Post by ianlloyd on Nov 9, 2015 17:21:05 GMT
Part 1.
So having decided a while ago, during the summer in fact, to have a go at this Scale TC thing and hoping to be ready for the first SWICC round to be held at SHMCC I purchased at a very reasonable price, a pair of Tamiya TT02 cars. One with the Alfa 155 body and one with the Zakspeed Capri body. Several evenings of building and fettling later both cars were ready for action. Andrew had built the Alfa and I had built the Capri. Mine was better as I had used all the decals provided but then I had more time!.
We had decided that there were some upgrades we had to fit right from the start. That was caused by reading up on the internet about what you needed to do to make them work. Yes another one of those car kits that you apparently need to spend money on to make them work properly! Mainly the upgrades were to the drive train and drive shafts (including a full bearing set) little did we know what else we would need!
Running to regulation Saturn 20 brushed motor and maximum gear ratio (5.45) there was in truth not a great deal of extra expense in the cars. We did convert the spur/pinion to 48DP which meant buying an adaptor and an alloy motor mount but that really just makes it easier for us as we only had 48DP pinions available.
So to the first race at the SWICC. Well, what can you say? The speed was OK I suppose and was certainly in the same region as everyone else but that is about all you could say. The handling was dire and I mean dire! The Alfa was not quite so bad and Andrew (well he is a better driver than me) managed an almost reasonable performance. However the Capri was downright undriveable. The amount of front end grip the shell generated was unbelievable and made cornering impossible. It was later we discovered that the TT02 itself has an issue with front end grip regardless of the shell on it but the Capri shell with its huge front splitter and air dam just made things worse. Later in the day after trying harder front springs, harder front tyres softer rears and pretty much everything else you could do to take away steering, I tried it with the old Dodge Viper shell and that made a huge difference. It was almost driveable, but not quite!
It was a great day even though all this and really good fun but nagging all the time was the terrible handling and what to do about it. We came away thinking both these cars were going in the loft never to be seen again.
Move on a few months and we started indoor carpet racing again for the winter period. Not wanting to have to make loads of changes to my perfectly set up for outdoors touring car, we decided it would be a good laugh to run the TT02 cars as the speed was not so important and a bit more research showed some changes that could be made to make the darn things handle. One of the major problems as with all these kind of cars in this price bracket (sub £100) and I hope I am not generalising too much here, is the fact you have lots of plastic fitted together with self-tapping screws. Fine in itself until you have undone them a few times, each re-tighten is a little bit more until they either strip or are so tight nothing works. With the TT02 the steering is fixed plastic links so no adjustment and self-tapping screws holding it all together. Yes correct, too tight and will not centralise. It was recommended that the upgrade alloy steering assembly was fitted so one was duly ordered to try in Andrew’s car. Also the rear hubs have very little toe in and again it was recommended to fit the upgrade 2.5 extra toe in alloy hubs. Again these were ordered. So another £60 spent on hop ups. I had already spent £45 on original hop ups with regards to the drive train etc. so I am now thinking this is not going to be as cheap a car as I originally thought!
A week or so later they arrive, get fitted, Andrew then tells me it has made a huge difference. Sigh of relief and prepare myself to order another set for my car. Then the problems start. While being fairly competitive the car suddenly stops mid race for no apparent reason. Motor was warmish as was the speedo but not excessively. Nothing appeared wrong and then it started going again. Ah speedo thermalling someone said. So change of speedo. Next race, same thing. In fact Andrew failed to finish a race that day. Some serious thinking and the addition of a capacitor on the receiver. Next week, perfect, no problems but hold on its 3 wheel drive now. One of the rear universal drive shafts had sheared. Never mind had a spare, fitted and all OK again.
So the next week and my parts had arrived and had been fitted and we were both looking forward to some uncomplicated, hassle free racing. Nope. My car was handling really badly even though both cars had been set up exactly the same. While one of the other necessary upgrades was a high torque servo saver, the one I had fitted was faulty and kept sticking. Never mind I had a spare so missed a race and fitted that, problem solved for almost an entire race. Then the steering went wonky again, would turn one way but not another. It was not until I got home I discovered a bent screw in the steering that had tightend the steering enough to make it not want to work in one direction coupled with the grub screw on one of the locating pins in a universal drive shaft had gone missing allowing the pin to come out and jam in the hub.
