question about the TA03R chassis (rally related)

[ZenMoto 0]

Ok, this could be a different thread I suppose, but I'll ask here anyway. My TRF dampers came with gold ball-ends, are they any better/different from the black polished ones that came with my TB-02? Thanks.

[thesuper 1]

ZenMoto....oh...this is the TA03FS with the damage.

my TA03R still needs the lower arms....they are coming from Tokyo so...i'm guessing the R will be running on Friday. at least i hope.

the alu. arms came from www.asiatess.com they have lots of stuff and the site is really easy to navigate.

they have front hub carriers and rear uprights too but the ones i've got on the TA03FS and TA03R are Tamiya....they came with the TA03FS when i got it off eBay.

JR-RC of eBay has lots of Tamiya stuff for most chassis. check out his store. the shipping prices are really low and the general prices for parts are really good as well. and he's got some RARE stuff....i've seen a Renault 5 Turbo, Lancia body sets, lots of various hop ups.

also, on the ball ends. to my knowledge, there are two materials used for the ends: brass and aluminum.

i've seen the aluminum in all sorts of colors. gold is one color.

but the brass are just the natrual brass color...kinda gold looking but more yellow.

i know the aluminum will be a bit lighter. but i'm not sure that it would be a significant savings.

i do plan to weigh both of the the chassis with battery and all....just out of curiosity. i want to see if their weight is anywhere close to the 1/10th scaled weight of the real cars.

their regulations say that the cars can't weigh less than 1230kg. which is about 2,700 lbs. but 1/10th of that would be 270 lbs.

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CarKing....i had that set up before, the thing you're talking about, where you use a screw instead of a ball connector. and it worked fine. but in one occasion, the screw head took a direct hit and bent at somepoint that was threaded into the lower arm.

when i tried to get it out, it was stuck. i tried my best not to strip the screw head but it stripped. then i dremeled off the the ends that looked most damaged and it came out...but not before taking a few threads from the lower arm with it.

i was so scared that it could ruin the arm.

it didn't but it was still a lot of work to get it off.

so now, there is a screw from the back side of the lower arm and the hollow ball threads on from the front. basically sandwich-ing the lower arm between them. it's working ok so far. i just try to be a good driver.

the box? funny thing, i went to a sporting goods store....and when i saw all the fishing tackle boxes....i thought "my search is over". they are really great. the one in the one in the picture that i take with me is not very big. but for small parts like that, it works well.

but i have a bigger one with more compartments. it's a bit bare at the moment since lots of parts are being used in the R. but i plan on buying a NIB Corolla kit this week so i'll have some of the parts from that kit for spares. and the rest will go on eBay.

[BlazingDragon 0]

quote:Originally posted by thesuper

i do plan to weigh both of the the chassis with battery and all....just out of curiosity. i want to see if their weight is anywhere close to the 1/10th scaled weight of the real cars.

their regulations say that the cars can't weigh less than 1230kg. which is about 2,700 lbs. but 1/10th of that would be 270 lbs.

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I think the postman would struggle to deliver that kit!!.[][]

Since volume (which is proportional to mass) is a cubic measurement, the scale mass is actually one thousandth of the full size vehicle (0.1 x 0.1 x 0.1).

The Tamiya cars are pretty much spot on; the Tamiya tourers/rally cars are about 1kg, and their full size counterparts around 1000kg

[thesuper 1]

BlazingDragon....HAHAHAH!!!! well, the postman should be able to handle it, he's used to porting heavy packages.

my math skills are on par with those of a coffee table.

so you're telling me that the weight of the Tamiya chassis (like the shells) are accurate in scale????

WOW! i never knew there was this much attention to detail.

i wonder if it was intentional by Tamiya?

i'm blown away by this. seriously.

i'm going to go celebreate with a glass of cognac!

[ZenMoto 0]

quote:Originally posted by thesuper

the alu. arms came from www.asiatess.com they have lots of stuff and the site is really easy to navigate.

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That link isn't working, but I'll check out JR-RC, thanks.

quote:

the box? funny thing, i went to a sporting goods store....and when i saw all the fishing tackle boxes....i thought "my search is over". they are really great. the one in the one in the picture that i take with me is not very big. but for small parts like that, it works well.

