How To Increase Steering Angle On Rc Drift Cars

Updated 2021 Since our review of the TT02 , The Tamiya TT02 has really established itself as the entry level kit of choice. Its ...

Updated 2021

Since our review of the TT02, The Tamiya TT02 has really established itself as the entry level kit of choice. Its strength and versatility means its a great starting car for any RC enthusiast who wants to experience the thrills and excitement that the RC hobby provides.

Whilst the car doesn't pretend to be a top-end race chassis, over time many owners will want to venture to their local club to sample RC racing, so the following article will cover a range of upgrades and tips to make your TT02 become a better race car. Although other than bearings, none of the others are essential for you to go to your local club and take it for a spin. If you get the bug for racing then this guide will help you look at a range of options to improve various aspects of your car, as you improve your driving skills.

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Which TT02 is best for racing?

There is an ever expanding range of TT02's available to purchase. Most are all basically the same other than the bodyshell, and the wheelbase settings (Which are fully adjustable for all models).

There are also The following special versions:

Tamiya 58584 TT02D

This kit is sold as a drift spec, and whilst the car does not come with an ESC or bodyshell, it does come with oil shocks. It also comes with specially hardened A-Parts. These are great as they give you strengthened versions of many of the key parts for the TT02 including Towers, Steering arms, Suspension blocks and uprights. You do not need to buy the TT02D to get these, you can order the part separately (Tamiya 19000614).

Tamiya TT02 re-enforced A parts, part no 19000614 (This includes 2 in the set)

Tamiya 84409 TT-02R

The best TT02 to buy if you want the flexibility of the platform intact.

This is a limited edition TT-02 and it has a much higher spec than the TT02D for a race car and it is available at a similar price. This car has the std TT-02 suspension system so you can easily change the ride height and wheelbase. It also has rear aluminium 3 degree hubs which will make the car handle much better than a stock TT02. There are a range of other goodies stuffed in there such as the aluminium motor mount, high speed gear set, Alloy prop shaft and drive cups, ball races and CVA oil shocks. The only thing this doesn't have is adjustable upper arms to allow you to get Camber adjustments. So this is the TT02 to buy if you want a versatile TT-02 that you can rally, drift and race and use some of the classic shorter shells such as the Zackspeed Capri.

Tamiya 47382 TT-02RR

This is version builds on the TT-02 R and adds even more features. The three key additions are the upper adjustable arms. These allow you to change the camber settings (0-2 degrees) to ensure better cornering performance. It also comes with oil filled gear differentials. These provide more tuning possibilities and are found in all of the top end racing chassis. The final new part is the hardened blue chassis, this increases the stiffness of the chassis and will make the TT02 feel more responsive.

This is a great option for anyone that wants a reliable, fun chassis to drive. They handle great out of the box and even though it is adjustable, it is still quite contained.

Tamiya 58600 TT-02 Type S

The TT-02 Type-S is the best base car if you want a race based TT02

The TT02 Type-S chassis is made for those who want a TT02 for the track. It comes with TRF416 style reversible long suspension arms, FRP shock towers with a range of settings and a full set of ball bearings. If you want to buy a TT02 focused on racing then this is the one to buy to start out with, with many guys saying it performs well in VTA classes and USGT. I will do a separate guide on the TT02-S at some point in the future, as it has some unique traits.

What you gain in racing prowess you will lose in versatility. The TT-02S will not allow you to change the ride height to be a rally car, it also does not have an option to have a short wheelbase to fit some of the cool shells such as the Capri or Suzuki SZ rally.

Tamiya 47439 TT-02 Type SR

The ultimate TT-02. The limited edition TT02 Type SR adds even more great hop-ups to the TT02 Type S. It features Double cardan front drive shafts, rear lightweight universals, Rear sealed oil differential, front spool.

The big innovation is the special rear mount that allows you to adjust the rear toe angle. If you want to buy the most race ready TT02, then this is the solution.

So there you have it, there are a few types of TT02 to choose from now. For this guide I am going to show you how to make a base level TT-02 run as well as possible. Most of these tips are applicable to all of the cars but some obviously some will have a selection of the hop-ups mentioned (TT02R). The TT02-S is quite different as it uses the TRF suspension parts to have longer arms so some parts relating to that will be different. If you have any questions please ask.

