It still blows my mind that Tamiya makes such great looking bodies, but then you have four body posts sticking through it. They really need to get with it and come up with a clipless body mounts for all of their RCs. Love the channel, Gav!
Yep, it’s time to say goodbye to the posts. You can do it yourself with magnets but sometimes Tamiya cuts the mounting points out for you and that sucks.
I agree mate , I bought their tg10 MK2 fn , because they said it fits 190mm touring bodies , shame the body posts were not correctly placed for those bodies , so now I have crooked shells , oh also , Tamiya ps paint is dissolved by fuel , not that they tell you this , a terrible product .
I must be the minority….I still like the body holes and posts. They are nostalgic 😅. A body clip option would be nice but let’s face it, it’s not happening. Tamiya is still using Philips head screws.
You're a more patient man than I, Gav. Lol! The slop of the BT-01 is a mountain I wasn't willing to climb, haha. Best of luck getting it all sorted pal. Hopefully you can dial it in nicely and help Tamiya save face on this release.
@poorboysrc that's that chassis off my list then haha. I'm still leaning towards parting my bt01 out and doing my own 3d printed chassis using some of this for the parts I can't print strong enough.
I've built enough Tamiya's in 30 years to know slop is just something you have to deal with. I suppose its ok on the first 100, but not with modern releases and molding technology today.
Are Tamiyas still made in Japan? There’s no way they should be releasing a chassis with that much slop. There’s tolerances and there’s tolerances! I’ve not built mine yet… cheers for the cheat codes 😊
The BT-01's little "brother" MB-01 got the same issues. A lot of slop that needs a lot of shims. The steering is a pain in the back, as it binds a lot under the body tower assembly thing. Getting it to run straight takes a lot of effort.
"Total Sloppy Mess" I was thinking Gav had documented a night out on the pull...... On a serious note, you absolutely were not too harsh! That thing is not even toy grade, and £160 to boot! How much time & money are they expecting us to invest to make it a quality chassis? On the plus side, sales of M5 washers have boomed.
Thank the RC lords Tower Hobbies took forever to mark my order as shipped, after watching all the videos from guys like you, I just went ahead and canceled it. Lol.
Not harsh at all. It looks like an over complicated TT02. Look at the BBX or the M07. Tamiya can do so much better. There is less slop in my Grasshopper
I don't think you are being harsh at all Gavin. Tamiya has been dropping the ball far too much lately and for that price point... NOT acceptable! Great video as always.
The multi-purpose chassis molding would save a small amount of money in reducing the tooling cost. The longer production runs for each molding reduce the setup-time in the factory as well. Overall the benefit is a cost saving for the Tamiya factory, but result in inferior product in the hands of the consumer.
Thanks for that info gav I was thinking of trying to do one of these but I'll give it a miss some people don't like the tt02 but I've done a few and really enjoy them so might do the supra tt02 instead great video can't wait to see the finished product look forward to the next one and love the hoody
I’d like to stick up for the BT01 a little bit, yes there’s a lot of slop and if we’re being honest it’s too much slop and I definitely agree friction shocks should be banned from Tamiya kits ;) however to fight its corner once I’d built mine and I even took it racing against tt02s and 01s it held its own rather well , mine was in mm configuration as the kit. I had no issues with it not tracking straight and it handled nicely with a set of racing tyres on our carpet track, how ever I did swap to oil shocks for a better drive. It’s a fun kit with plenty of options but it’s not perfect. I would say we are Brits and we like a good old whinge as well 😜
The problem with your shims for the axles is that their outer diameter is bigger than the inner part of the bearing (the actual moving part). You should replace them with smaller ones that match the diameter of the inner parts of the bearings or the bearings will grind on the shim.
I agree with the confusing manual. I've built at least 100 Tamiya, and this one stumped me for a good hour before I could work out how to change it from MR as the manual wants to FR as I want.
For the steering links slop, I find that 54869 long or 54868 medium open face adjusters fit the ball connectors way better than any previous adjusters from Tamiya,including the kit supplied parts. Like the TT01/02 arms that use the pillow ball setup , it seems the upright should be a tad shorter so the ball with the split in it can expand when tightend by the screw that holds it in place.Bit of a fiddle to be sure,in setting it correctly.
As a retired Australian rc driver of 40 years experience I think you are being a bit hard on a new player in the market. This is their first plastic model they have never made an rc car before . I watched an advertisement 40 plus years ago. Quote “ first in quality around the world “
This is terrible news. This BT-01 chassis IMO needed to succeed. Were sick of getting cool bodies on TT-02s, and this was the answer, and its arguable worse! Bushings and friction shocks in 2024 is a joke and I genuinely worry about Tamiya’s future considering how good “BangGood/AliExpress” stuff is these days. I built a new old stock TA04 over Christmas which is what 20 years old? And its considerably better than most of Tamiya’s recent stuff :/
Yes, Tamiya could do better in a lot of their kits. But then they can't sell you option parts for more than you paid for the kit. They already know this.