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That's funny, I just had my parents ship me my old tackle box, a double-sided Plano brand box, that I used back when I raced my Hotshot (1986?). It still has the original stock, mono-shocks in it as I'd upgraded to the 4-point suspension system for racing (this was before the Supershot came out). It also has the original manual stuck in the lid as well as the rear wing, and a ton of misc. gears diff & pinion gears, etc. There's also a bunch of handy tools that I'd forgotten about and left in there ...even my old bottle of "oil of wintergreen" ...that was the best $2 I ever spent in my racing days! lol

Ah the memories ...tackle boxes rule!!! []

[thesuper 1]

ZenMoto....opps...that should have been.... www.asiatees.com

[thesuper 1]

Zen Moto....i hope by tackle box lasts as long.....

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as for the "R"....yesterday, i woke up around noon to find that the postman had come and gone. and on the door was a note that a package from Hong Kong was to be re-delivered today.

i cursed and cursed. if i'd hadn't stayed up so late, trying to decide whether or not to get a NIB Corolla, i would have woken up earlier yesterday to have the parts in hand an beging the mods on them.

so today, after driving to the post office, i finally got the parts from Asia Tees i needed. two sets of TA03 lower arms. they only had blue...i wanted silver...but i figure....in a year's time of off road use, they'll be silver....at least on the bottom side.

the only thing that needed mod'ing was the the two most inboard mounting holes on the lower arm. this provides more clearance.

it's a bit tricky since i didn't want to remove too much material. the buffung wheel makes for a nice finish and smooths out the gouges left from the grinding wheel.

then one last pass with some light sand paper and viola!

the one last part i'm still waiting on, is the front uprights, which should be in tomorrow from JR-RC. they should be in before, or on Friday so...either way...i'll test this weekend.

i'll post more pics in a few minutes....after i get the arms mounted.

[CarKing 1]

Hey Super, you ever tried the progressive springs on any of your rally cars?

[ZenMoto 0]

Super, Check your local yellow pages for an anodizing shop. If they drop those arms in a batch of "prep" it will strip the anodizing right off and leave them shiny silver ...they may do it for free when they have a small batch going in. We do a lot of anodizing here and that's just one of those little things you pick up.

BTW, Anodizing is done by the batch and though the cost is spendy at first $100, if you were to get all your aluminum parts together and have them all anodized the same color the cost wouldn't change. ...you could get all your aluminum parts anodized black, red, purplee, etc for about $100 ...if you cared! [] I checked out Asitees but they didn't really have anything for either my ta04 or my tb-02 right now. [] I may end up getting the aluminum hub carriers (front and rear) eventually, but they are out of stock right now anyway. ...I'm swondering if the ta04 set will fit the tb-02. I know a lot of the parts are interchangeable.

[ZenMoto 0]

quote:Originally posted by ZenMoto

Super, Check your local yellow pages for an anodizing shop. If they drop those arms in a batch of "prep" it will strip the anodizing right off and leave them shiny silver ...they may even do it for free when they have a small batch going in. We do a lot of anodizing here and that's just one of those little things you pick up.

BTW, Anodizing is done by the batch, and though the cost is spendy at first ($100), however, if you were to get all your aluminum parts together and have them all anodized the same color the cost wouldn't change. ...you could get all your aluminum parts anodized black, red, purple, etc for about $100 ...if you cared! [] I checked out Asitees but they didn't really have anything for either my ta04 or my tb-02 right now. [] I may end up getting the aluminum hub carriers (front and rear) eventually, but they are out of stock right now anyway. ...I'm wondering if the ta04 set will fit the tb-02. I know a lot of the parts are interchangeable.

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[thesuper 1]

ZenMoto....come to think of it, we've got an anodizing place here in town. time for another trip. and thanks for the suggestion.

did you find anything with JR-RC for the TA04?

check towerhobbies.com as well and etamiya.com and rcmart.com and fusionhobbies.com

i sense some is interchangable but i've never tried any changes before.

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CarKing....i purchased the progressive spring set about 3 months ago. i was really excited to have such a set and was really hoping it would work out.

but that set was made for the TGX. and when installed on the TA03FS...even with a battery installed....the springs...even the softest one...was still too stiff. i guess the gas cars weigh more that the electrics.

i had to load down the chassis with a telephone book to get teh springs to compress about half way....

kind of a bummer since they cost about $17. ack!

but oh well....at least i now know for sure that they don't work.

