Running all my cars

[TurnipJF]

Still feeling in the mood for a simple pod-and-swing-arm buggy, but one with a bit more pep to it than last night's Grasshopper, I chose this as my runner this evening:

 

DT-01 Mad Bull

This was initially intended as a general purpose basher to take on holiday, let the nephews drive, etc. However when I decided that I'd enter the Iconic Revival event a few years ago, I realised that this was old enough to qualify for one of the 2WD classes. I was already restoring a Manta Ray as my 4WD entry, so I set about prepping this for race use. The pogo sticks were replaced with cheap alloy oil shocks rebuilt with Tamiya seals, with thin oil in the back and none in the front, the fixed-length plastic track rods were replaced with adjustable metal items, slop was shimmed and standard buggy-size wheels and tyres were fitted along with a Sport Tuned motor and steel pinion. In this configuration it was a remarkably capable racer, jumping well, cornering cleanly and surviving when others had to pull out due to breakages. There were faster cars on the track, but by applying the maxim of "To finish first, first you have to finish", we ended up taking the gold.

Having proved itself on the race track, the buggy then went back to its normal life as a general-purpose basher, often as a running companion for "Gonzo" when my wife takes him to the park. On a grass surface, the combination of the grippy spiked tyres, the lightweight LiPo battery and the power of the Sport Tuned motor is enough to make it wheelie and flip over onto its back when accelerating hard from a standing start, earning it the nickname "Flipper". It has had a few shells over the years, with the current one depicting what I would think a Grasshopper III might look like if Tamiya were to release one.

This evening's run was on tarmac however, and it reminded me of how well this platform can perform with a few minor mods. It is undoubtedly Tamiya's best pod-and-swing-axle buggy chassis, still capable of delivering a satisfying and enjoyable drive even in this day and age. The RBP lap total it yielded would have been worthy of a double-wishbone independent suspension buggy.

 

[TurnipJF]

Thanks to a very slow commute home due to road closures, I only had time for a little run this evening, so I chose this little car:

 

M-01 Mini Cooper

Although the oldest M-chassis in my fleet, it is also my most recently acquired. I found it at an automotive jumble sale a couple of months ago for a good price, brought it home and restored the chassis but left the body pretty much as you see it, with some honest wear and tear, or "patina" as it seems to be called these days.

The chassis didn't seem to have been used much, but the suspension and body posts had been painted red, yellow and white with what I'd guess may have been Humbrol enamel. It had been done quite neatly, but wasn't to my taste so I removed it with denatured alcohol and returned the chassis to its natural black. I added some colour of my own though, in the form of Tamiya pink anodized aluminium dampers - a period hop-up according to the manual. (It also received bearings and a steel pinion of course.)

Although a simple design with very little adjustability in stock form, it is a perky and cheerful little thing to drive. The handling is not a major step back from the M-03 that followed it. One of these days, perhaps when I have finished the "Running all my cars" challenge, I should drive all my M-chassis cars in order of release date, and do a little write-up on how they have changed over the years. I don't know if anyone would find it interesting reading, but I think it would be fun to do. 😁

[Tamiyastef]

21 minutes ago, TurnipJF said:

anyone would find it interesting reading

Me 

[chris.alex]

7 minutes ago, Tamiyastef said:

Me 

Me too. 🙂

[Pylon80]

25 minutes ago, chris.alex said:

Me too. 🙂

Count me in as well 🍿

[Tamiyastef]

1 hour ago, TurnipJF said:

drive all my M-chassis cars

Do you have them all from M-01 to M-08 and the MB-01 and XM-01? 

[Andreas W]

Oh, yes. I would like to read your M-chassis writeup as well.

[TurnipJF]

7 hours ago, Tamiyastef said:

Do you have them all from M-01 to M-08 and the MB-01 and XM-01? 

Sadly I do not. I'm still missing the MB-01, XM-01 and M-02. 🙁

MB-01 is on my birthday wishlist though. 😀

[TurnipJF]

A fullsize one of these passed me on the way home from work today - same colour and everything - so I took it as fate's way of telling me that I should drive this next:

 

M-08 Mazda MX-5

SInce discovering the joys of RC F1s, I have become quite fond of RWD on-roaders in general, including the M-chassis variety. My first was an M-04, which you have seen in a previous post dressed as a Karmann Ghia. Then followed the M-06 which you have yet to meet, and then this little marvel - the M-08. A lovely little chassis, this is one of my favorite RBP rides, and has yielded several podiums over the course of the series.

