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ALEXKYRIAK

AlexKyriak’s Formula Neo Scorcher [ TT02B ]

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I’m looking at it thinking you need to find a front spoiler, if not for looks then for more steering at speed. 

Juls

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6 hours ago, speedy_w_beans said:

Lots of room in that buggy for a F1 driver figure...

Haha, I did think about cutting out a cockpit. But didn’t want to dive in too far with complicated shell mods.

 

5 hours ago, Juls1 said:

I’m looking at it thinking you need to find a front spoiler, if not for looks then for more steering at speed. 

Juls

I agree, funnily enough, I did consider this a few weeks ago:

Wing

 

Wing test

 

Wing

 

In the main post above I mentioned I’d get onto the wing later, but didn’t post these photos in the end. This is using a TT02BMS rear wing. Was considering fixing it through the foam but wasn’t convinced. Need to find a better way  

(Incidentally here you can also see a standard front damper mount demonstrating why I had to subsequently make a custom one to achieve the lower ride height. This mount meant the wheel didn’t touch the ground. The dampers are not attached in this picture)

 

@InsaneJim69, no I haven’t run it yet, need to stick the electrics in, then I have a couple of places in mind with smooth surfaces. Hope the ‘experiment’ works out...

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Kyosho made a 1/7 nitro f1 car the front spoiler might be a goer off that.

 

juls

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Tamiya make a wide range of F1 front wings to fit the F10X family of cars.  They bolt to the front of the chassis plate. You could probably design an adapter plate to mount one to the front of your chassis. 

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Any updates? Driven it yet? 

Or has it been shoved in the corner as you get stuck into a WT-01?

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@Juls1, no not at all shoved in a corner....!  I build in a circular room to ensure this can never happen. Haven't been able to drive it yet, but I hooked up the ESC and receiver today, doing custom wire lengths and heat-shrinking etc, and I also installed some of the newly arrived colour co-ordinated aluminium spacers to replace the blue ones (orange and blue combo doesn't do it for me...).  I will do the tyres tomorrow, and then will hopefully get to take her out for the maiden run this weekend or the next, time depending, although it's Le Mans this weekend if I recall. (WT01 will begin maybe sometime in the next few weeks... it's totally at the other end of the spectrum from the Formula Neo Scorcher.... :D ).

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Beautiful!

I hope you don't mind if I share but I did the same with my MS. Custom rear aluminum tower and 55mm shocks all around. I like your body choice much better - those bodies are hard to find in the US though without buying a complete kit, so I used the stock body in the MS kit. Has a nice aero look to it once lowered. 

37585292246_6a064d5cbb_o.jpg37585292666_9d3e0fd406_o.jpg

Built it months ago, and it's still on  the shelf looking pretty. Hope to get it out for a run this summer during our on road meets. 

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8 minutes ago, OldSchoolRC1 said:

Beautiful!

I hope you don't mind if I share but I did the same with my MS. Custom rear aluminum tower and 55mm shocks all around. I like your body choice much better - those bodies are hard to find in the US though without buying a complete kit, so I used the stock body in the MS kit. Has a nice aero look to it once lowered. 

37585292246_6a064d5cbb_o.jpg37585292666_9d3e0fd406_o.jpg

Built it months ago, and it's still on  the shelf looking pretty. Hope to get it out for a run this summer during our on road meets. 

Lovely piece of work. I love seeing other guys home made parts and ideas. If you have the money, anyone can spray blue parts at a car and call it a "custom" build. 👍

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32 minutes ago, OldSchoolRC1 said:

I hope you don't mind if I share but I did the same with my MS. 

Of course not...! I saw your car on the net when I was researching my project and seeing the dropped chassis working on a TT02B gave me confidence to press go on the concept.  So thanks  and kudos to you, Sir! :)

 

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I thought i had posted in this thread about that orange masterpeice but realised i hadn’t. 

I think it looks absolutely amazing - something about it just looks more scale. Great job with the body and wing too. 

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Minor details in this post, but have now taken off the blue spacers and replaced with either black or orange spacers, to match the general paint scheme of the car. 

Rear upper shock mount spacer position now looks a lot better:

Tt02b formula

 

Tt02b formula

 

Front upper shock spacers are black (couldn’t find orange in this size in time): 

Tt02b formula

 

The rear tie rods are now fitted with  slightly longer spacers to make them more parallel to the drive axle:

Tt02b formula

 

All in all these spacers were quite inexpensive, but took ages to arrive from Asia. Interestingly, they are threaded, so they’re actually screwed onto the mounting screws.