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what was supposed to be a 30 minutes, at most, bit of progress work...became a multi hour Profanity Fest. this was a all new to me since i usually have no problems with the fit of aftermarket parts...

so i had the arms all trimmed up and ready to go. but there way a problem. the Tamiya sus. shafts didn't fit into the plastic sleeves provided with the arms.

those plastic sleeves are a really nice idea to keep the arms always slop free. GPM even includes 8 more with each set of arms.

the option of using the shafts supplied with the arms was out, since the provided shafts were too short for the Tamiya alu. rear uprights. i had to use the ones that came with the Tamiya uprights.

so basically, the fit between the shaft and sleeves was way too tight...so tight i was afraid of bending the arm, trying to shove the shaft in the sleeves.

so i needed to figure out a way to ream the sleeves evenly and straight through to make the inner diameter of the sleeves just a bit bigger.

so after about an hour of profanity and all sorts of bad ideas....

i took a damaged Tamiya sus. shaft that was not going to be used..ever...but that i kept (never throw anything away)....

i clamped the sus. shaft in the bench vice and cut about 5mm off the end with the dremel cutting wheel. what was left behind was a shaft with a razor sharp edge. the next step would be to file the sharp edge smooth so that it wouldn't gouge whatever you slipped the shaft into. but for this job...i left it as it was....

so with my new metal "punch/reamer"...i took the razor sharp end and set it onto the end of each plastic sleeve....and with a small hammer...tapped the shaft through the plastic.

what came out the other side was the shavings cut by the shaft's razor sharp edge.

i pulled the "punch" out and slipped in a new uncut shaft. it fit perfectly and with zero binding. i repeated the punch on all four corners of each arm. perfect fit at every spot.

so now....i've got the rear arms, rear uprights, and driveshafts all mounted, and dialed.

tomorrow i suspect the front uprights will show up along with a set of ball nuts for the lower arms. and then i'll post photos of the finished product.

[CarKing 1]

Well thanks for the info. I was looking to get a set, but what you said seems correct.

I wanted to buy another TB01 so that I had enough spares in case ANYTHING went wrong with the car, but I don't know how that is gonna go now. I am looking to buy an S-10 kit, a spare TA04, proline shocks for my TNX, and the TB01. Something has got to give or I will be poor fast!

[CarKing 1]

Also on a new note....I am looking forward to getting myslef a TT-01 Lancia and a TL-01RA Subaru when they hit the U.S. Also got to pick up that new Mercedes DTM car since I just love the way it looks.

Back on topic...did you ever change the arms on your TB-01? Can you snap some pics of your/your bothers TB-01s? I am interested to see the chassis and what has been done to them.

[thesuper 1]

CarKing....my brother just bought the S-10 and i must say...i'm not a big fan of trucks....but that thing is really cool. i'm thinking of an RC18T at some point in the faaaaaaaaaaaar future so i can have a truck to run with his.....as it is...i run the TA03FS against is and i do pretty well.

i've you're interested in a set of springs...i ended up with an extra set of the silver springs that i like so much for rally use...they are yours if you want a set.

wow....you've got quite a list of chassis.

the whole kit is still the better deal than individual parts....my brother found that the bevel pinions on the shaft of the TB01 were wearing so he bought another set of those along with a set of new dogbones, outdrives, and a few other things. so i think he is set.

but to be honest....i really can't seem to find any really delicate parts on the TB01. the only thing i knwo that's begun to wear out so far is the bevel pinion on the driveshaft. other than that, my kit was in great condition.

i'm sooooooooo ready for a Delta body set.....cash in hand.

what does the RA suffix for that Subaru mean?

change the arms on the TB01s?

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standing at the edge of a new world i can see....

done.....finally. the front uprights from JR-RC and the red ball nuts from Wala Store came in. the best part was that all of the other parts were ready to mount. all the mods and last minute things were done yesterday. which made the last bit of work easy and relaxing.

max. ride height with rally blocks ended up at 30 mm

min. ride height with radials ended up at 10 mm

total wheel width at 185 mm

camber 0

toe in 0

caster preset as per the uprights

i skipped getting the alu. steering knuckles for now, and no luck on an alu. pinion cover. but i did get a chance to load it with lots of aluminium. 15T pulleys, steering set, lower arms, rear and front uprights, motor mount and motor plate, as well as the carbon brace and steering bar, adjustable upper arms, aramid drivebelt...

