TD-2 - New Astute

[Howards 443]

Going to fit VQS / Avante shocks to mine. 

[Howards 443]

Hi caps that is. 

However, how hard would it have been for them to have shipped the kit with yellow CVAs...

[Toad16v 269]

Finished mine, but needs paint.

Nice build, good plastics like the xv01. Enjoyed the build, but would do a few things different a second time around. Haven't fitted the mud guards and put on another set of rear wheels with df03 rear tyres, but built stock right now apart from this. Had a bit of a drive around in the street. It seems really quite slow. Going to fit a 20t pinion if I can find one in box of bits and see what that is like. 21t brushed motor with NIMH battery, same as all my other cars.

Turn in doesn't seem amazing, but probably need to learn to balance the throttle when cornering. Wonder if there is a better front tyre option out there.

Have got on order a metal adjustable rear suspension mount and a TA06 gear diff.

[rwordenjr 1888]

What motor you got installed ? My td4 has slipper with 30t pinion and I plan on doing the same to the td2. 10.5t in the td4, 17.5t in the td2 

[Toad16v 269]

On 3/20/2022 at 11:04 PM, rwordenjr said:

What motor you got installed ? My td4 has slipper with 30t pinion and I plan on doing the same to the td2. 10.5t in the td4, 17.5t in the td2 

An SMD 21t brushed motor, generic black can sold as many other brands. I've got them in most of my cars. 

Fitted the 20t pinion. It's a lot better.

Think it turns well either as the speed drops to a certain point or the weight transfers. Will experiment more.

The suspension is very soft, it rolls on cornering, looks pliable as it goes over bumps and I think this improves the grip rather than hinders or debilitates handling. Anti roll bars might be interesting, may even improve turn-in.

Painted the shell today with bright gunmetal, not the best one I've done but the silvery finish suits the shape I think.

[joeling 1334]

Yeah, I also have questions on motor & gearing. I have a spare Tamiya 15.5T which is only 2300KV. Paired with the slipper, I will need a 36T pinion to do 42km/h for a gear ratio of 5.71. Logical ? or madness ? For a modern buggy, it should at least b able to do 40km/h no ?

[rwordenjr 1888]

2 minutes ago, joeling said:

Yeah, I also have questions on motor & gearing. I have a spare Tamiya 15.5T which is only 2300KV. Paired with the slipper, I will need a 36T pinion to do 42km/h for a gear ratio of 5.71. Logical ? or madness ? For a modern buggy, it should at least b able to do 40km/h no ?

15.5 is more than enough on 2wd if geared right. I have 17.5t geared correctly in 2wd cars and it’s fast 

[ThunderDragonCy 7073]

46 minutes ago, joeling said:

Yeah, I also have questions on motor & gearing. I have a spare Tamiya 15.5T which is only 2300KV. Paired with the slipper, I will need a 36T pinion to do 42km/h for a gear ratio of 5.71. Logical ? or madness ? For a modern buggy, it should at least b able to do 40km/h no ?

5.7 sounds good for a 15.5. I know when racing 17.5 2wd people aim for a little less than 6 FDR too. 

[matisse 1568]

Thinking of how to use the front arms on a DT02/3, do we think there will be issues mounting the shocks?

[matisse 1568]

1 minute ago, matisse said:

Thinking of how to use the front arms on a DT02/3, do we think there will be issues mounting the shocks?

And yes, this is part of my next project.

[BloodClod 235]

First Impressions at the Track
Wired up the TD2 Astute 2022 and took it for a test run at the local rack today. The car is running a basic 120A Hobbywing Quicrun ESC with a 10.5 brushless motor and I have 3 aftermarket items installed in the car.

Options and Settings
The first is the slipper clutch which I consider a must-have when doing any real sort of track running along with the second item which is a metal diff nut for the ball differential. The third item installed are a pair of old DF02 front shocks that I had in my parts box. The reason I installed them is that the stock shocks have limited travel which results in the front end of the car being unable to bottom out on full compression. The DF02 shocks have more travel once the internal limiters are removed - so I was able to use the rearward shock mounting holes to get more uptravel while maintaining the same droop settings. For those who are interested, I used 3-hole pistons in the front shocks with AE 35wt oil and for the rear I ran 2-hole pistons with the stock kit oil - stock kit springs all around. I was running Schumacher Mezzo on the rears and cut staggers in the front - yellow compound all round. Other than that, the car is pretty much stock. For power I am running a shorty pack in the battery compartment but it is spaced all the way to the left. The space on the left is taken up by some battery foam spacers and another 25g of weight to balance the car out.

The Track
I ran the car on the local astro-turf track. It is an outdoor track so traction is medium-high and the surface is bumpy. The track has some mid-sized jumps and tight hairpins - overall a decent track imo to test the overall performance of the car.

Impressions
I really didn't know what to expect when I put the car on the track. After a few slow laps to make sure the car was functioning well I started to push the car more.

