Two Tier TT-02 Times Two

[one_hit 1046]

Great thread, love the idea of comparing aftermarket to Tamiya hop ups side by side. With the slop in the aftermarket steering set, maybe you can use some strips of aluminum tape to tighten up the fit of the bearings. I had to do the same on the aftermarket aluminum uprights in my XV-01 because the bearing fitment was so loose. I’m curious if there’s any slop too on those tie rods with the flanged setup. Might be a good idea to switch to ball and cup if there is any slop.

 

[Nick-W 1494]

19 hours ago, one_hit said:

Great thread, love the idea of comparing aftermarket to Tamiya hop ups side by side. With the slop in the aftermarket steering set, maybe you can use some strips of aluminum tape to tighten up the fit of the bearings. I had to do the same on the aftermarket aluminum uprights in my XV-01 because the bearing fitment was so loose. I’m curious if there’s any slop too on those tie rods with the flanged setup. Might be a good idea to switch to ball and cup if there is any slop.

 

That’s a good call on the bearings, if I keep the set after the build is complete I’ll do that. The tie rods are really loose, they don’t sit properly at all. 

[Nick-W 1494]

The time has come. The final is upon us. The tinkering is complete. Head-to-head. Bumper-to-bumper Two cars enter, one car leaves… umm… perhaps a bit too far there.

 

Just two weeks after my last update the RC gods smiled upon me and presented the perfect Sunday afternoon for a run. The cars were loaded up and whisked away to the Saffron ****** Tesco Race Way.

 

 

Using a quite corner of the carpark I decided upon a rough course around the island and figure of eighting between the arrow markings on one side. I set up my phone to against a curb to act as a time trap. I would run both cars and check back on the video to work out the best lap times.

 

The stage was set and the Porsche approached the start line. I got a few laps in before everything went wrong. I hit the curb firmly towards the end of my forth lap and on the fifth lap the car was completely uncontrollable, spinning at every turn. I brought her in to the pits (the roof of my Mazda) to find I’d lost a front dog bone, after a few minutes of searching I found the bits but hadn’t brought an tools out with me so, sadly, that was the end of the RSRs season. Looking back at the video my fastest lap came in at 16 seconds, but I was wildly inconsistent, and the other times were in the 18 to 20 second range.

 

 

The mighty ford was next to the grid. My thinking was I would give it a fighting chance by getting my eye in with the other car first. I was much more consistent this time round and put down six laps before turning off the video. Checking the footage back my fastest lap was 17 seconds with all but one of the other laps coming in at 18 or 19 seconds.

 

So, there we have it. A winner is crowned. The Porsche and its Tamiya branded Hop-Ups have emerged victorious, but it was far closer than I expected. As the two cars stand the RSR is the better set up of the two, but I think my novice driving is perhaps slightly flattered by the longer wheelbase of the Ford. Maybe its rear wing makes a little difference too because even before losing the dogbone I was prone to oversteering the Porsche and getting out of shape in a way that just didn’t happen in the GT.

 

Final Stats

 

Winner

58571 Tamiya TT-02 Porsche RSR £140.00

54476 Tamiya TT-02 Ball Bearing Set £22.95

54753 Tamiya Super Mini CVAs £25.64

54501 Tamiya TT-02 Aluminum Propeller Shaft £7.50

54502 Tamiya TT-02 Aluminum Propeller Joint £8.00

54752 Tamiya TT-02 Steering Upgrade Parts £44.00

Total: £248.09 (Blimey!)

 

Second Place

58689 Tamiya TT-02 2020 Ford GT mk.2 £140.00

Race Pace Sealed Bearing KIT TT-02 £8.45

Motovio RC Aluminium Friction Shocks £12.99

Unnamed TT-02 Aluminium Prop Shaft and Cups £8.50

Unnamed (Fastrax?) TT-02 Bearing Crank Steering Set £24.00

Total: £193.94 (also Blimey!)

 

 

There we have it; the science has been done and we can (sort of) conclude that Tamiya Hop-Ups are better than the aftermarket alternatives. Through spending a whole £54 pounds more I was able to go round a supermarket carpark a full second quicker! There’s nothing left to do but get in touch with Engineering Journal with my findings (I might be in time for Volume 27, Number 5) and fit the prize components to the winner… but wait… what’s this? A new challenger approaches…

 

 

[bavee 1032]

Loved reading this topic. Thanks for posting!