Futaba receiver, ESC, transmitter, and servo and a 3300 Trinity stick pack.

i DID get to take the car out into the street and run it a bit before taking the pics...by no means testing but i was too excited to wait until Saturday.

the pavement here is really old and very smooth. so the TA03R slid a bit with the radials when i got punchy with the throttle. BUT....it handled...oddly enough... a LOT like the TA03FS.

breaking the rear end of the R free was, easier, it seemed, than the FS. but i haven't driven the FS on the street infront of the house in a long time. drifts and pendulum swings with the R are as controlled as they are with the FS.

the only difference i can tell during this short run is that, when off power and entering a corner....i have to be a bit more careful of how much and how fast i turn the front wheels on the R. with the FS i can swing them back and forth to line up for a corner if i enter a bit crooked and the FS will straighten right up when i settle in. but the R's tail seems to come around a bit quicker and with less warning than the FS.

on power and throttling out from a stand still was great. nice and smooth. when i hopped on the trottle the wheels would spin...again..the pavement is smooth....but no real change from the FS.

this was only about 5 minutes of run and a half charged pack so tomorrow....

the onyl thing i did notice is...even having made the attempt to make the identical hop ups, the R seems a bit sluggish. no punch. whether it was from the slippery pavement or the fact that stick was half charged...i can't say for sure. but Saturday will be a long day of testing at all of the familiar places we drive around town.

the only exception being...no off-road. the recent rains made a mess of the dirt park. if it doesn't rain the rest of this week...it might be good to go. we'll see.

thanks to all for the help and interest.

the pics......

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one weird thing did happen....but didn't keep me from getting in a first run, the servo i had in the TB01, and now in the R, was a Futaba S3003. there was a bit of play in the shaft so i figured that maybe it was time for a new servo. so i pulled out one of the Tamiya TP-S3003 Futaba made servos and used that. slop gone.

BUT....when i turned on the car...the steering was reversed. the transmitter i have has a reverse function switch so i just flipped that and things were back to normal....but now i've got questions....

1. is running the car like this going to damage anything?

2. why was this servo reversed?

3. was it possibly my fault the servo was reversed?

any help would be greatly appreciated since i don't want to botch all this work.

[CarKing 1]

Awesome pics and info!

1. No it won't hurt anything

2/3. Well you might see the servo as reversed because of the positioning of the servo. When it was in the TB-01, the ball connector end was pointed upwards, but in the TA03R, it is pointed downwards. So basically it is working the same, but with the servo connector flipped 180 degrees, it makes it seem as if the servo is backwards. See if this helps:

If you want easier....take the servo off your car. Turn everything on and turn left and right and watch carefully to see which was the gear turns. Then flip it 180 degrees and do the same. That's the same effect you get when the connector is mounted pointed up, and mounted pointed down.

Yeah I could take those springs off your hand, drop me a line and we'll work something out. What wide axels did you use on the TB01? I forgot the old ta03 ones were different. So if you want a set, maybe we could trade or something...

The TL-01RA must stand for "Rally something..". I am very interested to see what they do the the TL-01 to make it rally worthy. Talk about a fun project to make into a rally racer!!!! I also want to know what they mean by spiked tires?

I lost out on my S-10, so I am back actively searching for one. What a shame. Went for $128 RTR. Anyways, with all the things coming like Lancia and Subaru, I should save some cash.

Seems very odd the R handled like your F. The only things I would suggest would be trying a different set of tires since those seems like slicks now. I would also play with the rear suspension oil since all that weight on the rear might not agree with the same setup as was in the TA03F. It SHOULD NOT be more tail happy than the F though. Is this and R or RS? And you are comparing to an FS correct? That could be something there, but depends if you mean just sliding everywhere or out of tight turns. The PUNCh is only battery realted.

All these write-ups make me very eager to but a TA03 rally racer, but since it appears to have been conquered, I will try my hand at some different things.[]

New Subaru Info: http://dev.tamiyausa.com/product/item.php?product-id=49352

New Lancia Info: http://dev.tamiyausa.com/product/item.php?product-id=58342

[thesuper 1]

CarKing...thanks again for the info....i was worried i'd done something wrong. and the pics explained it in two seconds. thanks.

so, let me get this straight.....had my transmitter not had a reverse switch, would i have been out of luck? i know the servo can't be flipped the other way.

i'll get the part number for the TB01 long axles.

but yes...if you happen to have a set of the TA03 long axles...i'll trade you these springs for the axles. if not...you can have the springs.

as for the TL01RA....the desciption says it comes with long span arms and spiked tires.....interesting....can't wait for the photos.

man, i hope they sell a body parts set...even if it's a finished one.