Hey mate! The rear slop causing toe in under power i fixed by adding a tt-02 unishaft which is slightly longer which helps keep it toe'd in aswel as bottom metal friction balls. Im also running a 4wd setup which is 100% better than any setup from standard. The suspension i added oil filled shocks which help alot and a tt02 shim kit. Good luck with the slop! I really hated this car but its really grown on me with abit of hop ups. one thing that really annoyed me was the fact theres only 3 gearing setups :(
I also agree that tamiya could do better, with their years of model building and designing expertise, can't make a more precise vehicle, also, oil shock wouldn't break their bank at all
I've given up on tamiya after the new m series . The bbx is great. But when I see this kit, same as the m series, I saved my money. I now build scale trucks . More satisfying
I say your review is fair and honest Tamiya has step off there game with this chassis conpair to bbx chassis which has a cracking good one Disliking Tamiya new age plastic ball top pivot joints same use on the new mini chassis too Tamiya main selling point is the licence brand body
To be honest, Tamiya has been pumping out sub par kits for a while now while re-re-re-releasing old kits to cash in on nostalgia sales… Also like you said, and I also believe, that it’s quite unlikely people will go through the hassle of reconfiguring the chassis once they’ve built it one way or the other. The fwd class is gaining popularity in recent times, as far as I know, there’s no rwd class really besides the rwd m06/8 in the m-chassis/mtc class, everything else is 4wd. So this ‘reconfigurable’ fwd/rwd(awd?) chassis has pretty much no valid reason to exist really… Sure you could say “it does it all”, yes but quite badly and unnecessarily cumbersome and complicated… I’d advise people to just get a chassis that specifically does either fwd, rwd or awd, but not one that could do it all. Plus it makes for a good excuse to buy more r/c cars right? 😅😋
They'll insist we are reading instructions wrong , of course , because nothing ever gets done improperly right , it's absurd how do many refuse to admit sometimes quality is just low .
Kits like this just re inforce my opinion that Tamiya has rapidly become the King of shelf Queens , good looking cars that do not measure up against other brands when it comes to any sort of road use , after so many years of production so much slop even in an entry level kit really is not acceptable .
You are right , I have 5heir tg10 , steering is so dysfunctional it won't go straight , the bodies don't fit right and the paint is utterly destroyed , first in quality right ? .
I think Tamiya needs a wake up call overall. The whole not including bearings thing they need to know that we’d much rather pay $50 more to get bearings and oil shocks. Heck basic cva’s likely don’t cost much more than the friction ones to build. The tolerances are unforgivable. Just say it like it is. They’ve been making silly mistakes lately
Yes it is a sloppy jaloppy out of the box, I have shimmed up all the spots you pointed out and have some different ball cups and balls to reduce the toe slop. But yeah really Tamiya should have done better, I had to get it as being a Aussie I grew up with Front engine Rear wheel drive cars and have always wanted a RC chassis like that! However this was not how I thought it would be. I have been running mine a bit now and having the rear wheel drive is fun, with a bit of setup work and oil shocks (I have been into RC and racing from the mid 80's) it handles OK and does what I want it to do. I feel this is possibly the replacement for the TT-02 as most of those bodies are rear wheel drive but the build was very challenging, I did mine FR out of the box and it was not fun, Just build it as the instruction say then change it. It is also a pain to work on and clean, The TT-02 is a much easier chassis to work on.
For me I like Tamiya but I only have one and not sure if I want more. The slop is an issue on my TT02. I have fixes it a bit but no bearing or good shocks and over priced hop ups, so on the fence about Tamiya and not sure which way to jump.
Yeah, thanks for the honest review. I will pass unless they release a FF body with it that I would like (Honda Integra, Peugeot 306 Rally, Renault Clio Williams, for example)
good luck to get that sorted, both the mb-01 and the bt-01 are really verry bad, and the strategy selling a car with so frustratingly bad parts that you can sell a lot of hop ups and after nothing helps a new car to the same customer is really verry disappointing for the customer.
I agree with what you've said here, Tamiya really need to up their game. I like the look of the BT-01 chassis, it's definitely different, but that much slop, bushings instead of bearings, and friction shocks on a kit of this price is taking the p***. Shame really, seriously puts me off the BT-01.....
Tamiya have been doing this since the TT01 was parachuted onto the market. And it was fine at that point in time, but stacked up against other modern day level entry cars, its just poor form. It would take very little to re-engineer the offending parts in BT, TT and the MB, which I think Carl from Popalong discovered with his first few outlaps.
Maybe if someone hasn't looked into it the use of some tt01 tt02 suspension parts the metal balls are a fit but what about the arms themselves. Tamiya has been known to redesign parts to fix issues or use existing parts to fix to fix issues. But let's wait on the 4wd version. I m sure there will be a fix.
i'll possibly save you some money, the metal suspention ball's will do nothing for you (atleast in terms of slop reduction), if you want to tighten it up, take out the screw, pop it appart and take a flat file and shorten the peg untill the suspention ball's edge is poking out when put back in place. for me this worked wonders on the rear....front is better but not as good as the rear...still figuring out why might need to file it down a bit more. other then that the connecting pieces for the ball ends are indeed a major slop contributer, i found some from a TT-02 upgrade kit measured the hole on them 4.1mm, BT-01 stock is 4.3mm so now trying to figure out what that tighter connector is sold under (the number on the tree pointed to a TA-04 which...is not helpfull). and on mine atleast the steering ...."unit" was not fine, where the ball bearings/bushings go i added a 0.2mm washer to the bottom to stabilize it (it was rocking back and forth) and the kingpins also rock back and forth but for me putting these in destroyed the screw pretty much, was able to take them out and am now waiting for low fricking kingpints mainly for the hex so i can shim that as well. my theory is they hope people like this so they can offer a BT-01 Type S with better ball end connectors and a bag of shims. and i tend to ace manual's i've never strugled with ikea furnature for example :P but damn did i have to quadruple check that i did things right... and then still use the 10mm pin where i shoulda used the 11.8mm pin >.>
got my bits and progress was made. shims at the kingpin and ball bearing area of the steering got rid of the rocking when it moves...it is stiffer to move but still quite free and damn near no slop in the steering area. i did find the ball end connectors they are just 50875's which is great...except that they are 18mm long and the bt-01's stock are 14mm long....time to whip out the file again :P but essentially a 3s racing shim kit (0.1/0.15/0.2/0.25 and 0.3 shims 10 each) and some alternative ball end connectors and it can be quite slop free the only way i have now to reduce front slop is direct mounting the steering to the servo (no servo savor in play). a strait build leaves it in a pretty shamefull place though just slop for days : /
I'm a big Tamiya fan but how this got the sign off to manufacture I just don't know. The strange thing is the slop has nothing to do with the adjustable wheelbase or the motor placement or FWD / RWD options. This is basic arms, uprights, axels and steering slop.
