Evolution of the TL-01 racer

Winter racing season starts soon, and I'm preparing the TL-01 to actually race it this year. Last year I ran it once just for kicks, but since then it has acquired more upgrades. I am a nut to be running a TL-01 against TC5s, Xray T2 007s, JRX-Ses, etc, but it's mostly for fun.


The new body is an HPI Mercedes CLK DTM. I figured it'd be a decent compromise between the mass produced aerodynamic yet boring *cough Protoform cough* sedans and what I really wanted to run, a truck or vintage muscle. It'll be painted a metallic black and have full decals, unless anyone has better ideas. I'll have to play with the wheel offsets and ride height settings to get it to fit right but it's close and works well with the chassis.


Added a GPM alloy motor mount, which admittedly is more bling than function. It will probably tax the motor more in extra weight than it makes up for in cooling. There's also a GPM alloy spur now just for the heck of it. Finally found a set of Tamiya metric pitch pinions as well. A new Yokomo Core Stock motor should shift the car much better than the cruddy old mod stocks it used before, and an Associated slim heatsink hopefully will help cool it.


Up front I've installed a one-way diff, hopefully this will improve the car's cornering. It tended to lose rear grip easily, forcing me to take corners at a crawl no matter what setup I used. I am thinking the one-way should help it to pull better; I am used to running a locked front diff on my full size truck in the winter and I really enjoy steering by pointing the wheels and nailing the throttle. I'd like to install the anti-roll bars that I have for this car but I don't have a way to yet; I'll need to drill and tap the alloy arms for ball links and do some other stuff to fit them.


The new Futaba 9350 steering servo is rated at speed of .12 and torque of 139 oz/in, and with a new 75Mhz FM radio system with High Response System it should be much faster and more precise than the old S3003 with a standard AM system.


I've replaced most of the screws with stainless steel hex headed ones. Tires depend on the surface we race on, but rims I'm still undecided on. I like the HPI Corsas but they're just on for a mockup. Suggestions please on a realistic rim for this body? Other comments welcome too.

UPDATE 2014: Still have this car.