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Thoughts on TT-02

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I have 12 TT cars on my fleet, out of which 7 are TT-02 and 5 TT-01E. Lots of great comments above. Adding some other thoughts:

  • The main point of the TT-02 is to be low cost and tough. Once you realize this you will drive the car without fear of damage, as long as you are reasonable (no jumping above the house roof). You will run the car more freely and often, be a bit more daring with your maneuvering, which is what a great runner is all about.
  • Comparing a TT-02 touring car to a TT-02B, I would say the TT-02B is a better all-round basher. A TT-02 tourer, however, IMHO looks better as a scale runner and racer.
  • Advantages of the TT-01E over the TT-02:
    • Steering is supported by plastic bushings out-of-the box, which can be easily replaced by ball-bearings.
    • Rear toe uprights are available in plastic, which makes them very affordable.
    • Metal differential gears (can be used with the TT-02, just get parts 51004 and 2x 51008 and you are all set)
  • Advantages of the TT-02 over the TT-01E:
    • Ability to build high or low ground clearance out-of-the box without having to cut any plastic.
    • Much, much, much easier to work with. The front & rear differentials are very easy to access, while in the TT-01 it is extremely fiddly (they open towards the front, you literally need to work on zero-g environment or have 4 hands).
    • Ability to mount standard spurs (with the high-speed gear set hop-up) allows flexibility on gear ratios, without being locked to chassis-specific parts as in the TT-01E spurs.
    • A bit stronger damper stays compared to the TT-01E.
    • Available official chassis cover.
  • Both are wonderful stock 4WD, or converter to RWD or FWD.

Which TT-02 kit to get?

  • Don't consider the Frist-Try kit, it's terrible value. It costs about the same as a regular kit and it doesn't even come with a body.
  • TT-02 kit is perfectly fine to start with, especially if it has a body you like. Make sure you get the 4 main (that's right 4, not 3) upgrades: bearings, steel (or HC Al.) pinion, shocks and tire sponges/inserts. Note that once you add the main upgrades, the cost will be higher than a TT-02D. It all depends on the body preference.
  • TT-02D kit is an even better place to start. They come with a body, bearings, CVA shocks sport-tuned motor, heatsink. Drift instead of regular tires are included though, and you still need a steel pinion + tire inserts. Most of the offerings are bodies from Japanese manufacturers.
  • TT-02D chassis kit (without body). A good place to start if the price is right.
  • TT-02R is perhaps the best place to start if you want a car to run more precisely (e.g. hotlapping, etc). It includes many hop-ups that are worth the price. The only two I would add, to maximize its "budget" racer potential is the adjustable upper arms and hard deck.
  • TT-02RR, S, SR, SRX I don't own but looking at the price, I would perhaps buy something better, such as an XV or TB chassis (or TA if running on cleaner areas) at the same price range.

For some info on how some of these cars run, you can check my hotlapping thread:

Hotlap Ranking - Tamiya Chassis - General discussions - Tamiyaclub.com

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10 minutes ago, OoALEJOoO said:

I have 12 TT cars on my fleet, out of which 7 are TT-02 and 5 TT-01E. Lots of great comments above. Adding some other thoughts:

  • The main point of the TT-02 is to be low cost and tough. Once you realize this you will drive the car without fear of damage, as long as you are reasonable (no jumping above the house roof). You will run the car more freely and often, be a bit more daring with your maneuvering, which is what a great runner is all about.
  • Comparing a TT-02 touring car to a TT-02B, I would say the TT-02B is a better all-round basher. A TT-02 tourer, however, IMHO looks better as a scale runner and racer.
  • Advantages of the TT-01E over the TT-02:
    • Steering is supported by plastic bushings out-of-the box, which can be easily replaced by ball-bearings.
    • Rear toe uprights are available in plastic, which makes them very affordable.
    • Metal differential gears (can be used with the TT-02, just get parts 51004 and 2x 51008 and you are all set)
  • Advantages of the TT-02 over the TT-01E:
    • Ability to build high or low ground clearance out-of-the box without having to cut any plastic.
    • Much, much, much easier to work with. The front & rear differentials are very easy to access, while in the TT-01 it is extremely fiddly (they open towards the front, you literally need to work on zero-g environment or have 4 hands).
    • Ability to mount standard spurs (with the high-speed gear set hop-up) allows flexibility on gear ratios, without being locked to chassis-specific parts as in the TT-01E spurs.
    • A bit stronger damper stays compared to the TT-01E.
    • Available official chassis cover.
  • Both are wonderful stock 4WD, or converter to RWD or FWD.