@@RCKickschannel yeah, the bbx was a new desighn, and it was great. Im starting to love the Tamiya kits, more than Schumacher 🤔 i dont think Cecil wiuld be happy HA HA
Im wondering if Tamiya are moving back to friction shocks for mass produced kits to keep restrictions at a minimum & be able to ship world wide easily & cheaper? Whenever i buy kits from Buyee, they remove any oils, as its restricted to ship internationally from Japan. So i wonder if Tamiya are removing oil to keep restrictions being placed 🤔 just a thought… but who knows with Tamiya. Great video Gav, love these series of builds
Good point about the oil shipping from Japan. If that’s the case, it’s definitely ruining a lot of rc car kits! Back in the eighties & nineties, it was much harder to encounter friction shocks in a kit
@@MrGoat73 i agree, its meaning you have to spend more money in hopping the kit to something more stable, but then i guess thats an argument with Tamiya that will always go on. I mean, why plastic bushes? Bearings aren’t that expensive, but we still see the same plastic bushes from Tamiya 🤷🏻♂️ im assuming its just costs but who knows. Gotta love to hate them at times, lol
I woould have expected a better quality and design from this car, considering right now a tt01e and tt02 are basically the best 1/10 tamiya starter and , at least in my country, u can get a tt02r for 113 euro and a tt02 with no electronic and body for 54 euro. This car, for what is supposed to do, is ajust an expensice shelf queen. A stonger motor or even a brushless one may make the car go in every direction or tremble like crazy.
Slop will be a huge Issue the faster you go. It's not just Tamiya that has this issue. I've found a few high end manufacturers that release RTR's that have slop. My XRT has end float in the hubs. Took quite a lot of shimming to dial that out. In the end the truck is much nicer to drive and is more precise in it's handling. Something you want when an RC is approaching 100kph. Surprisingly Arrma cars are pretty damn good out of the box. This shouldn't be happening at all. Hub ball joints should be tight. I've seen well used RC's with less slop in them than this kit. A real shame. It's all good for us seasoned RC'ers to shim all of this out but what if it's your first kit?
Tamiya should be ashamed now with bad construction/parts friction dampers and plastic bearings. There’s no room for second rate kit/parts and lack bearings proper suspension.
I liked Tamiya for many years. The shapes off the body’s are excellent. But the last years they are living from rere to rere to rere. And the quality off new cars and parts availability is going downhill fast. So i went to Traxxas.
Got to agree love the concept of it but poor execution and definitely should come with oil shocks, maybe they will fix it with the BT-01 S/SR/concept ?
WTF !!!??????!!! When I think I was almost picking two of them for me and my brother !!!!! THANK YOU for showing us that !!! What a piece of crap and I’m sorry to say this Tamiya, sincerely !! What a cool concept, what a TERRIBLE realization.
Tamiya have make some of the smoothest plastic body oil filled dampers I’ve ever seen for decades now it boggles the mind they are starting to use these friction pogo sticks now. I wasn’t impressed when I initially saw this chassis definitely a hard pass for me I’m used to a little slop with the more basic Tamiya platforms but this is pretty bad especially now
I don't think you're being too harsh. Many reviewers have stated the same outcome. Too sloppy, won't track straight, won't hold trim and drive's terribly. This is really bad for a new kit. That along with the Tamiya standard plastic bearings, pogo stick fake shocks and you have a kit that is just not good enough for today's market. With cheapo rtr's coming standard with bearings, oil shocks metal drivetrains etc, this just is not good enough. I love my Tamiyas, but this kit just looks all bad. I won't be touching anything on this chassis ever. Tamiya seems to have an old time doctrine of a "detailed model that you can drive" rather than a rc car first, and model second. The body kits are amazing, but underneath, not so much. Too bad. Those old TT02 kits not looking so bad anymore eh? I know I'll be keeping mine as I've solved all their shortcomings and turned them into great drivers. cheers.
MY WORD! THAT IS A SOFTLY SPRUNG CHASSIS! Why don't you fabricate an Austin Allegro body for it so to give extra realism? 😂😢🤣 Jokes aside, thanks for this video. I am sorry you got dragged over the coals during the building process. On the plus side, fine choice of a Calibra, another childhood favourite of mine. You are most correct. The real life DTM Calibra (Which was a James Bond special anyway.) and the short-lived Turbo Calibra rally car were 4WD, BUT there were historical precedents for rallying and circuit racing FWD Calibras in the 1992 WRC and 1993 Belgian Procar series respectively! Oh, when the Australians had a NASCAR series back in the 1990s they had a RWD V8 Holden Calibra NASCAR, but that would really be trivial going into that lol.