The electrics are now installed and all working (after taking ages to fix some mysterious gremlins).

Tt02b formula

 

Tyres are all glued up. Went for a very quick run round the kitchen.

Ready to run. 

 

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Alex, I really like how your Formula TT02B turned out.  I might just have to build one for myself sometime!

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On 5/28/2018 at 12:17 PM, ALEXKYRIAK said:

Formula TT02B

Did you use item #53301? (I need something to fit the standard tamiya arms)

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Hi @vodka, no the pin and e-clip you see is from the GPM steering knuckle and hub kits. Essentially it's the same thing in principle - shaft and e-clips - but I don't know if it fits the standard Tamiya arms.

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On 5/28/2018 at 8:17 PM, ALEXKYRIAK said:

Hi all, so am posting here with my ‘experiment’, a road going TT02B, modded to be a low ride height asphalt race car.

With the Neo Scorcher (actually, most buggies) I always like to push the car down to the floor and admire the dropped, low ride height, stance. (It’s a wonder I don’t have an on-road car as of yet.  But in my typical fashion my first road car would have to be a modified off road car, I can’t just go out and buy one... who does that??)

So this isn’t a proper build thread, more a ‘build notes’, with some pics of the car and some interesting mods along the way. I won’t go through all the build steps.

So here’s the car:

TT02B formula 

 

TT02B formula 

 

I was really keen to see what could be done with the TT02B chassis, given that it has been developed as a dual road and off-road platform, by using the B-spec version, but making it on-road.

Essentially I like the idea of using the longer arms and the bigger wheels and track from the buggy spec, whilst trying to turn the car into a low centre of gravity, relatively stiffly sprung, on road racer.

I was googling TT02B road going versions and I found one guy who had done an MS with home made aluminium damper plates to drop the car low. So it had been done, now I could properly commit to the project.

So this car has some tricks to it. The primary modification is to the damper plates.  I needed to drop the car to have about 8-10mm clearance.  I did lots of measuring and eyeball calculations, and developed some drawings to send to Fiber-Lyte in the UK, who can cut bespoke carbon fibre pieces. 

damper2 

This is measured from the FRP plates of the TT02B MS kit damper plates. Pictured above are two variants of a rear damper plate with a 22mm drop from the standard buggy damper mount holes.

BAby 

 

Here is a comparison of the FRP rear plate, vs the custom carbon low height plate: 

 

BAby 

 

After a bit of trial and error I arrived at the perfect damper mount drop height, and hole options, for different damper spacing and heights. I subsequently had to design and order a bespoke front damper also, as I wasn’t quite getting the correct ride height from the kit plates  

Formula TT02B 

 

I planned to use 55mm shocks on all four corners, these orange aluminium ones from Yeah Racing. Yummy - shiny orange! They were a good build and quality, compared to to the mighty Tamiya. These came with a range of spring settings.

Formula TT02B 

 

So here is the chassis put together for the first time:

Formula TT02B 

I used a standard TT02B kit, as opposed to the MS version, as it worked out more convenient to use the standard kit and add a couple of hop ups, given the fact I was going to use a lot of custom pieces 

The ride height looked good, about 14mm rear and 10mm front. If this is too low even for a beautifully flat piece of asphalt and I can increase this later.

Formula TT02B 

The chassis reminds me almost of a go-kart in terms of the low chassis plane and four wheels relatively big compared to rhe chassis, with a wide track

Here is the rear damper plate installed:

Formula TT02B 

I used black aluminium lower arms from GPM Racing - I know metal arms are not good for buggies, but I figured this was a road car so perhaps stiffer, less flexible arms might be ok! 

I had spare blue spacers from some old kits and hop up, these being used to space the dampers off the relatively thin 3mm carbon damper plate. I sourced some super cheap orange and black ones from eBay, which will get fitted on arrival. The view of the ride height from the rear:

Formula TT02B

 

Here is the aluminium arm fitted in it own. It’s quite interesting and paired down compared to the stock plastic part

Formula TT02B 

 

The following photo is of an early test fit using a standard buggy carbon front damper plate, which didn’t give enough clearance at all (hence the subsequent design and ordering of a new front damper plate) but the photo is quite informative:

Formula TT02B 

 

You can see a TT01 foam bumper plate fitted to the front. I used a standard mounting components, but had to get creative with how it all fitted together - a bit of dremel to the clamp and to the chassis, and some longer screws, which I’ll need to replace with flatter heads.

