My very own TB03-R makes its race debut!!!
08-10-2008, 05:18 AM
#1
My very own TB03-R makes its race debut!!!
Hey guys,
Just thought I'd chime in on my new TB03 and give you it's first race report.
I built the kit using all the same style Tamiya hop-ups you'd find in the TA05-R and TA05 IFS-R kits, such as low friction turnbuckles, aluminum suspension blocks, TRF Special Black Coated Dampers, etc. Basically all the goodies, and every option part Tamiya currently makes for it like the universals, modified driveshaft, one-way diff, sway bar kit, etc.
When it was all said and done, the ride height was absolutely rediculous. Way too high in the front. Based off my buddies reccomendation to use the optional short springs in front and the 1mm down spring retainers all around, I was able to completely dial in the height as needed.
So today was its first debut race. Here in Okinawa Japan, they had a special race this weekend. It was a Super Taiku 2 hour endurance race based on the normal "GT Tune" race rules, which is a plastic chassis kit, Tamiya GT Tune motor, stock gearing, Tamiya Racing Radial tires (no slicks)and in this case, any body you wanted (normally it would have to be a Tamiya scale body).
I had just finished building the kit the morning of the race so I didn't have time to paint the Garaiya body it came with. I used my Tamiya Lightweight prepainted NSX body as it fit perfect.
The 2 hour race called for a beginner driver to race the first 5 minutes and the last 5 minutes, with anyone on your team racing between. I could only conjure up two team mates for this short notice special race, both new to touring car r/c racing. I was the only non-beginner driver on my team of 3.
I got there super early so I could try my hand at the new car. Right away I noticed the top speed of this car. It was a rocket. The final drive is lower than the TA05-R using stock gearing (which was a concern) but it didnt matter. This car moves. I ended up ripping out a kingpin in the first two laps due to cold tires. It's a new car and I didnt have any spare parts, so I was going to use my TA05-R for the race.
I told the race coordinator what happened (who is also the owner of one of the best hobby shops on the island), and he basically said the knuckles on the TB03 are weak soft plastic and they rip out easily. The reason I never had a problem with the TA05-R is because they are made from the Carbon Reinforced plastic.
He says hang on and reaches in his box and pulls out a set of TFR 416 Carbon Reinforced knuckles, C-hubs, and a florentine coated kingpin set, all brand new in the Tamiya packaging. They are inter changable with the TB03. He gives them all to me and says I could pay him the next time I was at the shop! AWESOME!
I was back in business. I changed out the parts and never looked back. I finished scrubbing in the tires and was all set.
I qualified 2nd overall for the starting grid. I was excited because it was the very first time I've driven the car. I tuned the set up and ride height based from my previous expierences at this track, and it paid off in spades. From the get go, the car was dialed.
After the first 5 minutes with the beginner drivers, we were down 3 laps at the driver change. I took over and made up some ground on the leaders. The track layout was changed a few weeks back and this was the first time I drove on it. It fit my driving style perfectly. I quickly took the lead. Since all the other teams had multiple expert drivers to switch out, I was going to stay in the race the whole time except for the first and last 5 minutes since they had to be raced by beginner drivers. Well, my pace was so fast I was up a number of laps and held the lead for 35 minutes straight and decided to let my other team members have a go so I could rest. They did a great job.
Even though they lost some laps, we were still up by many. When I took over again they actually handicapped me. Instead of racing from the driver's stand, they had me stand on a box at street level so I'd loose some advantage (they did this to all the fast drivers because the stand was so crowded).
We had lost about half our advantage at the driver change, but I was able to quickly gain it back in the hopes of not loosing so much at the last 5 minutes with the beginner drivers.
Our strategy worked. At the end of the 2 hour race, we were up by either 6 or 11 laps (can't remember), and my team, "Tarmac Faction" took home 1st place!!!
It had to be the absolute best time Iv'e ever had with an R/C car.
- Paulie
Just thought I'd chime in on my new TB03 and give you it's first race report.
I built the kit using all the same style Tamiya hop-ups you'd find in the TA05-R and TA05 IFS-R kits, such as low friction turnbuckles, aluminum suspension blocks, TRF Special Black Coated Dampers, etc. Basically all the goodies, and every option part Tamiya currently makes for it like the universals, modified driveshaft, one-way diff, sway bar kit, etc.
When it was all said and done, the ride height was absolutely rediculous. Way too high in the front. Based off my buddies reccomendation to use the optional short springs in front and the 1mm down spring retainers all around, I was able to completely dial in the height as needed.