@@RCKickschannel I think Tamiya were trying to make a balance between a realistic model and something you could tune to a competitive level at the track and completely overdid it on the latter. Great model if you are a pro with all those components, not so good if you are an easygoing pensioner building a present for his grandchild. Still I look forward to seeing your completed Calibra option. Reminds me of the HKS JTCC Vectra of Anthony Reid that Tamiya produced around the same time as your Mondeo back in the mid-1990s!
This is just a continuation of the rubbish they put out with the MB-01. 30+ years of playing with m-chassis cars and I couldnt get it to work properly.
Terrible kit imo. I got one, half built in and then put it all in the bin. Taking up space with rubbish and a waste of money. Wasn’t overly impressed with the body so that went too 🤣 I also binned 4 fully boxed unused WlToys 2 brushless and 2 brushed that I brought just after lockdown (they were reviewed on the show). I was in a bad mood and wanted to free up the space so a nib Midnight Pumpkin an a few others went and will soon be in land fill 😂
Many yrs ago i owned a Tamiya grass hopper and then it had friction shocks and bushes for bearings, and now in 2024 nothing has changed with there products 👎, and yes that sloppy steering and terrible suspension spacing sucks i agree, Tamiya is losing it 👎
Not too harsh, I've always find the amount of slop in some RCs to be completely off putting. I wouldn't want 1mm of play in my real car why would I want it in a 1/10 car? That would be the equivalent of 10mm of play in a real car!
There is a video of it being converted to 4wd. I did the washer trick on the arms for the slop and it helps but still doesnt hide the fact this is an absolute dogs dinner of a kit.
I don't understand why you bothered with this one Gav. You were warned by the Patreon community. Others have built and reviewed this chassis, before you, we know it's c**p.
@RCKickschannel I know Tamiya.s wwre one of the first rc manufacturers to bring rcs to the people but I defo think their is better makes of rc models out there.
It still blows my mind that Tamiya makes such great looking bodies, but then you have four body posts sticking through it. They really need to get with it and come up with a clipless body mounts for all of their RCs. Love the channel, Gav!
Yep, it’s time to say goodbye to the posts. You can do it yourself with magnets but sometimes Tamiya cuts the mounting points out for you and that sucks.
@@RCKickschannelworst ever when you get a Tamiya kit with predrilled holes. They are ok to do that for buggies but nothing else
Kyosho is the same with the Fazer bodies. It seems Tamiya and Kyosho are stuck in the 1980's.
I agree mate , I bought their tg10 MK2 fn , because they said it fits 190mm touring bodies , shame the body posts were not correctly placed for those bodies , so now I have crooked shells , oh also , Tamiya ps paint is dissolved by fuel , not that they tell you this , a terrible product .
I must be the minority….I still like the body holes and posts. They are nostalgic 😅. A body clip option would be nice but let’s face it, it’s not happening. Tamiya is still using Philips head screws.
You're a more patient man than I, Gav. Lol! The slop of the BT-01 is a mountain I wasn't willing to climb, haha. Best of luck getting it all sorted pal. Hopefully you can dial it in nicely and help Tamiya save face on this release.
Oh Fil , I saw the title, and I already knew which it he was talking about.
It's not great is it. The slop is in ever direction LOL
@@RCKickschannel I've deemed it "the Slopmonster". 🤣🤣🤣
@@Paul__FC yep, and the MB-01 is even worse! 🤦😭
@poorboysrc that's that chassis off my list then haha.
I'm still leaning towards parting my bt01 out and doing my own 3d printed chassis using some of this for the parts I can't print strong enough.
That is one hard kit to defend. Good luck going straight.
As a calibra lover, they weren't all 2wd. The turbo was 4WD until the transfer box died.
LOL
Then you just used to pull fuse 19 and leave it fwd 😂 worst 4 wd system ever, had to replace all 4 tyres at one go 😮
I've built enough Tamiya's in 30 years to know slop is just something you have to deal with. I suppose its ok on the first 100, but not with modern releases and molding technology today.
This is worse IMO. Although there are issues on older kits such as Hotshot.
Let’s face it, if Tamiya didn’t design models with slop then we wouldn’t have an excuse to retreat to the hobby room and tinker or tune 😂
Are Tamiyas still made in Japan? There’s no way they should be releasing a chassis with that much slop. There’s tolerances and there’s tolerances!
I’ve not built mine yet… cheers for the cheat codes 😊
Philliphines mostly I think nowdays..
Check out poor boys rc for his build on this 👍🏻
My TT-02R and TT-02BR both say "Made in Japan."
I'm sure we have a saying for that! "Jack of all trades master of none" 😂
100%
The BT-01's little "brother" MB-01 got the same issues. A lot of slop that needs a lot of shims. The steering is a pain in the back, as it binds a lot under the body tower assembly thing. Getting it to run straight takes a lot of effort.
"Total Sloppy Mess" I was thinking Gav had documented a night out on the pull...... On a serious note, you absolutely were not too harsh! That thing is not even toy grade, and £160 to boot! How much time & money are they expecting us to invest to make it a quality chassis? On the plus side, sales of M5 washers have boomed.