Making 'The RC Racer' Race spec TT02

This article is about converting a the TT02 Ferrari 458 which is a standard TT02. When looking at the base spec TT02 I found several areas that could improve the car when taking it to the track. These are:

Drive Train (Make the car spin freely to get the most direct power from the motor)
Steering (Steering smoothness, handling tweaks and response)
Gearing options (Gear your car competitively with others in your class)
Suspension (Ensure the car can react to changing surfaces and grip levels around a circuit)
Weight (Chassis balance tuning)

I was sure that once I had covered these areas I would have a chassis that would provide me with enough tuning aids to allow me to have a car that I can run well at the track.

Drive Train

The drive train needs to run free and smoothly to ensure that the power of the motor is able to drive the four wheels efficiently and to ensure that the throttle response is crisp and precise.

Drive Train : Bearings

The most essential thing you need to fit to the TT02 is bearings. Quite simply the car will be faster, smoother and the battery will last longer due to the gears running smoothly.

I got my bearings from the excellent RC bearings, and as this is a race spec kit, I used their RCB bearings. These are an excellent price option for racers, they are Abec 5 rated, so faster and smoother than std bearing sets whilst not as costly as the ceramic bearings that are also available. Just Search for RCB on the RC Bearings site here

High Performance at a great price! RC Bearings High spec RCB Abec 5 bearings

A quick chat to Colin at RC bearings ensured that a set of these excellent bearings arrived for the TT02 to fit into the car. (Check their site here) As an aside I fitted these into my car and I got a quicker lap time without any other modifications, that is testament to how good they are at reducing the drive train friction.

Drive Train : Differentials

The base TT02 comes as standard with 2 differentials for both the front and rear of the car. They are bullet proof and will last for ages. However when racing we want to be able to tune the diffs as they can change the handling characteristics of the car drastically.

As a rule, when you run at the racetrack you want your front differential to be stiffer than the rear to ensure that the chassis handles well around the corner.

The Tamiya 54875 Oil filled gear differential.

The kit ones are not easily to fine tune. So the easy option is to purchase the Tamiya 54875 Oil Gear differential. (Click link for our detailed review). In essence the sealed oil differential will allow you to easily tune the differential by adding different thickness oils. As it is sealed it will stay consistent once you find a setting you like. A good base oil setting for the rear is:

3K oil in the rear for low /medium grip.
5k oil in the rear for medium / high grip
7k -10k for very high grip carpet.

In the front I prefer a very stiff differential for more corner exit speed. So I would run 500K or higher. Although on small low grip tracks 50K is good.

If you want another older tuning option there is the Tamiya 53663 Ball Diff but I would go for the new Oil filled gear differential.

Tune the standard Kit differential

Another option is to add thick oils or grease to the plastic internals to change the spinning resistance.

For the front diff you always want it to be stiffer than the rear diff to ensure your car pulls itself out of the corner. For my front diff I used 500,000 wt oil. You can go heavier, but this oil feels good, and it is not thin enough to leak out of the diff cylinder. (I found that 300,000 is the thinnest oil I would fit on the front diff without fear of leaking)

The diff was filled to the top with the 500,000wt oil

Another good option for the front differential is the 42247 Tamiya gear differential putty.

Tamiya 42247 Gear differential putty is my preferred option for a TT02 front diff

The putty is simple to use, just cut a two 2cm lengths and stick them on each of the two large bevel gears and squeeze them into the differential. This gives you an almost locked differential, but with just a slight amount of give which is great for the drive train. This is now my preferred tuning method for the front differential in any TT02.

For the rear you want it much more free, you can try the car with the diff still dry, but if you want to stiffen it up a little, then use some Tamiya AW grease. I would just to a splodge the size of a pea in the diff cylinder at first, and try it out. It's much easier to add more than to remove this sticky grease, so just incrementally add it.

Drive Train : Locked Diff

At the track some prefer a locked diff. On the TT02 there are no spools available, but you can achieve the same result by using the Tamiya 54649 Diff locking block.

This fits in your differential case and makes it a spool

These fit in a Diff case and give you a locked diff. You will use a lot more load on the front drive train with these, so steel universal drive shafts are essential.

Tip : Shimming The diff

The TT02 is a shaft driven car and that means the car has bevel gears which rotate against each other and you will get backlash occurring if there is too much space between the teeth of separate connecting gears. The TT02 gearboxes are well build and they rotate well, however you can look at adding a shim to take out a little bit of the play to reduce the backlash and make the gear mesh a little more quiet.

For my car I fitted a single 8 x 0.3mm shim to reduce the backlash

Here is the final diff, ready to fit in the car

Final Diff, built up.

