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Old 10-22-2015, 09:19 AM   #1
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Default Tommy R's RWD Drifter

Hey folks,

I've been through a few cars in my effort to try drifting. I first picked up a Hot Bodies Cyclone. When that didn't work to my liking I stepped it up and got an Xray T3 touring car. I still had issues getting the handling I wanted so I sold it and quit drifting for a while. Then I later picked up a Sakura D3 with countersteer. After spending a lot of time trying to get it to handle like I wanted, I eventually gave up on it and sold it, as well. I was pretty frustrated with drifting altogether.

Then the other day my buddy, Cory (Stang Killa SS), posted up that he picked up a rear wheel drive drifter. What the WHAT?? RWD?? Is he crazy? I know folks have done it, but isn't it crazy difficult to control a RWD drifter? I could barely control an AWD car. So I started researching and it turns out there are several RWD drifters on the market these days. I began to reconsider a drifter in the hopes that these companies have addressed the inherent problems with trying to drift a RWD RC car, i.e. weight balance, steering throw, etc. It appears pretty much all of the ones I was considering also included gyros, which I've read are pretty much mandatory for a RWD car unless you're an RC god. I'm not.

Since I was very skeptical of being able to control a RWD drifter I didn't want to invest much money. I also wanted one with a mid/front motor setup as it seems pretty popular. So I narrowed it down to two cars. The first was the MST FXX-D (or something), which is their budget RWD car for about $160. It's mostly all plastic. Sure you can upgrade to aluminum bits, but a little research made me painfully aware of the cost for such upgrades. Ouch!

The other car was the Eagle Racing TT02-FRD. "Who's Eagle Racing?" I asked. Never heard of them. Well, best I can tell is they made upgrade parts for Tamiya cars and eventually just started making their own based on their hop-up parts. I could be wrong, but that's my best guess. Evidently, it's a small company, but there's a guy on youtube (bluestar4u) who has built several Eagle Racing chassis and he has numerous, helpful write-ups to get them set up. So I eventually but the bullet on a new ER TT02-FRD. I'm going to try RWD drifting. May God have mercy on us all!

Here's bluestar4u's (real name is Patrick) youtube channel if anyone is interested: https://www.youtube.com/user/blueststar4u

It arrived assembled, which I'm never a fan of. I applied CA to the carbon fiber to protect it (and me) from splinters. I also applied Loctite where appropriate. I also ordered a new body (Pandora S13 Silvia), a Speed Passion Reventon R ESC, and a Speed Passion 10.5 motor. For a servo I picked up a Savox 1251 super speed servo. It may actually be TOO fast! But anyway, after a few weeks I had it up and running and played around on the tile floor in the kitchen. It was challenging, but promising. Soon I was doing pretty tight figure 8's, which I couldn't even do with my AWD cars!

Here's a couple pics of the chassis with the electronics in it.






Yeah, the steering throw is pretty bonkers!
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Old 10-22-2015, 09:30 AM   #2
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Default Re: Tommy R's RWD Drifter

In the above photos, there are a few things to point out. The brake discs were an optional extra (about $30). The diff case was plastic, but I upgraded it ($21) for an aluminum one. It adds some desired weight to the rear, but more importantly improves the pimp factor! The front tires were also changed to Eagle Racing "rounded profile" tires in a hard compound. With this much steering lock and considering the camber/caster, this is a very worthwhile upgrade, IMO. Also shown are stealth body mounts from Black Star Hobbies. The car comes with a variety of springs to choose from. I'm currently running hard fronts and soft rears. The rear also included a tray for lead weights. You can add 0-25 grams in 5g increments. A very nice touch!

OH! I forgot to mention that the kit cost me about $285 shipped. More than I'd planned on spending, but it's pretty heavily optioned out so probably cheaper for me in the long run, knowing I'd upgrade to aluminum bits with whatever chassis I purchased. Another thing to consider is that the only place to buy this chassis currently appears to be Broad Tech (BROAD TECH ONLINE SHOP). They're overseas, but ship pretty quickly. Otherwise, I try to buy from Black Star Hobbies since they're in the States and carry a lot of drift parts like wheels/tires/bodies/etc.

