Grastens Builds the Loctite Zexel GT-R (TA-04)

[InsaneJim69]

Adjustable upper arms applied with some negative camber will solve the rubbing issue and help with the handling/stability.

James

[berman]

Looks marvelous! I understand your cross connection with the Gran Turismo series. Back in 99 I was playing GT1 and one of my favourite cars was the Evolution IV. I remember the final mod being the 'R' racing livery and the Evo having a choice of white or yellow, my favourite was the yellow and I subsequently bought a Tamiya Evolution IV on the (uggh) TL-01 chassis (I should have gotten the TA03 variant) and a can of PS yellow to mimic my car on Gran Turismo.

You have done a great job, I really enjoyed watching this build

[Grastens]

That looks so good. You should be chuffed!

Looks amazing, and thanks for putting the effort into the build thread too, have enjoyed reading it

Thank you both! I am indeed very pleased with my work this time around

If you're not racing, don't worry about the body posts.

If you are racing, you need to make sure that the body can move up and down independently of the cassis so that, should you rub a corner dot or get caught up in the pack, the body can move out of the way without disturbing the chassis.

Dorvack.

This makes sense. It seems the shell has some vertical movement regardless, but I imagine that racing requires more than one or two millimetres all around to overcome corner dots or survive traffic.

Adjustable upper arms applied with some negative camber will solve the rubbing issue and help with the handling/stability.

James

Thanks for the tip!

Looks marvelous! I understand your cross connection with the Gran Turismo series. Back in 99 I was playing GT1 and one of my favourite cars was the Evolution IV. I remember the final mod being the 'R' racing livery and the Evo having a choice of white or yellow, my favourite was the yellow and I subsequently bought a Tamiya Evolution IV on the (uggh) TL-01 chassis (I should have gotten the TA03 variant) and a can of PS yellow to mimic my car on Gran Turismo.

You have done a great job, I really enjoyed watching this build

Thanks! Gran Turismo 1 in particular stands out for me because a lot of racing could be done with modified production cars in addition to (or against) dedicated racers or further-modified variants. It is the reason I began looking for a Celica SS-II and a Mazda Lantis/323F/Astina, but no luck yet! Do you have any pictures of this Lancer? I could not find it on the showroom.

With that, I decided to go break in (without breaking) my new car:

Carleton University has a small section of asphalt near a maintenance building. Nobody uses it except for the work trucks, and those were not around today. In addition, the pavement is much smoother than in the parking lots. It also has lots of room in case I do make an error - I am not ready to part ways with this bodyshell just yet!

It proved difficult to capture this car in action:

Eventually, I settled for another pose, and resumed before the belts stuck:

First belt-drive chassis or not, when moving parts stop moving, something is wrong! So I went home, having gone through maybe over half the battery, and set it up in my room:

The chassis does not look bad at all for a first run. It appears that I have chosen a good place to start.

However, the rear tires definitely suffered:

It may not be obvious, but the tire decals are lifting tremendously. They are kind of hideous now; nonetheless we will see how long the decals can stick. At least I took plenty of pictures of the car with the tire decals!

Some tinkering with the rear gearbox found the offending material:

Maybe not so much of a gearbox, since the rear assembly only contains a differential! I have not gotten used to this yet since all of my cars thus far have either been rear-wheel drive or shaft-driven four-wheel drive. Given the large openings of the front and rear assemblies, my first instinct for the added friction in the drivetrain was a rock interfering with the belts or the differentials, and I proved to be correct.

I also found it necessary to redo the wiring:

In my excitement over the clearance of wires from the top side of the belt, the lower side had the potential to interfere with the ESC cable leading to the receiver. I essentially changed the zip-tie arrangement to further reduce the potential for contact:

Hopefully the wires and belt are visible!

Interestingly, this first drive has left me not so much smitten as it left me pensive. I had a lot to think about after my first drive in a touring car in what must have been over three years. Here are some thoughts:

- This thing really handles! Steering is far more responsive than what I am accustomed to, and there is no risk of the car flipping over on flat pavement in turns. I took corners at full throttle just to see what it was like, and that is probably why the tire decals are peeling. It stopped quickly at a tap of reverse, and can easily corner without this to slow it down. This superior handling is something I must still get accustomed to, even more so when recalling that the last car I drove was an old-school Lancia Rally on ice!

- My concerns over wheel arches are unfounded: even at maximum speed in a corner, the car remained stable and the shell never scraped the pavement on its sides. I will definitely have problems if hitting a rut, but as long as I run it on reasonably-smooth and flat surfaces I will not have to worry about clearance. I may experiment with negative camber for grip, Jim_GT-R, but it will not be for tire clearance.

- Maybe I enjoy off-roading more: I feel like touring cars are restricted when it comes to bashing, as the car is confined to a smooth running surface. With an off-road car, one can drift on dirt, tackle uneven terrain, take off on jumps, and generally experience three-dimensional driving, whereas an on-road car is generally restricted to the plane of its running surface (and hence two-dimensional - obviously, our perception of life is 3-D!). I still had fun driving my first touring car from new, but it was not the same sort of stupefying feeling from when I ran my off-road cars for the first time. It is quite possible that I would enjoy running my car more on a course than in a lot, i.e.: a track v. a gymkhana, or at least in the context of a racing car.

