Car is pretty easy to drive. Might have something to do with the "slop". I put mine up on the setup station I have just to get the thing centered up. After that I'll just drive it a bit and tweak it on the wheels. Don't really worry about getting all the play out.

Okay, you may just have to use a setup station to fully understand, but i'll try again

The TT02 in my opinion has minimal play, but it does exist.
I am assuming that this is like other Tamiya kits where a bit of play is actually okay, and trying to remove that play doesn't seem to work well for the kit.

The Setup station helps me measure many things other than toe in/out including camber, ride height and steering angles (what degree of turning radius I am getting on each side).

You mentioned that the wheels of the TT02 can be pushed in and out slightly about a degree. I get that and have the same experience w/ my build.
With my TT02 on the setup station what I do is turn my wheels via the controller a few times to the left and right then see where the steering naturally settles (while on the station). From here I adjust the left and right front toe. After adjustments are made and while the car is still on the setup station, I again turn the wheels via the controller a few times to each side see where the steering naturally settles and re-measure the toe in angles. In my case the TT02 kept its settings and my toe angles were set as I wanted. I believe this is because toe out for the front shows play only when you move w/ some force (in this case your fingers). So the setup station shows where the toe out falls naturally (your not pushing on the wheels w/ your fingers to move it out of whack). Sure after I took my car off the setup station I could push the toe the wheels w/ my fingers and feel some play, BUT this does not seem to effect where the car naturally centers (especially after set correctly).

-I also used the setup station to adjust camber both front and rear.

-I balanced my wheels and added puddy (not w/ the setup station)

-I weighed my car front/rear and side/side (not w/ the setup station)

-----------

Using these tools my car went from swaying to one side (a tad) after the initial build to running a perfect line. Also my turning was equal in both directions (whereas w/ the build it was not perfect). W/ the setup station you can also measure steeering angles and adjust.

I only used my controller to adjust:
-end point steering on each side (as there was a tad of binding at full turn)
-throttle curves
-steering curves
-abs braking

I hope this helps, makes sense?

I personally feel that a setup station is very valuable when used to measure and get precise readings. It has saved me a ton of time and all of my cars are set correctly mechanically w/ very minimal tweaking needed via the controller. The only things I set on the controller are my endpoints, throttle and steering curves/delays, etc, and braking adjustments. If I have to adjust my steering trim via the controller more than about 1 or 2 clicks I always go back and see what is going on mechanically that is causing me to to adjust steering trim via the controller.

For me it is also really easy to make quick adjustments to my cars setup during a race day. Takes all of 5mins and you don't really have any other option on race day ...there isn't opportunnity to get practice sessions in between heats. You know that if your car needs more grip during a race you can easily adjust the camber to gain a bit of grip (for example) by adding a degree via the setup station. If you had to eye ball this you wouldn't get it to be precise on each side.

-agreed, that is pretty much what I did too. The station just helps center everything (in the most simplest terms).

I bought this kit>
yeahracing essential conversion


And this>
Yeahracing Tie Rods


Slop is non existent now.
The idea that being loose helps the car is a myth in my book.
Losi is another company that is famous for this ideology with their SCTE SCT, but I also own the Tekno 410.3 that has virtually 0 slop. The Tekno is by far easier and more consistent to drive. Slop is never a good thing period. And is nothing more than crap engineering at best.
Consider that every best thing in any performance category always has virtually no slop. Think fighter jet, indy car, the fastest street bikes to further that realization.
Don't fall for the BS people and companies try and feed you because of their lack of better judgement.
That being said, I personally thought the top crossbar brace of the tt01 was a better design that helped tie in the bell cranks. To remedy this on the tt02 I cut a carbon fiber tab to link across to both bell cranks, held right under the screw heads. This stops any possible independent flex. Also, adding the 2-3 degree toe-in rear hubs is the first thing everyone should do to this car. Without those the handling simply sucks in my opinion, and it makes no sense why it wasn't a stock item to begin with.
I don't mean to sound like a @%^#$!, or seem like I'm trolling this thread.
But the only reason I bought the TT02 was because my local track runs these cars in the winter season in a spec class and I thought it would be fun.
But honestly I was wrong. If you can't upgrade these things, they are complete trash and are uncontrollable. Not my idea of fun, and a terrible choice by our club.

After running them a little while in the stock class I have come to the realization that they are essentially junk without upgrades and there are a lot better choices out there if you really care any at all about performance for little more to the same money spent. Tamiya in my opinion is second to none in the static display category and their bodies are amazingly well molded with all the correct curves and lines.
Past that they never grew up with the industry in the performance department and there is virtually no excuse for a lot their (or lack there of) mechanical designs and methodology, so I simply don't understand where a lot of you that comment on "how good they run for the money" are getting that idea from?
I could have designed a better set when I was 10.
Either many of you haven't ran a good chassis to compare them to, or I must be doing something terribly wrong.
Sorry if this offends anyone, but I feel like it needs to be said after burning my cash on something I regret.

Excuse my ignorance but what exactly is slop? Been running Losi EP vehicles for many years & never heard or read the that term.

I decided to make a post to this thread after not running my TT02 in nearly 2 years.

I agree with the points you've made if it's purely based on the original TT02 (having to get extra bearings, servo saver just to get it running half decently). I too burnt a lot of money on it and selling it for a 10th of my total spending on the kit/hopups/batteries/extra bodies etc.

The choice of RC kits now is quite competitive say compared to when the TT02 was released (within the same price range). I'm keen to hear if people are running the TT02s or hopped up TT02 for 21.5 and how that's faring for them?

I'm personally using a used race grade chassis but it still puts a smile on my face seeing people enjoy this chassis more than I did. I did also regret spending so much on it but I did learn a lot about RC which money can't buy. Just happened to be quite an expensive learning experience that's all...

