This build started as a want for something similar to my friend's Tamiya TA02 Celica. We had been running road courses with our M03s for a while and just wanted more variety.
I had some leftover TA02 stuff from when i was really heavy into them, and i also purchased an inexpensive F150 Prerunner roller. I also bartered for a Tamiya Super Manta Ray 4wd buggy and sourced alot of this car from it. As a Tamiya fan, i love building with Tamiya stuff, especially taking parts that were never meant to go together, and building a "factory" car from it, not that this car was ever produced, it looks like something that easily could have been.
Im curious, if anyone knows if this configuration of parts was ever offered, let me know, would be sweet if i built a car and didnt even realize it.
So i started with the regular TA02 Prerunner chassis and built it into a sedan/rally using al the red gear boxes and all that stuff, basically building a Skyline. I bought a Lancia Delta body for it and when i mounted it up, the wheel base was just a touch short. The rear wheels wouldnt center quite right in the fender. So i decided to try swapping out to the LWB Manta Ray chassis and flip the rear Aarms over to shorten the wheelbase and viola, it happened to set it just right. Also started looking pretty unique with the Manta chassis and red gearbox parts.
That night when i was thinking about what else i needed to do, i looked over at all the black gearboxes from the Manta Ray and thought, hey wouldnt it be cool if i made this whole car out of black tamiya plastic parts. I spent the next while gathering the list of stuff that turned this car into what it is currently.
Tamiya Cars stolen from:
TA02 Humvee front and rear shock towers
Super Manta Ray chassis (DF-01) / front and rear black gearboxes
TA01 front and rear A-Arms
TA02 F-150 Shocks and springs
Manta Ray black steering knuckles
Even a Humvee Black motor mount ( i almost used my red one for the sake of, no one would ever see it so they would think it was all black)
TT-01 Tamiya TRF CVDs (a bunch of people told me they dont work on TA02s, they were wrong...)
Soon to come on this car are much needed THICK sway bars. Im running real soft oil and springs, so there is TONS of body roll, i like how much travel the car has, and i dont want stiff springs. So im retrofitting my Tamiya 801XT Sway bars to fit, suprisingly easy and required nothing more than a little tighter bend and a trim. They are not installed yet, but will be soon.
I didnt take pics of the cars i started with unfortunately, but heres what this car was made from.
DF-01 Super Manta Ray
F150
Other parts i had laying around in my tamiya box, / bought from a couple members here.
So hers the pics.
Overview of the chassis layout. This chassis also moves the motor and rear gearbox about an inch back from the regular TA02 sedans, so that will be interesting to compare.
Underside of the chassis.
Full droop. I painted the Lancia body as the Box art suggests. The stickers were very time consuming to layout, some fluid or some kind of transfer aid would be nice the next time i try something like this. I tore a few of them and repaired them as best i could, but the body was bought to be run, so once its scratched up, it wont matter.
Full bump, tons of wheel travel for a sedan.
Ride height
So right now for gear im running a VXl ESC, Castle 5700kv motor, Spektrum 120oz .08@60deg. servo and a Spektrum DX2.0
I put in the 69t spur with the 21t pinion, should be 8.01:1 final drive and its a little scary. It was 19/stock spur and not very fast, i should have gone 21t with the stock spur for 8.56:1, and i might do that soon. I dont ever plan on running anything but 2s, but right now its doing probably 40ish, id rather be around 33-35mph top speed. Everything still needs a little fine tuning, this car has only ran once.
I have HPI wheels and tires on there for now, im getting some Tamiya Rally Blocks and carbon wheels pretty soon so i can try it in the dirt. Id really like to take it to PRCR and run it for practice sometime. I also would like to get some Traxxas 1/16 rally tires for it, i liked how they felt and had a nice balance of slip and grip. I cant stand plastic drift tires either, they sound like ass, the traxxas tires were pretty quiet. Bert, driving your rally is what made me want those tires for this.
Also forgot to mention, im running a ball diff in the rear (thanks 87GL) and a gear diff in the front built with the thick grey Tamiya Anti Wear grease, almost feels like a ball diff in the front. Awesome, thanks for learnin that stuff to me Schlabinski.
TA01/TA02/DF01 Lancia Rally
Linear Mode