Which TT-02 kit to get?

  • Don't consider the Frist-Try kit, it's terrible value. It costs about the same as a regular kit and it doesn't even come with a body.
  • TT-02 kit is perfectly fine to start with, especially if it has a body you like. Make sure you get the 4 main (that's right 4, not 3) upgrades: bearings, steel (or HC Al.), shocks and tire sponges/inserts. Note that once you add the main upgrades, the cost will be higher than a TT-02D. It all depends on the body preference.
  • TT-02D kit is an even better place to start. They come with a body, bearings, CVA shocks sport-tuned motor, heatsink. Drift instead of regular tires are included though, and you still need a steel pinion + tire inserts. Most of the offerings are bodies from Japanese manufacturers.
  • TT-02D chassis kit (without body). A good place to start if the price is right.
  • TT-02R is perhaps the best place to start if you want a car to run more precisely (e.g. hotlapping, etc). It includes many hop-ups that are worth the price. The only two I would add, to maximize its "budget" racer potential is the adjustable upper arms and hard deck.
  • TT-02RR, S, SR, SRX I don't own but looking at the price, I would perhaps buy something better, such as an XV or TB chassis (or TA if running on cleaner areas) at the same price range.

For some info on how some of these cars run, you can check my hotlapping thread:

Hotlap Ranking - Tamiya Chassis - General discussions - Tamiyaclub.com

That is very thorough information! That being said, I want tt-02r or s more than ever haha. S is about $15 more than R from tamico so.. hmm)

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6 hours ago, Juls1 said:

These particular C hubs tend to be flexy as, which is fine from a strength point of view but in high traction situations is one time when an alloy part is actually the best option. The carbon reinforced part is still flimsy and flexy. 

Interesting. Thanks. These are reinforced so a relatively stiff material but I can see from the shape how they might tend to flex. I suspect in my use case they'll be fine so long as they don't actually break. 

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9 hours ago, BuggyDad said:

Interesting. Thanks. These are reinforced so a relatively stiff material but I can see from the shape how they might tend to flex. I suspect in my use case they'll be fine so long as they don't actually break. 

Indeed. The flex has its advantages as well as disadvantages. What you lose in terms of precision, you gain in terms of resistance to damage. 

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On 2/7/2023 at 2:40 AM, OoALEJOoO said:

Don't consider the Frist-Try kit, it's terrible value. It costs about the same as a regular kit

Don't used to be the case, at least over on Amazon UK. They used to cost £70 compared to over £100 for a normal kit. It was on my shortlist until the price just kept going up.

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8 hours ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

I don't like them. I really don't like the TT02 cars.

How come? The Audi rally car is on my "maybe" list, curious to hear your take.

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A TT-02B was my next in line choice for my first Tamiya kit, I ended up with deciding on the DT-03 end though.  So I'd say from rookie's point of view, they are very appealing.  The fact they have, what seems like, a near endless list of Hop options also stands out.

The petrolhead/rally nut and the Flat 4 rumble worshipper in me does fancy a WRC Impreza though.....   I'm sure that'll be on my list soon enough!  

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I used to sneer at the TT02  - thinking it was for anyone without the enthusiasm / talent / money to even bother looking around 

Then I actually built one - a First Try kit / with my 9 year old daughter 

Fully agree with comments above re that kit being terrible value but the chassis is an absolute joy to put together and more than capable for younger hands

That made me buy (then hop up) a Ford Mustang - which I’ll admit was a little boring second time around but it produced capability that amazed me / albeit at a cost taking the outcome into better chassis delivering more  

In short, the TT02 offers superb, entry level engineering - which can be gradually hopped up to deliver performance as talent improves over time 

It’s also a money pit for the unwary - with better chassis delivering more / cheaper at a pivot point that could be easily missed …

My verdict - Tamiya likely knew both when designing the TT02 as an epic money spinner ! 😂

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3 hours ago, Kowalski86 said:

How come? The Audi rally car is on my "maybe" list, curious to hear your take.

They need quite a lot done just to make them reliable, and spending money on them is a waste when they'll never be as good as a TA07 or TB05.

The TT02B isn't bad out of the box, but the rear diff issue and low ride height are problems. You can fix the diff at the expense of making it slower, but the ride height isn't easy to fix. A rerelease buggy is a much better proposition since they just work

My son raced a TT02 in a spec class and they had to allow front universals because so many people would lose dogbones in a relatively minor crash. It was designed as an entry level class so the drivers were all new. The universals fixed the issue but cost about $50 which is a lot compared to the kit price.