I built it with a few carefully-selected hop-ups including the more robust M-07 front uprights, alloy lower arm mounts, carbon shock towers, alloy rear chassis brace with motor cooling fan as well as a few other bits. It is powered by a 13.5t motor which gives it a fair turn of speed, and rides on Tamiya S-grips at the rear and 60D radials at the front when on tarmac, and GQ Racing foams when on carpet.

RWD cars can be a bit of a handful, and this one is no exception. It spins out more easily than its FWD M-07 sibling, but if driven carefully it can be persuaded to go around a tight and twisty track remarkably quickly. It takes concentration though - I need to be in the right frame of mind for it. If I'm not, I can usually get more laps out of the tamer M-07, but on those occasions that I am feeling fresh and sharp, there are few things in my fleet that can touch this car on a RBP track.

This evening I was not feeling fresh or sharp after a hard day's work, so I didn't even attempt a timed RBP run. I just drove the circuit a few times, getting a feel for the car and enjoying the sight of it in motion. One doesn't always need to drive on the edge to have fun.  

[Andreas W]

You have inspired me,  so the M-08 is now in the trunk. I have fitted the ST motor with a 20t pinion, as I want to get a feel of how it would feel like when it's according to the M-chassis racing regulations here. 

[TurnipJF]

And now for something completely different - a happy tractor!

 

WR-02G Farm King

All of my Tamiyas are 1/10 scale, so I held back on adding a wheelie model to the fleet as most are smaller than 1/10 scale and would have looked out of place (to my eye at any rate). However when the Farm King came out, with its very clearly 1/10 scale driver figure to indicate scale, I decided that the time had at last come to acquire my first wheelie model. And what a hoot it is! I can see why models such as the Lunch Box, Wild Willy and Midnight Pumpkin have such a cult following. There is nothing even remotely serious about these models and their rambunctious handling, and even though they may seldom go exactly where you want them to, it is a fun journey nonetheless. 

Although there is nothing wrong with the standard livery, I have always liked JCBs, so my Farm King wears a JCB Fastrac livery. It isn't totally inappropriate for this model, as JCB built a full-size wheelie digger a while ago as a publicity stunt.

This evening's run with my little happy tractor was on grass, as I seldom run him on tarmac as he is quite tippy and I don't want to get his shell all scratched up. For vigorous stunt driving on tarmac he wears a modified Kamtec Morris Minor body, but I fancied seeing him as his jolly yellow self.

I was having so much fun driving him that I forgot to take a photo until right near the end, by which time there wasn't enough light to get a good one, so I hope you don't mind this post featuring an older shot of him in our back garden wearing his stock black exhausts. I'll try to get some shots of him with his current chrome exhausts over the next couple of days and pop them in the "Keep them stinkin' words to yerself" thread. 😁

[JimBear]

That's some happy farming right there. 

Very clever with the eyes and its joyous mouth. Brightens every dull day.

[MadAnt]

I saw the face of the happy tractor and chuckled. 

[Tamiyastef]

He's super cute 😍 What a jolly fellow 

[TurnipJF]

It was back to the buggy shelf for tonight's runner:

 

DT-02 Desert Gator

This buggy has been with me for a while, having been a surprise gift from my wonderful wife. We were making a rare visit to a genuine brick-and-mortar hobby shop, and they had an assortment of 2nd hand models on the counter for sale. Most were big, vulgar Traxxas truggies and similar, but hiding between them was this little gem. The shop owner clearly either had a very poor opinion of Tamiya models, or simply didn't know what he had, because the asking price was lunch-money low despite the buggy coming with some tasty alloy shocks, the proper Tamiya motor heatsink fins and disk, full rubber-sealed bearings and a steel pinion. My wife bought it for me on the spot, but did the deed so surreptitiously that I didn't notice what she'd done until she revealed her purchase a few days later on my birthday.

It was my first "modern" 2WD buggy with independent double-wishbone suspension - my only previous experience of Tamiya 2WD buggies at this point had been with my Hornet. I remember being blown away by how quickly it could change direction without rolling. I also remember being really taken with the low, wide stance and the curvaceous shape of the Desert Gator bodyshell. And to be honest, I haven't really changed my opinion - I still think this is one of Tamiya's best-looking buggies, and I still love the way it corners.

