The Tamiya Super Avante #58696 Information and Pictures

[Howards 790]

14 hours ago, Sandboy said:

would you be changing anything for carpet racing for example

Yes, loads, the chassis is set up for dirt out of the box, and needs a lot of changes to make it good on Carpet; 

• Gear diffs
• More weight forward 
• lower ride height
• Less rear toe, less anti-squat 
• Longer camber links rear 
• Shims below the ball studs on the front caster blocks to further lower roll centre 
• Short wheelbase (but I run this anyway) 
• Stiffer suspension i.e. 400 front, 500 rear, springs to match. Weights assume large diameter shocks.
• Carpet suitable tyres, i.e. Fusion 2 and Cactus 
• Would give it less caster if I felt it needed it and it was easy to do (it's not) 

14 hours ago, Sandboy said:

posts about the relatively poor turning performance of the TD4, have you done anything to your car to fix this, or does it come down to driving skill (which I’m sadly lacking)?

This is a myth, right? Once you've fitted UJs and removed the steering lock limiters on the caster blocks if you are lacking steering response and rotation there are some changes you can make, i.e. thinner oil in the rear diff, further roll-centre adjustments, more weight forward,  more front toe out (to a point) etc. But it could just be your tyres are done as I find carpet eats them.

[Sandboy 13]

@Howards thanks for the really great answer. Much of your list I’ve pretty much got sorted ready for tomorrows club meet. There is probably a Noob goes racing thread to go through but I might be back with questions.

I was curious about more front weight. Im running a shorty down the centre away from the rear. Would you still look for more weight up front?

[Sandboy 13]

On 2/7/2025 at 12:56 AM, Howards said:

Yeah, this.

its rare that you can pin product failure on one facet. It’s always more complex and nuanced. 

something I found interesting was that even the folks racing Vintage Tamiya - successfully too! - didn’t know the TD4/2 existed. There seemed to be a real awareness problem. 

The retro racers at our club with TopForce Evo’s were surprised too with the TD4 car. Now the TD4 is discontinued it makes me wonder if the car will achieve cult status like the original Avante. Oh the irony.

[Howards 790]

10 hours ago, Sandboy said:

Would you still look for more weight up front?

I run a shorty forward with the ESC on the lower deck at the back. This moves the weight balance forward without it getting nose heavy.. I also run the steel idler gear in the front gearbox. I haven't felt the need to add more forward, but you could experiment with tungsten paste (used in fishing) if you felt it needed more. The alloy parts will also go some way here, but I don't bother with them as I don't believe they add anything for performance other than blue shiny.

Forgot to mention, you want the roll bars for carpet and astro, but the front one is stupid and you'll break the mounting tabs on the lower gearbox case fairly quickly  I'm looking to make a solution that has it better attached to the front gearbox. Try the thick one on the rear.