Which Of My Touring-chassies For Indoor Racing?

[Splended]

Hi all!

My local club has finally got an indoor track. I have never driven on carpet before, so I need some tips on which of my cars that will be fastest and most fun to drive. The chassies I have so far: TT-01, TA-02 (carbon chassie), TA-03F, FF-01, M-04L and Group C. Some of the chassies have some hop-ups, but I will add the neccesary hop-ups to the chassie(s) you recommend.

Any tips and recommandations are welcome and appreciated!

Vidar

[terry.sc]

From that list the best touring car there is the TT01. It might be low spec compared to the others, but the handling is pretty good to get you going on carpet, just get some suitable tyres for it and it will be all you need until you want to upgrade your chassis. You can run the TA02 and TA03F, but they won't be any faster than the TT01 and if you want to go any faster you will be looking at a modern chassis like the TA05 or a proper competition chassis.

Forget the FF01 and M04, unless you have exactly the right tyres and have plenty of patience you won't get far with them. For both you will have to let the car straighten up out of a corner before applying power, plus you will always come off worse against a 4wd touring car in any bumping.

The Group C is a whole different beast. With the right tyres on it with additive and it will fly around the track. Again a handful to learn to drive and set up, but very satisfying when you get it right. My favourite classes are pan cars and F1s as you can't just point and squirt like you can with tourers, but you get the same speed for a lot less money when you can drive them. The big downside is being so much lighter they need to be run in a separate class as any touring cars will just barge them out of the way easily.

The biggest difference indoors is tyres. If the club allows foam tyres then go for them. They wear down so you have to adjust gearing and ride height to compensate as it happens, but they make the car react so much quicker. If the club only allows rubber tyres then the last time I ran rubbers LRP or Nosram VTEC 24 were the tyres to use, I don't know if there have been better carpet tyres produced recently.

[Splended]

From that list the best touring car there is the TT01. It might be low spec compared to the others, but the handling is pretty good to get you going on carpet, just get some suitable tyres for it and it will be all you need until you want to upgrade your chassis. You can run the TA02 and TA03F, but they won't be any faster than the TT01 and if you want to go any faster you will be looking at a modern chassis like the TA05 or a proper competition chassis.

Forget the FF01 and M04, unless you have exactly the right tyres and have plenty of patience you won't get far with them. For both you will have to let the car straighten up out of a corner before applying power, plus you will always come off worse against a 4wd touring car in any bumping.

The Group C is a whole different beast. With the right tyres on it with additive and it will fly around the track. Again a handful to learn to drive and set up, but very satisfying when you get it right. My favourite classes are pan cars and F1s as you can't just point and squirt like you can with tourers, but you get the same speed for a lot less money when you can drive them. The big downside is being so much lighter they need to be run in a separate class as any touring cars will just barge them out of the way easily.

The biggest difference indoors is tyres. If the club allows foam tyres then go for them. They wear down so you have to adjust gearing and ride height to compensate as it happens, but they make the car react so much quicker. If the club only allows rubber tyres then the last time I ran rubbers LRP or Nosram VTEC 24 were the tyres to use, I don't know if there have been better carpet tyres produced recently.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge terry.sc!

I don't know why, but I thought maybe the TA-03F was a good alternative, but I'll stick to the TT-01 then. It has most of the necessary (and useful) upgrades. I have also added a brushless setup and lipo batteries, so it will be fun to see how it will perform with the right tires and gearing. I think the Group C chassie car will be quick, but as you say it can be a handful to learn to drive and set up. The TA-02 is a surprisingly heavy car compared to the TT-01, so it will be a kind of back up car together with the TA-03F I guess.

It will be interresting to learn how to drive on carpet, and if I think it is for me I will probably get a more competitive chassie later. Is the TA-05 any good, or do you think I should have a look at the TRF cars instead?

Vidar

[floppydisk35]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge terry.sc!

