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GooneyBird

Are you telling me you've built a club racer, out of a TT01?!

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(Thank you Doc Brown, for the title quote)

For the last few years I've been club-racing with a TT01E. Yes, you heard me right, that big heavy bathtubbed car from the late '90s (I think?) has been battling it out on the surfaces of nearby tracks for a while now. Of course, it's no TRF, but it can swing some mean punches if need be, and it's super-cheap to run. I run it in the occasional club race, and of course the Dutch Tamiya Cup against other TTs. While the newer TT02Rs are formidable cars I've found that with the right setup it can still hold its own against them. I've owned the car for 6 years, and while it's a bit of a Trigger's Broom by now it's still mostly original. 

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But first, the specs:
- TT01E, originally kit #58433, but since they're all pretty much the same what body shell it came with isn't really relevant anymore.
- Savox SC-1252MG servo
- Hobbywing Quicrun 1060
- Various spec-mandated motors. Mostly Carson Cup Machines, but the occasional Torque Tuned or even Sport Tuned has been in here. I think in the course of me racing it it's had at least 10 different motors in it.
- Full ball bearings
- Aluminium center shaft.
- #53673 TGS/TT toe-in rear uprights
- HobbyKing OrangeRX GR300 receiver, paired to my Spektrum DX3S radio
- MyLaps RC4 personal transponder.

Of course I've modified a few things to make it stand up to the rigors of racing. Let's start at the front.
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(yes there's a 1 on the bumper. I used to have two, and this was my way to tell them apart)

The Y-cable running the length of the car has two functions. Firstly, it delivers power to the transponder in the nose. The rear half plugs in to a wiring loom in my bodies for lights (and in some cases, a servo for the driver's head). I've done a few endurance races with this chassis where having lights was mandatory. Plus, a small light set doesn't add a lot of weight, but it helps with the visibility of your car.

I've moved the body posts to the bumper plate. This makes swapping bodies between this chassis and the TRF a lot easier, as they're in the same location as the 419. In the front bumper I've made a small cutout for my transponder. Having it right there in the nose means I just have to push my nose past someone to score a lap in before they do. 
Shocks are Yeah Racing Shock Gear shocks. They're cheap shocks that offer 80% of the smoothness of TRF shocks for 40% of the price. I rebuild them once a year (or so..) and they hardly leak any oil. I've set them up with about 1mm of rebound to help carry the heavy car. 
3Racing supplied the 6mm wheel hexes. Stock TTs come with plastic 5(ish..)mm wide hexes, but this will result in a car that's just slightly too narrow for racing (about 185ishmm). You can go to 6mm hexes to help with that. All racing wheels have 0 offset, so anything that increases track to about 190mm helps. 

On the front I've got universals, and I've changed the diff outdrives to the smaller, metal kind. Those allow me to choose whatever universal I see fit instead of having to work with the bulky plastic stock outdrives.

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I've built my own turnbuckle steering set with some 5mm adjusters I had in stock, and some turnbuckles. Yes, that's rust on the one connected to the servo. It looks worse than it is, and it's the result of running a wet race ONCE. I like it. It starts conversations. :P The steering bellcranks are running on ball bearings, but are still the stock plastic ones. They're getting a bit sloppy around the step screws, but with the official Tamiya hopup for that being as expensive as it is I guess I'll invest in a new plastic set should the slop get too bad to handle. Also visible here is the aluminium center shaft.

On to the electronics-deck!
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Nothing too fancy here. I've shortened the wires going to the receiver from the ESC and the steering servo to keep wiring lengths manageable. Another thing I have done is solder a different on/off switch to the ESC. As standard the QR1060 comes with a very small, waterproof on/off switch. That doesn't fit in the big square cutout so I soldered in a switch from a broken TEU101BK I had laying around. Often, for post-race scrutineering I have to hand in the car turned off. The easier the switch is to get to, the better it is. (Also see the giant On/Off sticker next to it). 
Currently there's a simple heatsink fitted to the motor (#53664 if I'm not mistaken). For indoor use this is recommended to keep motor temperatures down slightly. Some people mount fans to it, I haven't seen the use to do so. Outdoors I usually take it off, or not mount it at all, as the wide-open layout of most outdoor tracks mean lower motor temperatures.

