Brand New TL-01 Build!
12-24-2008, 03:34 AM
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Brand New TL-01 Build!
When I say "New" I mean NEW! I bought my original Mustang Cobra SVT kit back in 1998 for $99 from Hobby People. It sat for 3 years and when I became unemployed in the Winter/Spring of 2003, I decided I was bored enough to build it finally. I went back to Hobby People and bought the bearings for it. Why put a car together with bushings only to tear it down again to but bearings into it??? (That's a tip for you newbies out there!).
I painted the body (pictures forthcoming), put some of the decals on it, but became bored with it and put it back into its box as I had nobody to really run with and I thought about getting another TL-01 chassis when Tamiya announced it was going to start a TL-01 Spec class for the TCS. They had just released the Long Arm Suspension version of the car and I felt that was a better starting point for a race car than my original kit. But I never bought another kit and I focused more on the 1:1 car(s).
I should say this is NOT my first R/C build. That title goes to Tamiya Subaru Brat I got for Christmas back in 1985...
Anyway, recently my work (Pep Boys) started carrying Traxxas trucks as the bright people at corp seem to trying to connect the dots between hobby grade R/C and "Car Guys". Well I thought about getting a Slash and go racing with it. But then, I thought, I like Off-Road R/C, I love Touring Cars! So I decided for the time being to shelve the Slash or Rustler idea.
I knew what I needed to get the car running so while looking for good deals on the stuff I wanted, I found that Tamiya had announced its rules and schedule for the upcoming 2009 season. Well I have grown tried of just working and not socializing much, so I decided 2009 will the year I return to socializing, including a return to the "Wheels Of Steel", more on that another time...
Well upon that decision I wanted to see what I was getting myself into and found a Tamiya Championship thread on another R/C Forum. Well after much discussion, I decided I would use a NIB TB-02 for the Tamiya Series (Ebay $70), race GT-3 and not Novice. You do quite a bit of sitting around at these events, so I might find another class to run, if my budget can handle it.
That brings me back to the TL-01, if I'm not going to race it, what should I do with it???
Well I think I will race it after all and use it as my primary practice weapon since these cars can take a beating without giving much thought about it.
I hear the diffs in the TB-02 are problematic and should be swapped out for much improved EVOIII units. That, along with TRF-415 Reversible Suspension are on the sho[link=http://www.tamiyausa.com/articles/feature.php?article-id=11]Brian Matteson's XB TL-01 Build Up[/link]rt list of mods for that car, but getting back to the TL-01...
I saw that Brian Matteson's XB TL-01 Build Up (per TCS TL-01 Spec Rules circa 2003) I attempted to find all the parts needed to match that build up.
I was disappointed to find the Lightweight chassis and TA-04 Hop Up Universals are no longer available and very hard to find.
The build will continue without those parts however. I found some original Tamiya TA-04 Universals on Ebay, so that's one hard to find part on my "active" shopping list. I will be sourcing these parts all over the world. With the retiring of the TL-01 chassis shortly after the release of the TT-01, Tamiya has stopped production on most of its Hop Up parts. But the car was so popular and wide spread that plenty of parts still remain in Tamiya warehouses, wholesalers and retailers around the world!
Feel Free to reply to this post, I hope to have my first Hop Ups here around the start of next year. I will post some pictures as soon as I find my charger for my digital camera...
I painted the body (pictures forthcoming), put some of the decals on it, but became bored with it and put it back into its box as I had nobody to really run with and I thought about getting another TL-01 chassis when Tamiya announced it was going to start a TL-01 Spec class for the TCS. They had just released the Long Arm Suspension version of the car and I felt that was a better starting point for a race car than my original kit. But I never bought another kit and I focused more on the 1:1 car(s).
I should say this is NOT my first R/C build. That title goes to Tamiya Subaru Brat I got for Christmas back in 1985...
Anyway, recently my work (Pep Boys) started carrying Traxxas trucks as the bright people at corp seem to trying to connect the dots between hobby grade R/C and "Car Guys". Well I thought about getting a Slash and go racing with it. But then, I thought, I like Off-Road R/C, I love Touring Cars! So I decided for the time being to shelve the Slash or Rustler idea.
I knew what I needed to get the car running so while looking for good deals on the stuff I wanted, I found that Tamiya had announced its rules and schedule for the upcoming 2009 season. Well I have grown tried of just working and not socializing much, so I decided 2009 will the year I return to socializing, including a return to the "Wheels Of Steel", more on that another time...
Well upon that decision I wanted to see what I was getting myself into and found a Tamiya Championship thread on another R/C Forum. Well after much discussion, I decided I would use a NIB TB-02 for the Tamiya Series (Ebay $70), race GT-3 and not Novice. You do quite a bit of sitting around at these events, so I might find another class to run, if my budget can handle it.
That brings me back to the TL-01, if I'm not going to race it, what should I do with it???
Well I think I will race it after all and use it as my primary practice weapon since these cars can take a beating without giving much thought about it.
I hear the diffs in the TB-02 are problematic and should be swapped out for much improved EVOIII units. That, along with TRF-415 Reversible Suspension are on the sho[link=http://www.tamiyausa.com/articles/feature.php?article-id=11]Brian Matteson's XB TL-01 Build Up[/link]rt list of mods for that car, but getting back to the TL-01...
I saw that Brian Matteson's XB TL-01 Build Up (per TCS TL-01 Spec Rules circa 2003) I attempted to find all the parts needed to match that build up.
I was disappointed to find the Lightweight chassis and TA-04 Hop Up Universals are no longer available and very hard to find.
The build will continue without those parts however. I found some original Tamiya TA-04 Universals on Ebay, so that's one hard to find part on my "active" shopping list. I will be sourcing these parts all over the world. With the retiring of the TL-01 chassis shortly after the release of the TT-01, Tamiya has stopped production on most of its Hop Up parts. But the car was so popular and wide spread that plenty of parts still remain in Tamiya warehouses, wholesalers and retailers around the world!
Feel Free to reply to this post, I hope to have my first Hop Ups here around the start of next year. I will post some pictures as soon as I find my charger for my digital camera...
