Yes, the Tamiya connectors are among the worst, pretty much anything else is an improvement, certainly the XT60 is. Also, adapters should generally be avoided wherever possible (unless for testing, etc.) - a single connector instead of several in a row is always preferable.

Thanks for that. Gives me a bit more "confidence" that the TT-02 I'll be building for USGT will actually be competitive...and, by "competitive", I mean, I'll be able to greatly enjoy racing with it (as I won't ever expect to win, especially against those I'll be racing against).

For usgt with shaft drive you need to run a teeny tiny spur and a large pinion and you can keep up with the best of them. I am currently running a 70t spur and a 55 tooth pinion. 64p . With the usgt motor you can gear that thing to the moon and it'll still run nice and cool. If our track was more flowing I would go up to a 57 pinion but we have lots of 180s.

Just ordered the TT02 Supra kit! Will be my first Tamiya kit.

Great info in this thread. Was planning on running the Hobbywing Quicrun 10.5T Sensored brushless set up - mostly for just bashing around on asphalt lots. . . is that too much motor for a stock set up (with bearings instead of bushings, of course)?

Gonna drop in a Kyosho metal gear standard servo (just laying around here) and FS-BS6 rx to complete the electronics.

I don't know... it might work, but for how long? Personally, I would not try with just a base kit without some more tuning. Bearings is of course the absolute minimum, but with a 10.5T I'd probably go with the aluminum prop shaft and hardened (or steel) pinion might be a good idea as well. Probably even more than that should be recommended, but that's what immediately came to my head.

Thanks for the advice! I guess I will be building up to the 10.5T over time rather than just start at the 10.5T ... Good thing it comes with that Tamiya ESC and brushed motor.

Should I be looking at every aluminum and metal upgrade for the drivetrain before stepping up the motor? Like, diff gears too?

Instead of buying a complete set, I would suggest to get aTT-02R and the body separately.
TT-02 R comes with a lot of the needed hop-ups (shocks, bearings, high speed gears, rear toe in hubs, etc.) right out of the box.
Pimping a standard TT-02 up to the same level will create higher costs....

The TT02R is discontinued. It also didn't come with the aluminum steering components, nor the adjustable arms.

Ok so he has the RR adjustable arms.. his point is not to write off the TT02.

I raced the Type S in USGT for a good year and it did extremely well. I then handed it to my son who was 5 at the time for his basher. As he grew he raced it in 3 Tamiya TCS races, was crowned champ at last one. Then I moved him into VTA with it and was doing so well that I picked up a TA08 Pro for him.

I would just go with bearings and put the 10.5T in. I've been running a few of these for years with minimal upgrades and they are bulletproof. Yes, the alloy propshaft is probably better, but I haven't noticed any major wear or anything from just running the kit one.

The high speed gearset and Yeah Racing motor mount are useful because it allows you to swap both spur and pinion and get amy gearing you want. The other one is oil shocks as they are much better than the friction onea the kit comes with.

If you want to upgrade parts beyond bearings, shocks and pinion, look carefully at why and what it will cost. The TT02 kit is fantastic but has its limitations. Dont throw much money at it, its not worth it. Keep it as the carpark racer and use it as intended, if you go racing then buy something like the Express XQ2S.

Appreciate the input. Hoping for the kit to arrive any day now. I already went ahead and ordered the aluminum drive shaft and prop joints, cause they're cheap and it's my first Tamiya so I wanted a "hop up" or two. I found a set of oil-filled, internal-spring shocks that I think will fit in my box of parts that didn't fit other cars, if they don't fit, I'll worry about those later. Also, probably going to order the 24t/25t pinion set as my group is going to be doing some informal "spec" racing, and I'm gonna have to run the stock ESC, motor and tires for those races. Definitely planning on the high speed gear set and YR motor mount in due time.

Definitely will take your advice about carefully considering the various upgrades. Kinda experienced sticker shock when I saw what Tamiya wanted for the full upgrade steering set.

I'm new, could someone message me about tips for beginners?

