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GooneyBird

TA03F Pro David Jun Edition (re)build for drifting

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My local track has put down a small carpet drift track, and it seems to be gaining traction (heh!) among our club members.

At the same time, I happened across a TA03F Pro David Jun for a decent-enough price. The car was a little rough, but it seemed to be all there. However, I didn't need another touring car, now did I?
But a dedicated drift car would be nice! :D

So a little money was exchanged, and a few days later this showed up at my doorstep:IMG_2495.jpg

Like I said, it's a little rough. The previous owner has cut off the front bumper, for some reason, and did some smoothing on the front gearbox.IMG_2497.jpg

One thing that the previous owner also did was to hollow out the unused rear gearbox section, probably for electronics. I actually don't mind that, as I was planning to do that anyway, and it's done quite neatly.
IMG_2496.jpg

I'm not sure if the neon-yellow stabilzer bars are stock, but I suppose I could always get other ones, or strip the coating off of them if they start annoying me. It has a front one-way, and a rear ball diff.

Right, time to start digging in!


First things first, removing the body posts. It came with a REALLY short set of front body posts, and a set of normal-length front body posts on the rear. This meant that in order to fit the Skyline body I have planned for it, I need different body posts. @Fuijo had a set of bent-backwards body posts left over from his TB01, and I wanted to see if they fit.

IMG_2499.jpg

Which they do, but they're on inside-out. The little square nub is supposed to slot into the rear shock tower. Which it doesn't, since it faces the other way. Fine with me, this also works, and with all the material hitting the plastic shock tower it seems snug enough. Time will tell, but I suppose this works for now. (Also note the purple hardware used to mount the shocks. Ugh!)

Since I don't have the manual for the car (yet), I'm a little apprehensive about tearing the car apart. So I wanted to focus on placing the electronics first. Since it's a drift car on a small track, it won't need a lot of power.
- Savöx servo (this type basically goes into every car I have)
- Hobbywing QuicRun 1060WP ESC
- OrangeRX GR300 receiver
- Tamiya Torque Tuned motor (because I had one. I also have a Sport Tuned if the TT turns out to lack the power needed)
- 4500 mAh shorty 2S lipo.

Why a shorty? Well, I couldn't fit a square lipo pack in the stock battery 'box'. So I got creative:

IMG_2502.jpg

Yup, that fits between the servo and the rear bulkhead! (Note the spacers moving the servo forward).

Now, how to strap the battery in.... I don't have the room to build a release mechanism, and tape is just not very elegant.. Velcro works, but since the chassis has all these cutouts you don't have a lot of surface area to stick velcro to.

IMG_2504.jpg

But what about a small styrene place, screwed in through the holes left by the original battery box?

IMG_2505.jpg

I bought some carbon-fiber wrap today. I figured this would look better than the stark white styrene on an otherwise black chassis.

On this plate I then stuck some velcro tape, and the same along the bottom of the battery. Works really well, and fits neatly under the belt.

Next time we'll focus on placing the ESC and receiver, and sorting out the mess of wiring. After that I'd like to peek inside the gearboxes. As far as I can tell you can take both ends of the car off without disturbing the two CF plates holding them together, and I'd like to see what shape everything is in.

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Power usually isn't that much of a problem in drifting. The tyres have got so little grip, that FDR and wheel speed becomes the main concern, and torque and power can be neglected. But carpet is actually the most grip you are going to get in a drift car, so speeds are going to be anything but scale. Have fun! 

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I'd go with a sensored brushless. It responds much quicker to throttle input. Which is something you want when drifting.

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Nice !! Love the TA03 chassis. Going by the pics it looks like the front bumper has just been removed rather than cut off, its only held on by 3 screws between the upper and lower gearbox parts. I actually think I may have a spare black plastic one and loads of other TA03 parts if your after anything.

James.

 

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Also going by the first pic it also has the later Reinforced Front Damper Mount Low Type fitted instead of the normal TA03F one. Which is nice as they are pretty rare. Also forgot to say, that yes the yellow anti roll bars are stock and it should have the hard blue on road springs all road as stock too. So someone has fitted the softer mediums on the rear (yellow). IIRC the front one way and rear ball diff were stock parts too. It was a pretty hopped up kit tbh.

Personally if that was me I would be restoring it and shelfing it, and getting another TA03 for drifting. ;) Especially with it being such a rare car.

James.

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19 hours ago, danb1974 said:

I'd go with a sensored brushless. It responds much quicker to throttle input. Which is something you want when drifting.

