Yup they are running the treaded Euro Truck tires and they do grip really well.....they also have their tire prep game down really well, and can drive. They are fast. Those two drivers are fast no matter what.....as they had their M chassis going in the Tub chassis class with me and I finished 3rd to both of them one lap down. The M chassis is smaller and corners on rails and they are wide open 75% of the time vs. me only able to go 100% throttle in 2 places for 1 second each or so with the TT-02, but I can impose my will on them on the straight and force them to get around my big ass Mustang body......lol

I was pretty confident that was the case on equal tires it's the tt02 all day but those tires are probably close to half a second quicker. I spent 3 seasons in production Tamiya, I could easily write a book on them....

Now by three seasons I'm talking probably 10-11 race days but I paid attention and learned a lot.

No doubt.

Good drivers with those stock Euro Truck tires prepared correctly are running high 11 to mid 12 second laps and I am mid 12 seconds to 13.8 secs on average if I keep my crap together. The bulk of the difference is their driving skill but the rest is the killer tire setup for carpet while I am on Power Hobby spec tires.......

Input needed. So we started a TT-02,01 class a few months ago. Our goal was for someone to come in, buy a kit & build with minimal expense & needed parts. We stocked all sorts of TT-02's & 01e. We allowed bearings/shocks/front cv's. We use Gravity USGT tires as spec. Everything was going smooth until a couple people burned up pinions and also noted that pinions & ratios are different kit to kit. Seems rally vs gt car.

So now the question. Do we allow open gearing & let it sort it self out? I picked up1 sec/lap with my 01 going from the kit 19t to a 22t.

I did make a huge graph showing fdr on both 02 & 01 with Tamiya spur & different pinion sizes. Seems both 02 & 01 are 2.6fd

Edit, if we allow open gearing, what is the best method to do so? Everyone already has 48p & 64p in their tool boxes but these are mod .6. Do we stock the Tamiya spur gears & pinions? Is there a way to switch to 64p? Or 48p?

I think the challenge you are running up against is that someone could show up with one of the TT-02 SRX or older RR kit and have all sorts of "hop up" advantages. I have the TT-02R as my base with the high speed gearing and I will say I can easily pass folks with the stock gearing and technically mine is just 100% kit built drivetrain.

Maybe the "most fair" way is to allow people to upgrade gearing and necessary parts to match the top tub-chassis spec and everything in between. The other idea would be to design the course so there is more of a pro/con to gearing decisions. If you have a long straight away then of course the "high speed gear sets" will be quicker apples to apples.

Just my $0.02

For TT Production classes where folks run the TT-01e or TT-02 kits, gearing should be 19/61 on the TT-01e and 22/70 on the TT-02 kits. They both come out to about the same FDR (8.35 and 8.27).

And up here in the Northeast, most tracks that run Production allow: Bearings, servo saver (or horn), Front CV's (Tamiya Part #53792 used with #54477 on TT-02, or used with #53790 on TT-01e), Tamiya Diff putty or any grease in front diff, aluminum center shaft/joints and aluminum wheel hexes. Body must be a Tamiya body. Tires are USGT belted gray for carpet and regular USGT tires on asphalt.

That is basically what we run with the exception of the tire as we run a different spec tire. High speed gearing is allowed like in my TT-02R as it is a popular and affordable kit.

Those items cover the reliability challenges with the TTs.....the servo saver, dog bones and plastic hexes......add some bearings and go racing....that setup is reliable.

Allow open gearing but keep the stock spur gears, Tamiya uses 0.6 pinions which you can get from Robinson Racing or a few no name manufacturers. Most Tamiya pinions are made of butter and will wear out in a couple of runs.

Last night carpet race was a mix of highs and lows. First qualifier was great, finished 3rd where I should have based on driver/car abilities etc. Second qualifier was going well until the car started handling oddly, right rear tire had come unglued so I limped through the last couple mins. For the Main I elected to swap to 4 new tires after running a few practice laps to break them in, the rear was a little loose so I went with some sauce and that was a mistake. I turned into a traction rolling nightmare.......oh well.

TT-02 racing is just a goofy amount of fun all things considering.

I had the same issue when we ran asphalt with sugar on it, at our local track. The veterans kept saying glue the sidewalls of the front tires. But I kept denying it and kept traction rolling. Finally I was frustrated enough to give it a shot and instead of trying to slow down more for corners I was able to dive in REALLY deep after I glued my sidewalls. My times also got faster with the glued sidewalls.
Now I always glue my sidewalls, and even more so that I started running on carpet.

Yup, normally my sidewalls are glued......

My fatal mistake/bad decision was swapping for 4 new tires, my first instinct was to keep the 3 that were running great and just swap in the one right rear that had the issue........live and learn.

Doing some asphalt rally racing. So far it's been super fun.


Tamiya TT02 Rally (body off). Associated Apex2 Rally in the background.

You're making me relive some childhood trauma every time I see those Tamiya connectors.