Tom’s Tamiya TT-01ED Drifter – Introduction

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I’ve always had a big thing for RC drifting. What I like about it is you don’t need a huge amount of space to practice your skills or have fun.  I’ve got a tarmac drive at my house, and if I park the 1:1 cars in the road and get a couple of track markers out, I’ve got a pretty good drift track that is literally on my doorstep.  If I fancy a bigger play area, then the car park of my local supermarket offers a great place to drift after hours too.

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Anyway, I’d starting drifting with a Yokomo SD, and recently picked up an early TT-01D Tamiya that was languishing around at Racer Towers to replace my tired Yoke.  As much as I like the TT-01D, a few things let it down, firstly the tyres are nowhere near as ‘drifity’ as  Yokomo ones, and also the steering has quite a bit of slop making precision drift control a pain.  Thankfully, Racer’s editorial team had heard my moans and sent me down a shiny new TT-01ED kit with Lexus bodyshell.  The ‘E’ is important as it stands for enhanced, and although it doesn’t look it, Tamiya have improved a huge amount compared to my old TT-01D.

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The improvements are as follows:

  • Separate shock towers and gearbox cases (previously 1 piece)
  • Softer shock springs
  • Super Drifttech tyres (much more like my favoured Yokes)
  • Chassis stiffener/Top Deck
  • Much improved plastics
  • TA-05 style steering (with no slop!)
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Already out of the box, this TT-01ED is a better drifter, and the Lexus bodyshell is so JDM I want a sticker just to prove it!  The big changes are the tyres and steering, and now it is much more like a proper drift chassis.  I stuck uber thick grease in the diffs too to slow the diff action making drifting more controllable.

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The action doesn’t stop there though as The Hobby Company kindly supplied me with some Hop-Ups to try out. So for next month’s article I’ll be adding the following:

  • 54058     TT-01E Aluminium Steering Kit
  • 54020     An Extra Set Of Drifttech Tyres
  • 54026     TT-01E Aluminium Propshaft
  • 51364     Subaru Impreza Bodyshell
  • 53569     Aluminium Clamping Hubs

…and I’ll also be adding a few little bits I picked up myself, so stay tuned!

 

 

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