Fun with Tiny Cars

[OSRC]

When I get burned out with building tiny trucks, I build tiny cars. I've had a few different brands on and off, but have consolidated mostly to Tamiya kits now making it a bit easier for parts sharing, body swaps, and what not.

On weekends when we're not out in the woods, we do on-road days. Basically find an empty smooth parking lot, set up a course and let the mayhem ensue. It's a blast, and a nice change of pace. Gotta change things up once in a while! Anyway, creating a thread to post car pics and anything fun that comes out of onroad day.

Here's a new build I just picked up over the winter. TA06 with a Ferrari body. Always thought this was a cool looking chassis, and picked this one up for $160 thinking about a budget build. Of course, I then went and spent the same amount on a bunch of hopups...RCMart was closing out a lot of parts, so even though I shot the budget, it came togther pretty cheap. I have a set of Ferarri wheels to match, but they didn't fit over the hubs. Absolutely love the way this came out! Got a 17.5 motor in and ready to go! Will trim up the body mounts once I get the final ride height sorted out

[OSRC]

This is my DF03RA with the Tamiya 240z body. Pretty much decked out with all the goodies I could find, except for aluminum arms and hubs since I didn't want the weight. Went with the stock body paint scheme, though a different color just to be well....different. Don't care so much for how the bumper hangs out of the front - in retrospect, I should have left the front valance on the car, but oh well. This was going to be a rally car, but had so much fun ripping it around on pavement I removed the lights, lowered it and put some sticky rubber on it and called it good.

This car handles amazingly well for what is basically a modified buggy. It has excellent balance all around, and understeers just a bit - never breaks traction in the rear. I can pretty much whip this around with confidence. Last year it was running a 17.5, but swapped in a 3300KV motor for this summer for a bit more ooomph. With the way the gearing is set up, I had maxed out with the 17.5, so had to go to a hotter motor for more speed.

[OSRC]

Race day from last year... MY CRX is on the end - modded up MF01x. Sold it over the winter to a friend, so it will live on! I do miss it already.. :(


Anyhow, what's next? How about an XV01? I have a love/hate relationship with this car. Actually tried to sell it, but pulled the sale to give it one more go.

I love how smooth the drive train is, and with a 3300kv motor, it pulls like a freight train out of the corners and down the straights. Excellent on-power handling.

What I hate is off throttle, the rear end wants to go anywhere but where I'm pointing it. Braking while turning is just evil with this car. Just turning while off throttle is evil too. I'm sure that's great for rally, but not so much when running a pavement course.

I'm determined to make it handle though - I know it can be done, my old TA03F handled like it was on rails. I played a lot with the suspension last year and was never able to dial it in. So I thought about it, and made some wholesale changes to it and we'll give it another go this season. if it still handles like crap, it's gone.

Decked out with a rather plain BRZ body for this season. Gotta say I kinda hate the body - not one of Tamiya's better efforts. Will have no qualms about beating this one. The Skyline body will be back for sure.

[OSRC]

How old school is this? This TL01 was gutted, and on display in my house. (My wife loves how random RC vehicles show up "on display" in random places...she knew it was coming when we got married though )

It was getting some sunlight and the white plastic has started to yellow. Kinda was looking dingy, so I took it back to the shop and put it on the shelf. Since I got rid of a few vehicles, I had some spare electronics laying around so I got this up and running for the summer.

Basic TL01 with the high speed gear set, long arm kit, CVD's, and that's about it. Well, and a set of shocks that are probably worth more than the car itself. The Celica body is looking rough, though it's never even been out of the house. UV light does strange things to plastics. Guess I could paint the plastics white again, if I ever get motivated to do it. I do love how low it sits, and even though it's got XV01 wheels and HPI rally tires, its slung down for road duty only. Running a stock motor for now. Curious to see how it handles, haven't drive a TL01 in 10 years at least.

[OSRC]

This is my favorite runner by far. There's a build thread here somewhere, so no point in getting into the details. Basically, it's an old M04 with the trans flipped to rear motor and stretched out into a 1/10 sedan using a myriad of Tamiya parts.

This is a drivers car for sure - RWD so you really have to drive it ilo the point and shoot style of AWD cars. A smooth trigger finger is a must for keeping it pointed in the right direction. I swapped in a 17.5 system for this year and will be playing with the settings to try and tame it a bit. Also swapped out the ball diff for a looser gear diff to try and get the rear end settled down.

