Plastic (kit) age, does it matter?

[Morinstal 170]

Hello guys

A little background. Im planning to build a budget rally car just for fun. Chassis option: used TL01 $75, NIB 2020 tt01e ford cobra $150, or NIB 2008 tt01e suzuki wrc $200.

Id love to get that suzuki wrc but its age is 10year++, tl01 is 20 year++. What im worried is due to nature of rallying/offroad, they wont last long XD.

Yes i know some of people here said "be moderate with ur tamiya kit and it'll be fine", but still......., and that brings me to the thread title.

So any comment / advice??

 

 

 

 

[mud4fun 1696]

I don't think age is the biggest factor.

We run vintage and newer buggies daily and are pushing them hard and yes we get breakages but not always to do with aging of the plastics.

In most cases the parts were weak or used poor quality plastics even when new and indeed many of our most common breakages are the exact same breakages I used to get within hours of building the buggies from brand new kits back in the 80's and 90's. (eg. Vanquish rear deck, Thundershot A5, Avante2001/Egress hubs etc)

We have now ironed out all our most common weak points by either using aftermarket alloy parts (yeah racing alloy hubs on the avante class buggies and DIY work around to thundershot A5 etc)

We have also noticed very brittle cheap plastic on brand new Tamiyas that the kids got for xmas and signs that they will not last very long at all without being swapped for aftermarket hop-ups or DIY reinforcement.

So my advice would be to choose a chassis that you like and is generally a capable rally car then find out what the known weak points are and buy modern hop-up parts for those areas.

 

edit: I had both TL01 and TB01 chassis many years ago. I preferred the TB01 because mine had a nice clear plastic cover over the entire tub, the tub was a good shape for sliding over obstacles and the motor was better protected too. Mine had the Mitsubishi Evo shell on it. Ground clearance wasn't great but it survived quite hard abuse around our garden track. Sadly I think the TL01 was more popular as it was cheaper at the time and there were more hop ups made I believe?

 

[Saito2 6686]

Depends on the type of plastic I suppose. ABS plastics suffer from plasticizer migrating from the piece in question over time. How much this occurs in an unused, unopened kit may be negligible. I honestly don't know. What would worry me more is an assembled kit (used) and where it was stored. I do know exposure to UV will speed up plasticizer migration. I've had used Tamiyas crumble to bits, one piece at a time, while others have had no problem.  A PA plastic like nylon can use revitalized by boiling in water. I suspect a longer soak in water would have the same effect and that boiling may just speed the process. Anyone with more knowledge, please feel free to elaborate.  

[Mad Ax 9325]

I'm still racing TL01 chassis, no idea how old the plastics are but they're certainly not new.  No breakages for quite a while, so I wouldn't worry.

If you're going for TT01E or TL01 then all the plastics are still available NIP, so you should be able to fix any breakages.

Both will need some subtle modding for rally action - longer shock eyes to increase ride height, and proper rally block tyres are a good start.  I'm sure there's a good thread somewhere about converting a TT01 for rallying, or was that a TT02?  I forget.  Some putty in the rear diff wouldn't go amiss if you're racing on slippery surfaces (which of course you should be if you're rallying )

[Morinstal 170]

Thanks guys.

Ive decided to buy the tt01e ford cobra, $50 difference for light kit that i wont use and the wrc body, could get something else.

Though TL01 is a lot cheaper, i couldnt find its hop-ups in my local emarket, compared to abundant tt01 hop-ups.

@Mad Ax Yes, there is some tt01 rally mod thread in TC, planning to lock the rear diff XD, 3racing/Yeahracing made a solid axle for tt01.