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Veteran Tamiya TA02 fan

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Veteran Tamiya TA02 fan

Old 03-03-2004, 09:05 PM
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Default Veteran Tamiya TA02 fan

hey guys,

lets start a Thread that is purely for Tamiay TA02 car!!!

So that we can share some tips with each other, and how does this old chassis can beat some of the new car in track
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Old 03-03-2004, 10:21 PM
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my TA02 weight about 1510g with everything on it. is it consider to be a light weight RC car? or a heavy RC car?
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Old 03-13-2009, 09:26 PM
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wow this is old thread! how did the onraod ta02 perform on the track?!? i know you could still get parts new these days due to it being a offraod humvee truck now.

where are the ta02 fans?
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Old 03-13-2009, 11:19 PM
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WOW, this thread is really old and not much popularity, since it's so vintage nowadays. My first 4WD touring car was a TA02. I bought the Blitz Supra and bought so much hop-up parts for it, then picked up a Lancia Delta HF Integrale (TA01). What's cool about the TA01 is that you could use wide wheels & tires all around. Some of these kits came with drivers. One of my friends still has a TA01 with full Kose hop-up parts. The only original parts left were the front & rear gearbox. We used to take our TA01 & TA02 to TAMIYA track alot. Those were the early times the track was available to the public. The car was pretty good around the track, except the gear case wasn't very realiable. I didn't even know there was a TA02 Gas Conversion kit available, made by Thunder Tiger & Kodama Engineering, until I saw this...
http://blog.roodo.com/tamiyaclub/archives/4926317.html

Last edited by gtfour93; 03-14-2009 at 12:16 AM.
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Old 03-13-2009, 11:43 PM
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wooww!! nice article find! i love those rare convertions. but sux that we can't got a hold of them!!!

I've never owned a tamiya ta02 but I'm a HUGE fan of these cars. just the scale-ness of the bodys they came with and the scale chassis layout.

my friend has a ta02 with huge amount of hopups and its MINT. he's not letting it go though. its a closet rc lol

one thing... how did the little "propeler" drive shaft hold up?? its not much of a shaft and kinda "flexy" but seems like a cool car still
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Old 03-13-2009, 11:57 PM
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Originally Posted by LATC3
one thing... how did the little "propeler" drive shaft hold up?? its not much of a shaft and kinda "flexy" but seems like a cool car still
Propeller shaft hop-up, http://farm1.static.flickr.com/40/11...3e11b485_o.jpg
The FF01s were another collectible. These chassis were based on the Manta Ray 4WD buggy.
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Old 03-14-2009, 12:15 AM
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that's a cool upgrade instead of the little thin shaft.

ha! tamiya ff01! i have one roller with a volvo 850btcc body and another in pieces with a honda body. there very quick! i also use to have one that was hooked up on all the fine tunning but it got away. now i have a box stock


you have a ff01? there amazing aren't they
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Old 03-14-2009, 12:28 AM
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The good old Volvo 850 BTCC sedan. We were hoping for the wagon version to come out but I don't think it ever did. Maybe TAMIYA should revive them with versions of the Ohlins EVO IX sedan & wagon. I was checking around Ebay for the TOM'S LEVIN (FF01) and it goes for alot of money. You should get your rollers going and take them to TAMIYA track.
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Old 03-14-2009, 12:29 AM
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I have a bunch of TA02 and TA01 cars and they're great cars. Some of them I have upgraded to the FRP kit some I kept original, but they're not competitive. My son raced one in stock form on a parking lot track with the most marked result of totally destroying the body shell. He was racing agains TC3 (?) and Yokomo cars at the time and I don't think the TA02 chassis could beat any of those. Its tunability for on-road is very limited and the gearing options likewise, so that doesn't leave much room for performance. But you can get some speed out of it, albeit the car worked better on wide open than technical twisty tracks. That being said, my son was 7 at the time and I was for the first time involved in any RC at all, so there was not a lot of knowledge behind us.