Drive Train : Tamiya 54501 & 54502 Aluminium Prop shaft and Joints

These are lighter than the stock plastic versions (Saves 7 grams). This simply alone makes it a worthwhile upgrade as the rotating mass will be reduced, allowing the motor to be more efficient and help the car reach top speed quicker. We have more info in our article here

Drive Train :Wheel Hex's

Ensure that they are the clamp type hubs, not just metal versions of the plastic hex's

When racing I like to fit aluminium drive hex's. These make it easy to change the tyres and they are also do not get crushed against the inner knuckle like the plastic hex's. I would use 6mm thick 12mm wheel hex's if you are racing as that will give you extra track width. I also used the Tamiya wheel axle spacers to move the width out a little more if I needed it.

Drive Train: Universal drive shafts

Once you start running a thicker front diff, and especially a spool you will need to upgrade to front universals. For the front is is important that they are steel ones, aluminium ones are OK for the rear of the car, but the ones in the front will take a lot of wear and impact on collisions.

Also running just the std kit dog bones will result in them falling out on collisions ending your race, this will not happen with universal drive shafts.

Universal Drive shafts are essential at the front of the car if you want to race

Some are fine to use with the std plastic chunky out drives like these excellent ones from GPM If you use the official Tamiya ones (53792) you will need Tamiya 54477 cup joint for universal joint if you still have the kit standard large plastic cups from the stock TT02.

As with my top end kits, I shim the driveshafts (5mm shims) to remove any slop

Drive Train Conclusion

So now we have a smooth drive train running on high spec bearings, with a tighter front diff allowing the car to pull out of the corners at a much better rate of acceleration. The car is much smoother with the upgrades and its also quieter as those shims in the gearbox have stopped the diffs rattling around in the car.

Steering

The stock TT02 does not have a lot of ways to adjust the toe in or out of the front and rear of the car. These settings are useful to allow you to change how a car moves into a corner and along the straight. The base settings are very neutral, but once you get the TT02 on the track you will want to have more control to ensure the car feels planted all the way around the course.

Before looking at individual parts, Tamiya make a great set that includes pretty much everything you need to improve the steering on the TT-02.

The contents of 54752 Steering upgrade set.

54752 Tamiya TT-02 Steering Upgrade Parts Set provides a great money saving way to improve the steering response of the TT02. These parts take out any slop and improve the response and strength of the steering assembly. The parts it includes are.

Tamiya TT02 Steering Upgrade Parts Set (1Set)
Aluminium Steering Arms(#54574) (2pcs)
Aluminium Steering Posts (2pcs)
Steering Bridge(#54575) (1pc)
Hi-Torque Servo Saver Black(#51000) (1pc)
TT-02 Hi-Torque Servo Saver Horn (1pc)

Now onto some of the individual parts.

STEERING- Tamiya 54550 TT02 Low friction Step screws

The basic steering set-up is ok to start off with, although when assembling it you will want to ensure that you do not over tighten any part to ensure that it runs smooth and freely.

One cheap part that I would suggest though are these low friction step screws. (Review here). They do make a difference on the steering and reduce some of the slop that you have with the basic kit set-up. These are great and cost very little, however if you want to splash out then you can always have the following...

Tip - If you have the TT02-D A parts the combination of the Low friction screw and these re-enforced Steering arms will be a significant upgrade, although if you want to go even further try the following.

Steering: Adjustable front turnbuckles

The box stock TT02 has fixed length steering rods that are set to provide the the car with a mild understeer when on power. This is fine, but we ideally want to be able to adjust the front toe so that we can adjust the amount of bite into corners and straight line stability that front toe in or out can provide. I like to set the car to have around 1 degree of toe out to help get the initial steering better.

STEERING - Servo Saver

Lets just get to the point, If you want to race, pop the kit servo saver in the bin, it is made to soak large hits and protect a weak servo, so good if you are just bashing around. The problem is that you will have a very poor steering response as the saver spring is very weak.

Contents of the 54799 TT02 Hi-torque servo saver

I would use the 54799 Tamiya TT02 Hi-Torque Servo Saver - with Aluminium Horn it this gives you a firm servo saver that is still very effective against big hits. The alloy horn is the ideal height to get a good amount of throw on the TT02, it also has a nice bling factor.

When using this servo saver you will need to replace the plastic fixed arm with an adjustable turnbuckle. The TT02 steering kit above includes all of this, otherwise buy the suitable connectors.

STEERING - Tamiya 54575 TT02 Aluminium Steering Bridge & 54574 Aluminium Racing Steering set

This is the ultimate steering set, It will replace the plastic arms and will give you a ball raced steering setup that is very smooth and slop free. These are what I run in my current race TT02. There are also cheaper alternatives by GPM etc that are good value.