JR-RC has the Delta body sets...complete ones...but they are $70. i knwo these reissues should be cheaper. maybe not. anyone have an idea on the cost of a finished body?

as for the handling....the comparison is between a TA03R and TA03FS. it was sliding out of corners. although, i could get it to drift very easily. i'll charge the pack tomorrow and do another short run....

and yes...those tires are old....new ones will get installed tomorrow.

personally...if this works out....this will be the past chassis purchase for along while. the original estimated cost was about $30 for the conversion and with all the stuff i added...it ends up in the $250 + range. so i need to chill on purchases for a while.

but those two auctions i hadn't seen. so thanks....but i don't think you can post links to ebay here. you might want to edit them out.

bummer on missing the S-10. that things got lots of clearance even with sedan tires.

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oh...and one last thing...is there a simple way to determine if a belt is too tight or too loose?

the belt on the R feels tighter than the one on the FS. i know the FS belt has some use on it but the one on the R, when i pluck it, is tight enough that it makes a noise. and i want this one as free running as the FS.

i'm trying to figure out some way to measure the adjustment but can't seem to figure out away that's clear to see if it's too loose or too tight.

[Scorchio 139]

Just poping in to say what a fantastic thread!!! [^] I've been a TA03 runner for a whole 7 days now and every time a question pops into my head the answer pops up here [8D] great pics & great ideas TAHNKS! [^]

Not sure if I've missed it but what car are the long silver springs from on the shocks?

[ZenMoto 0]

Speaking of "Rally Worthy" I read today, on some random site, that if buying the TB-02 chassis with thoughts of rallying, to get one of the rally TB-02 kits (WRX, EVO) as it has more clearance and metal differntial gears. Can anyone comfirm this? It doesn't seem like Tamiya's style to have different parts in chassis with identical designations. ...but if it's true, there might be some heavier-duty differntial parts around for my TB-02. []

Great info and pics on your car BTW Super. ...nice job.

[CarKing 1]

Basically yeah you would have been out of luck to my knowledge. I have no idea how to fix it otherwise.

I just bought a BMW M3 and a Mercedes Evo bodyset off ebay for a combined cost with shipping of $60. They are the new ones, but I heard they had not made any bodysets for the new cars. As far as a painted bodyset goes, I just bought a lightweight Nissan Calsonic Impul Z GT500 for my TA04 new from Walawala on eBay for $45(body and shipping). Tamiya USA charges $53 for them, and eTamiya charges $49.99(without shipping). Much better deal to try and find on ebay.

The sliding out of corners could simply be the longer chassis, but it shouldn't be so dramatically different as you are describing. Until you run your FS in the same place again, I wouldn't worry too much.

Speaking of the TL-01RA, I recall they made a TL-01LA which was simply long suspsension arms. I don't know what kit it was, or if anyone knows anything about it, but would like to know the comparison. I saw a long arm suspension kit for the TB-01 but didn't know what it would do for my offroad needs, or really what it is supposed to do. I thought one really funny thing about the article is that Tamiya said, "Responding to customer demand for a rally car R/C kit capable of driving off-road...". Had no idea there was a demand, but seems wierd they would not just use the TB-01 since there are a ton of parts, they are pretty cheap now, and they are bullit proof as far as I can tell.

Yeah I would love one of those trucks, and seeing what others have gone for, I should have forked out the cash for an RTR one in such good shape. Got enough else on my plate though.

Normally when I would check my belt tension, it was just a matter of walking around the pit area asking to feel what other people's belts felt like compared to mine. I usually went with the 15 tooth pulley on the R version though. Running over that motor really tightens the belt more than I had ever thought. That is the one downside to the TA03R design (that and the fact cooling the motor is REALLY tough).

[ChrisB 0]

Great stuff guys, really loving the pics and tips - keep it coming [].

Really interested also to see what the new TL-01RA chassis will be like. Sounds like the first Tamiya rally chassis that might actually be capable of going a bit more off road out of the box.

I will also be after the Lancia bodyset as a seperate item - don't really see the point of shelling out (if you'll pardon the pun) for the whole kit, as I don't really have much use for another onroad 4WD chassis.

I wonder if Tamiya will make the spares available for the TL-01RA that will allow the conversion of an ordinary TL-01 to the same spec.

The description on the Tamiya site suggests longer suspension arms? Does this mean a wider track on the car, and if so do you think it will spoil the scale look of the car?

I hope the Integrale body fits onto the TL-01RA chassis. Shame they didn't consider releasing the Integrale kit with the TL-01RA chassis.... I don't really need another scooby, but might end up getting one just for the chassis.

thesuper - very interested to see the adjustable camber top suspension arms you are using there - they look like shortened versions of the steering turnbuckle arms I have just fitted to my rally TL-01. At full extension the suspension on my TL-01 has a bit of negative camber that would be good to "dial-out", and those look like they would be just the thing.