JUMPING＆ LANDING: The car actually jumped very well - it was predictable, easy to control and had a very neutral jumping attitude. The suspension settings were also surprisingly good when it came to the landings, the car settled well after each jump without being unsettled. I don't expect much out of Tamiya's stock shock settings but this was pretty on point.

STRAIGHT LINE: This car was a rocket. I think my gearing was probably too high but the car handled it like a champ. It shot down the straights confidently. I put the car on my scales and the front/rear weight with my shorty pack was about 37/63 which I think is in the ballpark of the typical mid-motor buggy today. Great on the straights.

CORNERING: The car corners well but this is where it lacks a bit of the aggressiveness of my other race buggies. I peg this down to the slightly more limited physical steering angles of the wheels at full lock on this car. To be clear, the car doesn't turn like a truck - not at all - but at the tight hairpins I had to push the car harder just to get the front to bite harder and the rear to come around. On the plus side, the car handled the rest of the track very comfortably with the steering feeling predictable and never twitchy. Again I was impressed with the largely stock suspension settings which were just a tad soft for the astro track, but still very good.

TRANSMISSION: The transmission of the car is silky smooth. I liked the positive feel of the throttle and how the car puts power down. Time will tell how well the gears will wear, but first impressions are pretty darn good. I did have one problem with the rear dogbones though... and it was a similar problem I had experienced on the front of my TD4. For some reason, after some hard running, the sponge spacers in the outdrives will get chewed up which leads to engagement issues where the dogbone meets the outdrives. I will put a thicker piece of sponge in their and try again - but given the performance of the car so far I might be willing to spring some $$$ for universals.

Overall
I was really pleasantly surprised with the car. Although I expected it would be able to get around the track, I had thought that it would need quite some work to keep up with the other race cars. The TD2 actually did a pretty good job of keeping up with most of the AEs and Yokomos. I wouldn't say it is a better race car than these thoroughbred competition buggies (it's not and don't expect it to be), but I think in the hands of a decent driver it'd give the other guys at the club a good dogfight or two. I also love the look of that F1-styled body zipping around the track and there's always a bit of fun when a fellow racer comes to your pit table and realizes he was battling with an odd-looking, plastic chassied Tamiya...

First track impressions of the TD2 are all positive and I think Tamiya has developed a really unique car that has that Tamiya DNA but yet feels at home at the track - perfect for the guy looking to challenge himself with something different.

[Misterp180 236]

@BloodClod that is a great write up and thanks a bunch!

is the front steering limited like on the TD4? I heard guys removing the stoppers in the Td4 but I haven’t seen anything similar in the TD2 yet.

 

[Howards 443]

Probably needs a bit more weight on the front end for it really bite when cornering. 

[BloodClod 235]

6 hours ago, Misterp180 said:

@BloodClod that is a great write up and thanks a bunch!

is the front steering limited like on the TD4? I heard guys removing the stoppers in the Td4 but I haven’t seen anything similar in the TD2 yet.

 

The td2 builds without any steering limiters.

 

6 hours ago, Howards said:

Probably needs a bit more weight on the front end for it really bite when cornering. 

Yes, I tested the car further today and with more laps in, my next test is to add a tad more weight upfront. To help the nose have a more natural drop to get back on steering faster on landing the jumps. 

[BloodClod 235]

One little challenge I'm finding so far is that with the stock springs I'm unable to achieve the lower ride height I normally run on astro. This has resulted in the buggy rolling a bit more so the response around corners becomes a bit lazier and it's easier to roll the car on high speed corners. Will hunt in my parts box for other springs, but I'm trying to see what performance I can get out of as many stock parts as I can.

I think the stock springs should be good on dirt though. As soon as weather here dries up a bit I'll try the car on dirt.

[joeling 1334]

Here's my entry

Mark is spot on 37/63 F/R weight distribution. Mine with full sized Lipo without body.

[BloodClod 235]

Finished painting the body today. I decided not to go with a one color scheme and also not to use the stock decals which I thought emphasized some of the body lines too much. Quite like how it turned out. I really like the bubble cockpit of this shell... I find it's shape and mid-cab placement rather unique amidst today's selection of buggies.

Must admit the td2 body didn't appeal to me when I first saw it, but I've really grown to like it.

 

[Superluminal 3476]

That's great! Some serious masking skills with those colours.

[Howards 443]

Good job ^^

[mastino 942]

This Is mine, almost complete.

 

 

[toyolien 3797]

Heres mine just waiting on body and driver. 

 

 

[ThunderDragonCy 7073]

Can't help thinking that these would look great with one of the Dragon bodies on. 

[Mokei Kagaku 2649]

15 hours ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

Can't help thinking that these would look great with one of the Dragon bodies on. 

Courtesy of oshiruko_rc on Twitter He/she was quick and posted this one on Twitter back in December:

 

 

[ThunderDragonCy 7073]

@Mokei Kagaku Nice! I have seen a TD4 with a Super Dragon body too. I think a Saint Dragon would look even better. 

[Richardrpm 98]

16 hours ago, toyolien said:

Heres mine just waiting on body and driver. 

 

 

What shocks are those?