No totally agree with you on the Quality should be a lot better for the price thanks for this great video too buddy 👍
Hi Gavin. Totally agree with you. Tamiya need to up there game, instead of relying on the brand. 🤐
Hopefully the new XM-01 chassis makes up for this one. It looks really promising and a suitable home for all those M bodies!
A baby XV02
Thank the RC lords Tower Hobbies took forever to mark my order as shipped, after watching all the videos from guys like you, I just went ahead and canceled it. Lol.
And people complained on the old TL01. Compared to this the TL01 is way better!
Not harsh at all. It looks like an over complicated TT02. Look at the BBX or the M07. Tamiya can do so much better. There is less slop in my Grasshopper
It's incredible how straight a hopper tracks even with bump-steer
I don't think you are being harsh at all Gavin. Tamiya has been dropping the ball far too much lately and for that price point... NOT acceptable! Great video as always.
The multi-purpose chassis molding would save a small amount of money in reducing the tooling cost. The longer production runs for each molding reduce the setup-time in the factory as well. Overall the benefit is a cost saving for the Tamiya factory, but result in inferior product in the hands of the consumer.
Yep, some good points.
Thanks for that info gav I was thinking of trying to do one of these but I'll give it a miss some people don't like the tt02 but I've done a few and really enjoy them so might do the supra tt02 instead great video can't wait to see the finished product look forward to the next one and love the hoody
I’d like to stick up for the BT01 a little bit, yes there’s a lot of slop and if we’re being honest it’s too much slop and I definitely agree friction shocks should be banned from Tamiya kits ;) however to fight its corner once I’d built mine and I even took it racing against tt02s and 01s it held its own rather well , mine was in mm configuration as the kit. I had no issues with it not tracking straight and it handled nicely with a set of racing tyres on our carpet track, how ever I did swap to oil shocks for a better drive. It’s a fun kit with plenty of options but it’s not perfect. I would say we are Brits and we like a good old whinge as well 😜
Good review Gavin! Thank you for being honest. It is a terrible chassis out of the box. It's nothing more than a toy.
Absolutely awful for a 2024 car, ball bearings and oil filled shocks are a must
Yep should be 100% stock by now
ball bearings are so inexpensive to buy in bulk amounts too, not sure what they're thinking with these bushing cars.
The problem with your shims for the axles is that their outer diameter is bigger than the inner part of the bearing (the actual moving part). You should replace them with smaller ones that match the diameter of the inner parts of the bearings or the bearings will grind on the shim.
I agree with the confusing manual. I've built at least 100 Tamiya, and this one stumped me for a good hour before I could work out how to change it from MR as the manual wants to FR as I want.
For the steering links slop, I find that 54869 long or 54868 medium open face adjusters fit the ball connectors way better than any previous adjusters from Tamiya,including the kit supplied parts. Like the TT01/02 arms that use the pillow ball setup , it seems the upright should be a tad shorter so the ball with the split in it can expand when tightend by the screw that holds it in place.Bit of a fiddle to be sure,in setting it correctly.
Not being too harsh. Tamiya could/should up their game so us fans can enjoy an updated model that we enjoyed years ago
As a retired Australian rc driver of 40 years experience I think you are being a bit hard on a new player in the market. This is their first plastic model they have never made an rc car before . I watched an advertisement 40 plus years ago. Quote “ first in quality around the world “
I like that you can swap it from FWD to RWD etc but it adds to the slop. IMO they should have released separate kits for each variation of them
This is terrible news. This BT-01 chassis IMO needed to succeed. Were sick of getting cool bodies on TT-02s, and this was the answer, and its arguable worse! Bushings and friction shocks in 2024 is a joke and I genuinely worry about Tamiya’s future considering how good “BangGood/AliExpress” stuff is these days.
I built a new old stock TA04 over Christmas which is what 20 years old? And its considerably better than most of Tamiya’s recent stuff :/
Yes, Tamiya could do better in a lot of their kits. But then they can't sell you option parts for more than you paid for the kit. They already know this.
Hey mate! The rear slop causing toe in under power i fixed by adding a tt-02 unishaft which is slightly longer which helps keep it toe'd in aswel as bottom metal friction balls.
Im also running a 4wd setup which is 100% better than any setup from standard. The suspension i added oil filled shocks which help alot and a tt02 shim kit. Good luck with the slop! I really hated this car but its really grown on me with abit of hop ups.
one thing that really annoyed me was the fact theres only 3 gearing setups :(
I also agree that tamiya could do better, with their years of model building and designing expertise, can't make a more precise vehicle, also, oil shock wouldn't break their bank at all
I can see a BT-01”R” coming in the fall or the holidays that addresses the slop issues 🤷🏻♂️
That would be a good move for Tamiya
Tamiya can make REALLY good chassis if they want to. But these toy grade chassis are just hurting their reputation.
You can understand slop on older/cheaper cars, but not on a modern vehicle with today's technology.
It's the TT-02 all over again. Wait for the BT-01 RRR-R X for a car that tracks :p
The toy rc truck I got at target for my little nephew has less slop and cost $50
I honestly think with this and the other chassis with the configurable wheelbase Tamiya is making them for more modelers.
Tamiya, do better. I am looking forward to seeing the completed car.