My only concern with them having ball joint ends would be that it allows the upper suspension mount some forward and backward movement, which I would have thought puts more stress on the lower suspension arm (subjecting it more "twisting" type forces) and possibly affects the accuracy of the steering?

Would be interested to hear your opinions on this and details of the parts used.

Cheers,

Chris

[thesuper 1]

Scorchio....i'm also glad there is such a resource.

as for the springs on this R, they are from the S-10 (or F-150 something) kit. but they are only sold in a bag. $13.50 from Tamiya. but you get rods and o-rings and e-clips...so it's not such a bad deal.

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CarKing....i'd really rather get an unpainted one but still.....$40 isn't too bad a deal.

i'll run the FS today with a fully charged pack and the R right after with a newly charged pack and see what what happens.

i'm just happy that Tamiya got the word that there are some die hard rally fans out there.

maybe the they released it on the TL since it's cheaper thant he TB01 and i think...from what i've seen...it would see the TL has more clearance.

i've got both the 15T pulleys and it's a bit tight but i've got nothing to compare it to so....i think i'll use a smaller bearing for the roller that helps the belt clear the motor.

for the wheel base mod....the long axles are 50808 TG10 Long Axles. also, look in the manual for the TB01 and look for the tree with the rear uprights. you'll need to order one more of those to get those 12 mm hexes.

also, i've seen pics of the TB01s with the long suspension arms. if i remember correctly, it took the wheelbase from the stock width to 200 mm. remember that most of the Tamiya shells are only about 185 mm wide. i think it would ruin the look.

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ChrisB....this is the rally turnbuckle/upper arm set #53192

and last night i noticed what you're talking about. if i set camber at 0 degrees with full extension, or close to it.....when i remove the clips and let the chassis sag into the suspension, the camber is increased to + a few degrees. but i have the wrench with to make adjustments so that shouldn't be a problem. usually, if it's offraod, i leave it like that for the whole drive...same with tarmac.

as for the suspension mount moving...i'm not sure i've seen any problems. when i had the plastic lower arms on the TA03FS, that i trimmed....i could tell the arms were twisting. but i think that was because i removed so much plastic. so my only option back then, was to get a set of alu. arms. which entailed purchasing a set of Integy, Eagle, and GPM arm sets. and the only set that worked was the GPM. they had the right shape and optinal damper mounts.

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stick pack is almost done so i'll post my comparison between the FS and R. both on the same surface (old but very smooth pavement) and both with the same settings.

[thesuper 1]

oh yeah!!!!!! today was the the first drive of the R. almost 5 hours of maximum attack (to quote several WRC drivers) with the new chassis. everything worked flawlessly. nothing came loose and nothing exploded....or caught fire.

tonight i will recharge the packs and tomorrow....if it doesn't rain too much tonight (it's raining now) it'll be another drive.

i think the worst thing about today was the weather. you know the 5 minutes before a storm comes through? well, it's been like that all week. not having seen the sun in several days is starting to make me feel....bleh...

anyway....here's what i found.....

yesterday i took the R and the FS and set them up the same and ran them on the smooth pavement infront of the house....

camber = 0

caster = whatever the uprights front and rear are set to

toe in = 0

ride height was about 8 mm

running the stock .6 metric spur

the FS had the 19 tooth pinion and the R had a 20 tooth. i'm not sure why i have two different sizes, but i tried to keep that in mind.

the FS on take off was stable and very well mannered when i did a few left to right transitioning sweeps. no weird behavior. once i started pendulum swining the car...the rear end broke free quickly but retained it's good manners. as for on power steering...there was a bit of understeer but...i expect that. can't make the car turn right angles when it's flat out. so then it was to off power cornering. total heaven! as soon as the power was off the tail would break free....and at whatever point i hop back on the throttle, the car would kick straight with only minimal steering work. drifting no problem. it's trottle is just like i like it....a bit lacking in torque at the first quarter of throttle....and then a big midrange punch all the way up to the top end of the throttle....when it always (with a newly charged pack) has a tiny bit of extra punch. i rarely use this last bit unless i've slid wide while chasing my brother and i need so help to catch up. better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

now here's the weird thing.....the R performed exactly the same. note that the street infront of my house has some really smooth pavement. worn down really well. so i was some what surprised but the results but i really wanted to drive the R where i usualy drive the FS.

