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Best Tamiya for indoor buggy carpet racing?

clobbo

By clobbo
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clobbo Contributor

clobbo

Posted
Posted

I saw the other thread, but that's all for onroad/pavement cars..

My local shopping mall has a carpet track with jumps and vertical wall turns for people to drive their offroad buggies and stadium trucks.  I dropped by last weekend and saw a couple of people driving assorted 4wd buggies - Associated, Kyosho, but not a lot of Tamiya.  Is there a particular car that would take indoor carpet racing well, that's both economical to purchase, maintain, and is relatively durable?

As much as I love my Optima, I built it with the intention of putting it on a shelf, not running it.. so I'm starting to think about which car I want to build..  would an Egress re-re or a Top Force Evo re-re be good, or are they quite fragile?

Thanks!

GTodd Newbie Copy

GTodd

Posted
Posted

NEW EVO and New Egress are not fragile as the plastics are new. 10 years from now, sure. Right now, no. Both would be fun. EVO would be more competitive DBO1 would be the best and is still modern enough to fight for wins at the club level.

Kowalski86 Newbie Copy

Kowalski86

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, clobbo said:

 

 I dropped by last weekend and saw a couple of people driving assorted 4wd buggies - Associated, Kyosho, but not a lot of Tamiya.  Is there a particular car that would take indoor carpet racing well, that's both economical to purchase, maintain, and is relatively durable?

 

You could run a TT-02B on the track for fun, but I can't think of any current, competitive Tamiya buggys. You should ask the guys at the track what a good pick would be.

  • Like 1
nockiboo Apprentice

nockiboo

Posted
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I would suggest you go onsite to the club and see what people are using and determine what is best. In North America, a lot of carpet racers use Team Associated because of build, parts and durability. Not sure if Tamiya has anything that compares to these modern buggies.

  • Like 2
clobbo Contributor

clobbo

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Yeah, thanks.. a lot of them are running a healthy mix of Kyosho Optima Mid re-releases, Xray XB2's but the majority run Associated.  I was thinking of Tamiya as they're under-represented but you're right - there's probably a good reason behind that.  The DB01 mentioned way up is pretty much rare in these parts.  Looks like it'll be either Optima Mid or an Associated 2wd buggy.

Thanks!

  • Like 1
BuggyDad Newbie Copy

BuggyDad

Posted
Posted

I'm no racer and I have no idea about carpet but would TD2/4 be an option? Tamiya's current (as opposed to rerelease) buggy line, meant to be OK as racers and classic Tamiya craziness in some areas of design. TD4 is especially good value at the moment. 

Jonathon Gillham Newbie Copy

Jonathon Gillham

Posted
Posted
20 minutes ago, BuggyDad said:

I'm no racer and I have no idea about carpet but would TD2/4 be an option? Tamiya's current (as opposed to rerelease) buggy line, meant to be OK as racers and classic Tamiya craziness in some areas of design. TD4 is especially good value at the moment. 

I always forget about those. They would work well, with the caveat that you'd need to be experienced to set it up to work properly. There won't be any parts or setup support at the vast majority of places, but I think people on here have them running successfully

Unfortunately the answer to this question always comes back to running something else, and starting out its best to run what the majority run so you can get help (and you can often buy secondhand from someone there).

  • Like 3
bRIBEGuy Newbie Copy

bRIBEGuy

Posted
Posted
16 hours ago, clobbo said:

My local shopping mall has a carpet track with jumps and vertical wall turns for people to drive their offroad buggies and stadium trucks.  I dropped by last weekend and saw a couple of people driving assorted 4wd buggies - Associated, Kyosho, but not a lot of Tamiya.  Is there a particular car that would take indoor carpet racing well, that's both economical to purchase, maintain, and is relatively durable?

As much as I love my Optima, I built it with the intention of putting it on a shelf, not running it.. so I'm starting to think about which car I want to build..  would an Egress re-re or a Top Force Evo re-re be good, or are they quite fragile?

Your MALL has an RC car track!?!?!?  How has no one commented on THAT!?!?  :blink:  Awesome!!!

From my own personal experience, the answer to your question needs to start with an HONEST conversation with yourself..... and that is about what you want to get out of racing at a track.

  1. Are you after casual fun, don't care about results, like tinkering, want to be that one weird individual, and are okay with replacing a lot of broken parts?  Go Tamiya!!!
  2. Do you want to have a great performing car that doesn't break when you look at it funny?  Want to learn from the setups of others?  Have more fun with less effort?  Run what others run!  There is a reason why Associated/Xray are so popular...

 

7 hours ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

Unfortunately the answer to this question always comes back to running something else, and starting out its best to run what the majority run so you can get help (and you can often buy secondhand from someone there).

^^^ See, there ya go!