When it came time to get the body sorted I'd planned on a white pearl. Due to a variety of screw-ups on my part, it came out silver-ish and the masking was a mess, too. Ah well, it looks okay from a distance and will eventually be a "drift missile" so no worries. I was, however, very pleased with how the hood came out. Here's some pics. The battery isn't installed so it's sitting higher than normal.




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Old 10-22-2015, 09:39 AM   #3
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Default Re: Tommy R's RWD Drifter

A few other things to mention... I'm currently running 7mm offset wheels. With some camber they tuck fine. If you want to run very little camber, I'd suggest 3mm wheels. The Pandora body is a little long for this chassis. I've got the chassis wheelbase max'd out, but it's not quite long enough, IMO. It looks okay, though, after some more fender trimming.

Also, the gearing in this car is pretty low, i.e. it doesn't have much speed. For this reason several people suggest running an 8.5 motor. Since I have a 10.5 I opted to change the rear end gearing as bluestar4u describes in one of his videos. Now I've got tons of wheelspeed when I need it.

I've been running on carpet lately and am running MST CS-R rear tires. The "Harder" rears are super slick. They're not any more difficult to drive, but are VERY slow and make it nearly impossible to keep up with AWD cars. The "Hard" are actually quite a bit grippier and are even faster than the AWD cars. I need a tire compound between them, apparently. I also picked up a set of FR-F front tires (rounded profile). I've now used the Eagle fronts and the MST fronts and can't tell a difference to be honest. Both work well so far.
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Old 10-22-2015, 09:42 AM   #4
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Default Re: Tommy R's RWD Drifter

Sick Tommy! I have wanted one for long time now. They just opened a RC Drift track close to me...it's pretty fun.

https://www.facebook.com/Kong-Rc-Dri...6642444617806/
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Old 10-22-2015, 09:56 AM   #5
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Default Re: Tommy R's RWD Drifter

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Originally Posted by justinart24 View Post
Sick Tommy! I have wanted one for long time now. They just opened a RC Drift track close to me...it's pretty fun.

https://www.facebook.com/Kong-Rc-Dri...6642444617806/
That's fantastic! I really wish we had a dedicated drift track in Austin. However, there is a small, but dedicated group here in town and one of them has a pretty large garage that they've set up a pretty nice track in. I've been honing my "skills" over there and making some nice progress.

I've also handed the controller off to these guys and some are now considering buying one.

Justin, do you have a build thread or pics posted of yours?
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Old 10-22-2015, 12:13 PM   #6
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Default Re: Tommy R's RWD Drifter

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Originally Posted by Tommy R View Post
That's fantastic! I really wish we had a dedicated drift track in Austin. However, there is a small, but dedicated group here in town and one of them has a pretty large garage that they've set up a pretty nice track in. I've been honing my "skills" over there and making some nice progress.

I've also handed the controller off to these guys and some are now considering buying one.

Justin, do you have a build thread or pics posted of yours?
Yep, here is mine.
My Drift/Onroad racing car (Team Associated TC5)...

It's funny being the older bearded guy at the RC Kong Drift track and showing up the young kids...lmao.
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Old 10-22-2015, 12:35 PM   #7
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Default Re: Tommy R's RWD Drifter

I thought my steering throw on my comp trucks was amazing but that steering throw is sick, now the crawler world is gotta step it up a little i think lol
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Old 10-22-2015, 01:08 PM   #8
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Default Re: Tommy R's RWD Drifter

man those first two pics are nice!

your steering angle is way better than my R31. with its front motor, the spur gear is in the way to move the shocks in anymore, so they limit steering travel.
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Old 10-26-2015, 06:55 AM   #9
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Default Re: Tommy R's RWD Drifter

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Originally Posted by gsrcivic View Post
I thought my steering throw on my comp trucks was amazing but that steering throw is sick, now the crawler world is gotta step it up a little i think lol
HA! Well, it sure is a lot easier when you don't have front drive axles!