And being able to turn off the drag brake helps with throttle control for drifting.

 

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23 hours ago, danb1974 said:

I'd go with a sensored brushless. It responds much quicker to throttle input. Which is something you want when drifting.

True true, but on the small drift track most people there run either a Sport Tuned or a silver can. I'm willing to try the brushed path first, see if that works out.

Meanwhile, I've bought some things!
IMG_2509.jpg

My job takes me to all corners of The Netherlands. I ran across an old hobby shop, proudly displaying a poster for the all-new TA04. I figured that any store that's been stuck in time that much will have to have some old stock they'd be willing to part with. The lady behind the counter said they had a box full of "old Tamiya stuff nobody wants anymore". Why yes of course I'd love to have a browse through that. :D

The box was mostly '90s buggy stuff, but had some choice bits and hopups for the TA01/02 range, and TA03/04 bits. I could have gone home with much, MUCH more, but kept it decent and just grabbed what I needed. I told the lady to put that box under the counter, and that I might come back for more stuff at some point.

Anyway, back to the work bench!

I found a good little hidey-hole for the receiver, in the hollowed-out rear gearbox section. I took this as a good excuse to take off the whole rear section. 6 screws and it's off! After years of working on TRFs and TTs this is rather novel. :P

The previous owner had a rather dapper choice in color for the hardware on the car...
IMG_2510.jpg

... but a quick rummage through the parts bin solved that quick enough. (Also note the widened rear axles. I'll be saving those for a different project! And further back is my receiver, all neat and tucked in.

IMG_2511.jpg

The rear axles are wide, probably 195ish mm. This would be fine if I were to run this as a touring car, but the drift wheels I've got are +2mm offset, and thus, would make the car quite wide. I figured I needed to get different axles, but then I realized that I still had a set of them left over from my Pajero. When I installed CV axles on that car I took off the shafts and axles from that car.

IMG_2512.jpg

As you can see, this is the correct length.

IMG_2515.jpg

I've also decided to replace the aluminium rear dogbones with the steel versions from the CC01. The gain in mass is far offset by the greater strength of the steel dogbones. Plus, if I were to twist a dogbone I'd much rather have it be an easily replaceable CC01 part than some rare and/or expensive alu dogbones.

IMG_2514.jpg

See the difference here.

Another fun fact about the TA03: the roll bar is held on by that little CF plate on the back. It then slots into two eyelets on the rear (and front) hubs. Changing them is a matter of undoing the two screws and wiggling it out. Compare this with the TRF, where the whole setup is like, 10 parts.

I'm sorry that the updates are a little sporadic, but with work and wife I find myself not having a lot of time to tear into the car ánd photograph the whole experience. I'll do my best to deliver though, after years of living through all manner of cool build threads here I feel I should give something back.

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Oh jeez

Those wide axles are really quite sought after. Usually they're blue or silver, too - not gold. 

Going to enjoy this (re)build.

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3 minutes ago, ChrisRx718 said:

Oh jeez

Those wide axles are really quite sought after. Usually they're blue or silver, too - not gold. 

Going to enjoy this (re)build.

They're dark silver. Or do you mean the dogbones? Because they're the same length as the CC01 dogbones, except aluminium.

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59 minutes ago, GooneyBird said:

My job takes me to all corners of The Netherlands. I ran across an old hobby shop, proudly displaying a poster for the all-new TA04. I figured that any store that's been stuck in time that much will have to have some old stock they'd be willing to part with. The lady behind the counter said they had a box full of "old Tamiya stuff nobody wants anymore". Why yes of course I'd love to have a browse through that. :D

The box was mostly '90s buggy stuff, but had some choice bits and hopups for the TA01/02 range, and TA03/04 bits. I could have gone home with much, MUCH more, but kept it decent and just grabbed what I needed. I told the lady to put that box under the counter, and that I might come back for more stuff at some point.

Got to love that new-old-stock :D

This is becoming quite a build - interested in seeing how it will turn out!

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32 minutes ago, GooneyBird said:

They're dark silver. Or do you mean the dogbones? Because they're the same length as the CC01 dogbones, except aluminium.

Both the dogbones and the little spacer things that sit in front of the wheel hex. Quite rare parts.

Came in silver on my 911 GT2 because the body is quite a bit wider at the back than the front.

For the front CVDs you can use the recently released CC01 universal driveshafts - they're the same thing and work very well.

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Are you sure that's a DJun... or a TA03R TRF?

The gold dogbones & wideners are unique to TRF I think.