Opposite the electronics bay is the battery compartment. I've removed all the ribs there to be able to fit square lipos.

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I've padded out the compartment with a bit of sticky foam. This keeps the batteries nice and snug. In fact, they're in there so tightly the strap (with a bit of white paint on the word Tamiya) really is just a formality. It'll stay put regardless. 

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Moving further back there's the rear bumper (yes, that is a block of foam. It looks crude but it's yet to fail me), and the YR rear shocks. I've put a bit of red paint on the collar for easy adjustments. You can see the slightly different type of plastic used for the toe-in rear hubs. Also note, no universals in the rear. There's no specific benefit to using them in the rear I've found, other than lightening your wallet.

I've used the body mounts that run backwards slightly for all my bodies. This seems to prevent tucking the rear in a collision, and as most bodies are coupe-style, with sloping rears, this allows for shorter body posts and less wobble. (And there's a spare body clip on the rear post. The motor's magnets pick up 1 or 2 body clips each run. I've yet to buy body clips, my car finds them for me :D )

So what does that all look like when it's on wheels?

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Very noticable in this picture is the rear toe-in, and a bit of toe-out on the front. There's enough slop in the front that a measurement is mostly useless, but I tend to go by Straight Ahead > A bit out > A bit in on my setup sheets. So far it's worked.

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Yes, that's my real-life name, and a decal of one of its previous achievements, coming in 3rd in the Tamiya International M-chassis Challenge earlier this year. 

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And this is my new body shell, a Mazda RX7. Not the lightest body shell ever, but oh boy does it look the part!

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This is my previous body set. It's a bit knackered now, so I've replaced it with the Mazda. Those wheels are the required cup wheels for the Tamiya Cup.

Right, so that's it for the introduction of my racer. I'll update this thread with the TT-specific things I've done (and am doing) to make it go fast. :P

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The other day I bought a diff locker for (what I thought) a TT01. I have enough spare diff cases to build a few diffs, so I figured having a locker to play around with would be nice. I received the thing, and tried to stuff it into a TT01 diff case. Didn't work. 

A TT01 has a 3-prong center section (a Y, if you will) holding the spider gears. A TT02 has 4 prongs (A +) holding those gears. Meaning this fancy bit of aluminium wouldn't fit. Fortunately, TT02 diffs fit TT01s, and gear cases come cheap...

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..and with loads of extra parts (Not the screws though, those are from my own collection) 

This meant I had all the parts required to build the locker, and also another extra diff. 

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This meant I could experiment a bit. Currently I'm running a fully open diff in the rear, and a diff with a bit of thick grease in the front. However, I've noticed coming out of corners that the front tends to spin away power through the inner wheel. So I've filled up a diff with AW-grease, but never got around to installing it. Out of curiosity, I made a similar diff with the TT02 bits, and wanted to see the difference.

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01 on the left, 02 on the right. 

I now have a pretty large collection of diffs, ready to go. From L to R I have
- locked 02 diff
- AW 02 diff
- AW 01 diff
- fully open 01 diff
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Why build a second 02 diff with AW grease you ask? Well, someone once told me TT02 diffs are lighter. And as you know, the less rotating mass a drivetrain has, the happier the car will be. I wanted to see if this was true. First of, the TT01 AW diff, with two steel outdrives:

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Then the TT02 AW diff:

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That's quite a difference! 

And as I expected (because Tamiya is basically RC LEGO), it drops right in. Teeth count matches, size matches, and outdrive-size matches.

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(Sorry about the dark photo)

This Sunday I'll give the car another try, see if the lighter, AW-filled diff made any difference.

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This thread provides a lot of insight into what makes a good club racer. Thanks for sharing your car with us; this is quite useful :) 

Looking forward to the next updates!