It’s going to look cool and hopefully I can dial out the slop
I've given up on tamiya after the new m series . The bbx is great. But when I see this kit, same as the m series, I saved my money. I now build scale trucks . More satisfying
I say your review is fair and honest
Tamiya has step off there game with this chassis conpair to bbx chassis which has a cracking good one
Disliking Tamiya new age plastic ball top pivot joints same use on the new mini chassis too
Tamiya main selling point is the licence brand body
To be honest, Tamiya has been pumping out sub par kits for a while now while re-re-re-releasing old kits to cash in on nostalgia sales… Also like you said, and I also believe, that it’s quite unlikely people will go through the hassle of reconfiguring the chassis once they’ve built it one way or the other. The fwd class is gaining popularity in recent times, as far as I know, there’s no rwd class really besides the rwd m06/8 in the m-chassis/mtc class, everything else is 4wd. So this ‘reconfigurable’ fwd/rwd(awd?) chassis has pretty much no valid reason to exist really… Sure you could say “it does it all”, yes but quite badly and unnecessarily cumbersome and complicated… I’d advise people to just get a chassis that specifically does either fwd, rwd or awd, but not one that could do it all. Plus it makes for a good excuse to buy more r/c cars right? 😅😋
I bet there'll still be apologists insisting it's just Tamiya being 'quirky'.
They'll insist we are reading instructions wrong , of course , because nothing ever gets done improperly right , it's absurd how do many refuse to admit sometimes quality is just low .
@rckicks I’m sure the Vauxhall Calibra Turbo 4x4 I had was four wheel drive🤔😆
Did Vauxhall sell more Turbo cars than standard FWD Calibra cars?
Tamiya your kits need to have hydrokinetic shocks not Pogo sticks. 🤔
Kits like this just re inforce my opinion that Tamiya has rapidly become the King of shelf Queens , good looking cars that do not measure up against other brands when it comes to any sort of road use , after so many years of production so much slop even in an entry level kit really is not acceptable .
You are right , I have 5heir tg10 , steering is so dysfunctional it won't go straight , the bodies don't fit right and the paint is utterly destroyed , first in quality right ? .
Imagine the disappoint of building this kit driving it, if anyone looking at buying this kit hadn't watched your video 😅.
I think Tamiya needs a wake up call overall. The whole not including bearings thing they need to know that we’d much rather pay $50 more to get bearings and oil shocks. Heck basic cva’s likely don’t cost much more than the friction ones to build. The tolerances are unforgivable. Just say it like it is. They’ve been making silly mistakes lately
Yes it is a sloppy jaloppy out of the box, I have shimmed up all the spots you pointed out and have some different ball cups and balls to reduce the toe slop. But yeah really Tamiya should have done better, I had to get it as being a Aussie I grew up with Front engine Rear wheel drive cars and have always wanted a RC chassis like that! However this was not how I thought it would be.
I have been running mine a bit now and having the rear wheel drive is fun, with a bit of setup work and oil shocks (I have been into RC and racing from the mid 80's) it handles OK and does what I want it to do. I feel this is possibly the replacement for the TT-02 as most of those bodies are rear wheel drive but the build was very challenging, I did mine FR out of the box and it was not fun, Just build it as the instruction say then change it. It is also a pain to work on and clean, The TT-02 is a much easier chassis to work on.
For me I like Tamiya but I only have one and not sure if I want more. The slop is an issue on my TT02. I have fixes it a bit but no bearing or good shocks and over priced hop ups, so on the fence about Tamiya and not sure which way to jump.
Yeah, thanks for the honest review. I will pass unless they release a FF body with it that I would like (Honda Integra, Peugeot 306 Rally, Renault Clio Williams, for example)
good luck to get that sorted, both the mb-01 and the bt-01 are really verry bad, and the strategy selling a car with so frustratingly bad parts that you can sell a lot of hop ups and after nothing helps a new car to the same customer is really verry disappointing for the customer.
The Opel Calibra V6 DTM was an 4x4 not an FWD
Someone didn’t watch the video 😜 Yep that’s correct it was modified and the turbo road car was also 4x4.
I agree with what you've said here, Tamiya really need to up their game. I like the look of the BT-01 chassis, it's definitely different, but that much slop, bushings instead of bearings, and friction shocks on a kit of this price is taking the p***. Shame really, seriously puts me off the BT-01.....
Tamiya have been doing this since the TT01 was parachuted onto the market. And it was fine at that point in time, but stacked up against other modern day level entry cars, its just poor form. It would take very little to re-engineer the offending parts in BT, TT and the MB, which I think Carl from Popalong discovered with his first few outlaps.
Stinker that one Gav!
Maybe if someone hasn't looked into it the use of some tt01 tt02 suspension parts the metal balls are a fit but what about the arms themselves. Tamiya has been known to redesign parts to fix issues or use existing parts to fix to fix issues. But let's wait on the 4wd version. I m sure there will be a fix.
i'll possibly save you some money, the metal suspention ball's will do nothing for you (atleast in terms of slop reduction), if you want to tighten it up, take out the screw, pop it appart and take a flat file and shorten the peg untill the suspention ball's edge is poking out when put back in place. for me this worked wonders on the rear....front is better but not as good as the rear...still figuring out why might need to file it down a bit more.
other then that the connecting pieces for the ball ends are indeed a major slop contributer, i found some from a TT-02 upgrade kit measured the hole on them 4.1mm, BT-01 stock is 4.3mm so now trying to figure out what that tighter connector is sold under (the number on the tree pointed to a TA-04 which...is not helpfull).
and on mine atleast the steering ...."unit" was not fine, where the ball bearings/bushings go i added a 0.2mm washer to the bottom to stabilize it (it was rocking back and forth) and the kingpins also rock back and forth but for me putting these in destroyed the screw pretty much, was able to take them out and am now waiting for low fricking kingpints mainly for the hex so i can shim that as well.
