Let’s get started with this build!
Nice simple belt drive to the front differential. Lovely and smooth turning.
Anti roll bars front and rear as standard. I am noticing that compared to the TT-02 there is little to no play in these components at all. Despite it being a fairly budget kit, it does still seem very much like a car that is designed to go racing.
Servo arm and steering mechanism - again, no play whatsoever in any of the moving parts but everything still moves lovely and freely.
Servo installed and secure - one thing I will say about this car, is that the electrics are more exposed than on a TT-02. The Tamiya’s tub chassis hides the electrical components whereas here there is no compromise. Again, it feels much more like a race car than a fun basher.
Shocks all built up and secured on the car. Great quality feel to all the inner components and surprisingly quite easy to put together.
The ESC I have used is an Ebay purchase as I wanted a brushed ESC that could handle my motor of choice which is well beyond what my Hobbywing 1060 could take RPM wise. It is a crawler ESC, but has no RPM or motor turn limit which should hopefully work nicely.
The motor used is a very nice LRP 10x2. This motor is rated at above 40,000rpm at 7.2v (we are running it at 7.4v). This is very very fast for a brushed motor which is why it took me a long time to find a suitable ESC. The Hobbywing 1060 is only rated to 12t, or 30,000rpm maximum.
Another feature of this car is that it can only use shorty batteries and a low profile servo. Luckily I had a very low profile Savox in my TT-02 already that will do the job nicely, and the lipo fits very tightly but snug in the holders. The gap between the pinion/spur and the battery case edge are minimal - once again, no compromise.
The shorty lipo uses a bullet connector to connect the battery (4mm in this case).
Now for something I don’t like about this chassis compared to the TT-02 - wiring.
The Tamiya has a very easy route to make it all look neat and tidy. This car does not. I have seen a few build pictures of wiring all over the place and I am determined not to follow suit.
So I needed a cheeky solution from B&Q - some wire trunking. Cut to length this is perfect for the job. It has a pre-installed sticky strip underneath that can be peeled off and then the trunking stuck in place when ready.
I found some that is exactly the right width for the top deck which means I can now open it up, feed the wires all through and out the back to their positions/plugs before clicking it shut again.
This not only makes the chassis look so much neater, but keeps all the wiring out of the way of the completely exposed spur gear and belt which will result in a major failure if they come into contact.
Finished car!
I still love my TT-02 as well. They look great side by side.