Looking forward to seeing more pics from you fellow TT02 owners!

It's an entry-level kit. I build them with my kids so we can spend time together at the table. Going over the instruction steps gathering up the parts for the next step. The feeling of accomplishment that you get when the kid plugs in the battery and and turns the remote on. Thats what this kit is about.

Awesome!

wow,
wasn't going to respond, ...but these are some pretty bold statements.

I don't care to get into a back-and-forth as to why you hate this kit why I love this kit or anything like that. But I will just add that I think it is a lot of fun when an entire group of people must use the same kit and compete with each other using that kit. I race in a Tamiya M class at my local track. We all run the same Tamiya M chassis kits (M05, M06, etc). I love that everyone has to use the same kit and I especially love the creative ways that people come up with to get their kit to perform better than someone else's identical kit. We all started with the same kit, so it puts your driving ability and knowledge of kit building and engineering to a test against others. I think that makes racing these kits special and unique from other classes where many manufacturers are represented. It doesn't always have to be carbon fiber, titanium and the latest technical designs. I love that Tamiya has stayed true to what make them them, ...I think that is partly why they've done so well as a company for so long.

my opinion.

eRc1 i agree tamiya has been around a long time with the rc cars. they also started the touring car phase from the old manta ray for the Tao 1 & 2
range.

Name one car that *isn't* crap without upgrades. Cars that include upgrades in the kit, and thus cost 2-3x as much, don't count.

..i get that some of Tamiya's kits can seem dated, but i do love that they continue to produce the same kits year after year and support those kits. I can't tell you how many kits I've purchased over the years only to have them discontinued after 3 or 4 short years ...then parts become hard to get and your kit becomes pretty much obsolete (hpi and your cup racer, ...thinking of you).

My Tamiya Hornet from 30 years ago ...i can still get parts for it! New parts!!!

I get that, but that could be done with any kit at all. Nothing that spectacularly great about the Tamiya over any other kit as far as the build goes.
I build kits with my kids to, but I also enjoy showing them what you can adjust to get different effects from your chassis and watching them learn from it once they make a change.
Understanding the effects of tuning are equally if not more important in my mind and the entire point of owning hobby grade RC vs toy grade junk.

Yeah I knew when I posted what I did it would be controversial and disliked by many and that is okay with me, as they are just my opinions of course.
But my opinion does hold credibility in the sense that I have been into the RC hobby for the last 24ish years and have invested probably well over 25k into it from cars, planes, helicopter, and everything else in between.
While that doesn't aid my opinions credibility in the engineering department, I feel like the fact I own a (small time at the moment) manufacturing business in the industry as well as hold my own prototype and design patents does somewhat qualify what I'm saying about the engineering quality of a thing in it's time frame.

I don't want to aggravate anyone with the whole "back and forth" either, I just felt it nessisary to state my opinions and why before other jump into something they may not enjoy due to not having said information.
I have 0 argument against your opinions as far as what you like about the idea of running spec classes. That makes sense completely.
I also agree with your stating it doesn't have to have the latest top grade material to be competitive or to just work.
My gripes lay in the fact the design and functionality is terrible to say the least.
There are a lot of things that could have been easily built better for the same out cost without needing anything past different molds and a real engineer behind the product.
I understand that Tamiya has been around for a long time and that there is a fan base built behind nostalgic memories from the past. But the fact they use that against it's customers is simply unacceptable and bad business in my opinion and I have no respect for it, hence my bold comments.

I think you are missing my point.
It's not the fact that they can't all benefit from upgrades, it's the fact that you can't even tune these TT02 cars with the parts they do include what so ever.
The only good thing about these are the scale bodies and the fact they come with a stock motor/ESC. I would rather have paid more than to have wasted my money.
I honestly feel stupid for buying the kit, as I knew what it included and the club rules about altering anything, but I tricked myself into thinking they must run okay without them since they are so popular. I was wrong. On the concrete we run on, they are nearly uncontrollable and the race is 60% demolition derby.
If they would have just included negative degree rear hubs, probably 80% of that problem would have been taken care of.
But in rebuttal to what you said, I can name a plethora of better cars for the money that you can actually tune without needing any upgrades.
No doubt will run circles around these TT-02 cars right out of the box.

Here are a few just to get you started.
Budget Touring Cars
Granted these are RTR's and it is unfortunate that the majority of the industry is going to this these days. But being lazy has become the way unfortunately.

If you must build> RJspeed

The thing that got to me, and probably the weakest points was the servo horn, no bearings and 1980s shocks in the standard 02. As a beginner, not understanding why the car wouldn't track straight was bit of a nightmare but these are the lessons you go through when you start this hobby. The type S seems like a big jump from the original

The hk bt-4 /sakura xi sport are probably better alternatives out of the box and economically as well for parts.

If you don't like it - replace it with something else you will enjoy.

Here's a good tip - if you're going to post in an RC online forum do so in the thread for the chassis you enjoy. You'll find most people enjoy their RC vehicle no matter what it is & although there is often something better available. Remember to keep it into perspective - having a Tamiya RC vehicle is much better than nothing & for many it's perfect for their use. I thought my Tamiya drift car was awesome, until I got something more expensive & of better quality. Which is a fact of life - if I had the latest & greatest supercar I wouldn't go around bagging what I thought was inferior. Pretty easy to do this sort of thing hiding behind a computer but you're just drawing attention to yourself & not in a good way. Besides if you turned off that computer/tablet/smart device, went outside & actually used the Tamiya you'd learn to appreciate it more. I appreciate it that if I damage anything parts are easy to get, inexpensive compared to high end kits, really easy to fix & there's a huge range of upgrades available.