Unfortunately it kinda came and went. Most of the big brands did a RallyCar, but it was basically a short course truck underneath. Kyosho had a good 1/9 scale. But wasn’t easy to find. Hpi has the great WR8. But Hpi was in financial trouble and struggled to support it. A broken part could knock the car out of use for months. Tamiya had an interesting one. But their popularity seems to be very regional.

Regardless I have plans to seriously enjoy driving this thing even if it is by myself. I wanted to start a build thread for it even though I know there are 1,000,000 XV-01 builds already documented. I've never done a build thread myself and I bought a ton of aftermarket and Tamiya blue parts for it already. I got a pretty decent electronics package to install into it too so I naturally want to archive the process. Kit should be here by this weekend and the parts I ordered for it slowly rolling in over the weeks to come. The motor I chose is already here and as a teaser I got a bottle of comm drops for it too. I'm trying to pad my post count so I can put up some pictures as the build progresses. I'm enjoying this thread and the Xv-01 thread too, tons of useful information for a guy like me. I've never owned a chassis like this (touring car) or a Tamiya model at all for that matter so I'm excitied to get my hands on it. I always wanted a Tamiya model as a kid. I remember looking at pictures of them in catalogs and how many different kinds there were. All the pictures and knowledge in these threads has already been pretty useful so thanks. Hey BTW other aspects of RC no one cares about but me is 2WD monster truck racing. Anybody interested in getting that going too? :/

Look up R/C Rally groups on FB. There are quite a few. Socal R/C Rally Racers is one I belong to. There are groups all over the country, just not a big or widespread as more traditional classes. I too have an XV-01 but it's mostly stock. There's a guy local to me who is putting in a Rally-X style track we will hopefully run on later this summer.

You could go to the Florida Regional Racing forums and start a thread there and see if anyone is interested.

I want to start a rally here. Do you think I can use AE TC4 to run as a rally RC? Also, which one is the latest rally RC?
Thanks.

AE made a rally conversion for the TC3, back in the day. It pushed the arms to 200mm and included larger shocks (and drive shafts for the 200mm wheel track). If you found one I'm sure the TC4 would work with it. the similarities between the TC3 and TC4 would allow this. Not sure where you would find a kit/conversion kit. It has been out of production for a decade or so. I had one and it was a lot of fun

There are 2 things from the TC3 Rally conversion that are really hard to find. First thing is the front bumper (which isn't a major problem). The second is the 200 width front arms, which is the main thing you need. But you don't have to have 200 width arms to rally a TC4. You can easily mod a TC4 to rally and will do quite well. If you have a dremel tool or something similar and longer shocks you can get a lot of ground clearance and overall travel out of a TC4. I think I got more travel from my TC4 than my modded XV-01.

BulldogSRT

This is my TC4. The shock use the full stroke, the top pic is bottomed out on the chassis the tires still have up travel left to use.
BulldogSRT

Thank you TimF and BulldogSRT, That's a pretty good mod for shock. If I were to use wider hex and offset wheel, it will get me to 195 safely I guess?

The only downsides I have ran across with the TC4 and TC3 are is that some Tamiya rims don't fit. Some rims have support webbing on the back side that hit on the front arms when turned. The webbing can be trimmed to make them clear but it can be a pain to do. You could even clearance the arms but I have always done the rims. Also the wheel nuts are 8-32 thread which makes the nuts kinda big for some wheels.

this is a problem with many 26 mm rims by Tamiya. They don’t fit suspension from Short reversible / TB Evo 4 to current 419 arms for the same reason. They need to be put on a lathe and the webbing you speak off needs to be turned and removed

BulldogSRT Which shocks are those? Are they still available? I'd like to convert my TC3s and 4s.

Do these fit ? thingiverse thing 81549
If not, what do I need to change ?

You buy them as a pair. They come with 3 pairs of springs and mounting hardware

The great thing about the rally cars is they are great fun even if on your own due to their scale realism and ability to be driven anywhere. I no longer run my 1/8 gas on road or 1/10 touring cars but I still get out to any local park or area and drive my rally cars.

There are a fair few rally rc focused pages on Facebook that you could get onto that may have people local to you and wanting to start something up.