These two hop ups when combined provide a set-up that is much more akin to a proper touring car. I did find that I needed a few more 3mm shims to ensure there was no extra moment between the arms and the centre bridge. I used a couple of 0.3mm thick 3mm shims on each arm that connected to the steering bridge to take out the movement.

Once these are installed you really do have a very smooth and slop free steering set-up.

Steering Tip
The TT02 has steering knuckles that have limiters fitted to restrict the amount of steering throw you can use. You can trim these off the knuckle and have much more throw.

Here you can see a front knuckle with no limiters, you can dremel these of the plastic kit hubs easily

NOTE- Obviously a good racer will try to avoid using maximum lock as you will be scrubbing speed, but having the range available is useful for some circuits. Many hop up aluminium front knuckles will not have these limiters on. You will also need to ensure that you use universal drive shafts in the front, as the kit std dogbones can fall out if you have too much steering throw.

Steering: Rear Toe in

The std TT02 has a 1 degree of rear toe in, this is acceptable with a mild motor, (Silvercan) but adding more rear toe in will allow you to have a car that is much more stable, especially when you start racing.

There are a range of options from some of the manufacturers out there, although Tamiya only really has one at the moment. The Tamiya 54549 Aluminium Rear upright's give you 2.5 degrees of rear toe in. The difference in handling once these are fitted is massive. The TT02R and TT02RR kits already comes with hop up rear hubs. These are 3.0 degrees and give you a lot of stability. The TT02-Type S has rear toe in build in because of the lower suspension blocks.

The parts are great quality, and you can flip them over to change the ride height for the rally or onroad set-up.

I used a small shim (0.3mm) on the lower shaft to take out the slop so the car had a tight fixed 2.5 degrees of slop.

I used a small shim on the lower shaft to remove slop

Once shimmed we had a tight fixed 2.5 degrees of slop.

I run this amount of rear toe in on my TRF418 in 17.5 blinky and it works well for me, and again on the TT02 the car just felt much more stable at all parts of the track. The only shame is that they are quite expensive, I hope Tamiya will bring a range of plastic ones out in the future, plastic is fine on my TRF so I am sure it will be perfect on the TT02.

Steering - Hard Lower Deck

One of the more recent parts that has been released is the TT02 hard lower deck. It is available in three colours Black (Tamiya 54926), Blue (Tamiya 47339) or White (Tamiya 47340).

This stiffer lower deck gives your chassis less flex. This makes the TT02 more responsive when it corners as the suspension works more effectively. Take a look at our more indepth review (Click Here) however it is a good upgrade for the price if you are trying to get more out of the steering response from your car.

Steering - Carbon Upper deck

The carbon upper deck makes the chassis much stiffer. This improves steering response even further. It also has a handout transponder mount and an option for additional mounts that can stiffen the front of the chassis for even more response on super high grip carpet. There is a lot more detail about it here (Click link), and it can be ordered via fibre-lyte (click here)

Steering Conclusion

With the above steering modifications the car is now much more planted on the track. I have a full range of steering lock, and there is no slop along the steering assembly, ensuring the car can run straight and true. (Its as good as my Yokomo BD7 / 418 regarding slop)I can also now adjust the front arms to tune the car to have more bite (More toe out, or less bite into a corner).

Gearing Options

In stock form, the TT02 does have a large gearing range, however there will be times when the range available will not be suitable for some classes or tracks. Especially if you are going to run the popular blinky classes with 13.5 or 17.5 brushless motors. The following items will allow you to modify your chassis to get a suitable range from the low 3's to the high 5's

The Items you will need are :

Tamiya 54500 High speed gear set
Yeah racing TT02 adjustable motor mount
Suitable Spur and pinion to get the FDR range you want.

Gearing Options: Tamiya high speed gear set

I did not use the included Spur, I used a selection of RW racing 64dp gears

The high speed gear set comes with a spur gear holder, This is something that you could never do with the TT01 and this is an important part for making the car more adjustable. This is great news and you can now use just about any std 4 hole spur gear.

Note, the High speed gear set comes with a 68t spur gear in the kit standard 0.6 Mod. If you want to keep the std motor mount then you need to keep running the 0.6 mod spurs and pinions. You can buy a smaller Tamiya 64t spur separately (Tamiya 51396), which when coupled with a 29t pinion will give you a F.D.R of 5.74 which is not bad for 13.5 blinky.