so today, we decided to get out and drive.

on our way to one of the usual spots we found a city owned building that had four short wheel chair ramps leading up to a 5" high sidewalk. so we'd roll up the first, across 2 feet of walkway, down the second, up the third back onto the walkway, and down the fourth and then haul straight away to the entrance of the first. this was to be the technical test.

the R SHINED! but in a different way. the tail end of the car could be whipped around with ease! if i whipped too hard the car sarted to come about a full 180 degrees but at that point, i'd hit the brake and just stop. the on power cornering was the same as the FS....a bit of understeer. nothing too bad. then i started to really trim the corners as close as i dared. after all, this Lancer body had never had major damage. as i trimmed the corners closer, i notice that my laps were quicker because my speed stayed up. so i started to mix in some off power steering. OH MAN! this thing is the off power steering KING! even totally flat out....i let go of the trigger and steer...and it tracks like a needle through flesh. and get this! even in sections of the pavement where there was dirt and fine gravel, the car would STILL hook up. amazing! i was stunned at first as i expected the car to retain SOME of the oversteer but to my surprise....all traces of oversteer were gone. comparativly....the FS...even when cornering off power...still retains a tiny bit of oversteer that makes me choose the begining of my drift a bit more carefully.

but back to the R. when i did break the rear end free, whether on or off power, on the R....it was effortless...effortless but controlled. in the tight corners, where my nose was still not pointing where i wanted to...because of a slip up on the previous corner...or just my bad judgement....i could flick the back end and ZING! i was back on track and back on power.

one of the reasons i LOVE the TA03FS is because of the above trait. i was REALLY hoping that the R would have the same trait....even though it might seems as though the R should not behave this way.

after 2 hours on the ramps, we moved to a small school, who's parking lot was crumbling and has patched of dirt and fine gravel here and there. the corner marks got put so we could take full advantage on of the low traction spots. a few corner markers were set where traction was ideal and the surface quite clean to get a good change of conditions througout the track. the ramps were mostly clean, save for some areas that were slippery....so i wanted some variation at the school.

again....drifts and swings were controlled but easy to manage unless i got too heavy handed with the trigger. then the car would quickly...and i mean QUICKLY...spin out. sometimes the spin would happen a bit too suddenly and i'd be left pointing back down the track with my brother barreling at me at full tilt. yikes! and on that, our rule is, the trailing or driver who is "off the pace", always yeilds (and lets pass), the driver in the lead or still in control of their car. that's the penalty for sloppy driving...or checking out the chicas downtown.

again...off power steering was nothing short of amazing. even in the gravel-y corners the car seemed to handle like it had some moderate power to the wheels.

throttle was the same as the FS...not punch at the first quarter of trigger throw so spinouts were rare...and the mid range had some great punch....but again...there was that little bit of boost at the last tiny bit of trigger throw that really helped out when i'd slide wide (the ladies distracting me again) and end up pointing somewhere i didn't want to be.

and now the bad news....not much though. at both places..about 5 hours of run time total.....i noticed that i'd bottomed out the chassis and it scraped the back end up well. i know the spots at both places where the tail hit bottom. one place was a slight bump where...if flat out....you could hear the tail smack the pavement. so not wanting to lose time....i hit that a few times too hard. nothing broken...just scraped. the ride height of about 8 mm was about as low as i'd ever had it so this was a new thing for me. usually, scrapes come from loose rocks and stones at the park where we drive offroad.

the belt stretched quite a bit so now. i can run the proper pulley that pull the belt out of the way of the motor. currently...i was using one of the kit's machine screws and a brass sleeve. i was worried about heat from friction and...while the screw did get quite hot....i was lucky enough to have put a drop of some fine grade oil to prevent the brass sleeve from getting chewed up by the screw's threads.

other than that...and the weather...it was a great drive and i'm sooooooooooooo very happy that the R worked out the way it did....because the alternative was to convert it to an F.

the problem with the F? my Peugeot 306 Maxi and the Escort do not fit that chassis because of the front mounted motor....so i would have had to sell those two.

but it worked out for the best and tomorrow....i think we'll drive again.....and i'll just sit back and enjoy the ride.

pics if i can put the controller down....

and to top it all off...i picked up a NIB Corolla WRC kit off eBay for about 50GBP. not a bad deal i think.

thanks to all for the help and kind words and for such a great resource that is Tamiya Club. i wanted to becoming a paying member months ago....but most of the cash set aside for RC went to the R.

so it looks like March will be the month i fully, and happily, join Tamiya Club. and i know it'll be March because Jason's Store (JR-RC) is currently closed.

i might also take this opportunity to buy some new razors, soap, food.....