Formula TT02BX

Originally I had been wondering if I’d use this foam as the base for some sort of front wing. Will get onto that later. It gives the car a bit of balance and hopefully some protection. 

To keep the car in a ‘formula’ concept of racing chassis, I found these Proline Prime ‘slicks’ tyres, which are smooth and super grippy. These are for buggies for high grip internal use, if I recall correctly, hence 2.2inch diameter. They are intended for 4wd, so a set for rear and a set for front were ordered.

Formula TT02B

 

So here is a few shots of the first test fitting of the body. I had some particular modifications or ‘amendments’ that I had to figure out ahead of time, to ensure clearance and coverage were retained, and to maintain a ‘formula’ racing appearance.

Formula TT02B

 

Formula TT02B

 

I made the most significant amendment to the front end. I hate the way so much of the front of the TT02B shells are cut away. Clearly this is for clearance of suspension, steering, upper link arms, etc. However, with so little suspension travel anticipated on this build, I could hopefully retain a lot more of the shell and keep it more tightly packaged at the front of the chassis. 

 

Formula TT02B

 

The keen of mind amongst you will instantly spot that the steering link needs to be detached at one end to be able to fit the shell! The height, size and position of the steering aperture was calculated and measured over and over again to ensure clearance of the steering arm across the whole steering range and suspension travel.

Whilst we’re at the front end, here you can also see Black aluminium GPM steering knuckle and hub, and Yeah Racing universals:

Formula TT02B

 

Side view of the shell fitting. I intended for the shell to sit further forward and lower onto the chassis, therefore I can’t use the pin body mounts as they would not align to the body holes. I’ve therefore got some Velcro tabs mounted to the inside of the shell to allow this fit.

Formula TT02B

 

 

At the rear end, I also left more shell intact, again to keep the body more tightly packaged to the chassis. I will have to consider airflow and cooling a bit down the line, given that this shell is much tighter than normal.

Formula TT02B

You can see the  ridge for the stock cutting line.

Formula TT02B

 

 

That’s about it for the mods andcammendments. The following pics show the car with painted shell, not yet stickered and decalled. I will need to think hard about decals, I might design some and print them via MCI Racing.

I agonised for ages over the colours and design, looking at many F1, Le Mans, GT3 and endurance racing liveries for inspiration. In the end I chickend out of anything too complex. 

I eventually went with Metallic Orange, backed with Bright Silver, and then Black  as per @speedy_w_beans advice. (Edit: and thanks to @Kingfisher and @VagabondStarJXF also!)

Originally I thought it came out too dark, but it’s actually grown on me and looks fab in bright sun. I still want to try a more complex ‘racing’ paint scheme in the future however, I feel I missed an opportunity. 

 

TT02B formula

 

TT02B formula

 

TT02B formula

 

I left a lot more plastic on the rear wing, to increase the size of the side face.

Formula TT02B 2

 

Formula TT02B 2

 

This also clearly shows the rear dampers, damper mount, shocks, arms, universals, and ride height. I’m using plastic rear hubs for now from the stock kit, will replace with black aluminium ones when they arrive.

Here you can also see the extended rear portion of the body-shell just inside the left rear:

Formula TT02B 2

 

Here is the finished front of shell around the steering:

Formula TT02B

 

Formula TT02B

 

Here is the front damper plate (and some dodgy super gluing):

Formula TT02B 2

 

The Proline tyres are fitted to Kyosho Fazer black FAH203BK and 204BK wheels front and rear. Hopefully this will be a good combo. Need to glue thectyres before running.

Formula TT02B 2

 

Formula TT02B 2

 

So this is where the build currently stands. Need to fit some electrics to power the 10.5t speed passsion MMM motor. Will  need a decent ESC and cooling for this car  

TT02B formula

 

Formula TT02B 2

 

Formula TT02B 2

 

Formula TT02B

 

Formula TT02B 2

 

Formula TT02B

 

Comparison to a buggy spec ride height on the TT02B MS

XX

 

Xy

 

So that’s all for now on this experiment in this ‘Formula Neo Scorcher’, will post back when decals are done and with a run (when I find time to go out for a run with this and other cars...) . It’s been amazing fun so far!