So today was its first debut race. Here in Okinawa Japan, they had a special race this weekend. It was a Super Taiku 2 hour endurance race based on the normal "GT Tune" race rules, which is a plastic chassis kit, Tamiya GT Tune motor, stock gearing, Tamiya Racing Radial tires (no slicks)and in this case, any body you wanted (normally it would have to be a Tamiya scale body).
I had just finished building the kit the morning of the race so I didn't have time to paint the Garaiya body it came with. I used my Tamiya Lightweight prepainted NSX body as it fit perfect.
The 2 hour race called for a beginner driver to race the first 5 minutes and the last 5 minutes, with anyone on your team racing between. I could only conjure up two team mates for this short notice special race, both new to touring car r/c racing. I was the only non-beginner driver on my team of 3.
I got there super early so I could try my hand at the new car. Right away I noticed the top speed of this car. It was a rocket. The final drive is lower than the TA05-R using stock gearing (which was a concern) but it didnt matter. This car moves. I ended up ripping out a kingpin in the first two laps due to cold tires. It's a new car and I didnt have any spare parts, so I was going to use my TA05-R for the race.
I told the race coordinator what happened (who is also the owner of one of the best hobby shops on the island), and he basically said the knuckles on the TB03 are weak soft plastic and they rip out easily. The reason I never had a problem with the TA05-R is because they are made from the Carbon Reinforced plastic.
He says hang on and reaches in his box and pulls out a set of TFR 416 Carbon Reinforced knuckles, C-hubs, and a florentine coated kingpin set, all brand new in the Tamiya packaging. They are inter changable with the TB03. He gives them all to me and says I could pay him the next time I was at the shop! AWESOME!
I was back in business. I changed out the parts and never looked back. I finished scrubbing in the tires and was all set.
I qualified 2nd overall for the starting grid. I was excited because it was the very first time I've driven the car. I tuned the set up and ride height based from my previous expierences at this track, and it paid off in spades. From the get go, the car was dialed.
After the first 5 minutes with the beginner drivers, we were down 3 laps at the driver change. I took over and made up some ground on the leaders. The track layout was changed a few weeks back and this was the first time I drove on it. It fit my driving style perfectly. I quickly took the lead. Since all the other teams had multiple expert drivers to switch out, I was going to stay in the race the whole time except for the first and last 5 minutes since they had to be raced by beginner drivers. Well, my pace was so fast I was up a number of laps and held the lead for 35 minutes straight and decided to let my other team members have a go so I could rest. They did a great job.
Even though they lost some laps, we were still up by many. When I took over again they actually handicapped me. Instead of racing from the driver's stand, they had me stand on a box at street level so I'd loose some advantage (they did this to all the fast drivers because the stand was so crowded).
We had lost about half our advantage at the driver change, but I was able to quickly gain it back in the hopes of not loosing so much at the last 5 minutes with the beginner drivers.
Our strategy worked. At the end of the 2 hour race, we were up by either 6 or 11 laps (can't remember), and my team, "Tarmac Faction" took home 1st place!!!
It had to be the absolute best time Iv'e ever had with an R/C car.
- Paulie
08-10-2008, 09:26 AM
#2
Paulie...
Hit up some pics if you have em!
I am interested in this car...have a TA05/waiting to see how this looks in action.
Hit up some pics if you have em!
I am interested in this car...have a TA05/waiting to see how this looks in action.
08-10-2008, 09:44 AM
#3
Tech Master
pics or fail... j/k
Looks like both you and the car had a great time out there! Congrats on your teams victory. I also practically transplanted all the supension components from my TA05-R, w/ blue screws, yada yada.
Little tip on the IFS system. First set up our ride height and droop. Hold one side (L/R) of the car down so the chassis edge will bottom out on that end(make sure both F/R side of chassis is touching the ground. Then measure the length of the rear shocks at that point. What you are gonna do now, is adjust the length of the push rod so the front shock will have the same length as the rear. Do this while holding one side of the car down. This will better the dampening balance out the car, and that weird ride height issue you had should go away as well.
Looks like both you and the car had a great time out there! Congrats on your teams victory. I also practically transplanted all the supension components from my TA05-R, w/ blue screws, yada yada.
Little tip on the IFS system. First set up our ride height and droop. Hold one side (L/R) of the car down so the chassis edge will bottom out on that end(make sure both F/R side of chassis is touching the ground. Then measure the length of the rear shocks at that point. What you are gonna do now, is adjust the length of the push rod so the front shock will have the same length as the rear. Do this while holding one side of the car down. This will better the dampening balance out the car, and that weird ride height issue you had should go away as well.
