help a newbie

[thommo09]

G'day guys,

I'm interested in getting into a little bit of racing, but pretty much have no idea where to start. First of all I'm in Australia, so you guys might not be able to help, but I couldn't find any forums in Oz to ask and the 'local' (it's actually about an hour's drive away) club hasn't replied to my emails.

At the moment I'm pretty keen on touring cars, but being a student I don't really want to fork out huge sums of money for a flash car. I'm not really worried about being competitive, just want to have some fun and maybe in the future get more serious (far into the future). I've got a TA02 that I wanna rebuild, but I figure I'd get laughed at a bit if I tried to use that [V] So I've been thinking about a TB02 as an easy and reliable (aka. cheap and cheerful) place to start, does anyone have an opinion on them?

Basically I don't know where to start and can't find anyone to point me in the right direction. I'm not in any rush as I'm pretty busy with footy ("aussie rules"....real football [] jk) for the next couple of months, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to get the ball rolling.

Thanks guys

-Jimmy []

[sosidge]

I would probably go along to the club in person and see what goes on.

From what I know of Aussie racing, they're pretty keen on 540 silver-can class racing with a spec battery, with classes for stock and mod as well.

The TB02 will be an OK race car, if a little heavy, but see what other people use before taking the plunge. If TB02 parts and advice are hard to come by, you could be making your entry into racing harder than necessary.

[thommo09]

thanks mate, yeah I've got a reply from one of the clubs and will hopefully be able to head out for a look some time soon. I think "540 silver can" racing is probably what I'll be doing.

does anyone have a general opinion about using the old TA02 for a while rather than buying a new car straight up? Like i said, I'm not really worried about being competitive, just wanna have some fun.

[sosidge]

I would give the TA-02 a try, no cost, no harm!

[miramar]

quote:Originally posted by sosidge

I would give the TA-02 a try, no cost, no harm!

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id="quote">id="quote">

Agree! I guess your driving skills might be a little rusty (no offence!) so the difference between a TA02 and a modern chassis won't appear to you as THAT different. Also, you just might be able to show the other guys what wonders talent and knowledge can do for an old chassis! []

During the time I worked in the RC-business I just too often saw newbies trying to keep up with the experienced guys by spending a lot of money on the hottest new stuff and in the process forgot that the most important factors in being competitive is knowledge and driving skills.

[thommo09]

G'day again,

I'll be heading along on saturday to have a look I think. I've got another TA02 off ebay nice and cheap for any parts I might need so the old girl will be dusted off at some stage to have a run.

I'll let you guys know when I make my debut []

[minijosh]

Buy a TA04 and you'll never look back.

[HunterZero]

TA05 is due out soon, maybe stick with the old TA02 for now, then upgrate later?

I have a TB02, and it's a very nice car, but as said it is a touch on the heavy side.

See what everyone else at the club is running.

- James

[Billus McFlunday]

Hey mate,

Where in aus you from??? I'm up in qld.. i have 2 tracks i can race at but both are approx 1 hr away...

I too was in your situation a little while ago. i started racing with a 2nd hand tl-01 that the owner of my lhs raced down at nationals in the tamiya cup... but i have out grown that now and need some thing with better handling. i recomend starting with a basic car don't worry about racing, just go out there and circulate with the other guys and try to go as fast as you can but the aim is to get as many laps in a row without having to get a marshall to touch your car. my record is a 3rd place finish with 2 touches in a 5 min race... thats what i aim for because if you can be consistant and keep it off the walls ultimatly you will end up towards the pointy end...

