! I will take a look at the diff parts.
 

@Superluminal: I found them here:

https://www.modellbau-seidel.de/index.php?firma=Tamiya&best=9805723

[wtcc5 5885]

The highlight of this build is coming next  The Carbon Chassis Set.

That is in the box if you open it for the first time:

 

You have maybe seen the assembly of it a few times already (for example in my FF-01 thread), so I will skip some steps of it.

The lower deck with the J-parts installed:

 

The steering assembly:

 

Marriage with front- and end-unit:

 

 

[wtcc5 5885]

Topdeck added 

 

The left battery brace was changed. A carbon-aluminum-brace was added to the carbon-chassis-set, to be correct, as the plastic version is still there:

I guess it is there to allow all the different cable exit versions of the different manufacturers.

 

This time, I didn't make the wheels and tires first...

 

With tire stickers:

 

One hop-up part, that drastically changes the look, is the tuning bumper and mount (53145). Unfortunately this part is one of the most hard to get. So I drew one in CAD some months ago. At that time I printed three and have one unused left. I took it for this build. Together with the tires the chassis looks like this now:

 

 

 

[GermanTA03Guy 1374]

Sweet

Unfortunately those beautiful rims will turn yellowish over the years. That is why I recommend always painting the white plastics. 

[wtcc5 5885]

Next on the list: The body 

Cut and sanded:

 

Painted:

 

Finished:

 

[GermanTA03Guy 1374]

Looks great! Was the windscreen wiper included? Are you gonna run it? 

[wtcc5 5885]

@GermanTA03Guy: Thanks! Yes and: I hope so. But it will depend on my friends. If they run theirs, I will too.

[wtcc5 5885]

Still some things missing for a proper TA-02 tuning chassis. For example the rear anti-roll-bar. A very hard to get item nowadays. And a strange design of Tamiya.

I copied the design of the mount and let the 3d-printer do its job:

 

Then I got all the hardware together...

 

... bend the spring steel wire, assembled the units...

 

... and attached them to the chassis:

 

On the left the original and on the right my "version":

 

[svenb 4517]

Very neat👍

[wtcc5 5885]

As you maybe saw in my previous post, I already have installed suspension pins:

 

I also installed the electronic components. Both esc and servo taken from an FF-01, that was sponsored by my good friend Michael Koos (thanks!!!).

In the first step, the servo was cleaned and got an high torque servo saver:

 

Before I installed it, the cable was shortened by a reasonable amount.

 

The esc got a similar treatment. Cleaning and shortened cables. Unfortunately the rx cables were not reachable, so I couldn't shorten them, like I wanted...