But what I like best to do with them is take the rally cars on sawdust tracks in the local botanical gardens. They are best suited to this kind of exercise and huge fun to chuck around in very realistic rally drift fashion. Going sideways around corners at full blast or dodging stumps, bushes and trees or flying over bumps or creeks is what they do best and most realistically, throwing up chip bark showers exactly like their real scale sisters. I have also found this kind of track was where the cars were handling best, of course with rally tires and the rear sway bar offerred as an upgrade by Tamiya.

Some mods I found very useful were the universals (which allow for longer travel suspension) and universal shafts (available in the past from TECH Racing, Japan). The original shafts held up pretty well with "normal" motors (silvercan Johnson) but any more powerful than that really requires some decent shaft. There was another company that offerred a dog bone and cup-style driveshaft but I was quite happy with the universals. I have installed the speed tuned gears from Skyline in my cars, and some have the aluminium GPM motor holder which allows a pinion one tooth larger than the Tamiya hopup (I think that's a 25-tooth, but don't quote me on that). This mod gave the cars a lot of speed with the Johnson motor and I think that's pretty much the limit of the car. But you don't really need any more than that for serious fun.

There was also a centre diff made by KOSE but I don't think that's needed on or off road. I have also tried the front one way diff but that's limiting when you need reverse on a surface where you can easily dig yourself in. I settled for ball diffs front and rear (an easy upgrade, not sure that Tamiya offerred a ball diff upfront but it's an easy mod with parts available off the shelf).

One of my cars has all the aluminium suspension arms (TECH racing again) and all of them have the front aluminium knuckles from Tamiya simply because the plastic version didn't allow the kingpins to be done up tight, so a lot were lost in parks and such. Also the hub carrier aluminium hopup form tamiya is very valuable and so are the stainless stell suspension shafts which allow shimming to reduce slop. I also tried on one of the cars the RPM balljoint cups which basically eliminated all slop. Of course, the upper suspension arms are all replaced by proper turnbuckles, an easy upgrade. As for springs, for off road action you need the softest spring you can get, otherwise the car gets bouncy really quick. The springs in the kits are a good compromise. If anyone knows softer springs, that would be a good bit of info to have.

Tamiya TRF aluminium shocks are a luxury, but not much benefit. The suspesnion is best kept soft, and the 35wt oil that came in kits is good enough for that. The FRP suspension bridges are a very convenient replacement for the plastic kit parts which inevitably strip after much screwing and unscrewing of the various bits that attach there.

The ball raced aluminium steering is again a must if slop is to be eliminated, and I have put it in all my cars. Be careful there, don't go overboard using too strong a servo, or the steering posts will flex even the FRP chassis.

I have also played with creating longer or shorter wheelbase chassies for these cars by flipping around the rear suspension arms and using arms form TA01 or TA02SW (Taisan Porsche 911GT2) versions as well as the TA02 cars.

I have also created two special versions of the chassis, one for my Alpine A110 which has a much shorter wheelbase, so I had to cut my own chassis plates from FRP and an extra long version for an older German bodyshell of a Peugeot 205T16 rally car (made in 1980) which still needed the chassis extended by 1cm after all the other tricks with arms and so on were used. The plates for this car were again designed copying the Tamiya FRP plates but moving the rear gearbox attaching holes 1cm back.

The results are absolutely amazing but of the two specials, the Alpine is stonkers probably because of the shorter wheelbase.

And while on the subject of specials, I have a very rare fluorescent green TA01 chassis built of spares bought separately as limited edition parts which I have used for a Celica GT-FOUR bodyshell. There were also a pink and a white version I have seen in Japan.

They're absolutely unrivalled fun to play with and I still hope one day there will be a rally class to race in.

Last edited by niznai; 03-14-2009 at 07:06 AM.
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Old 03-14-2009, 12:47 AM
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Nice write-up there niznai. Do you have any pics of the special chassis conversions you made and also pics of the Peugeot 205 T16 Gr.B Rally car. The real car had some wicked horsepower and was driven by Ari Vatanen aka The Flying Finn.

