TOPIC:

Hey guys, been awhile since I was online here, previously I was posting what I did to make more of a rally type build with mine, but I ended up in a city with a track, so I went back to on-road. This may be long-winded, and I apologize, but please bear with me.

As stated in the title, I have a TT-01E, '95 Cobra R body--I have two, one nice show body, and one beat up race body (probably not long for this world honestly).

So when I first raced it, I had my current 3000 mah NiMH battery, a Hobbywing 60 amp brushed ESC, and a 13T Yeah Racing motor, with stock gearing. I also have 60 mm Yeah Racing shocks (set all the way down they have the same height and such as stock), as well as their aluminum steering linkage. I also have a ball bearing kit, Yeah racing aluminum CV shafts, and steel spindles installed (man I've done a lot more to this car than I thought...)

At that stage, I hit a point where the 13T motor was legal in Touring Stock, but no other classes, and I was mostly limited by my ability to keep it on the track with such a powerful motor. I needed to put in a more reasonable (and legal...) motor, but everybody told me I just needed a better car and I would do great.

Local shop sold me an Xray T2...not gonna go into the details with all of it, but basically the stuff I was sold meant the car wasn't physically fast enough to keep up with the competition, even on my nice clean laps. Did an alignment, was told I needed a new servo because it wouldn't return to straight consistently, I noticed it has negative caster and it's $$$ to fix that... I'm tired of dumping money into it and still even on my hot laps being stuck 2 seconds back from the leaders. The Xray has to go.

I'd gotten a cheap, rebuildable brushed 25.5t to throw in the Tamiya so I could get it going again, and the motor was old and built wrong, so it set my old ESC on fire. There may have been more wrong with it, but that's best I can figure, ESC burned and the motor was seized.

Now:
I have the TT-01, a HobbyWing brushless ESC, same NiMH battery is still good, and I have two motors. I have a Reedy Power 25.5 SP5, and a Scale Spec 25.5. I may go to a Gravity just so I can run VTA and not worry about it, but will have to trade stuff in if I go that route. I changed the motor gear (pinion?) to a 22 tooth, also have a 23 tooth here.

So my question is, once I get some money from the XRay, what are the recommended upgrades? I assume adjustable upper control arms so I can get some more camber, but I think it's super doable to keep up, even with this car as-is. I'm fighting modern Xrays (2024 version I think? Still lacks caster lol), looking at US GT rubber 25.5 and VTA I think. I'm not big on putting aluminum on it "just because", generally I think the plastic is lighter but I could be wrong. I'm open to hearing about gear ratios, motors, just generally how people recommend I set it up to beat the $2k+ people have flushed into their Xrays 😎(without even coming close to touching their prices)

I'd rather not change the battery until the NiMH gives me issues, I did change the plug on it since my Tamiya plug was getting loose. If/when I upgrade the battery I intend to go to a LiFePO4 if they'll let me, since it makes less power than a LiPO I can't imagine they wouldn't. Just for the peace of mind for me, it's nice not to have to worry TOO much about burning everything down.

Note: I have the one '95 Cobra body that's sacrificial, and for the Xray I have a '69 Boss 302 VTA body, and a green '96 trans am Mustang body that would have to be significantly modified to fit the Tamiya body. Not that it should make any difference in setting up the car but you never know I guess. The Boss should be easy to make work on the Tamiya, the 96 I may have to get a new body of and start over.