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1 hour ago, Prescient said:

@GooneyBird but have you won anything?

I can't speak for previous races, but for the race he mentions where he came third it was neck and neck with the 2nd place guy and could have easily gone either way.

Second place would have been the winning place for anyone who refused to take advantage of the lack of scrutineering, which to his credit, he does.

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2 hours ago, Prescient said:

@GooneyBird but have you won anything?

I've won a few club events here and there, and like @Fuijo says I've managed to place third in last year's TIM challenge. Which, to be fair, is like coming in a close second, as the guy in first somehow managed to lap nr. 2 and 3 at least 5 times in the span of 8 minutes. This year I'm planning to take him on with a car that's completely fair and square. No idea if/how I'll pull that off. 

1 hour ago, Kingfisher said:

It's got an RX7 body shell. It instantly wins.

Hahaha! I was looking for a new body shell, as the GT86 is hanging on by a (lexan) thread by now. I do most of my racing indoors, where the proximity of the borders and the tightness of the tracks make for interesting battles. And a lot of collateral damage. :D

Also, the thing lights up! Come on!

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I just love that I know the Doc Brown and Triggers broom references! 

Always very very informative threads Gooney, keep it up.

The best line to jokingly bring someone down to earth is... anyone can drive a fast car, not everyone can drive a car fast ( as I often terrorise dumb butted BMW drivers in my souped up works van lol) 

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Love the TT01, I race mine at club level. Our winter championship starts this Sunday, I actually won this years summer championship. 

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12 hours ago, i_am_scarecrow said:

Love the TT01, I race mine at club level. Our winter championship starts this Sunday, I actually won this years summer championship. 

Too bad I live too far away for it to be feasible, but I'd love it have a go at one of your club's races.

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14 hours ago, i_am_scarecrow said:

Love the TT01, I race mine at club level. Our winter championship starts this Sunday, I actually won this years summer championship. 

Is this at the adur club? I must try and get down there soon. What classes do they run? I have tt-01 tt-02 ta04 ta05 and tb04 (not built yet) anything I can race these in? Bearing in mind I’ve never raced before.

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Did a few more tests at the track today. I installed a front diff with AW-grease in it in the front. This really picked up the front end, to the point where it almost wanted to kick the tail around under power. However, the front is pretty much where I want it right now. 

Fastest time with an open diff: 11.537, but I did that once, and with an open track
Fastest time with the AW-filled diff: 11.578, but that was in traffic, and I've repeated that over 3 heats. 

The AW-diff, therefor, is a little more consistent. It's easier to control the car on-throttle, and it has more steering to boot.
I changed to a new set of tires, going from my usual black inserts to yellow (softer) inserts. The softer inserts mean a little more traction at the cost of heating up the tires more. And boy, was it felt! I had issues traction rolling the car when the tires were new, so I did the usual trick of a small bead of superglue around the outer edge of the front tires. This worked, and the car was now not rolling anymore. 
However, the increase in traction meant I didn't feel comfortable using the spool up front. I suppose it could work in theory, but I felt the car was plenty 'pointy' enough under power.

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Race report time!
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I entered the car in the Tamiya International M-Chassis challenge. Since the M-class is dwindling, they added a TT class last year (and a class for the MAN trucks this year), and since it's held at my home track I kinda couldn't not show up. :)

The format was 1 free seeding practice, 4 6-minute Qualifiers, and 3 8-minute mains. At the end of the seeding practice, I was placed in the fastest qualifier group. The qualifiying format, for those unfamiliar with it, is 6 minutes long. After 6 minutes, the session is closed and you finish your last lap. Whoever does the most laps wins, and with a tie you look at who took the shortest time to do them in.

My times were very close to a friend of mine. We both did 30 laps in all qualifiers, with our times decreasing each time. At the end of the day all our qualifiers were added together, and he was 4 seconds quicker, in 18 minutes! Obviously, we qualified 1 and 2 for the A-mains.