Don't get me wrong... I LOVE Tamiya.... but they turned their backs on racing a LONG time ago, and while they make great cars, they are not focused on competitive track driving.  Sure, there is a lot of chatter that you can use the TD2/4 on a track (and you can), but if you want a true glimpse into their pedigree, you need to remember that those kits include plastic "rocket-style" exhaust pipes to bolt to the back.  :lol:

The last "track worthy" cars that Tamiya released were probably the DB01/02 cars, and you must remember that while good at the time... they were outmatched back then too (and "back then" was a release date of 10-17 years ago).  I still have my DB01 from my carpet racing days, and while it ran GREAT once I figured out the setup, it certainly couldn't hold a candle to a "real" racing buggy.

If you want to just drive around  a track and have a bit of fun... any buggy will work.  Egress is cool... but expensive and fragile.  Also based on a design that is more than 35 years old.  Top Force Evo is cool... but expensive and still 32 years old.  The TD4 would likely out drive either of those in terms of performance, durability, and tune-ability.  Plus it has rocket pipes so it could be faster too... ;)

  • Like 3
Sogogi Veteran

Sogogi

Posted
Posted

I know the simple answer…. Tamiya to bring out their new trf buggy.

But as a Tamiya enthusiast, i would try td2/4 if i were in that situation. 
 

markbt73 Newbie Copy

markbt73

Posted
Posted

If it were me, I'd get one (or two) of the Comical buggies, go there during an open practice session, and just have a ball with something that looks cool and isn't fast enough to break anything. If others see how much fun you're having, they might get their own and join in. Maybe even start a racing class for them.

You can follow what everyone else does, or you can pretend you don't see what they're doing and just do your own thing. I know which one I prefer.

  • Like 3
Honza Mentor

Honza

Posted
Posted

DB-01 or TD-4. Even those might experience some drive line issues on the carpet due to high grip, I'd definitely run them with a slipper. TRF buggy would be the best, but probably unobtainable.

  • Like 1
Elbowloh Mentor

Elbowloh

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Honza said:

DB-01 or TD-4. Even those might experience some drive line issues on the carpet due to high grip, I'd definitely run them with a slipper. TRF buggy would be the best, but probably unobtainable.

DB01 slipper is very hard to get, the TD4 is fine to find.

Juls1 Veteran

Juls1

Posted
Posted

Td2 and td4 would be fine, they are by far the best options in the current fleet if you “must” run tamiya. 
 

obviously any associated/xray/losi etc is the status qou, they are all very very similar cars get what has the best local support if you want to go down that road.

I can speak from experience running a tamiya amongst a group of everything else is quite satisfying, these days im running trf211xm and DB01/DB02 (off road clay) (also run xray scx) but you do need deep pockets and be your own hobby store. You could pickup a barely used Db01 on buyee with probably all the hopups for the cost of a modern race buggy. But if your going to run tamiya you need to be doing it because it feels right. It won’t by any means be the best value for money option and you’ll need to be prepared to source your parts overseas and not be a freight cheapskate.
 

Race kits these days are dirt cheap really from the big brands, but they have no soul. 

  • Like 2
Sogogi Veteran

Sogogi

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, Elbowloh said:

DB01 slipper is very hard to get, the TD4 is fine to find.

I wish tamiya makes bit more universal design take on their slipper clutches…. 

Elbowloh Mentor

Elbowloh

Posted
Posted
25 minutes ago, Sogogi said:

I wish tamiya makes bit more universal design take on their slipper clutches…. 

For sure. I want/need both a DB01 and a DF03. Especially ridiculous for the DF03 as the Dark Impact is still on sale.

  • Like 1
moffman Newbie Copy

moffman

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Posted

I’m going to be like all the other comments it has to be the db01 brilliant chassis and can handle brushless no problem and a good base to modify to your personal preference/style of racing Achilles heel is because it’s not a current model parts can be a bit harder to source:)

IMG_0343.jpeg

  • Like 2
Wooders28 Newbie Copy

Wooders28

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, Sogogi said:

How come that is possible?

Can only presume, there's enough demand from backorders, that it's worth doing a production run.

Although it's a 2006 chassis, it still works well , with the rear diff mod and slipper, you can run modern low turn brushless etc, and respectively get around a track.

Wooders28 Newbie Copy

Wooders28

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Elbowloh said:

Sites have been saying its available soon for a year at least though.

Rumours are seemingly ,the production date is to be March, but aye, been flipped between , available soon and no stock for a good while.

qatmix Newbie Copy

qatmix

Posted
Posted

Most racing is 2WD for buggy indoor. The Tamiya TD2 is surprisingly capable.
 

A friend who is a very good buggy racer  but drives another brand  (But is a Tamiya fan). Picked up a TD2 astute for something to drive in the garden.. built it stock, took it to his regular mid week club for a laugh and won the B final. (Note it went down to a E or F final).The only thing that wasn’t kit was the tyres. 
 

He was a bit stunned. He’s ordered a few hop-ups for it and is keen to give it another outing once they arrive.

 

He is a good driver and skill and tyres are 90% of any good race performance, however it has shown that it is at least a race worthy chassis.

  • Like 4

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