TOPIC:

This winter there has been ice in my driveway since it got cold.
Snow has come and gone several times, but the ice has never gone away.

Got me thinking I wanted to do a rally project wirh studded tires.

My TL01 with HPI Mondeo body has been sat in the cabinet after it got cleaned up some years ago.
It used to be my drifter.

This is what I start with




First task was to find some dampers as the ones that used to be there is now on a different project.
Found some 60mm, or 62mm really dampers in my spare parts bin and those is of unknown brand.
Took a lot of searching in my parts bins to make them complete and a able to fit onto the chassis.
It made it harder by the eyelet on top of bottom had different hole diameter. Top ones I could not find any ball that would fit, but in the end I found bits that made it work.

Got good ground clearance with those 60mm dampers. Not really sag in the suspension is too stiff atm.


Front


Rear. Made a simple shock tower bracket as the shocks are a tad too long.


Good suspension travel


Not long ago I bought a Protech 190mm Ford Focus RS body for only 13 quid.
Perfect for rally task.
Pre test fitment on the body. Sems to be 5-10mm longer wheelbase on the body than on the TL01 wheelbaase.


My modded front suspension has a very narrow wheel track so I used 32mm wide wheels from my Zakspeed to center the body over the front.
Rear was good with the studded rally tires.
I used GF-01CB body post to first mock up the rear body holes.




Fitted back the orginal long TL01 body post's, Cut the green ones, fitted them to the front, marked the body and made holes for the short orginal TL01 body post's


Next will be to modify the rear suspension so the wheelbase match the body.
 

I did same tires some years ago. And your combo is very nice Richard.  A body color like the escort could be fine. We could have some snow this week. And I discovered a track near my home last week searching a shop for a work.  I should try it with the lunchy and the escort.

stingray-63 wrote:

I did same tires some years ago. And your combo is very nice Richard.  A body color like the escort could be fine. We could have some snow this week. And I discovered a track near my home last week searching a shop for a work.  I should try it with the lunchy and the escort.

This body has the same decals livery as the Tamiya one so I plan to do exactly that.


Nice to find a new track.
I have several located about 30min from me, but all is for modern 1:8 buggies.

Love that livery, nice work so far Richard! 

Martini livery is the best one.

Thanks fellas!

Yep I agree the Martini livery fits the Focus very well.


Most shops here in Norway seems to be out of stock for the Tamiya bits I want.
So I bought these ball nuts to make my own adjustable upper links for the rear.


Swapped out the TA04 c-hubs and steering knuckle for TL01 items as the track width was too narrow with the TA04 setup
Stock to the left, TA04 to the right
With WR-02CB arms it would have worked perfectly as those are wider than TL01 arms.
 

Notice kingpin placement on the TA04 setup


VS stock. Standard TL01 is located further from the chassis, but steering knuckle is only 1mm wider or so than the TA04 item


Yesterday I cut the body. On this body it was pain to use the cut and snap method.


Needs to adjust the rear wheelbase about 4-5mm.
So far I have not found a arm that can work. TA02 arms will move the c-hub about 10mm so I will either mod the stock arms or make my own.



And I really hate bodies that has no cut lines sculpted into the body.
No lines to follow on the rear arch, just the wheelarch form.

The MST ball nuts did not work out for making ajustable upper links.
So I had to scramble my spare part bins to come up with something.
Out of spare Tamiya ball ends so I used Traxxas rod ends with one end with ball and the other end with ballstud.
Fixing to the chassis by first fitting one of those flanged pipes and then bolt and nut.


Fitted


Rear camber now adjusted. Before the right tire had positive camber



Did a few slow motion clips of the suspension working.
Front


Rear


Rear is way too stiff.
Needs softer springs. 
Trying to make out what springs I can use as these shocks is narrow and have a diameter of 11.5mm at the spring collar.
Bugs me that most companies does not state what internal diameter the springs are.
I do have one on-road tuner spring in my spare bins. The blue one which is the hard spring. Seems to be about the same spring rate as the current ones.
Could have ordered a set of those tuner springs, but they are expensive and really too short for my dampers.
Found a spring rate chart and DT-02 front springs seems to fit the bill nicely, but need to know the internal spring diameter first.
Any happens to own a DT-02 that can measure the front springs for me?

Sorry richard mine is gone.

On the Titan DT02 the internal spring diameter is 14 mm

Thank you very much