Fine, no takers......lol

Race was fun, the TT-02R was much more competitive this evening in our Tamiya tub-chassis class. I technically took 4th in a relatively small field but really I took 3rd as I passed the 3rd place guy twice but there was a transponder glitch, all in fun, it is what it is.

The fastest guys are 2 Euro trucks with really good drivers.

The car handled much better with the rear suspension raised as I did after last race, was able to turn consistent laps in the 12.6-14.0 second range with the winning laps being consistently in the 11.5 to 12.5 range.

I will say, my car is much quicker down the straight than my closest competitor with the TT-02 Subaru kit, most likely the R's gearing........

I'm just jealous you have some Euro trucks racing, I'd get back into my TT02s if I had that nearby.

Out of the box the Euro Trucks on the TT-01 platform seems to handle and perform well, especially in the hands of a good driver.

The TT-02s seem to require more constant attention to setup and tires vs. the trucks spec electronics in both (Torque Tuned etc.)

Figured I would inject a little life into the good old TT-02 thread.....

Had our weekly carpet race last night with a couple regulars finally getting TT-02s up and running as well some guys getting the Euro Trucks going (just a matter of time for me).

Some of the regulars raced in a recent TCS event with mixed results, per their feedback the level of gray area cheating was kinda disappointing and they raced in several classes so it wasn't limited a spec class etc. But I can't say I am surprised. Many folks live by the mantra of "if you aren't cheating you aren't trying".....

Meanwhile, 2 guys literally finished up their TT-02s prior to the first Qualifier and it reminded me how sketchy the TT is right out of the box without tweaking the End Points back to dial out steering etc, Poor guys were all over the place. We got them somewhat sorted but it also showed me how far I came with mine.

Took 3rd in a full "Main" and was leading for a bit......finished very competitively right behind the two best drivers running the M chassis as we run "Tamiya Tub Chassis" to ensure a full class. Although I took a really hard hit in my Q2 race and somehow that hit knocked my ESC into "crawler" mode with full drag brake and we never figured out how to dial it out so for the Main I had to turn on my controller, the car and then dial up my throttle trim to 70 to back out the drag brake and make it driveable which got me to 3rd in the Main and this week I'll figure out what is going on with it and a proper fix......

But I am also racing clay on Sunday and I am in the middle of a Schumacher build so plenty of RC projects in additional to other warm weather hobbies etc.

TT-02s......silly fun for relatively short money

The TCS races I have done seemed to be pretty fair.. you do run into some hardcore Tamiya racers.. so just because they are crazy fast, doesn’t mean they are cheating.. they probably spent their entire lives racing Tamiya cars.. just think of it this way.. you started on your TT02 journey a couple months ago.. and now you are running A finals.. now imagine if you keep at it for another 20 years 😎

Oh I get it. On the flip side, the guys that I know that went, are some of those Tamiya 20+ year guys and they were kinda frustrated with the experience. It is what it is.

At the end of the day I think their biggest gripes were in the "built per the instructions spec" rule where the Euro Truck's should not have the shock bodies packed with grease to add additional dampening and they sure as hell are not installed inverted. But whatever......not my pig not my farm......

Regardless......what I DO love about Tamiya is their variety of vehicles and platforms that allow for easy entry to racing and for those of us who can and do afford some of the fancier and more spendy platforms the Tamiya TTs offer really fun and close racing in a somewhat spec class. I love our informal "Tamiya tub-chassis class"....TT-02s, TT-01s/Euro Trucks/ M chassis FWD etc......if we have enough for separate classes for TT and Euro, great, if not......we run them together and have a blast. As you mentioned I have come a LONG way with this TT-02......and honestly it scratches my "on-road" itch for now.

I have a LOT of $ invested in off-road right now with 2 TLRs and building a Schumacher L1R..........

That being said, I see a Euro Truck coming,......I mean $160 with motor and ESC seem's like a no brainer.......$50-60 for a servo, $45 for receiver and go race another class.....

Agreed on the Euro truck being a box stock class.. I am surprised the race director let folks get away with that..

The performance difference with the tt02 and euro trucks comes down to the treaded euro truck tires. On equal tires(usgt spec tires at my club) it's a whole different story. But if they were running the euro truck tires.....good luck those actually work really well.

Went racing yesterday at my local indoor carpet track (btw if anyone is in the San Francisco Bay Area, look up Pole Position Lemo Carpet Racing on Facebook - they have many classes and are run pretty well for their first season. I had a blast racing!).

Their Porsche Cup class is a TT02 with specific allowed option parts. I got the 54752 Steering Upgrade Set and unfortunately shortly into the main, the 5mm ball connector snapped off clean, leaving the thread inside the steering arm. I have never had a ball connector snap off like that. The thread portion is completely within the steering arm, and there is no protruding screw from the other end.

How do I get this out? Thanks in advance.

You'll have to drill it out.

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?