my theory is they hope people like this so they can offer a BT-01 Type S with better ball end connectors and a bag of shims.
and i tend to ace manual's i've never strugled with ikea furnature for example :P but damn did i have to quadruple check that i did things right... and then still use the 10mm pin where i shoulda used the 11.8mm pin >.>
got my bits and progress was made.
shims at the kingpin and ball bearing area of the steering got rid of the rocking when it moves...it is stiffer to move but still quite free and damn near no slop in the steering area.
i did find the ball end connectors they are just 50875's which is great...except that they are 18mm long and the bt-01's stock are 14mm long....time to whip out the file again :P
but essentially a 3s racing shim kit (0.1/0.15/0.2/0.25 and 0.3 shims 10 each) and some alternative ball end connectors and it can be quite slop free the only way i have now to reduce front slop is direct mounting the steering to the servo (no servo savor in play).
a strait build leaves it in a pretty shamefull place though just slop for days : /
Just leave the Supra body clear. The winner can paint it themselves. I would paint it some hypershift color, suits the Supra really well.
The Calibra's were not all FWD productioncars, they also made the Calibra Turbo, which was factory 4wd.
Depends if your transfer box was working.
looks cheap af !
But how does it drive with all the slop verses your fixes on it? You should build 2 cars, one fixed and one bone stock and record them side by side.
Hi Gavin just thinking do you have tamiya race truck wheels for the Euro race trucks and will they fit on the BT-01.😎😎😎
Thats all ive seen about this kit, slop slop sloppy lol. I think its shocking they even released it 😮
I'm a big Tamiya fan but how this got the sign off to manufacture I just don't know. The strange thing is the slop has nothing to do with the adjustable wheelbase or the motor placement or FWD / RWD options. This is basic arms, uprights, axels and steering slop.
@@RCKickschannel yeah, the bbx was a new desighn, and it was great. Im starting to love the Tamiya kits, more than Schumacher 🤔 i dont think Cecil wiuld be happy HA HA
There’s a saying that springs to mind, jack of all trades , master of none 😮😊
I thought the same thing
BT (Basic Trash) 01. Enough to put newbies off rc.
Im wondering if Tamiya are moving back to friction shocks for mass produced kits to keep restrictions at a minimum & be able to ship world wide easily & cheaper? Whenever i buy kits from Buyee, they remove any oils, as its restricted to ship internationally from Japan. So i wonder if Tamiya are removing oil to keep restrictions being placed 🤔 just a thought… but who knows with Tamiya.
Great video Gav, love these series of builds
Good point about the oil shipping from Japan. If that’s the case, it’s definitely ruining a lot of rc car kits! Back in the eighties & nineties, it was much harder to encounter friction shocks in a kit
@@MrGoat73 i agree, its meaning you have to spend more money in hopping the kit to something more stable, but then i guess thats an argument with Tamiya that will always go on. I mean, why plastic bushes? Bearings aren’t that expensive, but we still see the same plastic bushes from Tamiya 🤷🏻♂️ im assuming its just costs but who knows. Gotta love to hate them at times, lol
its more like a plan to sell hop up parts as you need oil dampers, steel balls, etc etc to run the car.
@@schuttrostig5729 Good point also! 😋
MST do a kit the TCR where you can have it FWD, MR or RR. It has open gears and springs in the hubs like an F1 rc car.
Yeah that things a hot mess that nobody asked for. They should've advanced the TT platform instead.
Tamiya doesn't fix any problems once released
I woould have expected a better quality and design from this car, considering right now a tt01e and tt02 are basically the best 1/10 tamiya starter and , at least in my country, u can get a tt02r for 113 euro and a tt02 with no electronic and body for 54 euro. This car, for what is supposed to do, is ajust an expensice shelf queen. A stonger motor or even a brushless one may make the car go in every direction or tremble like crazy.
tamiya did improve 30% ... on the production costs... 🤑
Tamiya deserves every bit of criticism on this one. This kit should never have been released with that slop.
Calibra Turbo was 4x4
V6 was fwd
@@carlwilliams3488 I think he's refering to the DTM car, not the normal street car.
Tamiya has become arrogant. I wouldn't buy any of their kits until I see ball bearings and oil dampers as standard on everything they make.
Slop will be a huge Issue the faster you go. It's not just Tamiya that has this issue. I've found a few high end manufacturers that release RTR's that have slop. My XRT has end float in the hubs. Took quite a lot of shimming to dial that out. In the end the truck is much nicer to drive and is more precise in it's handling. Something you want when an RC is approaching 100kph.
Surprisingly Arrma cars are pretty damn good out of the box.
This shouldn't be happening at all. Hub ball joints should be tight. I've seen well used RC's with less slop in them than this kit. A real shame.
It's all good for us seasoned RC'ers to shim all of this out but what if it's your first kit?
Well let's not really worry about the issues now. Tamiya seems to fix the problems. That's how we
Get the 02 version of any car Tamiya.
Tamiya should be ashamed now with bad construction/parts friction dampers and plastic bearings. There’s no room for second rate kit/parts and lack bearings proper suspension.
I'LL STICK WITH MY TT02 REAR WHEEL DRIVE ALPHA ROMEO ALL DAY FUN...I WON THE MY VERY FIRST RC RACE WITH THAT CAR
I liked Tamiya for many years. The shapes off the body’s are excellent. But the last years they are living from rere to rere to rere. And the quality off new cars and parts availability is going downhill fast. So i went to Traxxas.
