Any other TT02 here

[calcagno45]

Well after seeing some cheap Tamiya M cars on another forum, it got my wheels spinning since the Tamiya kits are cheap. So I started looking at the different models of Tamiya kits, exploring the different features and bodies. I knew I would want 4WD and shaft driven to start so I ended up zoning in on the TT-02 models. They offer the TT02, TT02D for drift, TT02S, and TT02R with different levels of upgrades and +/- a body.

I landed on the base model TT02 with a Mercedes Benz GT3 body. I really like the GT3 lines and looks.

Tower got the kit to me in 2 days time and I began to assemble shortly after. The parts trees are pretty well labeled and segmented by area making the parts pretty easy to find when needed. The bags of screws weren't as nicely labeled so it took a minute to sort thru them and make sure I knew which were which as needed by the instruction manual.

The instructions themselves are ok at best. They're very cluttered as it incorporates every language on the same page instead of separate instruction sets in different languages. They also list certain parts and screws on the side then put other parts needed in the illustrations. I missed a part or two because of this but its easy to go back and knock it out.

In no time, I had the diffs assembled and installed in the chassis tub with a-arms, hubs and motor installed. This was accomplished in roughly 2 hours time with no rush and a 3yr begging to go out in the rain.
I did opt for a bearing kit from Fast Eddy's for $15 versus buying the bearings separately. This definitely helped for a smooth drivetrain in the finished product.
My plan for now is to run the "Torque Tuned" motor until otherwise needed. I'm trying to keep it tamed for now to help my 3yr son learn to drive.

The next morning was installing the shocks, steering components, body mounts and electronics, which didn't take long at all. I soldered on new battery connections and charged up a 2s back and was good to go.

Time for a quick test drive. Man it's fun! The ESC/motor combo easily powers this car pretty quickly and can power into a drift nicely even without drift tires. Stock ESC brakes aren't too strong in brushed mode tho. Brushless mode has adjustable brake power and drag brake so I may swap to a 17.5T just for the brake adjustment. The car powers into a drift/donut easily one way but not the other way, thinking that's torque limiting. Stock setup does have some understeer so I'll see if I can fix that to turn in harder. Thinking of a ball diff for the front and maybe locking up the rear diff. For roughly $100, these kits are pretty great. Sensored capable esc, great bodies, easy to assemble. Overall this car is good, cheap fun and I'm looking forward to another.


Next up is tackling the body. My boy's favorite color is green so the car will be some variation of green. Not my first choice but hey!

 

[Shinchu]

not a TT02 but I built up a TT01R while I lived in japan back in 2007. I still have it somewhere. great little budget drifter with drift tires and epoxied diffs lol
it does have its limits though. even with the adjustable camber arms, its not much adjustment. that said, there are conversions from eagle racing that will blow your mind.
unfortunately the TT01 support is nearly dried up and hard to find stuff for it, and not sure if TT02 stuff fits? I would love to go RWD eagle conversion with a gyro.
or just bite the bullet and start a new build on MST rwd. maybe keep the TT01 for my son.

Yep, fun little cars and I have been meaning to find mine and dust it off for some mad skidz yo.

 

[svt923]

The Tamiya M chassis are a blast. I recently dusted off my M05 to upgrade to the ver II chassis for running square batteries and made a quick release short pack holder. They can be a handful to drive compared to a 4wd car, the TT02 is a much better first venture in street vehicles.

My cousin ordered a TT02R yesterday as his first on-road car and it was really cheap. Not to be out done, I ordered the last TT02R Tower had in stock (I paid $105 shipped, what else is going to be as fun as a Tamiya kit for that price?). The R version is my favorite because it includes the high speed gear set, aluminum center shaft, oil shocks, bearings, and aluminum rear hubs, those are pretty much all the upgrades the TT02 needs.

I saved a bunch of parts from my last on-road car (wheels, tires, body, low profile servo, etc) so the only thing I really need to hunt down is a 17.5 motor. The TT02R includes the adapter so you can throw on nearly any on-road spur gear. I ordered a 55T 48P spur and 33T pinion to get the final drive ratio down to a more fun level. Nearly 30 mph with a 17.5 on 2S is plenty fast to be amusing. :mrgreen:

Good luck on the body, that definitely takes the most time when assembling a Tamiya.

 

[calcagno45]

Very nice M! The cheap price of the M chassis is what go me looking. I was always skeptical of the Tamiya kits and their quality, not having touched them ever, but I'm darn glad I did. Now Tamiyausa.com has a FF03 out the door for $105 that I'm eyeballing as well.

Good to see you picked one up as well. Almost wishing I did the R version now as I'm looking at the high speed gear set, alu prop shaft, and oil shocks already. I just got a Tekin 17.5T in hand so I'll be looking to gear it a little faster here shortly. Also have a 13.5T coming and will need to relearn about timing on these 2 pole motors.

Are you keeping the stock servo saver on or using an arm? I think I'll be switching out to a servo arm here shortly.