[Kowalski86 3033]

As expensive as Tamiya Hop ups are I'm glad to know that you're paying for both quality control AND the name.

[Kpowell911 1899]

18 hours ago, Kowalski86 said:

As expensive as Tamiya Hop ups are I'm glad to know that you're paying for both quality control AND the name.

The packaging is worth 20% IMO

Great thread! Looking forward to the SR!!

[Scottrc 232]

Great thread! Would you say the only worth while non Tamiya hop up would be the bearings? Really like what you’ve done with both shells they look great 

[Nick-W 1494]

2 hours ago, Scottrc said:

Great thread! Would you say the only worth while non Tamiya hop up would be the bearings? Really like what you’ve done with both shells they look great 

Thanks! Yep, of the upgrades I’ve used only the bearings have been better and they’re really good. I’m sure there are better options for the other parts but I really tried to go for the cheapest possible like for like alternatives. 

[Kowalski86 3033]

15 minutes ago, Nick-W said:

Thanks! Yep, of the upgrades I’ve used only the bearings have been better and they’re really good.

Out of curiosity, what makes aftermarket bearings better than Tamiyas?

[Twinfan 1252]

Rubber seals?  Much better for keeping dirt out.

I tend to either use full sets of rubber sealed bearings or metal shielded only inside gearboxes with rubber sealed anywhere exposed to the outside of the car.

[Nick-W 1494]

1 hour ago, Kowalski86 said:

Out of curiosity, what makes aftermarket bearings better than Tamiyas?

Seals and the price mainly. I didn’t notice any difference in resistance or running time. 
One odd thing I noticed when fitting the alloy prop was one of the Tamiya bearings had started to discolour. I couldn’t get a clear photo and I’m not sure if it is indicative of quality in any way. 

[Kowalski86 3033]

59 minutes ago, Twinfan said:

Rubber seals?  Much better for keeping dirt out.

I tend to either use full sets of rubber sealed bearings or metal shielded only inside gearboxes with rubber sealed anywhere exposed to the outside of the car.

Good point about rubber seals, is it worth re-building a model just to replace some of the metal bearings with rubber sealeds?

 

9 minutes ago, Nick-W said:

One odd thing I noticed when fitting the alloy prop was one of the Tamiya bearings had started to discolour. I couldn’t get a clear photo and I’m not sure if it is indicative of quality in any way. 

I don't think I've seen that before, save for maybe some discoloration in the ancient bearings I took out of my Frog.

[Twinfan 1252]

46 minutes ago, Kowalski86 said:

Good point about rubber seals, is it worth re-building a model just to replace some of the metal bearings with rubber sealeds?

I wouldn't bother, I'd use the car until they wear out  

[skom25 1245]

There is no need to use rubber sealed bearing in places where there is no lot of dirt.

If you are using car on road, probably outer hub bearings will be enough. 

Remember that rubber seals adds quite a lot of friction. In fact, most of bearings drag comes from seals.

[OoALEJOoO 3127]

@Nick-W Thanks for sharing your experience with the builds!

On 5/22/2023 at 2:34 AM, Nick-W said:

I set up my phone to against a curb to act as a time trap. I would run both cars and check back on the video to work out the best lap times.

 

There is a free program for phones that can trigger laptimes automatically through motion detection. I've been using it for some time and can recommend it wholeheartedly:

LapTrax - Advanced Lap Timer - Apps on Google Play

[Nick-W 1494]

7 hours ago, OoALEJOoO said:

There is a free program for phones that can trigger laptimes automatically through motion detection. I've been using it for some time and can recommend it wholeheartedly:

Fantastic. Thanks for the tip. That’ll come in really handy. 

[Nick-W 1494]

22 hours ago, Kowalski86 said:

Good point about rubber seals, is it worth re-building a model just to replace some of the metal bearings with rubber sealeds?

 

Like @Twinfan and @skom25 say I don’t tend to bother replacing the Tamiya bearings if they come in the kit, apart from the time I did with my TD2 but that was for the totally sane reason that the red seal matched the paint scheme.