Seems like Tamiya is falling off the quality bandwagon with this one no Gavin you are not being too harsh Tamiya should’ve stepped up the game
Got to agree love the concept of it but poor execution and definitely should come with oil shocks, maybe they will fix it with the BT-01 S/SR/concept ?
WTF !!!??????!!!
When I think I was almost picking two of them for me and my brother !!!!!
THANK YOU for showing us that !!!
What a piece of crap and I’m sorry to say this Tamiya, sincerely !!
What a cool concept, what a TERRIBLE realization.
Tamiya have make some of the smoothest plastic body oil filled dampers I’ve ever seen for decades now it boggles the mind they are starting to use these friction pogo sticks now. I wasn’t impressed when I initially saw this chassis definitely a hard pass for me I’m used to a little slop with the more basic Tamiya platforms but this is pretty bad especially now
That chassis is three steps back.
I don't think you're being too harsh. Many reviewers have stated the same outcome. Too sloppy, won't track straight, won't hold trim and drive's terribly. This is really bad for a new kit. That along with the Tamiya standard plastic bearings, pogo stick fake shocks and you have a kit that is just not good enough for today's market. With cheapo rtr's coming standard with bearings, oil shocks metal drivetrains etc, this just is not good enough. I love my Tamiyas, but this kit just looks all bad. I won't be touching anything on this chassis ever.
Tamiya seems to have an old time doctrine of a "detailed model that you can drive" rather than a rc car first, and model second. The body kits are amazing, but underneath, not so much. Too bad.
Those old TT02 kits not looking so bad anymore eh? I know I'll be keeping mine as I've solved all their shortcomings and turned them into great drivers.
cheers.
The MB01 was sloppy also in all the same areas
MY WORD! THAT IS A SOFTLY SPRUNG CHASSIS! Why don't you fabricate an Austin Allegro body for it so to give extra realism? 😂😢🤣 Jokes aside, thanks for this video. I am sorry you got dragged over the coals during the building process. On the plus side, fine choice of a Calibra, another childhood favourite of mine. You are most correct. The real life DTM Calibra (Which was a James Bond special anyway.) and the short-lived Turbo Calibra rally car were 4WD, BUT there were historical precedents for rallying and circuit racing FWD Calibras in the 1992 WRC and 1993 Belgian Procar series respectively! Oh, when the Australians had a NASCAR series back in the 1990s they had a RWD V8 Holden Calibra NASCAR, but that would really be trivial going into that lol.
LOL 👍🏻👍🏻
@@RCKickschannel I think Tamiya were trying to make a balance between a realistic model and something you could tune to a competitive level at the track and completely overdid it on the latter. Great model if you are a pro with all those components, not so good if you are an easygoing pensioner building a present for his grandchild. Still I look forward to seeing your completed Calibra option. Reminds me of the HKS JTCC Vectra of Anthony Reid that Tamiya produced around the same time as your Mondeo back in the mid-1990s!
I was really disappointed with the quality and slop when I built a TT-02 having built a TA-01 and TA-03F in the 90s. This looks even worse!
Yep 100% The FF I built last week was a better chassis. 🤯
As Paul Calf would say,
BT-01?
Bag of Shite!
Oh, and the Calibra Turbo road car was 4x4.
So there.
This is just a continuation of the rubbish they put out with the MB-01. 30+ years of playing with m-chassis cars and I couldnt get it to work properly.
Terrible kit imo. I got one, half built in and then put it all in the bin. Taking up space with rubbish and a waste of money. Wasn’t overly impressed with the body so that went too 🤣 I also binned 4 fully boxed unused WlToys 2 brushless and 2 brushed that I brought just after lockdown (they were reviewed on the show). I was in a bad mood and wanted to free up the space so a nib Midnight Pumpkin an a few others went and will soon be in land fill 😂
😱
Many yrs ago i owned a Tamiya grass hopper and then it had friction shocks and bushes for bearings, and now in 2024 nothing has changed with there products 👎, and yes that sloppy steering and terrible suspension spacing sucks i agree, Tamiya is losing it 👎
Not too harsh, I've always find the amount of slop in some RCs to be completely off putting. I wouldn't want 1mm of play in my real car why would I want it in a 1/10 car? That would be the equivalent of 10mm of play in a real car!
There is a video of it being converted to 4wd.
I did the washer trick on the arms for the slop and it helps but still doesnt hide the fact this is an absolute dogs dinner of a kit.
Cool
I don't understand why you bothered with this one Gav. You were warned by the Patreon community. Others have built and reviewed this chassis, before you, we know it's c**p.
Disappointing design quality.
Especially when the vintage FF01 is so much better
That is poor, shouldnt be like that with a new release Tamiya quality is slipping. Reminds me of a frog or brat front end they got loads if slop 😢
I've never seen what the fascination is with Tamiya.s. I think the money you pay for them, you could buy a way better rc car,buggy,truck.
I have to agree with you on this kit and a few others for sure.
@RCKickschannel I know Tamiya.s wwre one of the first rc manufacturers to bring rcs to the people but I defo think their is better makes of rc models out there.
Wow. What a shame that this is so poorly made. I would expect this from stuff ordered from banggood, but not Tamiya.
It’s a really terrible chassis. 😢 I spent time and moneysssss to fix mine 👎