Last edited by gtfour93; 03-14-2009 at 11:08 AM.
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Old 03-14-2009, 12:49 AM
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Originally Posted by niznai
I have a bunch of TA02 and TA01 cars and they're great cars. Some of them I have upgraded to the FRP kit some I kept original, but they're not competitive. My son raced one in stock form on a parking lot track with the most marked result of totally destroying the body shell. But what I like best to do with them is take the rally cars on sawdust tracks in the local botanical gardens. They are best suited to this kind of exercise and huge fun to chuck around in very realistic rally drift fashion. Going around a corner at full blast or dodging stumps, bushes and trees is what they do best and most realistically, throwing up chip barks excatly like their real scale sisters.

Some mods I found very useful were the universals (which allow for longer travel suspension) and universal shafts (available in the past from TECH Racing, Japan). the original shafts held up pretty well with "normal" motors (silvercan Johnson) but any more powerful than that really requires some decent shaft. I have installed the speed tuned gears form Skyline in my cars, and some have the aluminium GPM motor holder which allows a pinion one tooth larger than the Tamiya hopup.

One of my cars has all the aluminium suspension arms (TECH racing again) and all of the have the front aluminium knuckles form Tamiya simply because the plastic version didn't allo the kingpins to be done up tight, so a lot were lost in parks and such. Also the hub carrier aluminium hopup form tamiya is very valuable and so are the stainless stell suspension shafts which allow shimming to reduce slop. I also tried on one of the cars the RPM balljoint cups which basically eliminated all slop.

Tamiya TRF aluminium shocks are a luxury, but not much benefit. The FRP suspension bridges are a very convenient replacement for the plastic kit parts which inevitably stirp after much screwing and unscrewing of the various bits that attach there.

The aluminium steering is again a must if slop is to be eliminated, and I have put it in all my cars.

I have also played with creating longer or shorter wheelbase chassies for these cars by flipping around the rear suspension arms and using arms form TA01 or TA01S versions as well as the TA02 cars.

I have also created two special versions of the chassis, one for my Alpine A110 which has a much shorter wheelbase, so I had to cut my own chassis plates from FRP and an extra long version for an older German bodyshell of a Peugeot 205T16 rally car (made in 1980) which needed the chassis extended by 1cm. The plates for this car were again designed copying the Tamiya FRP plates but moving the rear gearbos attaching holes 1cm out.

The resutls are absolutely amazing but of the two specials, the Alpine is absolutely amamzing probably becasuse of the shorter wheelbase.

They're absolutely unrivalled fun to play with and I still hope one day there will be a rally class to race in.
very cool write up on you're cars upgrades! I'm sure there still lots of fun to race. but rally? that's like sand paper to the chassis! it wouldn't last as long as it would on asphalt. but its all different styles i guess. do you still run them? i like to own one of these cars someday. maybe ill try evil-bay some day.


and yeah stock motors I'm sure all that shaft could hold!

Originally Posted by gtfour93
The good old Volvo 850 BTCC sedan. We were hoping for the wagon version to come out but I don't think it ever did. Maybe TAMIYA should revive them with versions of the Ohlins EVO IX sedan & wagon. I was checking around Ebay for the TOM'S LEVIN (FF01) and it goes for alot of money. You should get your rollers going and take them to TAMIYA track.
yeah i would like to take my car out sometime! i have to find some good tires and buy some electronics for it. what city you stay?
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Old 03-14-2009, 12:52 AM
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I'm in San Fernando Valley. I know, TAMIYA track is a long way from where I come from. A little over an hour drive.
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Old 03-14-2009, 12:54 AM
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this is for the minis but i though the GROUP B was in subject

http://cgi.ebay.com/TAMIYA-CELICA-GR...3A1%7C294%3A50
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Old 03-14-2009, 12:58 AM
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Originally Posted by gtfour93
I'm in San Fernando Valley. I know, TAMIYA track is a long way from where I come from. A little over an hour drive.
yeah me to about an hour. I'm in hollywood not so far from the 818 though. pretty cool having fellow rc people close.(that know about these cars)
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Old 03-14-2009, 01:01 AM
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The decals will be a challenge for that Celica Gr.B. See if you can find some TOYOTA TEAM EUROPE decals and red stripes like this.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/147/3...1777b9ab_o.jpg

Last edited by gtfour93; 03-14-2009 at 01:31 AM.
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