During the mains the grip came up, and my car was struggling with it. Normally I run the TT with about 4mm of ride height, but the rules for this event stipulated 5mm. That extra milimeter meant Grip Roll City all the way when the grip came up, and I was losing time in the faster corners.

During the first main we were both quick out of the start, seperated from the field in a few laps. However, he has a little more racing experience, and thus, less issues with backmarkers. I got unlucky, and had about a 5 second gap I couldn't close anymore. I came in second, with third about a lap behind me.

Second main, and another shunt with a backmarker (it's a tight track) meant that my friend now had almost a full lap on me at the 2 minute mark. However, when the main was finished I was about 3 seconds behind him again. This got my hopes up for the last main.

The last final of the day was by far the most exciting. At the tone we both sped away, followed by no. 3. We stuck together for about 4 minutes, never more than a second apart. At that point, my mate made a mistake, and I was able to pass him. However, in dodging him, no. 3 passed me, making me second and my friend third. The high levels of grip meant I was struggling with keeping the car planted more than the leader, and he soon pulled a gap. However, the fight for second was ON! He was inches from my rear bumper for the last half of the race, and we had a good (and clean!) fight. He never got past me, and I once again finished second.

With 3 finals, your worst result gets scrapped, and the points are then totalled. I fully expected to take home the second-place trophy, but never realized I was tied for points with another driver (the winner of the last main). At that point, your best result counts. He had a 4th, 3rd, and win. I had 3 2nd places. After scrapping our worst result means we both had 4 points (2+2 for me, and 3+1 for him), and his win meant he had the high ground.

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L to R it's my TT01E, my mate's TT02R, and the other guy's TT02 (R I think? Or a hopped-up base model. Couldn't tell)

I had an amazing day racing my friend, and I proved everyone wrong by showing up with a fully built-up body with a light set, and still outran people with lightweight Raikiri bodies. (Well, all except for one).

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Here's something that's been bothering me for a while.

On an TT01, in order to set the gear mesh juuuuust right, really you'd want the grub screw of the pinion to be slightly underneath the motor mount. If you don't the pinion will be slightly too far forward, and only mesh with a portion of the spur gear. This problem is amplified with the Cup Machine motors our club uses as spec motor, as they can have a bit of play in the shaft and move the pinion back and forth under throttle.

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The issue is that in this position, you can only sorta get one of those hex L-wrenches on there to tighten it, making a mess in the process and sometimes stripping the little grub screw. I have a good quality 1.5mm hex driver, but the shaft is too thick to reach the grub in a straight line. Of course, you can always take the motor mount off, reposition the pinion, and tighten it before putting the thick plastic mount back on.
However, this doesn't work with bigger pinions, as they don't fit through the hole of the motor mount.

I always wondered why Tamiya didn't engineer this, they tend to think about these matters. Ah well, have Dremel, will muck about. :D

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I made a little slot, right between two screw holes. The holes remain perfectly usable, and since the motor cover closes on the thicker upper edge I don't think gearbox sealing will become a problem. This way, I can easily get my 1.5mm hex driver on there, and tighten the pinion down properly.

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Success!

Small mod, but it makes my life (and changing pinions) just that much easier. Plus, I've paid for the whole spur gear, and by Mr. Tamiya I shall use the whole spur gear too! :D

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Well, that was all sorts of funny.

Went to a new track today, one I've been to a few times but never really hung around to do some serious racing. Due to the ETS in Germany the numbers were a little low, and someone I know invited me to stop by and race. So I did.

I brought the TT01. There was a separate class for TTs, along with17.5t brushless TC, F1, Trucks, and M-chassis. In the TT class there were a few local heroes, and so I thought I was up against some stiff competition.

Or so I thought, right up to the point where I:
- Top Seeded (Fastest free practice lap time)
- Top Qualified
- Won all 3 A-mains
- and set a new lap record in this class.

And that was up against club members running TT02Rs and other pretty and expensive machines. :D

I'll see if I can drag some people I know over the next time I'm there, give them some real competition.