- Height matters: surface texture is relevant to both on-road and off-road, but elevation changes may also be important to me. I remember running my GT-One in a schoolyard that featured elevation changes of several metres on the pavement, and never really got bored there! I wanted a flat surface today to get a feel for the car, but perhaps running the car in a place with different elevations would be even more exciting, possibly to emulate circuits with dramatic elevation changes like Spa, the Nurburgring, or even the old Special Stage Route 11

- Tires: once the tires were scuffed, the car tended more towards oversteer or understeer than when fresh. I recall my GT-One's tires were quite sticky out of the box, whereas these ones were not. It must be a matter of weight, since a touring car can put more weight down and thus would need less-sticky tires to generate grip. Unlike with my GT-One, I did not seek to intentionally wear down the tires, but noticed the car would either turn wider or begin to drift in high-speed corners.

- Still, this car is fast! It definitely accelerates well, and the speed with the silver can is sufficient for me while I learn to drive on-road cars. I still definitely see myself upgrading the motor in the future, however.

So, please do not get the impression that I do not like this car; it just so happens that I am more contemplative of it than just happy it runs! I very much look forward to more sessions with this car, and watching something straight out of my video game fantasies tearing around in front of me is still quite satisfying. It looks great in motion - in the future, maybe I can get photographic evidence

This definitely concludes the build, but upgrades will likely appear - in the meantime, my adventures with this car will appear on other threads or places in the forum! Thank you all for the kind words and the great advice!

[berman]

No pics of the lancer sorry, didn't have a camera back then and sold it about a year later with a newly painted Evo V body. One of the best things about GT1 and 2 were the obscure cars instead of just the mainstream ones, I also had a Series 4 RX-7 and then a Mazda GT-X at the time of GT1 and 2 so it was cool to mimic your 1:1 with a gran turismo version, even if you had to wait x amount of 'gran turismo days' to get it and in the right colour :lol:

[Butler]

I agree about touring cars, I find on road bashing boring. However throw down a make shift track or visit a local purpose built one and then they will really come into their own.

Even better if a load of mates can join you.

I don't use my on road cars unless I have a track available.

[speedy_w_beans]

My street terminates in a cul-de-sac which was repaved about 2-3 years ago; the asphalt is still very smooth and lends itself to onroad bashing. Just driving aimlessly around the cul-de-sac or up and down the street isn't that much fun, but placing a few track dots and experimenting with different lines is more interesting. I also prepped two identical chassis -- one for my neighbor, one for me -- and an impromptu race on a summer evening is definitely a good time. Converting your TA04 to a drift car will also provide new challenges as driving will be more about balance/control and less about speed. Enjoy the car!

[volvotech]

I'm with speedy. I bash the ever living muck out of my ta05. On road or off, bashing is fun. Get two insanely fast cars going at once and you soon find that avoiding contact is a fun challenge too.

[Grastens]

No pics of the lancer sorry, didn't have a camera back then and sold it about a year later with a newly painted Evo V body. One of the best things about GT1 and 2 were the obscure cars instead of just the mainstream ones, I also had a Series 4 RX-7 and then a Mazda GT-X at the time of GT1 and 2 so it was cool to mimic your 1:1 with a gran turismo version, even if you had to wait x amount of 'gran turismo days' to get it and in the right colour :lol:

Dang - oh well. I know the feeling of those 'Gran Turismo days', too!

I agree about touring cars, I find on road bashing boring. However throw down a make shift track or visit a local purpose built one and then they will really come into their own.

Even better if a load of mates can join you.

I don't use my on road cars unless I have a track available.

I see that now, and should have seen it coming - after all, JGTC cars raced in packs! It seems that off-road cars are more open to adventure - find a hill here, jump a ditch there - but on-road cars do better in a structured environment.

I am presently attempting to convince my friend to restore his old touring car so we can get racing. He tells me it is some kind of Schumacher from the 1990s, so maybe I will get a picture up here if it ever gets to see the light of day again!

My street terminates in a cul-de-sac which was repaved about 2-3 years ago; the asphalt is still very smooth and lends itself to onroad bashing. Just driving aimlessly around the cul-de-sac or up and down the street isn't that much fun, but placing a few track dots and experimenting with different lines is more interesting. I also prepped two identical chassis -- one for my neighbor, one for me -- and an impromptu race on a summer evening is definitely a good time. Converting your TA04 to a drift car will also provide new challenges as driving will be more about balance/control and less about speed. Enjoy the car!

Noted! I will find some pylons around which I can set up a track

I'm with speedy. I bash the ever living muck out of my ta05. On road or off, bashing is fun. Get two insanely fast cars going at once and you soon find that avoiding contact is a fun challenge too.

Also noted! As previously mentioned, I am attempting to get my friend to unearth an old RC car of his. If I can help him restore it (I could even loan him a beater shell), good times await!

In the meantime, my GT-R just sits there. It does not look bad on display, but another run is surely in order...