[thommo09]

G'day Billus,

I'm in adelaide. I'm probably going to head out to the SDMCC (Southern districts) carpet track at the mitsubishi plant. I won;t be able to make it til the 24th July though. Plenty of time for practise [][:I]

I know what you mean about just circulating, I'm not expecing to be competitive, just wanna have some fun. I'm also thinking about maybe getting a mini as they have a class for beginners using box stock minis....they seem pretty cheap over the net

[HunterZero]

I'm in Sydney. Dammit, we're scattered all over the country here. No wonder we can't get a TC bash going down under. []

Here's my local racetrack: http://www.castlehillraceway.com/

- HZ

[Billus McFlunday]

yeah if your local newsagent keeps racing lines have a look in the next issue for a write up of my local at beaudesert... I will say that beaudesert is a hole but the hobby shop has built a top class purpose built facility!!!

i say don't bother buying another car... use your ta02 throw a silver can 540 in it and circulate. then when you feel confident buy a monster stock and go for a run in rebuildable stock... thats where the fun is... that way save your money for the tings you'll have to buy later better charger, better batteries, suspension upgrades, etc. not to mention anything you break along the way... don't even consider running mod... if your local track is anything like mine unless you have a tyre warmers, 3400 matched and zapped racepacks, setup station eg money to burn.. don't bother... i used to race mod at my old track but i was just for fun as we raced in a country town cwa hall... wooden floors, foam tyres lots o sideways action!!! we had a ball. we had about 6-10 people racing mod but we all had fairly simaliar setups eg tt-01 tl-01 ta04 all relativly stock cars with basic hopups, but we all ran motors about 19-23 turn due to size of track and any more power just resulted in stoopid amounts of wheelspin... now we all run rebuildable stock we have a feild of 15 now and it's only the 5th race meet at the track since opening!!! the guy who controlls racing is expecting that soon we will have to split it into classes mabey a monster stock class, a core stock, modified 27turn (mainly for those of us who have v2 endbells on order!!!) and possibly even an evo4 class!!! we now have 6 racing in our club!!!

1 more thing before i stop my ranting and raving, i know every1 on here supports ebay and our online retailers, start going to your lhs drop in and chat to them, don't pick their brain and not spend anything, i prefer to buy my cars from the lhs and pay a bit more but i know that if ever i have a problem i take the car in and the boys will look at it and tell me what the problem is and how to fix it. they also look afer you when you are buying bits and peices then too cos you've spent a lot of money so tey look after you... also generally these are the people that run your race meets if you contine to support them they will continue to support the sport. you have to remember that they run a buisness if every1 went to ebay they would go broke and we would just have to go back to the carpark GP for our racing...

Ok Ok i'm gonna get off my soapbox before some1 pushes me off!!! lol

Billus

[DJTheo]

Billus, you seem to have a nice race track, unlike most ones here in Germany where without high end of everything you stand no chance and people look at you strangely. Also I like supporting LHSes but unfortunately have had different experiences to you, most LHSes have no real clue about anything. I have heard so much nonsense lately, for example when wanting to buy 25% nitro for my TNX and the seller was telling me its too much and that's why he doesn't have any, as if Tamiya doesn't know better... Or last Saturday a seller saying to a guy that any tires/wheels would fit to his old Hornet...

Cheers

[Billus McFlunday]

don't get me wrong dj, there are quite a few hobby shops run by people who wouldn't know the slightest thing about electric. every body knows gas and hold the oppion that if you want to go fast buy a gas car... except on our track, the gas car record is .01sec faster than the rebuildable stock... even the distributors are usless... i have been waiting for 5 months for speed tuned gears and every time i call to find out where they are they say on a boat... i'm not sure where they are coming from but it must be a very slow boat!!!! the local sales rep from this distributor (i was picking his brain when he walked into a new hobby shop that opened up the road from my house...) he didn't even know about the spektrum radio system. it was launched in australia at the toy fair, he didn't know the first thing about it, not only that he couldn't even find items in his own catalog!!!!

There i go again ranting and raving. i guess the moral of this story is go to lots of different hobby shops and suss them out you will soon find one that you like, with helpful staff and resonable prices. i have spent a lot of time driving around untill i was happy with my choice of shop... don't get me wrong i shill shop around but i generally purchase all my stuff from the one shop...