For the race car I do not want to use the kit motor mount as I want more flexible gearing options, I use 64dp with all my onroad cars so I swapped them out for one of my RW Racing superlite v2 spurs. You can use any pitch gears you want.

All fitted ready to be installed

Gearing options: Adjustable mount

The Yeah Racing TT02 adjustable mount is very cool, and when coupled up with the facility to mount any spur it gives you the same freedom to adjust your gearing as any high end chassis.

It not only allows the freedom to gear your car how you want, but also acts as a heat sink

The motor mount is well built and not only allows you to easily and precisely set a wide range of gear meshes it also acts as a heat sink. This cannot be under estimated, as when running some of the low FDR ranges that are needed for 17.5 blinky your motor will get very hot, this could warp the plastic motor mount in the kit, creating a badly meshing spur gear.

Here you can see a 53t pinion and a 70t Spur gear

In the pictures above you can see I fitted the smallest spur I could find (70t) and the largest pinion I had (53t) these give a FDR of 70/53 = 1.32 (Drive Ratio) * TT02 Internal Ratio (2.6) = 3.43 FDR

The above fits with no modifications to the chassis, although you will need to file a little bit off the upper gear cover if you fit a pinion 50t or over as it may rub against it.

I just cut the area out, and then covered it with electrical tape.

I actually cut this area out (to take a look at how much space my 53t pinion needed. If you file away you can fit in the 53t pinion without making a hole. Although it is also just as easy to make the hole and cover it with electrical tape to allow you to fit bigger pinions :)

Covered, and ready for even bigger pinions if ever needed.

TIP - Gearing with the std motor mount
Some classes involve you having to use the std Tamiya Motor mount, there are still ways that you can gear the car lower for stock motors, this guide helps (Click here)

Gearing Conclusion

The above modifications really push the TT02 into being a very versatile club racer. Gearing is essential to get the best out of your motor and the track layout. Being able to run a large range of spur gear / pinion combinations you have complete parity with other drivers at your club when ensuring your car can compete on speed with similar specification motors.

Suspension

There are some limitations on the suspension for the TT02. Although the following will help you make the most of the car and will ensure you notice a difference in how the car handles the track surface and is able to respond to it.

Suspension - Shocks

Most TT02's come with friction shocks, you need to replace these straight away if you want to race. There are a lot on the market, you can go the expensive route with the Tamiya TRF shocks. These are the best shocks out there. The std TRF ones (Part no 42102) are recommended as they will give you a lot of range to tune the car.

I use Tamiya TRF shocks, (Part no 42102) the Tamiya 42273 short shocks are 4mm shorter than the std TRF shocks, and ensure your TT02 is low.

Others use the Tamiya mini CVA shocks. These are much cheaper and they are also very good quality, you can also find other options available from 3Racing etc

For ride height I run 5mm at the front and 5.2 mm at the rear. I use the spring collars to get the height I need, and sometimes even unscrew the shock bottoms a little.

Suspension - Shock springs

I use the Tamiya Touring car springs as I just have loads of them. As a starting set-up I use Tamiya Blue at the front and Yellow at the rear, although if racing on carpet I use Tamiya white at the front and Tamiya blue on the rear.

Suspension - Droop

Droop is a useful tuning aid, and one of the most powerful ones. Your race car is always moving weight forwards and backwards depending on the acceleration and braking. Adjusting droop can influence how the car will behave and how much movement it will take when shifting the weight around.

Unfortunately the TT02 does not easily allow you to set droop as there are no downstop screws on the arms. However you can easily still measure droop by lifting each end of your car up from a rested position and seeing how far it moves before the wheels lift of the ground.

To adjust the amount of droop, you will need to add / remove some shims to the shock internals if you want to adjust the amount of movement of the suspension. Its a pain, but once you get a setting you like for your track you will be ok to leave it alone. You can then also move the bottom shock end or spring collar to tweak the movement.

Suspension - Free movement

The TT02 uses trapped balls in the front suspension arms, these are ok but the plastic ones can start to bind once dirt gets into them. I use the Tamiya 54559 Low friction Suspension Balls. They are smooth and really help the arms move freely.

The coated balls ensure that the suspension moves smoothly at the front of the car.

Also the other thing that I did was to shim the suspension arms to remove all of the slop. This makes a very big impact when trying to make a car that will be a good race car. The basic car is very neutral with quite a lot of slop, but when you want to ensure that your 1 degree of toe out at the front will help you get more initial steering you do not want the slop in the arms to amplify that as they move around. Shimming takes this out of the equation.

