An old-school chassis with a new-school shell

This is the end result of my Coronapocalypse TA-02 build. Initially it was going to be a bitsa, but going through the stash of spares acquired for my DF-01 and FF-01, I came across enough to form the basis of a TA-02 - a car that I have been considering for my fleet for a while now after having worked on the lovely TA-01 belonging to @Jason1145. All I needed were a few more sprues and fittings, easily acquired online (mostly from Tony).

My initial ponderings were leaning towards a touring or GT-style build, but in the run-up to full lockdown I was considering different race formats that would be compatible with the social distancing recommendations in place at the time. With its lack of a driver's stand, self-marshalling, large open-air course permitting people to remain physically separated, etc, RC rallying seemed the natural choice.

Watching videos of RC rally events showed the venerable TA-02 to be surprisingly capable against modern rally-oriented chassis, and since I already have several TC- and GT-bodied cars in my fleet, I reckoned it was time that my lone rally car had a companion.