It has had a few different motors and ESCs over the years, having come with the stock silver can and TEU-101BK, then getting a 27t rebuildable stock motor, then a 17t LRP on an Mtroniks RV12, and finally the 13.5t sensored brushless motor and TBLE-02 ESC it has now. It has also had a couple of servos, having come with a basic Acoms, which was upgraded to a quicker basic Futaba, and now has a nice digital metal-geared waterproof Alturn doing steering duty. I also made a few other little changes, such as fitting turnbuckles in place of the standard adjustable links, replacing the vulnerable blue alloy ball studs with alloy ball nuts on sturdy steel grub screws, and giving it some blue alloy wheel nuts.

This evening's run started off with some random hooning to get used to the buggy again as it has been a while since I last drove it, followed by a few RBP attempts. For a 2WD buggy on stock tyres I think it did well, but it is not optimised for tarmac so it didn't achieve a stupendous lap count. I don't mind - I have cars that are better suited to tarmac, and this one is an absolute blast on grass.

 

[TurnipJF]

Double post - deleted

[chris.alex]

Oh, a DT02 Desert Gator and such a lovely one! I like the yellow springs.

The Desert Gator was my first rc car and the one that brought me into the hobby. I still own mine and it would be the last car I would give away. 

[TurnipJF]

Another blue car had a run today:

 

M-06 Renault Alpine A110

To my eye this is one of Tamiya's prettiest bodyshells, especially in this livery, so when it was released on the appropriately rear-motored RWD M-06 platform, it immediately made it onto my wishlist. The requisite hints were dropped to my wife, who passed them to Father Christmas, and one was waiting for me under the tree come Christmas day.

If built according to the instructions, the chassis is very low-slung, and hangs out below the bodyshell if one mounts it with a scale-appropriate amount of clearance between the wheels and arches. It is also too low for use on anything other than smooth tarmac or carpet - not really all that good for a rally car. An easy solution is to fit it with Mini CVA shocks instead of the Super Mini CVAs usually used on M-size chassis. These lift the chassis to a more rally-capable ride height, and also allow one to mount the body with the lower sill flush to the chassis bottom while preserving scale wheel-to-arch clearance.

I was initially hesitant to run the car at full pace with the increased ride height as I thought it would be prone to roll-overs, but I need not have worried. Even at this height, it is sure-footed and more likely to slide than roll if one over-cooks it into a corner. It can also turn really tightly, so can be used on those tight and twisty rally tracks where you run after your car instead of driving from a podium. (Not that I have ever raced it as such - I am at least 20 years and 20 kg past the point of running after a model car being a pleasant prospect. ) 

For running on a track with other cars, it wears a Kamtec "Hot Rod Beetle" shell that is easily and cheaply replaced, but when there isn't anything around to bump into and cause body damage, it wears its proper Alpine shell as seen in today's photo. WIth sure-footed handling, a tight turning circle and a fair bit of power from its 13.5t motor, it is a natural RBP runner, and tonight's run didn't disappoint. It isn't quite up there with the M-07 and M-08 in terms of lap count, but it isn't far off, and it don't half look good going around the track!

[Torhaantje]

On 6/18/2025 at 11:05 PM, Tamiyastef said:

anyone would find it interesting reading

+1

Rick

[TurnipJF]

This evening we have something from the FWD category:

 

FF-03 Honda Civic Type R

This is a rare sight - my FF-03 outdoors wearing its Civic Type R shell. Getting the decals right took ages, so I hardly ever run it with this shell for fear of damaging it. However those of you who are still coming back to read this thread after so many posts deserve to see it wearing a proper Tamiya shell rather than the generic frontie race blob it usually wears when running, so tonight, even though it is Monday, it had its outing wearing its Sunday best.

Like the venerable FF-01, the FF-03 is a front-motored FWD chassis. Unlike the FF-01, but like the TB-03, it uses inboard shocks and pushrod suspension at the front with a conventional setup at the back. It has loads of options for adjustability, and can be set up to suit most driving styles. I have it set up to favor high-speed stability over tight cornering prowess so it is at its best on long, flowing tracks, but can still be persuaded to go around the RBP circuit at a fair lick.

It shares many of its suspension parts with the TB-03, and I built it in the same style as my TB-03 - as a "sleeper" with all the carbon-reinforced parts that I could get for it, which look just like the stock parts unless you examine them closely. I even managed to find it a 54297 carbon-reinforced chassis tub. The shocks are Yeah Racing alloy ones, but in a muted gunmetal rather than the usual blue to make them blend in better. Visually, it doesn't look much different to a standard one. However there is something appealing about knowing that it is actually full of carbon.

With the Civic Type R shell on it, I didn't want to go wild with tonight's run, so it consisted of a gentle tootle around the RBP circuit and then some general driving around, enjoying the sight of it in motion from different angles. I also took more photos than usual, some of which I'll pop in the "Don't you go typin' no words, buddy" thread.