I think the Capri body and wheels make the car. I actually keep this on display in the mudroom so it's the first thing I see when I come home every day. (I think that points to bigger problems, but that's for another thread!)

[OSRC]

Wouldn't be a Tamya touring thread without some minis.

I don't know what Tamiya bakes into these M06's, but for a RWD car it's super planted and wicked fast. This one started as a pro kit and has all the goodies, including swaybars and the Yeah racing wide arm kit. Handles well, and absolutely flies - even with just a Tamiya Black brushed motor. Love driving this car! Not planning on any changes anytime soon - it's running so good, I don't know what I'd change.

I was running an HPI Miata body here, but swapped back over to an Alpine body. Glad I did, I think this is one of the best bodies Tamiya has done. The lines on this car are just gorgeous.



Tire dust on the rear fenders...too cool!


And speaking of minis, picked this up over the winter after seeing Jato's beatbox M07 haul ass around our track. Pretty standard M07 kit with swaybars and a few other small mods. Really cool little car, though putting the rear suspension together required a level of patience not normally seen in the OSRC shop. Running a 1080 ESC (for now, that might find it's way into a crawler at some point) and 27t motor to match Jato's setup. I haven't driven a front wheel drive car since the FF01 days - this should be interesting.

Went with the Mazda2 body in silver - the wife drives a 3 in the same color, and they look pretty close to each other. She likes it - happy wife, happy life. Wonder if I can get a 1/10 stick figure family on the rear window to match.

[JatoTheRipper]

They all look good, as usual, but I really like that TA06 chassis as well. Maybe I'll ask for one as birthday present.

[OSRC]

I've had this one for a long, long time. Since '94 maybe? Original TA02 S10 kit I picked up when they were first relased that's been run, used, abused, jumped, beat, and rebuilt so many times I've lost track.

The S10 body long ago went to bowtie heaven and a Ford body has rightfully taken it's place. It's on it's third set of gearboxes as the Tamiya ABS ages and gets stress cracks. Now in blue! Amazingly, still has all the stock original gears, they just won't die. It's still smooth and quiet...amazing. Even though I've swapped the shocks out for something more flashy, the OG shocks were still leak free and working fine.

Set up low for onroad duty now as it's offroad days are long gone. Not much modded on this truck, just set up with a ball diff up front and a rear gear diff to help it pull out of turns and a few other mods for smoothness/reliability. The tires have very little traction, and with a BL system it was basically a drift truck. I went back to a brushed system, and it actually handles really, really well. Just like the DF03RA, it's based on a buggy architecture and somehow it drives fantastic. Plan on keeping this truck for a long time.

Forgive the body posts... I keep meaning to trim them down, and never seem to get around to it. Cut out the rear spare tire and just put some flat lexan back there more appropriate to a road truck. Still need to make like the Rolling Stones and paint it black. I'll get to it eventually....or the body will get trashed and replaced - whatever comes first.

[OSRC]

Now to the projects... gotta have something to build. I've been on a tear lately as most of my crawlers are pretty much good to go. Working on cars keeps me from ripping apart perfectly good trucks just to have something to do! I've got quite a few cars left in bits and pieces and have been slowly getting them together.

Every guy who runs Tamiya onroads probably has a TT02 somewhere. Mine started as an R kit, and was slowly upgraded. Picked up the hard white chassis, and other bits to match. It's funky looking for sure - not sure if I like it or not. But it's certainly different.

Not sure what it is, but this car has always been rear happy for me - both on and off throttle. It's very hard to drive it smoothly. I've changed around the suspension a bit and did some shimming in the back and it seems better, but still have some work to do. The handling on this one has always been a bit of a mystery.

Over the winter, I picked up another 240z body and some new wheels. Plan on making a Rotsun replica out of it. I do need to source some longer body posts and get to painting.


This a a Nikko Porshe 959 on a shortened TA chassis. Did this a long time ago for Scale4x4's drift build-off. It worked great, and looked good doing it. It is sidelined at the moment do to serious stress cracks on both front and rear gearboxes. I'll rebuild it eventually - I think it's too cool not to.


This is a Tamiya EVO3 I picked up for $60...needed a cleaning and some parts to complete. Turns out it's mint, never even run. I cleaned it up, rebuilt the rear ball diff with scavenged M05 ball diff innards, amazingly tracked down the missing parts online and it's good to go. Not sure what I want to do with it to be honest...all that carbon is a little too nice to get beat up in a parking lot. Though it's not exactly a rare or valuable car. I'll figure something out eventually.