So once again a strip down, inspect, rebuild, more new parts, new turnbuckles in place of the fixed links and hopefully will be OK for next week.
In the meantime Andrew’s stopping problem had returned. Halfway through the race and the car just stopped. Leave it a minute and would go again. Sounds like heat but when we looked closely we could see that that when you operated the steering the light on the transponder dimmed and went out. Release the steering and it came on again, what the hell is that! Another big sigh, new speedo and complete rewire over the next two weeks and hopefully that will cure it.
I am thinking it would have been better and cheaper and far less hassle to have gone out and bought two top end touring cars, maybe last years models that are being cleared and raced those! I am certainly not impressed with buying cheap anymore because it aint! However in a last ditch attempt to have a car that worked for a whole race I stripped out the brushless set in the X Ray and fitted the same brushed set up required for scale TC rules….I thought, but then hold on! The T4 only has two bottom motor mounts and the fixed timing Saturn motors have only two opposed motor screw mounts. Result the darn motor cannot be fitted. So another idea out the window, this is getting pathetic! A quick look on the X Ray forum and a question asked about different motor mounts produced….nothing. So stuffed again. Back to the TT02 I guess or go out and buy yet another chassis!
What have we fitted to get this far? Well the list is endless, full bearing set, alloy propshaft, gearbox drives, motor mount, spur gear adaptor. Universal drive shafts (only on the front now as both rear ones snapped!). 2.5 deg toe in rear hubs, alloy steering assembly, Tamiya TRF shock kit with ball mounts. Hobbywing 1060 brushed speedo, Savox servo oh of course indoor tyres and wheels.
The original kit was £80 and I had the servo and receiver already, Tyres were £25 but would have needed them anyway. All the other parts including the motor total £153. I am sure some will think this over the top and I am one of them. For the same price I could have bought a second hand X Ray, TC 6 or Mi5 I am sure and had no problems. Hey ho I suppose I should have known better but there you go.
Anyone want to buy a TT02?
So having decided a while ago, during the summer in fact, to have a go at this Scale TC thing and hoping to be ready for the first SWICC round to be held at SHMCC I purchased at a very reasonable price, a pair of Tamiya TT02 cars. One with the Alfa 155 body and one with the Zakspeed Capri body. Several evenings of building and fettling later both cars were ready for action. Andrew had built the Alfa and I had built the Capri. Mine was better as I had used all the decals provided but then I had more time!.
We had decided that there were some upgrades we had to fit right from the start. That was caused by reading up on the internet about what you needed to do to make them work. Yes another one of those car kits that you apparently need to spend money on to make them work properly! Mainly the upgrades were to the drive train and drive shafts (including a full bearing set) little did we know what else we would need!
Running to regulation Saturn 20 brushed motor and maximum gear ratio (5.45) there was in truth not a great deal of extra expense in the cars. We did convert the spur/pinion to 48DP which meant buying an adaptor and an alloy motor mount but that really just makes it easier for us as we only had 48DP pinions available.
So to the first race at the SWICC. Well, what can you say? The speed was OK I suppose and was certainly in the same region as everyone else but that is about all you could say. The handling was dire and I mean dire! The Alfa was not quite so bad and Andrew (well he is a better driver than me) managed an almost reasonable performance. However the Capri was downright undriveable. The amount of front end grip the shell generated was unbelievable and made cornering impossible. It was later we discovered that the TT02 itself has an issue with front end grip regardless of the shell on it but the Capri shell with its huge front splitter and air dam just made things worse. Later in the day after trying harder front springs, harder front tyres softer rears and pretty much everything else you could do to take away steering, I tried it with the old Dodge Viper shell and that made a huge difference. It was almost driveable, but not quite!
It was a great day even though all this and really good fun but nagging all the time was the terrible handling and what to do about it. We came away thinking both these cars were going in the loft never to be seen again.