The kits are actually good value when you look at what they come with (body, wheels/tyres, esc, motor) but that means the chassis is incredibly cheap which probably explains why it needs a lot of work.

All 3 of mine got ruined in the recent flood and if I get the option to swap them out for something else then I will. I may get 1 TT02B as a loaner as they are made of rubber so just bounce off stuff, but a TB05 will replace the spec racer as they have opened that class up to any shaft drive tub chassis.

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3 hours ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

They need quite a lot done just to make them reliable, and spending money on them is a waste when they'll never be as good as a TA07 or TB05.

The TT02B isn't bad out of the box, but the rear diff issue and low ride height are problems. You can fix the diff at the expense of making it slower, but the ride height isn't easy to fix. A rerelease buggy is a much better proposition since they just work

My son raced a TT02 in a spec class and they had to allow front universals because so many people would lose dogbones in a relatively minor crash. It was designed as an entry level class so the drivers were all new. The universals fixed the issue but cost about $50 which is a lot compared to the kit price.

The kits are actually good value when you look at what they come with (body, wheels/tyres, esc, motor) but that means the chassis is incredibly cheap which probably explains why it needs a lot of work.

All 3 of mine got ruined in the recent flood and if I get the option to swap them out for something else then I will. I may get 1 TT02B as a loaner as they are made of rubber so just bounce off stuff, but a TB05 will replace the spec racer as they have opened that class up to any shaft drive tub chassis.

I'm sorry to hear that flood got your area, thank you for the in depth response.

The TT-02B seems to follow the trend for modern 4wd buggys to sit low to the ground, which is fine for racing on clay but not great for more casual off-roading.

The dogbone issue...that's one of the big reasons that I've been on the fence about the TT-02, and the cost of first party hop ups. From my understanding it's a robust touring car chassis otherwise for just playing about at the park.

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On 2/10/2023 at 1:12 PM, Jonathon Gillham said:

They need quite a lot done just to make them reliable, and spending money on them is a waste when they'll never be as good as a TA07 or TB05.

The TT02B isn't bad out of the box, but the rear diff issue and low ride height are problems. You can fix the diff at the expense of making it slower, but the ride height isn't easy to fix. A rerelease buggy is a much better proposition since they just work

My son raced a TT02 in a spec class and they had to allow front universals because so many people would lose dogbones in a relatively minor crash. It was designed as an entry level class so the drivers were all new. The universals fixed the issue but cost about $50 which is a lot compared to the kit price.

The kits are actually good value when you look at what they come with (body, wheels/tyres, esc, motor) but that means the chassis is incredibly cheap which probably explains why it needs a lot of work.

All 3 of mine got ruined in the recent flood and if I get the option to swap them out for something else then I will. I may get 1 TT02B as a loaner as they are made of rubber so just bounce off stuff, but a TB05 will replace the spec racer as they have opened that class up to any shaft drive tub chassis.

You really hit the nail on the head. Performance-wise, anything a TT chassis can do can be done better and cheaper by a TA, TB, or XV chassis. If you are looking for a performance chassis, start with a performance chassis.

TT chassis are perfect for relatively stock running with beautiful stock body sets. They’re a lot of fun to experiment with, too. As long as you aren’t trying to run a mule at Preakness and stay within the moderate design envelope, they’re pretty OK.

The buggies are somehow so boring to me that I’ve never considered one, though. The DF-03 is so much more interesting and not much more expensive, and this new TT-02B costs as much as the new TD4, which, while ugly, is a great buggy to build and drive. 

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To me, the TT-02 is what you make of it. The core chassis tub is no better or worse than the majority of plastic chassis with which it shares the same layout. How well it performs depends entirely on what you bolt onto it. Fit it with basic TT-01 type suspension and it performs like a TT-01. Fit it with Type S suspension as fitted to the TB-03 and it performs like a TB-03.

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Considering what I want to do with it, it seems to be the perfect choice for me and it will need very little in terms of mods for it to do what I want it to do. I think I made the correct choice and the body is fantastic. 

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On 2/5/2023 at 10:35 AM, Sogogi said:

It was first for me to hear about TT-02 platform as soon as I got back to hobby 4months ago. Only thing I knew close tt-02 was tt-01.

Initially TT-02 looked pretty cheap compared to other budget tamiya kits and felt like catch all type of chassis (which i think it is designed to be flexible (02B, 02T, 02D etc) so I didn’t really look at tt-02 as my next purchase.