[OSRC]

Which brings me to current shenanigans. I have a tote full of old TA02 chassis parts I've picked up over the years. I went through it and tossed anything that was cracked or really beat up and was left with a pretty decent pile of usable parts.

So one morning I started messing around and got the idea to build a super TA chassis. One of those days where I got in the build zone and things started happening. Started with stripping down some old black gearboxes, cleaning them up and reassembling with fresh bearings and grease that wasn't 20years old and crusty.

The suspension design is 25+ years old and while it works ok, I thought I could do better. I dug around and found some leftover TB02 parts that came with the EVO3 above, and after some head scratching, I grafted the rear suspension and some pare CVD's over to the TA chassis. It gives far better geometry compared to the stock parts, and a bit extra width bringing the rear to a true 190mm car. (Tamiya are very narrow, especially old ones. About 184mm)

Comparing old to new:



Though I didn't take any pics for whatever reason, I grafted a TL01 long arm kit up front. I had to flip the C's side to side as the TA has built in caster, as do the C's so I had wicked caster angles. Flipping them from side to side evened it out. Also dug out a long FRP chassis kit and some FRP towers to match. The Super TA is taking shape!

[OSRC]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

They all look good, as usual, but I really like that TA06 chassis as well. Maybe I'll ask for one as birthday present.

Get a good look at the rear of that Ferrari...all you're going to see this summer.

Really in a car mood - nice break from the trucks.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by OSRC

Get a good look at the rear of that Ferrari...all you're going to see this summer.

Really in a car mood - nice break from the trucks.

Like DMX said, "whatever it is you puffin' on that got you thinkin' that you Superman I got the Kryptonite."

I'm big into tiny trucks now, but once I force myself to paint my semi I'll be 100% ready for on road sessions!

[Shinchu]

THIS WHOLE THREAD.

so much rad. love it!!!
i seriously don't even know where to start... uhhh... Ferrari on TE37 YES. (btw i think ride height is perfect where it is in the pic! MOAR LOW!!!)
Datsun Z of any kind YES, especially on watanabe wheels and vintage tires (thank you HPI for those!!!).
ballad sports widebody CRX YES.
Tamiya FRS body I NEED SO BAD!!!!! will paint it grey like my 1:1.
awesome rolling stones reference and now when i hear that song all i will think is "i see a red ford and i want to paint it bla-ack" also i started watching Australian stadium truck racing... THIS IS THAT. i'm cooking a plan for a RWD baja truck that will pull double duty as a stadium truck. maybe...
M06 i want to try for a more "true scale" AE86 because the typical 1:10 scale AE86 are way too big when next to some big 4 door bodies. and if i pulled one behind my smaller jconcepts 79 ford, it would look ridiculous. just hard to find a good AE86 body in M06 scale.
* this is a great example! too bad HPI only made the cup bodies in Levin http://goods.ruten.com.tw/item/show?21817958550067

i also have a special place in my heart for Tamiya. my first hobby grade RC was a blackfoot, and i still have my TT01R that i have passed down to my son. i mostly use on-road stuff for drifting, but i really should make at least ONE grip car.

thank you for this rad, inspirational thread!

[OSRC]

Glad you like!

Funny thing about touring cars - unless you live in southern Wackifornia, no one cares. it's deader than dead around here. I don't even know where to post them. Unless its the latest carbon techno capricorn whatever, no one on RCTEch gives a rip. Tamiyaclub for whatever reason deletes 1/2 of what I post even though I subscribed... but I'm having fun, so it's all good.

I wish my Ferrari rims would have fit. I have a set of split spokes from my Enzo kit, but they don't fit the '06's front hub layout. They would have looked perfect. I think the HPI rims are too flashy.

Much more goodness to come, spent 3 hours wrenching today. The 240z DF03 has a new look (to say the least), got the super TA wired up, and I finished another TA02 chassis.

[soze]

Damn, that's a nice collection of touring cars you have there. I've only got a few, but it's probably not going to grow much more. I'm already pushing it (S.O. Threshold) with the amount of R/C's I currently have.

[OSRC]

Here's the finished pics of the Super TA chassis. Not to pat myself on the back too much, but If there's a badder TA out there, I've never seen one. Over the moon with how this turned out.

