Newbie Needs Help

[Rambo John J]

Hi All,

Im quite new to the touring car r/c world but wanted to put a car together, got this for nuffin but not sure what it is (me thinks tt 01 tl 01) could anyone help me clear things up! Also is this chassis any good, dont ming doing some mods but not sure if a different chassis would be better, i have a modded twin det so im not a complete noob when it comes to r/c! want to build a fast touring car (not necessarily for competition but for racing and fun!

Any help will be great,

Thanks, Johnny.

[markbt73]

That's a TL01. Tons of upgrades available. Practically bulletproof. I love 'em, but I know there are differing opinions.

[Gruntfuggly]

Absolutely bog standard TL01. Not the best chassis in the world, but for nothing who is complaining? As Mark says - loads of options available:

* Fit bearings

* Replace shocks with oil dampers

* ESC

* Hotter motor

* Quick release battery clips

* carbon shafts, etc.

Plenty of shells to fit too...

[Rambo John J]

Nice one fellas , thanks

Is it worth spending money on this chassis to make it good, or is it better to purchase a descent chassis to start from?

[Origineelreclamebord]

My first RC car was a TL01. They drive very easy, and are very bulletproof. I have mine now since 2000/2001 I think, and although I melted the cups to hold the axles of the rear dif in place (I ran 3 batteries one after another, with quite a fast motor, and I had removed the drive shaft to have RWD only, and after doing that for a few times my rear dif gave up. When that happened, my motor pinion and all my gears of the rear dif needed replacement too) it is very reliable. It has jumped, driven in the grass, through water (accidentaly, but it strangly didn't even short, and I could drive it until my battery was empty), in wet conditions (after the rain), through sand, and of course, on the road. And with a new pair of tires and the repair I called above, I could keep the thing running, and I still have it.

I would do the following things before you use it:

- Clean the car on the outside.

- Buy a tube of grease (ceramic or anti-wear grease from tamiya would be the best option), clean all the differentials with white-spirit (and the outside at the driveshafts and regrease the lot.

(I never put grease on the gears that are directly connected to the motor pinion since I saw the inside of my uncle's RTR TL01. He had driven it only about 10 times, the diffs were greased in well and the motor pinion was completely worn, as was the dif because of that).

- Check if the screws of the suspension are still straight and the suspension arms move smoothly (That if you take the dampers of, you can move it up and it falls down without any visible delay)

- Buy oil filled shocks. The standard shocks of tamiya are bad. I compared them once... The standard friction dampers don't damp enough, and bounce back immediately, while the oil filled shocks damp better, more smoothly and the suspension smoothly moved up again. It is probably the best thing you could ever do with the handling of a TL01.

- Buy an electric speed controller (ESC). Most of them are partially or completely waterproof, it makes it lighter because you need one servo less, there is no mechanical movement, so no wear, it doesn't work with a step system, but it goes smoothly.

- If you want to make things fast, you should buy another motor (Do make sure that your ESC can cope with the power that the motor demands to go through it). Nowadays there are also brushless motors. I don't know what budget you have, but at the moment they cost as much as my tuned motor and ESC cost me 3-4 years ago (about 100 Euros). They don't have brushes, so the brushes don't wear. You do need a special ESC for the brushless motor though, but most of the times you can buy them as a set (so you don't even have to think about finding a fitting motor to your ESC).

Since you're new with RC touring cars, I think it would be the best idea to restore it a bit, drive it, and consider the future of your RC car. Maybe you don't like it and you want to sell it (And it would be a shame if you spend a lot of money on hop-ups and find out you don't like it, because you are not going to get all your money back that you spent on it). Maybe you love it, and want to get some more hop-up parts to make it even more suitable for racing. And there is even an option that you want to look further than a TL01, and go for a chassis that is less bulletproof but better suited for racing... (because the TL01 is the best chassis to start with, but it is a compromised race car because of it's reliability.

And about your last reply... It depends on what state the car is in, and how much you will like your car (as I said somewhere above here)...

[Rambo John J]

Thanks for the reply,

Because of this i think im gonna roll with it and restore to a cool car (hopefully) will post a few pics once ive made some progress,

Thanks again!