After going through typical(?) models (lunchbox, hornet, etc) and seeing lots if posts and vids about tt-02, I decided to try out TT-02B. Without a hesitation, I had to order bunch of hopups for it (never spent this much money on hopups before lol).

Once I have everything ready, I built it. Build process was very straight forward, and liked the fact that differentials are very easy to access.

Took it out for a quick test run. Wow it actually handles nicely for what it is. That made me want to try other variant which ended up getting subaru impreza for rally. 

ordered more hopups (but much less than What i did for tt-02b). Went through very similar building process.

wow, this one handled very nice too.

That got me thinking… I want to try out type s.. and other variants…

 

TLDR: I am hooked on TT-02…… haha

 

6CC182AD-3C52-4FFC-B700-7201FC82A425.jpeg

BB9226F4-742F-4ADD-8379-4127FDD6A9AB.jpeg

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Are those the gold springs on the aluminum dampers in the picture of your TT02b?.  Looks good so far.  I played with those dampers to death.  in the end I built them per manual except I put zero internal spacers in the front dampers and only 2 in the rear. The instructions call for 3 in the front and 4 in the rear.  I was getting major chassis slap even jumping off a curb and with that many internal spacers it was really bouncy.  Going with the 0-F/2-R spacers allows the shocks to be longer and takes full advantage of the suspension arms.  I set the front adjuster on the spring so that it is snug to the spring.  in the rear I simply adjusted them so that the rear arms are level (after a slight drop test).  it worked out great!  I would only recommend getting some DF03 wheels and some dual blocks to get additional height (just like the unreleased tt02br).  It can now handle a 1 foot drop test no problem without bottoming out. The stock tires kinda flatten out over weight and completely flatten out with a small jump.  the dual block tires have foams and do not do this which is huge.  in the beginning I hated my tt02b because it easily bottomed out.  all are fixed with DF03 dampers and dual block tires.

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3 hours ago, Cephas said:

Nearly finished mine 😀

6DF8BDD1-4FED-4C7B-9EE2-2BCE3ECBE632.jpeg

FAA906FF-084C-4DC8-A667-7E2CE35D238D.jpeg

 Nice carbon brace! Which one is it?

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On 2/7/2023 at 12:28 AM, Juls1 said:

But if you want a rally car. Buy a Xv. It’s a different league, easily worth the $$$

No argument there but tt-02 rally is a blast so don't overlook it.

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Also bear in mind that if you are going to be using it competitively, RC rally events typically involve chasing after your car as you drive it around the course. People manage to be competitive with a wide range of chassis, because the limiting factor is typically not how fast you can drive, but how fast you can run. 😁

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On 2/13/2023 at 9:14 AM, danimaldaisy said:

Are those the gold springs on the aluminum dampers in the picture of your TT02b?.  Looks good so far.  I played with those dampers to death.  in the end I built them per manual except I put zero internal spacers in the front dampers and only 2 in the rear. The instructions call for 3 in the front and 4 in the rear.  I was getting major chassis slap even jumping off a curb and with that many internal spacers it was really bouncy.  Going with the 0-F/2-R spacers allows the shocks to be longer and takes full advantage of the suspension arms.  I set the front adjuster on the spring so that it is snug to the spring.  in the rear I simply adjusted them so that the rear arms are level (after a slight drop test).  it worked out great!  I would only recommend getting some DF03 wheels and some dual blocks to get additional height (just like the unreleased tt02br).  It can now handle a 1 foot drop test no problem without bottoming out. The stock tires kinda flatten out over weight and completely flatten out with a small jump.  the dual block tires have foams and do not do this which is huge.  in the beginning I hated my tt02b because it easily bottomed out.  all are fixed with DF03 dampers and dual block tires.

Those are stock springs that came with tamiya aluminum damper.(probably white balance is not the best) I agree on the fact that it bottoming out… i took it to a local track and handled great except body slap most of the time after jumps… I also use dual blocks and really like them. Stock ones.. i will use it for just regular bashing. I will have to try out your suggestions on alloy dampers. 

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16 minutes ago, TurnipJF said:

Also bear in mind that if you are going to be using it competitively, RC rally events typically involve chasing after your car as you drive it around the course. People manage to be competitive with a wide range of chassis, because the limiting factor is typically not how fast you can drive, but how fast you can run. 😁

I don’t know if it just me, but i get thrilled if i can keep up with other fancy cars. (If you are at a really big championship, every drop of performance matter, but for me, just having fun at the local track (or just rallying around the town) try to catch some other folks. 

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The brace is Carson, from Tamico, had to order enough so they would ship to UK. Got away with tax and import tho 😀

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