Move on a few months and we started indoor carpet racing again for the winter period. Not wanting to have to make loads of changes to my perfectly set up for outdoors touring car, we decided it would be a good laugh to run the TT02 cars as the speed was not so important and a bit more research showed some changes that could be made to make the darn things handle. One of the major problems as with all these kind of cars in this price bracket (sub £100) and I hope I am not generalising too much here, is the fact you have lots of plastic fitted together with self-tapping screws. Fine in itself until you have undone them a few times, each re-tighten is a little bit more until they either strip or are so tight nothing works. With the TT02 the steering is fixed plastic links so no adjustment and self-tapping screws holding it all together. Yes correct, too tight and will not centralise. It was recommended that the upgrade alloy steering assembly was fitted so one was duly ordered to try in Andrew’s car. Also the rear hubs have very little toe in and again it was recommended to fit the upgrade 2.5 extra toe in alloy hubs. Again these were ordered. So another £60 spent on hop ups. I had already spent £45 on original hop ups with regards to the drive train etc. so I am now thinking this is not going to be as cheap a car as I originally thought!
A week or so later they arrive, get fitted, Andrew then tells me it has made a huge difference. Sigh of relief and prepare myself to order another set for my car. Then the problems start. While being fairly competitive the car suddenly stops mid race for no apparent reason. Motor was warmish as was the speedo but not excessively. Nothing appeared wrong and then it started going again. Ah speedo thermalling someone said. So change of speedo. Next race, same thing. In fact Andrew failed to finish a race that day. Some serious thinking and the addition of a capacitor on the receiver. Next week, perfect, no problems but hold on its 3 wheel drive now. One of the rear universal drive shafts had sheared. Never mind had a spare, fitted and all OK again.
So the next week and my parts had arrived and had been fitted and we were both looking forward to some uncomplicated, hassle free racing. Nope. My car was handling really badly even though both cars had been set up exactly the same. While one of the other necessary upgrades was a high torque servo saver, the one I had fitted was faulty and kept sticking. Never mind I had a spare so missed a race and fitted that, problem solved for almost an entire race. Then the steering went wonky again, would turn one way but not another. It was not until I got home I discovered a bent screw in the steering that had tightend the steering enough to make it not want to work in one direction coupled with the grub screw on one of the locating pins in a universal drive shaft had gone missing allowing the pin to come out and jam in the hub.
So once again a strip down, inspect, rebuild, more new parts, new turnbuckles in place of the fixed links and hopefully will be OK for next week.
In the meantime Andrew’s stopping problem had returned. Halfway through the race and the car just stopped. Leave it a minute and would go again. Sounds like heat but when we looked closely we could see that that when you operated the steering the light on the transponder dimmed and went out. Release the steering and it came on again, what the hell is that! Another big sigh, new speedo and complete rewire over the next two weeks and hopefully that will cure it.
I am thinking it would have been better and cheaper and far less hassle to have gone out and bought two top end touring cars, maybe last years models that are being cleared and raced those! I am certainly not impressed with buying cheap anymore because it aint! However in a last ditch attempt to have a car that worked for a whole race I stripped out the brushless set in the X Ray and fitted the same brushed set up required for scale TC rules….I thought, but then hold on! The T4 only has two bottom motor mounts and the fixed timing Saturn motors have only two opposed motor screw mounts. Result the darn motor cannot be fitted. So another idea out the window, this is getting pathetic! A quick look on the X Ray forum and a question asked about different motor mounts produced….nothing. So stuffed again. Back to the TT02 I guess or go out and buy yet another chassis!
What have we fitted to get this far? Well the list is endless, full bearing set, alloy propshaft, gearbox drives, motor mount, spur gear adaptor. Universal drive shafts (only on the front now as both rear ones snapped!). 2.5 deg toe in rear hubs, alloy steering assembly, Tamiya TRF shock kit with ball mounts. Hobbywing 1060 brushed speedo, Savox servo oh of course indoor tyres and wheels.
The original kit was £80 and I had the servo and receiver already, Tyres were £25 but would have needed them anyway. All the other parts including the motor total £153. I am sure some will think this over the top and I am one of them. For the same price I could have bought a second hand X Ray, TC 6 or Mi5 I am sure and had no problems. Hey ho I suppose I should have known better but there you go.
Anyone want to buy a TT02?