Quote:
Originally Posted by STANG KILLA SS View Post
man those first two pics are nice!

your steering angle is way better than my R31. with its front motor, the spur gear is in the way to move the shocks in anymore, so they limit steering travel.
Thanks, Cory! Hopefully, the reduced front steer on your R31 won't be a factor. Get that thing running, would ya??
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Old 10-31-2015, 10:00 AM   #10
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Default Re: Tommy R's RWD Drifter

Here's a short video I put together from testing this week. In the video I'm running MST tires all around. "Hard" FS-R's up front and "hard" CS-R's in the rear. In order to slow the car down a bit (it was outrunning all the AWD cars due to having too much grip), I put the stiffest Eagle Racing rear springs on and dialed in more negative camber in hopes of having a smaller footprint. It worked somewhat, but it's still near impossible to tandem with AWD cars. I'm faster in some areas and slower in others... :( I also tried running with no rear weight at all. I was at 53% rear weight, but after the video I removed over 65g from the tail of the car in hopes of reducing rear grip under power. It helped, but not as much as I'd hoped.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd9915IDuNY

I'm still on the search for the "right" rear tire.....
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Old 11-02-2015, 08:19 AM   #11
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Default Re: Tommy R's RWD Drifter

I have a couple issues with the ER TT02. *It's not the easiest car to work on, particularly in the cramped motor area. *It's not awful, but requires quite a bit more disassembly to do things up front. *The hardware is of pretty poor quality. *I've stripped a couple screw heads so I'm in the process of replacing most of the hardware if significant torque is required. *Lastly, there is a LOT of resistance in the suspension. *Case in point, if you remove the shocks/springs and lift the suspension, the suspension will remain up in the air and not fall to its droop position. *Not good since it's not allowing the suspension to move freely.

In the rear I did a light polish of the hinge pins, which helped the lower arms pivot. *But the rear hub carriers were a really tight fit into the control arms so I took off some plastic bushing material so they'd fit better. *I think I need to take off a bit more than is shown here, but at least it's better and pivots a bit easier.


I also managed to free up some of the endlinks, but some are pretty stubborn. *I see some Team Associated links/ball ends in my future to properly address this issue.

In the front, the hinge pins were fine, but I noticed the upper and lower control arm spacers (to adjust caster and/or wheelbase) were too thick and once it was assembled, it really bound up the suspension. *On the top I removed one silver spacer and installed some shims that reduced the overall "thickness" by approximately 0.4 mm and it's much better now. *The lower on the left side was fine, but I had to reduce the right side spacers by about 0.5 mm to free it up. *Kind of concerning that they were so different side to side, but oh well! *Here you can see where I removed one of the standard silver shims and installed my own.

Last edited by Tommy R; 11-02-2015 at 08:22 AM.
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Old 11-16-2015, 07:34 AM   #12
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Default Re: Tommy R's RWD Drifter

Been working on the TT02-FRD quite a bit lately. Most recently I've spent a lot of time freeing up the suspension. Even though I'd spent a lot of time on it, it was still experiencing some sticktion. I finally removed it all now....well, at least I think I did! Ha! I also added an OB1 light kit. I didn't have a place for amber LEDs in the rear so I converted them to exhaust backfire instead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihSTBCNJXag
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Old 11-16-2015, 02:29 PM   #13
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Default Re: Tommy R's RWD Drifter

Whipped up a roll cage. Still trying to determine a color. I want it to be rather bright so it's visible inside the car from a distance.


Rolled down the driver side window.


Cracked the passenger side window.


One thing I've always disliked about touring cars and drifters is the unrealistically large wheel diameter and ultra low profile tire sidewall. This is pretty common to every manufacturer. But Scale Dynamics offers a unique solution. It's a wheel that has a fake, molded tire sidewall within it. The downside is you have to go with the "stretched" tire look. I wasn't looking for the stretched tire look, but I do like the smaller look of the wheel diameter!


