Tamiya Neo Scorcher (TT-02B)

When Tamiya announced the Neo Scorcher (58568) in early 2013, I fell in love with the shape and styling of the body and the blue and white colors of the paint and decals.

Tamiya Neo Scorcher (Picture from TamiyaUSA. © Tamiya, Inc.)

I later learned (from Tamiya's own description) that the Neo Scorcher was inspired from the vintage Terra Scorcher (58075) and the decals were based on that kit's design.

The Neo Scorcher is based on the new TT-02 chassis platform from Tamiya, specifically the TT-02B (Buggy) variant.  The "B" version has longer suspension arms, long CVA dampers and larger bumpers than the TT-02, plus buggy-specific off road wheels and tires and a buggy body and wing to match.

The TT-02 chassis is designed for entry-level bashing and racing, not competition.  It has plastic, non-adjustable suspension links, plastic dogbones and drive hubs (with metal shafts molded into them), plastic (glass filled) diff gears, and a plastic center driveshaft to send power to the front wheels.  All of this plastic makes it sound "cheap", but honestly the quality and strength of the plastic is higher than you'd expect and the molding quality is excellent.  Sure, it's still a low-end chassis, but made to take abuse and keep going.  It also supports many hop-ups to increase performance.  All accounts so far from people that have built it say that it's a solid chassis, fun to build and drive, and it's tough.

The box does not have the traditional styling with the big size and large colorful artist's rendition of the vehicle on the cover like you might expect.  Instead, it's similar in design to the DF-03RA box.  The basic box styling is of a generic TT-02B chassis (no body shown anywhere) with a sticker on the box top displaying a photograph of the actual model contained inside.  This makes it easy for Tamiya to release another TT-02B-based buggy by simply swapping the picture and putting a different body/wing/decals/body instruction sheet in the box (more about that later).

The picture of the Neo Scorcher is actually a sticker applied to the box top.

One interesting thing about the Neo Scorcher is that it includes the Mabuchi RS-540 Torque Tuned motor instead of the regular silver can RS-540 (Mabuchi or Johnson).  This 25 turn motor gives 306 g-cm of torque @ 16000 rpm compared to the stock 27 turn RS-540 that gives around 200 g-cm of torque @ 15000 rpm.  That's 50% more torque and a slightly higher speed at the cost of higher current usage.  These days with high capacity NiMH and LiPo batteries, however, run time is almost never an issue any more.

The TT-02 chassis is a shaft driven 4WD design.

Some of the hop-ups supported by the TT-02B chassis are shown on one of the side panels.

Opening the box reveals a standard assortment of parts bags, plastic trees, wheels and tires, plus the body and wing.

In the US, the kit includes a TEU-105BK electronic speed control (ESC).  The TEU-105BK replaces the TEU-104BK as the current model of speed control (as of Oct 2013) shipping with US Tamiya kits.  It adds a voltage regulation circuit (BEC) so power supplied to the receiver will not exceed 6V, which is a welcome feature that was missing from previous Tamiya ESC models (101BK and 104BK).  Unfortunately, Tamiya still refuses to acknowledge the existence and dominance of LiPo batteries by only including voltage cutoff for LiFe batteries in the 105BK.  The cutoff voltage of LiFe batteries is too low for 2 cell (7.4V) LiPo packs and they will be ruined if you attempt to use it.   You'll still need to purchase a separate LiPo voltage alarm if you intend to use LiPo packs with the TEU-105BK.

In the next picture, you'll see the separate instruction manual for the body.  Normally, Tamiya kits include the instructions for the body (trimming, painting, etc.) right in the chassis instruction manual.  However, the TT-02B series instruction manual is generic in nature when referring to the body, instead telling you to refer to the body-specific manual for details on how to finish the body and wing.

The instruction manual is generic for all TT-02B models.  No body-specific information is included because a separate body instruction manual is included with each kit instead.

For some reason this kit took a long time to become available to purchase in the US.  It was many months after release that I was finally able to get one.  Not sure what caused the delay, but I'm glad to finally have a kit in my hands.

Tamiya DB-01R

The Tamiya DB-01 chassis has been around for a few years and is a very good competitive off-road buggy platform from Tamiya.  I do not race competitively, but I enjoy building Tamiya off-road kits, so with the imminent release of the DB-02 chassis in a few weeks the end of the DB-01 chassis production will come sooner or later.  I decided to get a DB-01 chassis kit before they were discontinued and the price goes up.  There are many kits based on the DB-01 platform, but I decided to stay in the middle of the price spectrum and get the DB-01R (84100) limited edition kit.  I bought this kit for a really great price which was another deciding factor on which kit to buy. 

The kit box is a bit smaller than the standard Tamiya kits

Yes, that is a carrying handle!

The DB-01R is designed for competitive racing and includes many of the hop-up parts racers would end up buying in order to get better performance if they bought a lower-end kit like the Baldre or Durga.  

Some of the chassis and suspension components are made out of a carbon fiber reinforced plastic instead of plain non-reinforced plastic or glass-filled plastic in order to make them stiffer.  Upgraded shocks are included, as well as other anodized aluminum parts including suspension mounts and motor heat sink, plus front and rear universal shafts and a slipper clutch.  The list of included hop-up parts is enough to tilt the scales and say that the DB-01R has the best bang for the buck overall when compared with the other DB-01 kits like the Baldre, Durga and limited edition TRF511.  The Baldre and Durga are designed for sport-level racing and bashing around, while the TRF511 is for high-end competition, so the DB-01R sits right in the middle.