08-11-2008, 03:47 AM
#5
I didn't bring my camera this time ( I was rushing out the door and forgot it), but I think they might have taken some pics/video at the event. I'm headed down to the shop to pay for those parts so I'll see what's what.
Little tip on the IFS system. First set up our ride height and droop. Hold one side (L/R) of the car down so the chassis edge will bottom out on that end(make sure both F/R side of chassis is touching the ground. Then measure the length of the rear shocks at that point. What you are gonna do now, is adjust the length of the push rod so the front shock will have the same length as the rear. Do this while holding one side of the car down. This will better the dampening balance out the car, and that weird ride height issue you had should go away as well.
I thought of that at first, but wouldn't you have a bunch more preload if you adust the ride height by the push rods? The short springs allowed me to get the ride height I needed without changing the preload. Do you think more preload would have been better? I just may have to try that. The car worked so well though I'm almost hesitant to change it's set up, he he he.
Ha ha. Well, it's a different animal. I raced the TC3 on carpet with rubber tires. The races here all all outdoor rubber tire races on a semi-prepared parking lot track.
I think I'm most happy that I did so well with a car that everyone said would be hard to control because it's shaft driven. I mean there wasn't any torque steer with the Tamiya GT Tune 25T motor, so I'm not really sure where all that came from.
I think the TB03 is a fantastic car. Heck, I even had my LRP Quantum 3 ESC set to 3 on it's throttle profile which is linear response, in anticipation that the car may be hard to drive. The most aggressive profile is level 6, so I still had room on the table to turn it up a notch. Not sure how much that may have gained me, but I'm sure there is even more speed to get out of this car.
The absolute best feature of this car though IMHO is the cooling duct on the bottom of the chassis for the motor. The car ran moderate temps and never even once though about thermaling during this 2 hour race in 95 degree weather.
I'm not sure how the car is in stock trim, but in my own TB03-R type build up the car is a joy to drive. During the next few months I may even switch up and use it for the 23T race and see how it fares. If it goes well, I just may have to sell one of my TA05-R's and get another TB03.
- Paulie
Little tip on the IFS system. First set up our ride height and droop. Hold one side (L/R) of the car down so the chassis edge will bottom out on that end(make sure both F/R side of chassis is touching the ground. Then measure the length of the rear shocks at that point. What you are gonna do now, is adjust the length of the push rod so the front shock will have the same length as the rear. Do this while holding one side of the car down. This will better the dampening balance out the car, and that weird ride height issue you had should go away as well.
I think I'm most happy that I did so well with a car that everyone said would be hard to control because it's shaft driven. I mean there wasn't any torque steer with the Tamiya GT Tune 25T motor, so I'm not really sure where all that came from.
I think the TB03 is a fantastic car. Heck, I even had my LRP Quantum 3 ESC set to 3 on it's throttle profile which is linear response, in anticipation that the car may be hard to drive. The most aggressive profile is level 6, so I still had room on the table to turn it up a notch. Not sure how much that may have gained me, but I'm sure there is even more speed to get out of this car.
The absolute best feature of this car though IMHO is the cooling duct on the bottom of the chassis for the motor. The car ran moderate temps and never even once though about thermaling during this 2 hour race in 95 degree weather.
I'm not sure how the car is in stock trim, but in my own TB03-R type build up the car is a joy to drive. During the next few months I may even switch up and use it for the 23T race and see how it fares. If it goes well, I just may have to sell one of my TA05-R's and get another TB03.
- Paulie
08-11-2008, 02:53 PM
#6
Haisai! I'm glad you had fun with your TB03. Where are the hobby shops and rc tracks in Okinawa?
08-11-2008, 06:17 PM
#7
pics or fail... j/k
Little tip on the IFS system. First set up our ride height and droop. Hold one side (L/R) of the car down so the chassis edge will bottom out on that end(make sure both F/R side of chassis is touching the ground. Then measure the length of the rear shocks at that point. What you are gonna do now, is adjust the length of the push rod so the front shock will have the same length as the rear. Do this while holding one side of the car down. This will better the dampening balance out the car, and that weird ride height issue you had should go away as well.