Shim the upper and lower arms to give your TT02 a set of suspension arms that feel like a top end TC

So once I used shims to take out all of the slop on the arms (remember they have to move freely, so if they stop moving remove a shim, its better to move freely and have some slop than no slop at all)

Once this is done, I have a car that has suspension arms that have the same movement as much higher specification kits.

Suspension - Shock tower

I used the re-enforced shock towers that come with the TT02-D A-parts. These are just a little stiffer and will be less likely to flex under load. Although the TT02 kit parts actually seem quite strong.

Also for a std set-up I have the front shocks mounted to the outer hole and the rear shocks on the inner hole.

Suspension - Camber adjustment.

54874 is a great hop up to get more corner performance.

Camber adjustment is essential to get a better corner response. More camber ensures that the car is able to grip more around the corner. Tamiya now has the 54874 adjustable upper arm set. This is a great set that allows you to add up to 2 degrees of camber to the front or rear of the car. Settings I find work well on the TT02 are:

1.5 degrees front
2.0 degrees rear

Outdoors

2.0 degrees front
2.0 degrees rear

Suspension - Rear camber (Now use Use 54874 adjustable upper arm set)

This modification will really ensure that your rear end is planted when going around a corner. The full information for the mod is here (Tamiya TT02 rear camber modification)

I set my camber to 2 degrees at my local carpet track, and the car handles really well.

Suspension - Front Camber / Caster and roll center mod. (Now use Use 54874 adjustable upper arm set)

This modification will ensure you can control how the front of your car can grip around the corner.

Full information on the mod is here (Tamiya TT02 front Camber Modification).

Suspension - Conclusion

With these changes the car is able to respond to track conditions much better, it also is more responsive to other chassis changes I make when tuning the car for the track and conditions.

Weight Saving

The TT02 is quite light, but saving weight allows you to be able to balance the chassis better as you can decide where to place the weight in the car. The BRCA requires the car to be a minimum weight of 1350g You want to be as close to that as possible to ensure that you are able to compete in stock classes such as 17.5 blinky.

Weight Saving : Screws

Simple, but also costly. You can replace the kit screws with Titanium and Aluminium screws to loose approximately 18g of weight. This will also give you hex head screws. The best kits are the ones by Hiro Seiko or Square. This is a luxury upgrade but one that can help reduce weight

Weight Saving : Rear bumper holder lower and upper

You do not need these, its 13g for the lower part and 12 g for the upper part. These you can remove instantly. As you can see I just assembled the rear of the car as below (I used the hardened TT01D part as I had it at hand.

The rear should be assembled like this.

Weight Saving : Front Bumper mount upper

Again this is 12g, and you can remove this. Not only is it heavy, it also gets in the way when moving the shocks etc.

I replaced it with the Tamiya 53682 Aluminium Bumper stopper which is only 7g so saves me 5grams of weight.

Whilst doing this I also added some front body posts (I used a pair from Tamiya 51242 TA05 B-Parts) as I prefer to have my shells mounted like this to stop the front folding under when at speed.

I just used a long 12mm screw to secure the posts to ensure it would withstand a large collision with barriers.

Here is the final result, much lighter and easier for me to get to the shock tops to change the postions if I want to.

Weight saving : Battery strap replacement

I also replaced my battery strap with a carbon one from the TA05 that I had in my spares box. Although you can go further and remove this all together and dremel a small slot either side of your TT02 battery compartment and use battery tape (info courtesy of Addicted 2 Blue):

Addicted2blues Battery tape solution, you can also remove the plastic battery posts.

Weight Saving : Electric placement

If you are able to use a shorty pack then there are some really interesting options.

As you can see above Addicted2Blue has used Tamiya RM01 aluminium servo mounts, these move the servo 3mm forward and this gives even more space for the electrics, along with moving the steering arm more forward to help get a straighter steering link.

Weight Saving : Overall
The car with electrics runs at 1360g more than fine for club races. The car is responsive and the left / right balance is great on the track.

Overall

As can be seen there are a lot of things that can be done to your TT02 to tweak its performance. Although the most important thing is to just get down to a club and have fun.

I have been racing my Race tuned TT02 in an outdoor series and the results have been good, I have it geared well for 17.5 on a large, low grip temporary outdoor track, and I have managed to fight at a better level than I thought, taking the win from a range of high spec carbon chassis cars.

I missed the BRCA clubmans in Stafford, but I will do a race report from another large event to see how it fairs.

Ready To race!

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