I just wish I had a color option other than chrome! I may paint the center mesh area gold to match my other wheels. Nonetheless, I kinda dig the look.


These are 10mm offsets. The only other option was 13mm. But from a fitment perspective, they fit like a 7mm wheel. The extra "tire" section does protrude from the body about 3mm farther, but it doesn't interfere with anything. Just makes it look like a really stretched tire.




And for the heck of it, here's the underside of the body once I installed the OB1 LED system.
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Old 11-16-2015, 10:22 PM   #14
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Couldn't stand the chrome so I painted the centers.


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Old 11-18-2015, 10:15 PM   #15
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Default Re: Tommy R's RWD Drifter

Roll cage is in...


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Old 11-23-2015, 04:25 PM   #16
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Default Re: Tommy R's RWD Drifter

I'd been thinking of trying a higher cg to play around with "weight shift" and well, today I finally got around to making it. *It's also centrally located now, which should help with balancing the car. *Here's some pics of the progress, finished product, and a sketch in case anyone else is interested in replicating it.

First, I removed the screws and rear brace/standoffs.


My "engineered drawing" in case anyone else is interested in this.


Here's the initial mock-up.


Experimenting with spacers to get the right spacing above and below the new mount. *This needs to be done because of the removal of the original standoffs. *I think I went with about 5mm of spacers on top and 3.5mm below. *YMMV so take measurements...


Progress. *I used .060" thick styrene and some angle to use as extra supports. *I used the orange label Plastruct, which I think is stronger than the white label. *It's nice and sturdy.


Test fitting. *The rear of the battery rests against the carbon fiber brace. *Be careful here that the battery pack doesn't get worn through...especially if you use soft packs! Reasons for those cutouts should be pretty obvious.


Painted and added some padding to the sides to hold the battery snugly. *I may add some up front, as well, but it really doesn't need it.


Final rear spacer arrangment.


Pretty snug fit.


And everything re-installed in their new locations.




So the big question... *How does it drive? *I've only had chance to run it in my rather small kitchen, but it's more controllable than ever. *I was rather surprised! *Is it because of the "weight shift" or the centrally mounted battery? *Not sure, but I'm optimistic about this! *I haven't even corner balanced the car yet, so it may get even better. *I'll chime in and post pics after I balance it.
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Old 11-25-2015, 05:18 AM   #17
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Default Re: Tommy R's RWD Drifter

Awesome! Starting a build on a hard bodied 50/50 drift car today... Where did you order your frd from? Been really wanting to try rwd drifting. I'm assuming broadtech?

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Old 11-25-2015, 08:06 AM   #18
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when you said weight shift, I thought you were going to make a moveable slide that you could move forward and aft via the radio as you drive.
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Old 11-25-2015, 08:10 AM   #19
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Originally Posted by BigChevyTruckin View Post
Awesome! Starting a build on a hard bodied 50/50 drift car today... Where did you order your frd from? Been really wanting to try rwd drifting. I'm assuming broadtech?

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Kinda! I picked it up directly from Patrick, who is "bluestar4u" on youtube who does all the how-to videos on Eagle products. He had an ebay store where he was distributing the cars. He got everything from Broadtech.

Quote:
Originally Posted by STANG KILLA SS View Post
when you said weight shift, I thought you were going to make a moveable slide that you could move forward and aft via the radio as you drive.
Nah, evidently when RWD drifters refer to weight shift, they're simply talking about raising the center of gravity to have a more realistic amount of body roll in the corners. It's a bit misleading!
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Old 11-25-2015, 08:14 AM   #20
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Originally Posted by Tommy R View Post
Kinda! I picked it up directly from Patrick, who is "bluestar4u" on youtube who does all the how-to videos on Eagle products. He had an ebay store where he was distributing the cars. He got everything from Broadtech.



Nah, evidently when RWD drifters refer to weight shift, they're simply talking about raising the center of gravity to have a more realistic amount of body roll in the corners. It's a bit misleading!
And is he still doing this? I'd like to buy one from the states because I hate waiting for shipping!

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