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TA-02 Rally Conversion

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As detailed below, I've been messing around with a TA02 Calbre as a Rally car:

I bought mine as a used car with a few useful hop ups and a 4000kv Max10 combo. Otherwise, it was built up as stock and had previously been run very fast on road (4000kv, largest possible pinion).

Out of the box I made some changes:

1. Lengthened shocks by removing the large internal (V3) spacer and replacing the smaller V1 spacer with a silicon o-ring. I also replaced the stock oil with 800cst as it was comicaly underdamped. Still ran stock springs but used pre-load spacers to fill the gap.

2. Replaced pinion with smallest option.

 

Immediately much better. Still a bit underdamped but great fun on road and brilliant for sweeping power slides. Issues remaining though:

1. Dreadful understeer on power and loads of oversteer off power.

2. Still bouncy on rough terrain.

3. The TA02 chassis features suspension that really changes the camber as you compress (becomes increasingly negative). As a result, lengthening the shocks has left it with positive camber at full extension.

4. Possibly as a result of the longer suspension but it now has loads of bump steer so it gets very skittish on bumpy ground at high speed.

5. Lots of caster angle (as was typical back when th TA02 came out)

 

Fixes in no particular order:

1. Replaced hub carriers with ones from a TL01. You can use these to cancel the caster angle. Requires quite a bit of filing and fiddling to get them on but they do work. Pretty much neutral caster angle now. This has helped with understeer. Fairly cheap mod too.

2. Made up some upper links for the front suspension with M3 threaded rod and some old eyelets. I was able to set these up a bit shorter than the stock ones to get neutral Camber at full droop. Again, has helped with understeer.

3. Added spacers underneath the steering tie rods at the hub to get the steering rods to sit at the same angle as the lower arms. Totally fixes bump steer!

4. 'Balanced' the chassis by adding some lead weight up front (over the front bumper). The result is neutral chassis balance. Another big improvement in understeer.

5. Increased shock oil weight to 1200cst front and 1500cst rear. Much better damping, doesn't keep boumcing around after jumps. Might even go higher.

 

End result is a TA02 with really neutral handling (no excessive under or over steer). No sudden changes of direction over bumps (from bump steer). Really plush suspension. It can be run full speed over cobbled surfaces without being thrown everywhere. Just much more predictable overall.

Maybe not quite an XV02 but a huge improvement over stock and only required buying the TL01 hub carriers. The rest was built through odds and sods from the spares box. To be honest, the TL01 hub carriers may not even be needed if you do the rest of the mods.

Really enjoyed this mini project and I think I've learned quite a bit about what affects chassis behaviour for these wee cars.

 

 

 

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Great work!  I love how you've investigated all the little issues and put them right, one by one.  Thanks for sharing.

This is the kind of thing where I realise a car is driving terribly but put I just it all down to my appalling driving skills and move on.

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Thanks. Whole project was borne out of racing against my mates XV02. His was sooo much easier to drive.

Given the similarities in the chassis (mid motor, shaft drive, similar suspension travel) I wanted to figure out how close I could get the TA02 in terms of handling.

Totally recommed these changes to anyone wanting to run a TA02 on anything other than smooth tarmac. There's a great Rally chassis in there.

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Few pics that hopefully show the mods.

Whole chassis including bumper and lead:

KVHnAlz.png?1

 

Upper links and TL01 hub carrier:

78xYBrH.png

vxsZu5C.png

 

Spacer below steering arm to bring steering tie parallel with lower suspension arm:

qNvO9D0.png?1

 

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I found my ta02 a surprisingly good rally car too. Have you got the shock sprues from the kit? If you are up af those oil weights, maybe worth swapping in pistons with fewer holes. I used the 1 hole in mine and didn't need crazy thick I'll to calm it down. 

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1 hour ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

I found my ta02 a surprisingly good rally car too. Have you got the shock sprues from the kit? If you are up af those oil weights, maybe worth swapping in pistons with fewer holes. I used the 1 hole in mine and didn't need crazy thick I'll to calm it down. 

That's a good shout. I gave it a bit of thought and then took the lazy option of thicker oil since I had some handy :) 

If I want to go up a grade again though I might swap out my pistons as you say.

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vxsZu5C.png

I placed a shim on the m3 stepped screw, which goes through the steering arm, to reduces wobble/play.

Same diameter as the raised plastic portion on the steering arm.

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