 

[svt923]

A $100 FF03!?!? Don't tell me things like that.

The other TT02 part to look for is the Yeah Racing adjustable motor mount. It is the way to fit way more gearing options on the car and only costs about $12. From by brief foray into pretending I was an on-road racer, I learned 17.5 motors need a final drive ratio around 4-4.5. The high speed gear set gets to about 6.5 so there is much room for gearing and timing. 40-50 degrees isn't uncommon for newer motors but you don't have to be that aggressive with a parking lot runner. I have a Trinity Killshot 17.5 on the way for my TT02 since I needed to pony up for something that can keep up with my cousin's Trinity D3.5. :mrgreen:

As for the servo, I think I'm going to servo horns on both the M05 and TT02. Unless you get a fancy servo saver with high rate springs (like the X-ray one), they end up causing the steering to wander too much for my liking. The stock Tamiya servo is especially bad.

 

[calcagno45]

Yep! tamiyausa.com has a FF03 with Honda Civic body for $100.80, https://www.tamiyausa.com/items/rad...d-cars-(ff01-02-03)-36250/rc-honda-cr-z-58490

I ended up getting a high speed gear set, alu prop shaft and set of CVA mini shocks coming as well. I figured I'd need to bump up the gearing the 17.5T.

 

[calcagno45]

It's been a while since I cut out a new body. I always used body scissors and kinda hacked it up. On this, I decided to check the YouTube out for tips and it seemed like the scoring method works best. So I grabbed a utility blade/box cutter and went to town...

Getting the hang of it

This is definitely the cleaner method to cutting bodies and getting clean lines and cuts.

All cut out.

The body lines and detail are great! Man this is a good looking body. And to top it off, I hadn't looked at the decal sheet. O my! These are great!

Again, for $100 these Tamiya kits can't be beat.

 

[Shinchu]

Yup i always score my bodies. Afterward, a little sanding is great with dremel, just go light/slow.

All this talk about gears, 17.5 turn motors, 2S lipo... man i need to break out my old tt01. I need a new esc though. Mine will handle down to like 12 turn but no reverse lol i just wanted fast and cheap! No idea about lipo on that one, that was experimental tech back in 2006 haha would probably smoke in 30 seconds. I remember its made by keyence... nothing else unless i dig the car out of storage... been wanting a scion frs body so it matches my 1:1.

I would still like to know what is the difference between tt01 and tt02.

 

[calcagno45]

I believe the difference is mainly in the tub layout for lipo usage, with a new style motor mount. Some of the plastics have been reinforced with fiber as well.

 

[svt923]

Suspension geometry changes, durability, and the lipo compatibility are the main ones between the TT01 and TT02 but there are a few other good changes.

-The center shaft is a new design that is stronger and allows for standard spur gears to be used (with a simple adapter)
-The lower gear cases are molded into the chassis making them stronger with less chance to warp under load and wreck the gears.
-Lower arm mounts are separate from the bulkheads so you are much less likely to break a bulkheads in a crash.
-Revised steering rack for much less slop.

 

[durok]

Many years ago I had several Tamiya kits - so much fun. M03 was my favorite to drive, even though (or maybe because?) it's challenging compared to AWD. I ran it stock with the Mini Cooper body/wheels and tires for a long time, then got a wild hair and put a HPI New Beetle body on it with 2.2 HPI Super 5-spokers & slicks and ran it on a groomed offroad track... was a ton of fun. Rubbing did occur!

I also had belt-driven and shaft-driven AWD touring cars, but I'll admit to getting bored quickly with driving them. The belt-driven model was a front-motor version and I wore through the lower motor cover from it dragging on the pavement.

BTW - have you guys seen the new-ish M-07 Concept Chassis Kit? Front-mid mount motor, FWD, universals, gear diff removable from below the monocoque chassis, etc? Mmmm...... good.

Since the only thing I have left from back in the old-days is an unpainted Lancia Stratos body - I may need that kit, and then try to build it as a RWD/rear mid-mount motored chassis like the real Stratos. Wondering if possible.....

Otherwise, try and find a Lancia Fulvia body. Oh - hell, yeah:

Crap - that may be the wrong WB... whatever......

 

[CR4NK]

Suspension geometry changes, durability, and the lipo compatibility are the main ones between the TT01 and TT02 but there are a few other good changes.



-The center shaft is a new design that is stronger and allows for standard spur gears to be used (with a simple adapter)

-The lower gear cases are molded into the chassis making them stronger with less chance to warp under load and wreck the gears.

-Lower arm mounts are separate from the bulkheads so you are much less likely to break a bulkheads in a crash.

-Revised steering rack for much less slop.

I have a couple of tt01's I haven't ran for a real long time. Been wondering about the difference's between 01 and 02. Thank you sir.