Hi Jenny! As this is a forum, it's more about spreading knowledge (and questions) publicly, not via PM, so that others may learn from it as well. And for that: do you own a TT-02 on-road car that you want tips on, specifically related to this model of car? Then this would be the correct section and thread. If you had more general questions on radios/electronics, there's a section for that. Or if you don't even know where to start, there's even a special rookie section for that as well. Generally you should tell us what equipment you have or plan to buy, how much (if any) experience you have and what you plan on doing with your RC car. Racing, bashing, drifting (those would be examples for on-road)?. You can get tons of (mostly even good) help around here, but you need to be actively involved (e.g. providing necessary information, etc.) in order for it to work, too.

I am in the process of converting a TT-02 S into a TT-02 SR. Part of this process requires replacing the dog bone setup with universal swing shafts. Originally I decided to buy Tamiya #42346 TRF 420 wheel axles for my TA07 and then move the TA07 wheel axles over to my TT02 SR. However I discovered that the 420 axles have shorter threads on them. The TRF 420 wheel axles have about 8mm of thread and the Tamiya #54515 XV-01 universal axles have about 10mm of thread.

Since I plan on running wider wheel hexes on my car this extra 2mm mattered to me. Also since I'm going to be running this TT-02 in VTA, I wanted the ability to space out the wheel more to better fill out the wheel arches of the body.

One positive thing about the Tamiya #42346 TRF 420 axles is that they are 1 gram lighter than the Tamiya #51445 TRF417 axles. I am also buying some lower profile wheel nuts so I could still use the TRF420 axles as spares or on my TA-07.

Please note the wheel axles on the Tamiya TA07 and the rear of the Tamiya TT-02 SR are Tamiya #51445. Tamiya #54515 XV-01 Assembly Universal Shaft (Front/2pcs) fits at the REAR of the TT-02 SR as it uses the exact same individual pieces.I could also use #54515 at the front of a TT-02 S or SR, but I will eventually install double cardan shafts at the front of my TT-02 SR kit.

Another quick note.
TT-02 SR uses 42mm swing shafts at the rear with Tamiya #51445 axles
TA-07 Pro uses 44mm swing shafts with Tamiya #51445 axles.
XV-01 Pro also uses Tamiya #51445 axles at the front of the car (the rear axles are wider)

Here is a picture of the 2 axles

Alright guys, read through this thread a few times before dropping way more than I should have on a TT02R. Bonus is, I was able to order a base TT02 Audi V8 kit that I already had hopups for thanks to building the R first.

Biggest thing I have seen here is stripped gears. I run 2s and 3s through stock diffs and high speed gearset. THE CATCH is, that I run metal/plastic at EVERY gear junction. Ive been beating on the TT02R for almost 6 months now. The only thing I haven't done is stripped gears. Running a 5.74FDR on a HW MAX10 EZRUN 4000kv brushless.

I run metal pinion on both diffs(WR02 diff pinions filed down to match the height on the stock pinions), and a metal pinion on the brushless. Gear mesh is CRITICAL to not strip gears on a basher setup with high powered brushless. This does not apply to the racers with great throttle control.

The metal\plastic gear combo will absorb the most force without stripping the gears thanks to physics.

Another thing I learned, most of the yeah racing parts are decent. But stay away from the yeah racing aluminum steering set. I think the plastic steering parts have less slop.
my PB so far is 47mph on 2s, and I haven't been over 63mph on 3s without crashing.

To test a theory I have seen mentioned, I've removed all suspension shims. None of it was too tight when static, But keeping in mind how the chassis loads under throttle on brushless, the shims may become too tight once that occurs, and could be the driving factor behind the instability.

Another thing. The yeah racing shocks work great the first time you assemble them. But if you ever have to change pistons or oil, good luck with them not leaking. I've ordered another set of the mini CVAs to build up for the chassis to replace the yeah racing leakers.

I've tried 4-5 different suspension setups with the YR shocks and positions, and I've gotten it super close. I think my remaining issues are related to the shims tightening the suspension upon load.

I've also just gotten the Flysky Noble NB4 and it is phenominal. Coming over from a modded GT3B, the adjustability and low latency is SUPREME.