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Tamiya FF-01 Front Wheel Drive project 6 years 10 months ago #43891

Nice upgrade. The only one you need. But on my clio I kept the 71teeth with the 25teeth motor pinion with a 540 silvercan.
And use grease absolutely.

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Tamiya FF-01 Front Wheel Drive project 6 years 10 months ago #43968

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Some more updates on my FF-01 project:

As you can see, I have put some paint on the Tamiya Honda Civic R3 JAS Motorsport body. What a pleasure to work on these Tamiya body's. Decals are pre-cut, everything fits in nicely...


But first I want to tackle the suspension.

As you might see, the chassis is sitting way too high over the track. I didn't measure, since my measure gauge was too low, so much more than 10mm high (and I already removed the pre-load spacers). When I looked at the dampers, they seemed way too long. The funny thing is that my DF-03Ra has shorter body dampers than this chassis. So... i interchanged them :-)

Here you can spot the difference:


Since the new dampers were still a bit too long, I added spacers to reduce droop. Maybe the spacers should have been still a bit longer, but I started with these ones (3mm I think) first:


With these spacers on the damper piston, in a corner, the inside damper will reduce the chassis to roll by reducing the inside wheel to travel to the bottom. The actual suspension travel is reduced.

One other thing I changed is the spring itself. The original was too soft to my feeling and way too long. Since the stroke length was reduced, by interchanging the dampers and adding the spacer, the origanal springs were already pre-loaded without even adding any spacers.
So I used my M05 Mini springs for this new damper configuration, here you can see the difference between the new damper/spring and the old one.


After adding some spring-preload spacers I could nicely tune the ride height to about 6mm.



To finish the suspension story, I used 500 oil (the green one) to fill the shocks with a 2-hole setup. On front I used the yellow springs in the rear softer red ones. Since there is so many weight on the front of the chassis I think I have to go harder there, but first I want to hit the track to test what this setup brings.

I also changed the screw that attach the dampers to the chassis with ball connectors.
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Tamiya FF-01 Front Wheel Drive project 6 years 10 months ago #43969

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I also worked a bit on the Honda body; but not yet finished:



The body posts are just too short, or long enough, not sure yet. And I feel the body is not nicely fitted on the chassis. On the front I used to foreseen holes, in the back I had to move the holes more to the back (but didn't enough). Is there a technique for making long holes for the back?
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Tamiya FF-01 Front Wheel Drive project 6 years 10 months ago #43970

Nice setting.:y:

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Tamiya FF-01 Front Wheel Drive project 6 years 10 months ago #43980

Looking good B)

IMHO the body needs lifting quite a lot at the front (up to 10mm?) and a little (3mm?) on the back, that will also have the effect of rotating the bottom of the back bumper round & forward a bit, meaning the rear wheels fit closer to the middle of the rear arches. Cars have got taller over time, I've definitely had to use body post extensions when using more modern body shapes on an FF-01 chassis ... to make slots in bodies rather than just holes, I've found a round needle file (also known as "diamond" files by some) works the best, albeit slowly & you need to clean the flash off with a scalpel.

Those wheels look a bit scabby ;) - if you're in the market for new ones it's worth looking at ones with a small amount of offset, I would guess about 3mm in your case. From the look of it, you've got toe in on the rear end, the setup Tamiya refer to as "high speed", as oppose to the "technical" setup, toe out. I'd definiteyl recommend the latter, as although Tamiya imply you only need it for slow, tight corners, in reality you need it for any turning ability at all, including flat out sweepers. Well I say flat out, I've only gone as far as a 12T motor & 2S lipo in an FF-01, I wasn't brave enough to try 5.5T brushless :D

examples:



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Tamiya FF-01 Front Wheel Drive project 6 years 9 months ago #44178

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Hello,

Been very busy, so couldn't work a lot on the project.

Anyway, Jonny:
- I had some of these body posts you were referring to still on the shelf, so I added them. I also added the extra height as you described. It's better, but still not happy to be honest. I'm working on another solution, if it works I'll show it :-)
- I will apply toe out to the front wheels for increased stability, for sure :-)
- I will stay at some stock-alike motor, actually the Carson Cup machine. The Belgian Mini cup is the reference for this car, if I can achieve the same times I will be happy. The outdoor track I run on is quite technical, so it will not be boring.
- For the wheels, these are still old ones I had on the shelf, new ones are on their way but I stick at 0 offset.

Here are some pics of the almost finished body:


I would like a nice FF-01 logo for the sides of the car instead of the original Civic R R3 logo's. I have a vinyl cutter, so I can cut a vector if someone has some ideas.

I painted the roof intake and the spoiler matt black, just because I prefer it :-)

Although nicely designed by Tamiya, the red/gray decals don't stick enough. Especially where at the rear wheel arches. This is painted plastic sticker, not real vinyl sticker I think. Used a hairdryer to form and soften them, but maybe this one is not hot enough, maybe some other ideas for this?

When the wheels and tires arrive, and the body-post fix, I post a new update. Then plugging in some electronics and then... first track test! :D
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Tamiya FF-01 Front Wheel Drive project 6 years 9 months ago #44181

...
- I will apply toe out to the front wheels for increased stability, for sure :-)...


Toe-in: more straightline stability;
Toe-out: better steering response.
... applies to front and rear axles.

I mentioned toe-out on the rear wheels (the "technical" setup in FF-01 manuals) as without it, it just won't go round corners. For the front end, I'd leave it neutral (wheels parallel) or a little bit of toe-out ... I wouldn't worry about losing any directional stability - all the weight & drive is at the front end & it tends to pull everything else along in a straight line anyway.

Nice looking car so far - the wheelarches look pretty good in the photos :)

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Tamiya FF-01 Front Wheel Drive project 6 years 9 months ago #44219

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Tamiya FF-01 Front Wheel Drive project 6 years 9 months ago #44640

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Hello,

Finally I found some time to continue my project.

First I made some changes to the front body posts. Inspired by the YR body posts I made a small shift to them so the body would sit better on the chassis. I also had to drill extra holes in the rear window, but that is something I don't mind.

Next I started adding electronics, I found out that I needed more space to get behind the servo so I optimized the 3D printed chassis support a bit.


Then I made a new part for my Spektrum receiver. 2.4GHz is a lovely solution compared to the 40MHz we used in the nineties. But still there is a quite long piece of wire attached to it. On top I use this receiver on multiple chassis, so I made a support to wind up the wire and integrate an antenna support with it.


I found an TEU-101BK ESC in my stock of old parts. One thing that bothered me was the BEC wire attached to it. After opening the ESC I unsoldered this wire and bridged the +5V from it to the ESC signal wire. That is one wire saved. At the same time I changed the motor wires to black wires which looks better, I think. Unfortunately I incorrectly measured the (-) battery wire which is just a little bit too short, it just works but it doesn't look proper, it could be better, so room for improvement.

The wheels and tires finally arrived. They are actually the same as the white ones, but dark gray instead. I have some stock slicks, A-type slicks en B-type slicks, all 26mm. I still have to glue them.

Little by little everything is coming together, and I'm quite pleased with the result.


I hope to do a first track test next saturday! :evil:

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Tamiya FF-01 Front Wheel Drive project 6 years 9 months ago #44642

This is a very cool project! :y: :)
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