TT02B formula

 

TT02B formula

 

This is a real piece of art. How does it drive? Just got my self a TT02B for bashing around you have totally inspired me to do something similar. I have a vintage Vanquish and finding it hard find parts to get it up and running as a stock buggy. I think I will build a Formula Vanquish instead. Thanks for sharing. 

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Hello mate, sorry for the late reply. Thank you! A formula vanquish would be amazing.

Since building this I started looking at a similar general concept with an avante shell either on an avante chassis, or even on an egress chassis. It would tickle all my mod genes. Then I started thinking about going seriously mod and trying a super low centre of gravity gearbox design, similar to an f1 rc car. Looked at f104 and a 1/8 scale serpent f1 car as precedents.  But this would require some serious bespoke modifications or a bespoke 3D printed design,  for gearboxes, suspension geometry, and incorporating buggy arms and wheel size.  

However both of those ideas are super expensive in terms of both money and time. Still, doesn’t stop me dreaming about it but they’re a long long long long shot....

To answer your question, tragically, I haven’t run it yet. I really regret it. I was worried about that front foam mount plastic piece being too low and whether it would contact any imperfections on the running surface, and then winter happened, so I lost the opportunity.  So, currently am hoping for a dry day sometime soon to give it a spin. Will of course document in here on TamiyaClub...! :)  

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@ALEXKYRIAK you are an inspiration to us all with your build. I'm just getting around to finishing my Formula Dark Impact... car is based on one of my DF-03MS with a 3Racing carbon chassis, front c-hubs and knuckles, Yeah Racing rear hubs, steering saver and prop shaft, Tamiya DF-03Ra front and rear carbon shock towers, TrackStar big bore shocks: 68mm at front, 61mm at rear, assorted blue alloy chinesium screws, spacers, washers, ball-ends etc., and the wheels & tyres are just cheap junk until I get some good ones like yours. Just need to put in an ESC and Rx and we're good to go. Oh, and need some better weather!😀😀

1AKiQNY.jpg

XyoFR3d.jpg

qwRZH8T.jpg

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Oooh nice @martinjpayne! Great bodyshell. Is that a custom solution to the front bumper or is that a standard part? Interesting to see this being attempted on another chassis! Build thread? 

Just out of interest, can you use front c-hub from another chassis, such as TT02B, on the DF03? The upper arms could come in from the rear rather than the top as is currently shown in your pics. 

 Also, looks like you could get a lower profile front end, with a bespoke shaped carbon damper piece to reduce the height of the tower a little. Shocks would need a minor shorten. 

Yummy, keep us posted :) 

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@ALEXKYRIAK, good idea on the c-hubs: I'll look into that.

The front bumper is standard upper and lower parts straight from the DF-03Ra (the DF-03 is my go-to chassis: I've this car, three -03Ra's and two -03MS's in various states of rebuild, and almost enough bits to build a seventh!:o:o)

I've been thinking about a different front shock mount for some time, as I want to rebuild one of the -03MS's into an Avante Mk.2 but using cues from the original Avante like shallow angle front shocks and 8mm alloy ball-ends on 4mm turnbuckles. That's actually how this one started, but then I got sidetracked by your project.:lol:

Never did a build thread as it was just an experiment, but here's a picture without bodyshell showing how low it rides, 9mm at front, 11mm at rear:

swtk45x.jpg

And one with a couple of it's siblings:

Dwn4zd8.jpg

Edited by martinjpayne
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@ThunderDragonCy Thanks, though I think the formula car would probably look better if I could find a Keen Hawk body for it!:lol:

I may also swap back to a plastic chassis, as the carbon one weighs twice as much!!:huh: 

@ALEXKYRIAK Would it be too much to ask how much Fibre-Lyte charged for the damper stays you had custom made? And turn-around time? Quality of finished product? Thanks in advance.:)

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Charge from fiberlyte for something like that for a front mount would be about 7 quid for the part and 4 quid for postal, that’s my estimate based on a similar type of order I’ve made in the past.  Email them with questions, they’re very responsive.  

Keen Hawk...Like this one...?

KH

I love that shell. But quite rare it seems. I tracked this one down on eBay after a very long search, and then no one bid against me. I assumed no one likes it? Even Team Bluegroove don’t make replicas.  Good chassis for a formularisation though. 

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