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5 minutes ago, WillyChang said:

Are you sure that's a DJun... or a TA03R TRF?

The gold dogbones & wideners are unique to TRF I think.

Didn't the DJun only have FRP chassis plates as well? Or am I imagining that?

The DJun would have silver stabilisers (No coating). I think those stickers on the top deck are what came with the TRF kit also...

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On 3/8/2018 at 3:07 AM, GooneyBird said:

First things first, removing the body posts. It came with a REALLY short set of front body posts, and a set of normal-length front body posts on the rear. This meant that in order to fit the Skyline body I have planned for it, I need different body posts. @Fuijo had a set of bent-backwards body posts left over from his TB01, and I wanted to see if they fit.

IMG_2499.jpg

Which they do, but they're on inside-out. The little square nub is supposed to slot into the rear shock tower. Which it doesn't, since it faces the other way. Fine with me, this also works, and with all the material hitting the plastic shock tower it seems snug enough. Time will tell, but I suppose this works for now. (Also note the purple hardware used to mount the shocks. Ugh!)

 

DSC_8286-640.jpg~original

TA03 is one of the rare chassis where T sells just the posts alone & i don't have to buy a whole sprue of other surplus chassis plastics :rolleyes:

Only annoyance is black/grey aren't differentiated :unsure:

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2 hours ago, ChrisRx718 said:

Didn't the DJun only have FRP chassis plates as well? Or am I imagining that?

The DJun would have silver stabilisers (No coating). I think those stickers on the top deck are what came with the TRF kit also...

the DJ had yellow stabilizers and blue springs all round, black plastics and carbon chassis plates. The Pro had silver stabilizers and springs and frp chassis plates and grey plastics.

Looks like a mis mash of cars actually, as the purple ball joints were unique on the TA03RS TRF, and the gold hardware was bespoke to the TA03R TRF. So possibly 3 different cars maybe.

James.

 

 

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2 hours ago, ChrisRx718 said:

Didn't the DJun only have FRP chassis plates as well? Or am I imagining that?

The DJun would have silver stabilisers (No coating). I think those stickers on the top deck are what came with the TRF kit also...

I've yet to score a virgin 58200 kit so i can't confirm nor deny... but yeah there's talk they only got FRP (like RCscrapyard says http://www.rcscrapyard.net/tamiya-david-jun-ta03f-58200.htm)

 

Possibly because the hopups might've come a bit later? Did the Jun get potmetal knuckles? those appeared after Jun i'd thought.

Butt that's got an F's shape topdeck so it wouldn't be from the R TRF :)

DSC_8293-640.jpg~original

R TRF had the gold bits, potmetal knuckles, yellow swaybars... and 15t alu pulleys i think.

DSC03427-640.jpg~original

Purple bits could've come off the TA03RS TRF.

 

 

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12 minutes ago, WillyChang said:

 no I've yet to score a virgin 58200 kit so i can't confirm nor deny... but yeah there's talk they only got FRP (like RCscrapyard says http://www.rcscrapyard.net/tamiya-david-jun-ta03f-58200.htm)

 

Possibly because the hopups might've come a bit later? Did the Jun get potmetal knuckles? those appeared after Jun i'd thought.

Butt that's got an F's shape topdeck so it wouldn't be from the R TRF :)

DSC_8293-640.jpg~original

R TRF had the gold bits, potmetal knuckles, yellow swaybars... and 15t alu pulleys i think.

DSC03427-640.jpg~original

Purple bits could've come off the TA03RS TRF.

 

 

The DJ def had carbon plates 100%. Only the box art showed the frp plates as the box art was actually of the Pro kit. It was a strange kit because nothing was bespoke to the DJ , you could basically buy all the parts back in the day to build one identical. But you couldn't do that with the R TRF and the RS TRF which both has bespoke coloured alloy parts.

DJ with carbon plates.

david_jun_art_01.jpg

TA03F Pro with the obvious horrid looking FRP plates

http://www.blackholesun.fr/images/classictamiyarc/tamta03pro2.jpg

James.

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8 minutes ago, Jim_GT-R said:

The DJ def had carbon plates 100%. Only the box art showed the frp plates as the box art was actually of the Pro kit. And yeah the DJ had alloy knuckles too. It was a strange kit because nothing was bespoke to the DJ , you could basically buy all the parts back in the day to build one identical. But you couldn't do that with the R TRF and the RS TRF which both has bespoke coloured alloy parts.

