Sunday, September 13, 2009

Tamiya 49400 - Porsche Turbo RSR Type 934

IMG_8674

I didn’t have any belt driven Tamiya cars, so I looked into the TA05, but none of the bodies really excited me. I also have a tendency to buy the stock kit and then buy a ton of hop-ups. This time (one might say in a moment of weakness) I got it all hopped up from the start. I was browsing on Ebay when I found “the 49400”. It is by far the most expensive kit I’ve gotten and probably ever will get. Some people will reserve this kind of car for display or keep it in the wrapper as a collectible, me, not so much... I will take this car to the track! I consider it a crime not to :D

IMG_8493 IMG_8494

The box arrived safely from Hong Kong.

IMG_8499IMG_8502

IMG_8503 IMG_8503

IMG_8506 IMG_8505

Unboxing the car was great fun, I love how so many of the pieces are on display. There’s very little plastic in this kit, mostly anodized aluminum and carbon fiber. In past I’ve built the car and then worked on the body, this time around I worked on the body first and then started to build the car.

IMG_8512 IMG_8514

The lexan body almost ready for paint. I chose to stick to the original color and got a can of PS-54 Cobalt green. The plastic spoiler is actually cobalt green, so if you chose a different color scheme you’d have to paint that as well (the side mirrors looked so close in color that I forgot to paint them the suggested semi-gloss black). The 49400 also comes with LED holders, I chose to mask off the headlights etc At some point I will put LEDs in this.

IMG_8518

IMG_8566 IMG_8569

body after two coats of paint, didn’t seem like it needed a third like I’ve had two with the metallic paints.

After painting the car I moved on to sticker the body, the 49400 comes with two sheets of stickers. Some of which was pretty intricate, cutting out all the bits that make up the rear bumper was especially tricky. Honestly I should’ve used liquid mask and spray painted the rear bumper black.

IMG_8602

The motor mount and the lower portion of the bulkhead installed. This was before I realized that I had inserted the cap screw on the wrong end of both differential cups (aka the IKEA principle ;P)

IMG_8603 IMG_8604

Below, the front bulkhead and steering linkage finished, it was great to see how little play, yet how freely the steering linkage moved compared to my TT-01D.

IMG_8606

The carbon fiber upper deck went on next, it has “RC 30th Anniversary Since 1976” printed on it (I was only a one year old when Tamiya started making RC cars).

IMG_8612 IMG_8616

I hope I never have to replace the belts on this thing, it would pretty much be the same as rebuilding the entire car…

IMG_8621IMG_8618IMG_8619

The suspension ready to go on the car, I used my Tamiya silicon oil air remover. It gets the bubbles out as well as makes it a nice stand to keep them in. The car is more stiffly sprung in the front than in the rear. One of the spring retainers that goes on the damper cylinder was much lighter shade of blue than all the other anodized aluminum. Quite strange, something I didn’t expect in a package of this quality.

IMG_8777

Car is ready to go, I used the Futaba S9551 and put the receiver on the  lower deck instead of on top of the servo, that way I can hopefully fit a TLU01 on top of the servo. I’m not sure where I can put a TLU02.. maybe tape it on top of the battery plate?

IMG_8780 IMG_8783

I really like the tires on this car, I’m going to try to preserve them as much as possible. The wheels are 26mm wide the rears were offset 5 and the front offset 2. So far all the GT wheels I have are offset 0 dish wheels, I wonder if/how they will fit on the track. I’m also unsure of what compound the kit tires are? The f201 tires for instance looked great but became slicks in a very short amount of time.

IMG_8778

The Futaba MC601C ESC has 3 wires and uses a Y-connector wire for the battery and motor, because of that I had to route wires over and under the belt. I’m a little nervous about that, I used a couple of zip ties to keep it tight… we’ll see how it goes on the track…

IMG_8691

The 49400 all stickered up and ready to go!

IMG_8633 IMG_8640

IMG_8645 IMG_8649

IMG_8653 IMG_8657

IMG_8672IMG_8673

IMG_8681IMG_8684

And that’s all I have about this spectacular kit so far. I feel very lucky to own one of these and can’t wait to see how it is to drive!

IMG_8497

11 comments:

  1. Are there any hop-ups that were not included in the 49400 kit that you added (or wish to add) to the car?

    ReplyDelete
  2. there's the stabilizer and a TA05 carbon fiber battery plate that I'll add at some point. LEDs

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was thinking the TLU-01 and TLU-02 for the full option of lighting. Which stabilizer would you upgrade?

    ReplyDelete
  4. it comes with no stabilizer at all, I'll put them front and back. Not sure what I should go with hard/med/soft. Will have to play around with that I think. I drove it at the track this weekend and it was quite a lot of fun. I didn't have the same level of confidence in it yet as my M05 or F104. It ran better with a LIPO than a Nimh. I currently use a brushed 27 turn peak racing hellfire motor, the manual recommends the 23T TZ/RZ. It oversteered in the sweeper at full throttle, which was...scary :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Torg,

    Do you have a part number for the stabilizer? I am new to this chassis and want to get all the hop-ups ordered before I open the box. Also, what brand of Lipo do you use? I am considering the Team Orion but I read somewhere that Tamiya is coming out with LiFe batteries.

    ReplyDelete
  6. http://www.tamiyausa.com/pdf/manuals/49400ml.pdf has the part numbers, page 20.

    53842 stabilizer set (F,R)
    51111 4mm adjuster
    53827 stabilizer rod stopper

    here's some info on the LIPO I've been the most happy with so far (price vs performance)
    http://tamiyatorg.blogspot.com/2009/06/going-lipo.html

    I have an orian that I like, and a Reedy that's brand new that my Trinity I-Balance refuses to charge because of "connection breaks"

    ReplyDelete
  7. I don't have any LiFe batteries yet, but I will check them out when they become commonly available.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for the advice. I just got the 49400 kit this week. I ordered the TLU-01 and TLU-02 for the lights and I'll order the stabilizer parts you recommended. Any warnings or heads-up on the build?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Also, any video of the car running itself, apart from the car cam?

    ReplyDelete
  10. no videos of the car yet, I'll bring a tripod next time.

    There's an small error in the manual about the placement of one of the black stickers for the bumper. But you'll see that right away (it's listed as going on the left but needs to go on the right).

    On page 5 make sure you but the K4 part in the longest differential cup (I did that wrong).

    On page 8 section 9 they want you to drill a 3mm hole, but not all the way. I honestly don't know why. I don't have a hand drill so I used my electric one, big mistake, on one of them it went all the way through! and as a result the 3x10mm screw would fall through.. I caked the whole with superglue and put the screw through. But now I can't adjust the droop. If someone can tell me why we need to widen the hole I'd appreciate it.

    I haven't put my stabilizer on yet, waiting for the rod stopper to arrive from rcmart.

    I'm also waiting for my new battery cover to get here before I put LED's in it.

    Post pictures from your build! and congrats!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I'll probably build it over Christmas when I get some time. Or maybe start on Thanksgiving weekend. I was looking at the new Buggy Champ kit for the spring for something to drive in the backyard.

    ReplyDelete