[CarKing 1]

I am very happy to hear the project has worked out so well for you. I am also glad to hear that what you and I expected to happen with the R setup did infact come true. I was a bit worried after the initial run that I had forgotten something, but I had no clue what I was forgetting.

I would imagine that when you run the R in an offroad situation, it will behave VERY well. I don't think it will react like a rally car should though. I say should, but by that I really mean a way a WRC car is expected to react based on the front mounted engine. I wonder how the car will react when going over jumps. Seems liek it would tend to land rear first, but I don't see you heading over anything that large so maybe it won't be an issue.

You mention the bottoming out issue, and I was thinking had you thought about buying some sheet aluminum or something and cutting out a pattern the shape of the rear plastic gearbox cover? It would be cheap and a nice way to add some extra protection to the chassis. I think I mentioned this before when you were first talking about modding your original plastic arms on the 03F to get more clearance. Nonetheless.......

You described the off-power turning ability of the R to be much better in the sense it was a lot more controllable than the FS correct? Would you say it had more oversteer in that situation?

Have you ever thought about getting like a black sport tuned motor for those cars? They are cheap and get much more power than the stock silver cans you are running, but won't kill battery life. I would enjoy reading about back-to-back-toback runs with you 03FS, 03R and your brothers/your old TB01.

I am glad you won't have to sell your bodysets as well. Converting it to an F would be such a huge disaster given you already have a nice F all setup.

Any clue why JR-RC is down? That place is PERFECT for getting parts. I tend to go to them and Walawala Store.

Time to start saving up cash for the TL-01RA Subaru bud. Something tells me that will be a lot of fun to build and play around with. Luckily the TL series is cheap to get parts and even whole other kits for! Will also be looking forward to you getting your showroom up. I just started mine, but haven't had the time to get all the pics I want to get.

[ChrisB 0]

There was a banner wotsit on jr-rc's ebay store when I ordered my rally blocks and mini wheels last week saying he was closed between 12 Feb - 5 March inclusive, so I guess it will be business as usual from the 6th March.

You guys have to get you showrooms up with the rally mods []. thesuper especially as you have posted some great pics! My Scooby TL-01 with increased ground clearance is ready to go now, just waiting for it to stop raining [!]. Will also be starting the build of my rally M-04M today.

One thing I like about the design of the M-04M is that the central chassis section is a seperate part to the front and rear suspension assemblies, and Tamiya have also made it possible to extend the chassis length using a supplied spacer (to give the M-04L).

Looking at the centre chassis section it also looks like it would be easy to fabricate a custom aluminium replacement chassis section. The advantages of this are that it should be possible to adjust the wheelbase to 203mm which means I can use the Kamtec Mk1 Escort shell, plus a few other Kamtec shells.

[thesuper 1]

CarKing...i won't know about the jumps until the park we drive offroad at dries out...it looks dry on top but undeneath is totally muddy. i don't think i had landing issues with the FS so i'm curious to see if the R stays the same.

and yes...i will look into a skid plate 'cause i don't want to chew up the bottom and have to replace it everyso often.

as for the off power cornering....it did seem to have the tendency to oversteer. but i think it was only when i'd turn the wheel way too fast. but i really had to whip the wheel for it to do that....so in that way...it's a bit forgiving.

i'm considering the black sport tuned one for both chassis but.....i can't seem to find any specs on the 540 silver can kit motors.....

the sport tuned lists RPM at 18,300 and torque is 350g.

his TB01 seems to have the same top speed but from having driven my TB01 for a while, i know that the TB01 has the same killer off power steering but...i think....because of the layout...it was harder to loose control of. if i get lazy with the R or FS....teh car will start to "fish tail" laft and right and it's really hard to get it to straighten up.

but with the TB01....it was really hard to get it to get all out of shape in the corners. drifting was was, of course, easy and very controlled. and breaking the back end free was never a problem.

i think the only thing with the TB01 was that it was so well mannered that i kept finding myself putting in a bigger pinion every few months. i bet that chassis' limit is quite high. but again, the layout is so much better balanced. i think that's the key.

i'm interested in hearing a comparison between the TA04, TB01, and the TL.

--------------------------------------------------------------

ChrisB...yeah...i got pics for the showroom.

i'm interested to see how the M04M goes...you'll post pics right?