Too true! It was some commemorative issue of sorts... David Jun won something?! :P 

But from hearsay around HongKong... shopkeeps found it a better source of revenue to breakup those kits to sell as hopups to owners of PROs or tub cars, cheaper than buying the same parts retail-packed. This was before the huge deluge of TA03 hopups from 3rd parties.

The TA03 PRO when first appeared wasn't too popular with non-racers (eg schoolkids in HK) because it was totally radical layout/modularity compared to TA01/2 plus there's no way to install a MSC - and decent ESCs (Novak Cyclone, eh!?) cost about the same as the car kit back then. MSCs worked fine for bashing around and they had reverse. :) 

Jun introduced the black plastics didn't it... which didn't reappear until the tubbed yellow Pennzoil GTR; and now cheapened by several batches of TA03F Driftspec.

 

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Yeah the 2 later special editions with some choice hop ups were the Pennzoil R34 on the TA03F and the Raybrig NSX 99 on the TA03R. I do have a big soft spot for the TA03 as I used to race a few back in the late 90's early 00's. I went through a fair few motors with my TA03F, as any hard front impact used to loosen the motor magnets :( that's when I swapped over to a TA03R TRF. 

James.

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1 hour ago, Jim_GT-R said:

I do have a big soft spot for the TA03 as I used to race a few back in the late 90's early 00's.

yup, same! TA03 was our (re)intro to Touringcar racing. Our local clubs ran tubbed 540, rubber tyre 16-triple and Open Mod... TA03 was great for tubbed 540 (with fixed gearing) - it offered so many different permutations to get an edge over the fixed ratios ;) Plastic tubs only so no plate chassis.

There were some diehards running PROs in 16-triple but it was lardy compared to HPI RS4 Pro/Pro2, Kyosho TF2, Tenth Technology Predator. TA03's short stubby arms didn't "make" as much grip as the others with longspan suspension and ability to adjust rollcentre; racers resorted to running "stilletto" skinny narrow tyres 22mm... they worked but didn't last too long.

IMHO most interesting thing with TA03 on racetrack was... there wasn't a huge difference between an F or R! :wacko: Barely noticeable even to anyone who didn't peek under the shell. Biggest difference was just the end with the motor would wear out its tyres faster, weird.

TA03F later was great for drift experimentation... front motor, forward battery = as much weight in front as humanely possible :D

DSC04512-640.jpg~original

The 03R plates are more flexible for layout experimenting, can use R plates for building both F or R.

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You've lost me. And here I was, thinking I knew something about old Tamiya tourers. :P

What I have here, then, could very well be a hodgepodge (I love saying that word) of a TA03F David Jun (because I have a DJun box, and black plastics), a TA03R Pro (because purple hardware), a TA03F TRF (of the yellow swaybars and shocks, and the gold rear dogbones). Interesting! (FYI, it has alu pulleys, 16t both front and rear. Is that specific to any car?)

 

BTW: are those wide rear axles specific to any one car? Or were they a seperate hopup?

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49 minutes ago, GooneyBird said:

BTW: are those wide rear axles specific to any one car? Or were they a seperate hopup?

The gold dogbone & collar is exclusive to R TRF only.

Some TA03Rs had GT/LeMans type shell with wider rear end, I think the Porsche & possibly the Merc too... they had the longer axle & collar... can't remember if their collar was blue or uncoloured.

Hopup 53332 is blue collar

53332.jpg

 

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To further add to the mystery: @Mokei Kagaku PMed me the manual for the DJun TA03F, and it doesn't mention the front one-way at all (which my car has), and it comes with black wheels whereas my car came with white wheels. Of course, wheels are easily changed, but they seem period-correct and of the right style for the TA03F Pro / TRF.

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Is your front one way inside the diff or is it on the pulley shaft?

It's a TA03 so it could be either (or both! - but that would be a bit daft :lol: )

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Yeah there were 2 front one ways options on the TA03, the diff and the optional pulley bearing. The pulley bearing would give more front end bite when on shorter tighter tracks whereas the one way diff would be better for long sweeping corners and larger tracks. Both gave different effects for driving, and yes some people ran both together as again that changes the dynamics of the car further.

If you have the original box for it then I would suggest it was originally a TA03F PRO DJ Edition. But the owner obviously managed to pick up some spare parts from the TA03R TRF (the gold rear dog bones and wide axles, used for the NSX body primarily, as the other bodies used different offset rear wheels to obtain the width, Merc CLK GTR, Porsche 911 GT1 and Nissan R390 GT1). The purple hardware parts were bespoke to the shorter TA03R-S TRF. 

All in all its a cracking car you have :)

James.

 

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