I don't know why, but I thought maybe the TA-03F was a good alternative, but I'll stick to the TT-01 then. It has most of the necessary (and useful) upgrades. I have also added a brushless setup and lipo batteries, so it will be fun to see how it will perform with the right tires and gearing. I think the Group C chassie car will be quick, but as you say it can be a handful to learn to drive and set up. The TA-02 is a surprisingly heavy car compared to the TT-01, so it will be a kind of back up car together with the TA-03F I guess.

It will be interresting to learn how to drive on carpet, and if I think it is for me I will probably get a more competitive chassie later. Is the TA-05 any good, or do you think I should have a look at the TRF cars instead?

Vidar

From what I've learned, the TA05 is in reality a "cheap" version of some TRF model, but with good hopups and tune-ups you can get it to be around TRF's.

[terry.sc]

It will be interresting to learn how to drive on carpet, and if I think it is for me I will probably get a more competitive chassie later. Is the TA-05 any good, or do you think I should have a look at the TRF cars instead?

the best advice is to start with the TT01 and see what happens. Wait until you have raced for a bit before deciding on upgrading your car, so you are sure you are going to enjoy racing. Then it depends on what standard the people and cars you are racing against are.

For example the top drivers at my club are running TRF415/416, Corally RDX, Schumacher Mi3, etc. Now if you aren't running at the same level as those drivers then the TA05 is ideal if you are buying new as it's not much less performance for a lot less money. Although once you start racing there's a good chance that you can see what the fast drivers are using so see what works well, and maybe even pick up a second hand high end chassis pretty cheaply. It is useful to run a car that's popular at your local club, so if you have problems there are other drivers who can help you out with setup advice and if you break it there's usually someone who will have the spare part you need to keep running.

[hedge]

Then it It is useful to run a car that's popular at your local club, so if you have problems there are other drivers who can help you out with setup advice and if you break it there's usually someone who will have the spare part you need to keep running.

The above point is so important. Racing chassis choice should be lead by your head not your heart. Far better to be able to quickly get the car set up and running well and have a good supply of spares on hand than to run your favourite brand name.

Good Luck.

Paul

[Splended]

The above point is so important. Racing chassis choice should be lead by your head not your heart. Far better to be able to quickly get the car set up and running well and have a good supply of spares on hand than to run your favourite brand name.

Good Luck.

Paul

I see the logic in that, but then I have to buy a Kyosho TF-5. Buuh-huu! It will break my heart not to run a Tamiya. There are about 100 member in our club, but I 'm the only Tamiya guy there. 80 % of the guys and girls will run Kyosho, the rest will run HPI, HB or X-ray I guess. In the 80's and 90's Tamiya was THE brand around here, and maybe Norway in general, but something went wrong...

Well, I'll give the TT-01 a chance before I'll go with the flow. Just having a hard time at the moment thinking of owning something different than Tamiya, but as you say racing chassis choice should be lead by your head not your heart. In a weeks time the indoor track will be finished so we'll see what happens...

Thanks for enlighten me though :-)

[terry.sc]

It depends on whether the TF-5 is popular because it's readily available locally so spares are easy to get hold of, or if it's the car of choice amongst the top drivers. If the fastest drivers are mainly using the TF-5 then that's because they have worked out it's the fastest chassis on your track. When you are racing regularly you will soon discover that being able to buy spares quickly so your car can be repaired for next weeks racing is more important than brand loyalty.

It's up to you whether you follow the everyone else or go your own way. Personally I've always gone for something different (my last race tourer was an RcLab and if I was buying a new one I would be looking at a Team Magic E4JS) and get a lot of satisfaction out of spending weeks and months tuning the suspension settings that I want, and sometimes it can take 3-4 weeks of racing to solve a handling problem all because I have no one to compare setups with.

Of course there's no reason you have to run what everyone else runs, it just makes it easier to get up to speed. If you run the same as a lot of the local racers you will know that they will already know what springs, damper oil and pistons work best at your track, and what tyres are best suited to their chassis. If you run something different you have to experiment yourself until you find what works and what doesn't work.