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On 4-2-2018 at 10:03 PM, Jason1145 said:

Bet you were Mr popular there!

My car got scrutineered like there was no tomorrow. Also, after the first few heats I noticed a lot more foot traffic past my pit table, just to have a quick glance under the body shell. 

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It might’ve been your aftershave attracting the attention you never know.. the sweet smell of success!

I just pulled my alloy motor mount out of an old DF02 after remembering it’ll fit into a new TT01E roller on its way to me. It’ll only get thrashed round a empty carpark though with its own shadow for company. 

I’m on the look out for some teeny tiny jumps that a rally spec’d TT01 could handle. Like 3-4cm tall to get it a little airborne and introduce that missing 3rd dimension to it all.

Keep up the good work Gooney, I know it’s a talent keeping a RC car on a track at speed!

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On 2/4/2018 at 7:29 PM, GooneyBird said:


- Top Seeded (Fastest free practice lap time)
- Top Qualified
- Won all 3 A-mains
- and set a new lap record in this class.

Oh wow! Finally all the hard work paid off, and lady luck wasn't out to lunch.

Congratulations! Perfect result.

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On 7-2-2018 at 8:39 AM, Fuijo said:

Oh wow! Finally all the hard work paid off, and lady luck wasn't out to lunch.

Congratulations! Perfect result.

Yep, that literally could not have gone better. They have another race there at the end of March. I think I'll try to go for a repeat success. :)

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great thread this, I do like a budget racer - goes to show man with big wallet doesn't always win. The Tamiya TT01E Racing truck has become one of the most popular club racing classes in the UK and I see a lot of threads on Facebook from around the world

long live the TT01E chassis

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By the way, similar discussions revolve around the AE RC10 World's Re-Re (and probably the original too) car versus the modern mid-motors. I hear people are winning races with the RC10 Worlds over the others pretty often! Skill trumps equipment.

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So, my indoor track folded (Boo!) and I had to go and find another club to race at. There's an outdoor track about 20 km from my house, but I never gave it much thought as I simply don't really like running outdoors. However, with the weather improving and..well.. you get the key to the gate so you can run whenever you please, I figured I'd sign up there and give their club comp a try.

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Note the red RX7 in the background. I was the only 01E there, the rest being either 02R or 02RRs, so I figured I didn't really stand a chance. What I didn't take into account is how well set-up my car is, and years of indoor racing have made me a rather precise driver. I'm not fast, I just don't crash. Slow and steady wins the race....

...literally.

I showed up, and during Q1 I just sorta followed other people around, trying to work out the racing line. Once I got a bit of track knowledge going I upped the speed and started getting into it. This lead to me being second in Q2 and first in Q3. Having set the  overall fastest 3 consecutive laps (again, I am really consistent) I got TQ for the first final.
The first final was shaping up to be a close battle between me and another member from my old indoor track, but a backmarker took him out in the latter part of the race and..well, I had another backmarker on my 6 so I couldn't hang back and wait for him.
The second (of 2) finals went a lot smoother, and after helping another member set-up his (brand spanking new) TT02RR I got a bit of a fair fight going with all 3 of us changing 1-2-3 out for the most part of the race. Eventually I ended up in first after a tangle with a backmarker that involved all 3 of us, and took the win.

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The tape on the nose is the result of 6 months of racing, a few indoor scrapes and bruises, and one head-on collision with a Traxxas. Don't ask. Things got weird during an open track day. Other than that the RX7 held up nicely. I completely expected the headlights to fall off all the time, but they've been surprisingly durable. The light set, however, did take a bit of a beating with one of the front wheels rubbing through a wire, and another wire getting snagged and broken when I removed the body shell. As a precaution I've removed it. The first time in years (?) that I've had the TT running without low beams. :P

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My car with aformentioned brand-new TT02RR. Oh Gods that is such a nice machine. If I ever manage to wear out my 01E I am SO getting one of those. So don't hold your breath, as TTs seem to be at least as durable as old Nokias.

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