Tamtech for 2WD racing
 

I am looking at potentially getting a Tamiya Tamtech-Gear car for 2WD racing. Could anyone recommend one over the other?

Jimmy - I know you are running the Buggy Champ and we had a brief chat at Hereford about the front trailing arm suspension being better. I also see you and Vicky will now be running one each at Tamworth. Would you mind sharing your thoughts on what makes the car better for racing? Did you make any modifications?

Also, what are the tyre/wheel choices like?

I am probably looking at putting a low kv motor such as a 4100kv brushless motor in it and run with lipo's.

The GB01 front end is pants. the hinge pins are weak, the arms are soft and rubbery, the hubs lurch over and give the steering a very bizzare set of angles. Normally in a 2WD you'd have around 25 degrees of caster - the mini front has at a guess zero when it's steering.

The GB02 is not as tunable - there really isn't much you can do with the trailing arms. They hinge pins are like you'd find in any 10th scale buggy - very strong for this little car, the arms are strong - the entire front end of the car is stronger and less flexible. The car just felt a lot nicer to drive - more like a real (10th) buggy on the track. Maybe someone can get the GB01 front end to work, but I tried it down on a track and found it felt a bit ODD.


The Gb01 has a lot of steering lock - the GB02 doesn't really have enough. Not sure if you could dremel the GB02 to give it more but I still found it OK on the track.

in terms of tyres I used the SC - soft compound GB02 tyres. they gave plenty of grip on the carpet and reasonable grip on the slippy. you can get some 12mm hex adaptors I think but DCM knows more about that.

when I raced the car I used aeration dampers on the back and plastic CVA dampers on the front - don't bother with the aeration dampers, they will cost about 80 quid. The blue plastic CVA dampers do the same job at this scale.
For springs I used cut down kit springs - the optional springs are all either too long, too hard or too soft in my experience.

My write up mentions all the bits I used on my GB02. I also bought the GB02 upgrade for vickys frog - since its a lot stronger and I think easier to drive.
The one thing that let my car down was the lower shock mounts - these popped off rather easily - which I fixed in my own way. The blue alloy ball studs only probably make this worse, since they are fractionally smaller in diameter.

I put on the V2.0 alloy steering from 3racing - which isn't amazing and doesnt even fit the GB02. I hopped up the original steering with an off-cut of spring to reinforce the plastic servo saver and it has less slop than the 3racing setup.

I changed the front shock mounting - which is now on vickys car. the original gb02 setup means the shocks get softer toward the end of the travel. I made brackets to move the shocks further back on the arms. This feels good on the bench but I found the front end bounced more - maybe I need to change the spring / oil to go with the new position also. so - still testing.

Overall - you aren't going to be threatening the A finals- but you saw how my car went round, definitely pretty well, and fun to drive too. you have to be smoother but its satisfying and I like it.

Awesome, thanks for that Jimmy! :) When will your write up be up? Dead excited :D

You car certainly looked great going round the track. It made almsot no sound and looked very smooth.

I am also looking at the Thunder Tiger ZT2 as a possible 2WD racer but the Tamiya's just look so damn cool in buggy guise! I think at the end of the day the look is going to win me over!

not seen the thunder tiger but trucks don't really do it for me - part of the fun certainly is the looks of the Tamiya.

Yeah I'm with you there, buggy's all the way :D

I really like the idea that you say it drives like a 10th scale buggy. I think that might swing it for me!

ave a go with mine on sunday and see what you think, dont scratch mi wheels tho! haha :p

Oh man I'd love to! but I'd be too worried about tearing those cool little spot lights off!! Maybe just a slow very careful lap :D

well there will be two to choose from, one on sticks and one on steerwheel :) Found the nippy motor for vickys and just been testing it in the kitchen, not bad at all :)

Well thanks a million mate. You are of course more than welcome to hammer the living daylights out of my TEK18 for comparison! :D

Intesresting to know the trailing arms perform better. I just re-read your mini frog review, Jimmy and I had to laugh at the last line about how maybe Tamiya would come up with a Tamtech Roughrider. You're a prophet!

Jimmy,
Do you think the mini frog bumper (http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/ite...oduct-id=40515) will fit on the GB-02 front end?

haha, yeah glad they did. I raced today and had a bit of a naff day to be honest. The track was tight and just not flowing at all, more like krypton factor than race track. I had a decent 12th in first round but I never did better as I was trying to get a better time (FTD qualifying). Ended up qualifying C2, same as last time which was disapointing. I ended up last on the first lap again also, just like last time, but this time the marshall just sorta poked the car with a stick a few times until I was in dead last. After that I lost it!
Oh well. :p

I don;t think you can fit that front bumper - the front of the GB02 is very different.

My brother had the same stick marshall problem in his final. Not content with crashing by him once proceeded in needing stick marshalling about 4 times in his final, to say he was not happy when he came off the rostrum was a big understatement.
Jimmy your car did look quite smooth over the bumps.

I had a whizz with my GB01T today, 3Racing tc hex conversion (what a crap fit on the rear..... grrrr) and Tamiya TC plastic shocks, slick tc rubber and additive, was pretty sweet, not as good as an FTX Blaze though.

Jimmy, I'm going to order a Tamiya Buggy Champ after seeing yours and Vicky's run at Tamworth :D

What do I need to get with it to race it? Any must have upgrades (apart from the shocks of course)

Also would be really cool if you could let us know anything we should prep to get it to a reasonable standard.

BTW - how much does your car weigh race ready?

Mine will run with a 4100kv brushless setup and lipo's.

Thanks mate

The rear diff is 'OK' but I have the tamiya alloy diff and it feels a lot smoother after a few runs than the original plastic one.
The shocks ofcourse
The servo saver is a bit pants - im running a futaba servo in it but the kit one doesn't seem toooo bad, but the servo saver is too weak. 3Racing do one that I just about got working at the weekend, had to space the shocks out to stop it hitting them.

if you're running scale tyres then the SC version of the buggy champ ones are good. (soft compound)

I'll see if I can get my lil write up uploaded and you can see for yourself what I did to mine.

Thanks a million Jimmy.

BTW - it seems there will be a seperate 2WD specific class at the MicroX event in March so PLEASE enter if you are around as we need support for 2WD! :D

Anyone else, look here: http://www.ukmicrox.co.uk/events-ukmx1.html

Details should be up shortly!

As long as it doesnt clash with my other commitments I'm sure I'll be there with the Tamiya.
I do like the 2WD cars - and the Tamiya is especially fun. It's sometimes a little frustrating to race against 4wd competitors but I've been lucky to be able to drive smooth and do fairly well with it.
I'll be reviewing and racing the new Xray truck next time so wont be using the Tamiya unfortunately.

Get where your coming from! Thats why i dont think we see many 2WD cars at the nationals, however at the next Micro-X in March 2WD have they're own class thanks to some nagging :D

If you could sign-up to UK-Micro & vote that you would be running '2WD only' & mention Vicky would be too that would be great, if your thinking of attending the UK-Micro X in March that is :) (No date yet)

http://www.uk-microrc.co.uk/forum/in...howtopic=10165