 

The DB-01 chassis is a mid-motor design with two equal-length belts driving the front and rear wheels.  The slipper clutch with front and rear ball differentials work to transmit power to the ground.  The gears are 48P to keep in line with the standard used by other manufacturers.

When you open the box, you are greeted by... not a whole lot, actually.  There are no fancy blister packs here, and in fact there are no cardboard dividers or mini cardboard boxes of parts, either. There is one large plastic bag that contains many smaller plastic bags full of parts, plus the molded plastic trees, the belts, and the main chassis.

The box isn't really that full

The first thing that jumps out at you is the lack of a body, wing, wheels, tires, motor and pinion.   That's right, all of those parts are not included in the DB-01R kit.  Being for the racer, these components were left out on purpose since each person wants to use slightly different components.

Reviewing what is included in the box, here is the slipper clutch, some shock tops, bottoms and pistons, the main slipper spur gear, reinforced drive belts and hi-torque servo saver parts tree (same as 51000).

Looking further into the large plastic bag of bags, we see some more miscellaneous parts in bag B, including some blue anodized suspension mounts and more.  Parts bag C includes the anodized aluminum TRF damper shock bodies and other parts.  A couple more small plastic parts trees are also shown here and round out the contents of the large plastic bag.

Looking at the rest of the kit contents, there are some more plastic parts trees individually wrapped in plastic bags.

The main chassis and suspension arms. 

And finally, the manual and DB-01R-specific decals.

That's it for the main DB-01R kit.  It may seem kind of cheap to not include basic things like the body, wheels, tires and motor, but you have to remember this is a true competition kit, designed for the racer that already knows what they want to use for their particular track situation and driving style.

Now for the additional parts and extras (hop-ups!).

Since a buggy is useless without wheels and tires, I bought some Tamiya branded ones (51320, 51321, 54185, 54186).

Reading the various forums on the net, it was pretty clear that the most-recommended body kit is the Baldre (51338).  The body kit comes with the main body, wing and decals.

Then, because I am never one to leave good enough alone, I got a bunch of spare parts and hop-ups.  I bought a couple gear differential sets (54329) in case I want to swap the included ball diffs to see how it handles.  I'll be using a Tamiya Super Stock TZ 23 turn motor (53696) plus Tamiya steel 48P pinion gears (54062, 53964, 53966).  I'm not sure what size pinion to use, so I got a few sizes to try out.  Then I got the aluminum steering components (54149, 53972), the anodized motor mount (54079), and the TRF501 stabilizer set (53963) for fun.  Spare parts include a slipper pad set (54027), reinforced drive belt (54140), and an extra set of front and rear suspension arms (54140, 54141) not pictured.

I still have a few more hop-ups arriving, including a couple sets of Tamiya TRF501X differential joints (51286) and a package of Tamiya Ball Differential Protective Seals (53970).  These were recommended because the stock diff joints are assembled metal and plastic two piece units that are prone to failure and the seals help keep dirt out of the ball diffs so they stay nice and smooth.  

This will be a really fun build!

Turbo Ultima front end and wheel/tire modernization

I restored my vintage Kyosho Turbo Ultima during the summer of 2010.  For the restoration, I completely disassembled and cleaned every part, and then followed the manual to rebuild it.  I also bought a reproduction body, wing and decals from Marwan (see his new online store at http://www.marwanrc.com).  The body and wing were painted and decals applied in the original box art design.   I also kept the vintage aftermarket Tecnacraft tie rods because they still look really nice and a lot better than the original steel tie rods.

Here are a couple pictures taken after the restoration was completed in July 2010:

 

The tie rods were the only hop-up installed on the car at the time.  

Last week I installed a Kyosho Ultima RB5 front end and fitted RB5 wheels and Kyosho tires.  The point of this was to use modern wheels and tires in order to run the car without using up the original tire tread.  Plus, it seemed like a fun thing to do and maybe a little challenging.  It was actually very easy to do, which I found amazing considering the almost 20 year difference in chassis design.

For help in determining the correct parts to buy and also to aid in building the front axle assembly, I referred to a Kyosho Ultima RB5 manual in PDF format that I found on the net.

Here are the parts I used for the front end:

 These parts were used for the wheels and tires:

New tie rod ends and balls were used because the originals were too worn or were binding.  I should have replaced them when I rebuilt the car in 2010, but I didn't have the parts and at the time I was concentrating on keeping as many of the original parts in the rebuild as possible.  Now, however, since the front end is getting modern parts, I figured the ball ends should be redone at the same time.  At least Kyosho still makes some of the exact same parts as they did in 1989.

Here are some pictures of the RB5 front end parts mounted on the Turbo Ultima.

Some adjustment had to be made to the lengths of the tie rods for both the steering and upper links.  I had to find alternative lengths of Tecnacraft tie rods, too.  Luckily I had some in the correct lengths.  I kept the original front arms and hinge pins.  An aluminum spacer was used on the hinge pin that holds the hub carrier to take up extra space, but it's almost the same as the way the RB5 builds it.

Amazingly, the modern Kyosho rear wheels give plenty of clearance when using the original Turbo Ultima rear axle carriers, W5061 universals, hex hubs, and tie rods.

Here is a shot with everything fitted:

The new wheels and tires definitely give the car a more modern appearance, but I think it looks good.  And now I can run it without worrying about the original wheels and tires.