 

[calcagno45]

Finally got the wing, headlight and taillight buckets cut out. The wing must be thicker lexan because it was much harder to score, but I got it. My awesome wife was in town yesterday and stopped at the LHS for some paint. I let her pick out the main color but said it needed to be my sons favorite color, so fluorescent green it is. I should be ready to paint this afternoon after giving the lexan a quick bath.

 

[OSRC]

Awesome - getting my TT02 ready for some on road racing this weekend. Had it for a while...I've drifted it around the basement, otherwise haven't had it out yet. It's a cheap kit for sure, but with a few key mods it's not bad at all. Not to mention the killer bodies - Tamiya is the master of lexan. I picked up the R kit, so it came with a lot of goodies. I added the adjustable motor mount, steering upgrade, adjustable upper arms, and diff lockers (for the drift conversion, not needed for on road playtime!) for now. Curious to see how it handles.

That Mercedes body is a work of art!

 

[calcagno45]

Looking forward to seeing your R build. This is becoming highly addictive for sure. And I agree, all other manufacturers can get some pointers from Tamiya on lexan bodies. The detail molded in this MB body is fantastic plus the detailed stickers.

Got everything masked off this morning before work to be ready for paint when I got home. Forgot to snap a pic then.

Started playing some paint this afternoon. I know it's not MB color but fluorescent green that I'll back up with white. Also have some smoke paint for the windows.

Tail lights

 

[calcagno45]

Laid some paint...

3 layers of green, 1 white, 1 black. Came back and sprayed Tamiya Smoke color on the windows. Also started the tedious process of cutting out decals to apply. There are many decals with yellow accents that would look great with the recommended Tamiya grey color but not so much with fluorescent green so I'll leave those off for now. Quite a few more decals to cut and apply. Still need to install the headlights, taillights, and side mirrors as well.

 

[calcagno45]

Got the body all stickers up and I'm pretty happy with it. Looks really good zipping around the driveway. I really like the head and tail lights,the detail is pretty realistic.

Still have to trim the body posts and build the CVA shocks. I ended up taking off the stock servo saver in favor of a Vanquish 20mm servo arm. Much better now.

 

[OSRC]

Looks great! Definitely won't lose track of it out in the driveway...

 

[svt923]

Got my TT02R up and running so I took a couple hasty pictures to prove it.

The built is typical Tamiya goodness with a few quirks. One of them being the steering linkage. See how long the steering link needs to be for proper geometry? The fancy blue anodized link provided in the R kit is long enough to thread about 1mm into each ball cup so it got replaced with some crude turnbuckle from my parts bin (likely a Tamiya part). Also the servo arm needed is really long and I didn't have another one that fit so I glued the stock servo saver together. I enjoyed the fact nearly the entire car is held together with M3x10 screws which made it really easy to swap them with stainless hex hardware.

Tamiya definately didn't design this thing for batteries with inboard bullets, the battery strap had to be dremeled to make room for the connector.

I learned a lesson about gearing for a TT02: really small gears don't fit. The motor can will hit the center shaft bearing support before the gears mesh. This is a Robinson Racing 55T 48P spur gear next to the 64T gear included with the high speed gear kit; the 55T gear taught me the aforementioned lesson. Luckily I had a RRP 81T 64P spur and matching 47T pinion in the parts bin. The Yeah Racing motor mount is possibly the best part they have ever produced and is needed for getting these gears to properly mesh. This didn't quite get me to the final gear ratio I was looking for but much closer than out of the box.

Electronics pack in tightly but they all fit on the chassis with a low profile servo. The ESC is a Hobbywing V3.1 stock spec and the motor is a Trinity Killshot 17.5. A Futaba receiver fits on its side next to the servo so I can run my Futaba 4PV that I don't get to use enough. A $2 motor heatsink and fan from ebay was thrown on to keep temps down when running 50* of timing. Pretty much all the electronics I had laying around (except for the motor), yay for parts hording. :mrgreen:

The test run was a success. Blasting up and down my street for 10 minutes or so on a 95* day left the motor and ESC at a pleasant 99* so there is room to gear up. I'm running Gravity premounted USGT spec tires that seem to both provide more grip and wear significantly better that the included Tamiya slicks. GPS says it does 29 mph on a 17.5 motor running 2S which feels plenty quick on anything but long, open sections of road. A 50T pinion has been ordered to get it over 30 mph because 30 is better than 29.

I masked up the body last night in preparation to start painting tonight. It should look rather decent when done. I also ordered a 50 pack of agility cones from Amazon to set up some makeshift tracks and start terrorizing the parking lots and tennis courts of the greater Raleigh area.

 

[calcagno45]

Yea I agree on steering geometry. When I swapped to the the VP servo arm, I installed it 90* to the chassis but realized his had the wheels turned so I had to adjust the steering trim to correct. I'll be looking thru the parts bin for a small turnbuckle to correct this with.

I didn't have that issue with my lipos and the battery strap.

So sounds like you're sticking to 64p gears? I need to order some up as well as that YR motor mount to make it easier. I have a 13.5T I was going to throw in but 17.5's sound fun with such tall gearing.