Little tip on the IFS system. First set up our ride height and droop. Hold one side (L/R) of the car down so the chassis edge will bottom out on that end(make sure both F/R side of chassis is touching the ground. Then measure the length of the rear shocks at that point. What you are gonna do now, is adjust the length of the push rod so the front shock will have the same length as the rear. Do this while holding one side of the car down. This will better the dampening balance out the car, and that weird ride height issue you had should go away as well.
Last edited by Darkseid; 08-11-2008 at 06:28 PM.
08-11-2008, 06:50 PM
#8
What gearing/FDR are you getting with the car?
Do aftermarket (Kimbrough/Robinson) spurs fit directly?
Thanks
Paul
Do aftermarket (Kimbrough/Robinson) spurs fit directly?
Thanks
Paul
08-11-2008, 06:55 PM
#9
Tech Legend
iTrader: (51)
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Castle Mamba Max Pro. Feel its power!!!!!!!!!!
Posts: 21,220
Trader Rating: 51 (100%+)
I always liked running my TA03-RS that I have had for years. A fun car for me to run.
08-11-2008, 07:42 PM
#10
How many battery changes did you have during race?
08-11-2008, 10:14 PM
#11
I think I'm most happy that I did so well with a car that everyone said would be hard to control because it's shaft driven. I mean there wasn't any torque steer with the Tamiya GT Tune 25T motor, so I'm not really sure where all that came from.
I think the TB03 is a fantastic car.
I'm not sure how the car is in stock trim, but in my own TB03-R type build up the car is a joy to drive. During the next few months I may even switch up and use it for the 23T race and see how it fares. If it goes well, I just may have to sell one of my TA05-R's and get another TB03.
I think the TB03 is a fantastic car.
I'm not sure how the car is in stock trim, but in my own TB03-R type build up the car is a joy to drive. During the next few months I may even switch up and use it for the 23T race and see how it fares. If it goes well, I just may have to sell one of my TA05-R's and get another TB03.
Like you, I was totally sweeped away by the 'drivability' of the TB03 IFS on my first race with the new chassis. ...Tamiya sems to have eliminated the torque steer and more importantly, the fragile bevel gears of the TB02 generation.
I'm also contemplating getting rid of the 4 TA05 (R and IFS) i have, for a fleet of TB03 IFS for next year's Tamiya racing series
08-11-2008, 11:36 PM
#12
Tech Master
which would you guys prefer on a tight, twisty asphalt track? TB03 or a TA05?
08-12-2008, 12:55 AM
#13
Sorry fellas. No pics. I went to the shop last night to inquire but they didn't take video this time.
There are 3 main ones...
R/C Siro in Naha
X-Hobbies by Camp Foster
T-Slide by Kadena Gate 2
As far as tracks, there is Yomitan and Chibana, and X-Hobbies has a DriftKhana event on their roof
I think the stock gears are 64/22 .4 modules. The final drive is 7.09 in stock trim.
Not sure on the aftermarket spur gears, but I don't see why they wouldn't fit.
I think we did like 7 or 8 in total. It was a 3700 limit, stick packs only. I used the top of the line Tamiya 3700 (GP High Voltage Cells), as well as the Integy 3700 stock packs (also GP 3700 cells, but not the high voltage ones - couldn't really tell a difference anyway).
That's a tough call. The TB03 seems to slingshot out of the corners more, but depending on the set-up, it could get a little squirly. I think they are both capable, but I really like the top speed of this shaft driven car - which wouldn't really come into play if there isn't a long straight on that tight and twisty track you mentioned. For that track, I think either car could be a great weapon.
- Paulie
R/C Siro in Naha
X-Hobbies by Camp Foster
T-Slide by Kadena Gate 2
As far as tracks, there is Yomitan and Chibana, and X-Hobbies has a DriftKhana event on their roof
Not sure on the aftermarket spur gears, but I don't see why they wouldn't fit.
I think we did like 7 or 8 in total. It was a 3700 limit, stick packs only. I used the top of the line Tamiya 3700 (GP High Voltage Cells), as well as the Integy 3700 stock packs (also GP 3700 cells, but not the high voltage ones - couldn't really tell a difference anyway).
- Paulie
08-12-2008, 01:48 AM
#14
I lied! Race results/pics are up!!!
Check it out here:
http://translate.google.com/translat...hl=en&ie=UTF-8
I had the second fastest lap overall, and the fastest average lap by about a second!!!
- Paulie
Check it out here:
http://translate.google.com/translat...hl=en&ie=UTF-8
I had the second fastest lap overall, and the fastest average lap by about a second!!!
- Paulie
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
