Tamiya TA-05 Build-up
01 June 2006
This is one chassis that just oozes style. The front and rear belts are identical and so are the front and rear
bulkheads and gearbox parts. The suspension arms are identical left to right so it's easy to stock spares.
|
A proud new Ferrari owner.
|
|
|
The front and rear suspensions bind a little against the outer hinge pins, so I put the longer (inner) hinge pins
through the offending parts and gave them a good spin on the rotary tool until they were silky smooth before
continuing assembly. Watch out because the hingepins come off burning hot. Also, the rear hubs bind a little
against the suspension arms, so a bit of careful filing takes care of this. The 2 degrees is built into the
hingepin holes, so it's best to file it accordingly at a slight (2 degrees) angle.
|
|
I upgraded the shocks to the TRF flourine-coated dampers (Tamiya 49355 for the blue ones and 53571 for the grey ones).
The TRF pistons (white) have a tighter tolerance and smaller holes compared to the stock pistons.
A cheaper option is to just replace the pistons (53573) which is not as great, but better than stock.
|
|
|
On the front of the car, I've gone back to diffs. Tried the fixed spool, but couldn't get used to it.
Most people prefer to use the one-way for 23-turn (Japanese stock motor) racing.
The precision plastic diff halves (53849) are very lightweight but I've broken a couple in crashes.
The aluminium ones (53919) are good for bad drivers, so that's what I use now.
|
|
|
The car, all blinged out. The twin belts take up quite a bit of space in the middle of the chassis, so
the battery pack sits further to the side than it does on other belted cars.
This makes it a little more difficult to balance out the chassis when running heavy batteries like the IB4200 cells.
|
|
What the car used to look like before I upgraded everything.
|
|
|
After almost a year of trashing this car, I still couldn't bring myself to use the stock Ferrari body shell.
I've been using this Blitz Dodge Stratus body, which has proven quite effective and very durable.
|
|
|
When Tamiya released a TA-05R, I built one. Read about the build-up here.
|