[Andreas W]

Super nice stance on it. Would like to see a bit of the descrete chassis. 

[TurnipJF]

7 minutes ago, Andreas W said:

Super nice stance on it. Would like to see a bit of the descrete chassis. 

Thanks! I should be able to get a few chassis photos tomorrow as I think the weather is due to be sunny. I'll add them to the photos with the body on over in the "Words are stupid - throw rocks at them" thread.  

[TurnipJF]

Having given the FF-03 a run yesterday, I thought I might give its 4WD sibling a go:

 

TB-03 ARTA Garaiya

Like the FF-03 Honda Civic Type R we saw yesterday, this too is a very rare sight. My TB-03 chassis almost always wears a race blob and Sorex tyres on plain disc wheels when running. However since the Honda survived yesterday's run unscathed, I figured that I'd let the ARTA Garaiya see some sunshine too.

Like the FF-03, the chassis looks pretty much stock apart from alloy shocks, but contains mostly carbon-reinforced parts. I also added a discrete carbon upper chassis brace, but as it is a carbon tube rather than a plate, it doesn't immediately scream "I'M A CARBON HOP-UP!" The only blue alloy upgrade is the little gear mesh adjuster piece, but it is buried in the gearbox so can't be seen when the car is on its wheels, and only shows a tiny bit of blue at one of the motor mount screws when the car is upside-down.

I love the way this chassis handles, and it served as a baseline when setting up my TT-02 Type S with which it shares most of its suspension components. I also love the sound effects it produces. It seems to want to grab the track in its metaphorical teeth and give it a good shake. Cornering hard on tarmac releases very realistic squeals from the tyres, accelerating hard from a standing start also produces a satisfying tyre chirp. Although shaft drive, the drivetrain is almost belt-drive quiet, so it accelerates with a whoosh and a slight whine reminiscent of a supercharger.

Back before the closure of Unit 21, this car saw a lot of use on their carpet track, but now that I do most of my running on tarmac, it doesn't see a lot of running. It is still an excellent car and runs very well on tarmac, but I don't want to get it all scratched up so it has passed regular TC running duties to my TT-02 Type S with its cheap and easy-to-find spares. It was nice to get it out again today though, and to remind myself of all the interesting sounds it makes.  

[Tamiyastef]

2 hours ago, TurnipJF said:

ARTA Garaiya

Lovely report as usual. I had a chance to buy one of these NIB a few years back in my LHS as they found 3 of these hidden in the back of their warehouse somewhere. I didn't  Well you can't have them all. (or at least I can't)

[TurnipJF]

Yesterday's wind has blown my tarmac running area nice and clean - clean enough to run this:

 

F103

This is the second F103 to have entered my fleet, so it seemed appropriate that it should be the second to appear in this thread. I started racing my first F103 in pretty much box stock form, and slowly upgraded it to the car that you saw earlier. As the car got better, so did my driving, and after a while I was doing pretty well with it. With my car sporting some upgrades, people started muttering about "chequebook racing" and saying that my success was just because of the money I had spent on my car. (Cheeky coming from people driving considerably more expensive F104s and TRFs, but oh well...) With hindsight I guess it may have just been harmless banter, but at the time I took it to heart and decided to build this car - a bone-stock F103.

It started as a well-used model bought from a fellow forum member, and was rebuilt to its current state using a mixture of new parts and ones that I'd taken off my first F103 during the upgrade process. It has bearings and a steel pinion, but is otherwise completely stock, even down to the pogo stick spring holder in place of a pitch damper, and the completely standard Tamiya bodyshell and wing set. I fitted the cheapest motor I had that complied with club rules - a used 21.5t Turnigy Trackstar - and the cheapest race-legal tyres I could find in the form of Enneti foams on plain black disc wheels.

I then took it racing, and while its somewhat floppy single-deck fibreglass chassis made it a little less predictable than its stiffer double-decked sibling, it was still competitive enough to make the "chequebook racing" accusers eat their words. I continued to use it as my primary F1 racer until I left that club and started racing at Unit 21 where a different group of racers were less about the banter and more about being mutually supportive.

I gave it a quick run today on its foam tyres, which provided more grip than the rubber ones I ran on the F103 you met earlier in the thread. It was noticeably easier to drive as a result, and managed a pretty respectable lap count on the RBP track. And while I very much enjoy driving my higher-end F1s, there is something very satisfying about getting such good performance from a stock/cheap build.