Building a USGT car from a ff03

Oh Tamiya, why do you do this to me.

This is a FF03.  One destined to run in USGT.  Part of this is because I love my Mini's and nobody runs Mini's around here, and partially because there's a rule hole in USGT wide open for FWD cars.

Typical, beautiful Tamiya packaging.

Hey, it comes with a motor!  

So we do some sorting.

And some more sorting....  

So lets build this thing.

The manual dives right in with the ball diff.  I think I'd prefer the manual to start somewhere that's a little less fiddly, but.. what Tamiya says, Tamiya gets.  

Amusingly, this assembly, is also the same transmission from the TRF201.  And DN-01.  And it might be the XV-01?  I'll need to look that up.

The bumper support, and motor plate attached.  I have a fancy blue motor plate from my TRF201, if I ever end up rebuilding this things front end, it's getting transplated.

It's the fact that this is a buggy transmission, will come to bite us later.

That's a monster spur.  And 48pitch.  

The whole front end of the car, is built around this little bridge.  It holds the shock pivots, the shock mounts, the top of the steering posts, and this links the transmission with the top of the chassis tub.

A steering bridge.  

So many screws.  So much sorting.  

It's a bit tricky to get the steering posts installed tightly.  They should be locktited.  

The screws to hold the front bridge down, are both keyed on the bottom, and use tapered screws on the top.  This assembly is very tightly bound to the chassis.  I, like, that.

These parts are TRF418 compatible, or TB03.  It's good to know that.  Same for the knuckles and rear uprights.  

This looks spookily like the back of a 2wd buggy.  yet.. it's the front.  Those blocks on the chassis, let you alter wheelbase slightly, and if you do some shimming under them, you can also build in some anti-squat or anti-dive.  

There is a tricky bit of installing the transmission, where you need toflip up a part on the transmission to meet the suspension bridge.  But it's not hard the second time you do it.

They're not bloody yet.  But these are the knuckles.  

It still looks like a buggy back end.  

Now we build the back end.

This is the rear shock tower, rear upright, and rear upper suspension mounts.  

Which then gets bolted down to the rear suspension carrier plate.  You can adjust rear toe using new mounting blocks.

Hubs.

And it all builds up like that.  That whole assembley is attached to the car using six screws.  

In its home.

I think I spent a few hours just messing around with the car in this state.  I found the suspension arms quite satisfying to flop around.

It doens't weigh a lot, 550g all told.  

Another shot of the car's weight.  972g, ready to run, but without battery.  

The servo I installed, wasn't up to the task.  The DRFT-303 is "ok" for a lot of things, but once you start going fast, the 303 just doesn't center well enough, and is much slower than it's specs would indicate.

Sharp eyed viewers will notice the colored springs, the upgrades started in earnest.  These aluminum turnbuckles are .9g lighter than the steel ones.  

I couldn't find any FWD bodies that made me happy.  And being of the gran turismo generation, I love me some GT-R.  This is a $8 body and it comes painted.  It's nice and light, and is in the spirit of USGT.

We'll visit the car again sometime soon.