Only ussue is the WB came out to 263 ilo 257, so it's a bit longer than normal. I can deal with it, but I've got to order a new body and recut the wheelwell a bit further back.

Closer look at the hybrid front suspension...forgive the craptastic shots, my normal camera died, so my cheap phone had to do.


Overall chassis shots.

[OSRC]

Turns out I had enough parts in my tote to build a third TA chassis. Same long chassis as the carbon one, but in plastic. Had to hog it out to fit a lipo, but now a 5000 mah pack drops right in.

Added a few aluminum bits I had as well. Came out pretty decent. Did the AW grease in the front diff trick to tighten it up - seems to work very well in my other runners. Just a stock motor for now - don't have anything else to put in it.





Ugh! Stress cracks strike again! It's forgivable since I have no idea how old these parts are. I've got new gearcases on the way.


Group shot of the three runners...pretty cool since 3 days ago I had 1 runner and a pile of dusty and forgotten parts.


Swapped on some vintage wheels and dropped on a Lightning body. I wrecked this body when painting it...didn't realize the window decals were translucent - I thought they were black, so I didn't mask anything. Whoops. S'ok for parking lot duty I guess.

[OSRC]

Picked up a McAllister modified body for the Super TA, but it looked much better on a shorter WB. After trying it on a few chassis, it dropped right on the DF03 (set for a 251mm WB) The buggy chassis was also narrow enough to tuck under the body. Only thing I really had to modify was to swap the touring bumper over to a buggy bumper and cut the body mounts off the front shock tower. Then it dropped on and sat just right.

The vintage wheels looked ok, but I had a set of Tamiya wheels left over from a CC01 kit that were doing nothing but collecting dust. Bolted them on...match made in heaven.




Need to figure out front body mounts yet...got a lot of ideas on paint, need to think about it.

[Mike Flea]

Back in the 50's & 60's racers use to tint their windows red or green for the "cool" factor. You're Lightning is just looking cool

[OSRC]

I have a strange fondness for the TL01 chassis. Not sure why, but I've owned a ton of them over the years both in buggy and touring variants. They make excellent rally cars since they are super durable, and with the LA kit they handle pretty good.

I needed something different to wrench on having burned out on a few ongoing crawler builds, and I happened upon my TL01 Rock Buggy that was collecting dust.


A cool little project, but I kinda lost interest in it along the way. In another corner was my Konghead with a way overkilled YR upgraded suspension bolted on. They share the same suspension mounts...hmmmm...

So I tore down the Rock Buggy and started turning it back into a touring car. First thing is I had to pull the chassis apart and unlock the diffs. A ball diff was dropped in the rear and a gear diff filled with AW grease was installed up front. Everything's a bit messy here, but all the gears were scrubbed nice and clean before installation. I would have installed speed tuned gears, but I used my last sets in my M04RR and MF01X projects. Ebay to the rescue! Another 2 sets are on order...


Chassis buttoned up and ready to go. I would love the carbon upper shaft, but they are almost unicorns anymore. My last one did not survive a brushless upgrade, so the stock steel shaft will have to do. Debating finding a way to turn it down somewhat to reduce some of that mass.


The donor Konghead... I have other plans for it, and they don't involve the fancy suspension.


Rear suspension swaps right over. This kit is similar in geometry to the LA kit, so it should handle well. (and look good doing it!) I did add a few shims here and there to take out the usual Tamiya suspension play. It's nice and tight now. Found a carbon gearbox brace in the parts bin, as well as some Tamiya blue 5mm balls to match.


Front suspension swapped on nicely as well. Nice parts from Yeah Racing, the bearings on the kingpins alone is worth it. I chose to use the U shaped suspension mount as I fell it makes the front stronger overall. Royal pain getting shims in the lower arms though.


Some Tamiya Mini CVA's with internal limiters bring it down to touring height. The white springs look very TRF, though I'm sure they'll get swapped out during testing as they are a bit soft. Note the full option TL lurking in the background... jealous of the new suspension I reckon.


Fitted with a "period correct" Orion 19t brushed for now. I will most likely swap over a BL system at some point. Did a little paint and decal work on the chassis to bring out some of the details. Very unique chassis for a touring car, may as well dress it up a bit.




So now it is almost a rolling chassis - electronics sorted and installed, just waiting on wheels, tires and a body. Was a bit undecided on the body, but think I found a decent match. Just waiting on the post office at this point.