Over the xmas break i decided to invest in another RC toy. I love my t-maxx truck but it’s noisy, messy and generally costs a lot to keep it running. So, i thought i might have a go at an electric car and one step more – a drifter. I managed to pick up a brand new Tamiya TT-01 chassis off ebay for about $100. Throw in an ESC, steering servo, RX and a battery and you have a running car. After that just bolt on some drift wheels and you’re up and drifting.
The advantage i saw with drifing is it’s low speed. Low speed = less damage when you hit something = cheaper to run. The other advantage is that you can drift with a real stock crapper, there is no need to do untold amount of upgrades to get it to drift well. The stock Mabuchi 540 motor does the job fine and there is not a lot of advantage in going for more speed. Drifting needs torque and not speed – I’ts more about driver skill than how many $$ the person has spent on the car. There are some minor upgrades that come in handy however, notably the shock absorbers. On the stock TT-01 they are just friction types. I swapped these for some oil filled dampeners and this has made a significant improvement to drifting. You also really need to lock both front and rear diffs (nothing a bit of knead-it can’t handle)
Unfortunately the drift scene seems to have almost depleted totally from what it used to be at Hobby Habit here in South Australia. I remember going to a ‘drift night’ there a couple of years back and there was probably about 30 cars. It was awesome. Now, unfortunately there are only about 5 compeditors in the drifing and the drift meet is now only part of thier friday night Hyper10 Racing as a time based event wich is somewhat pointless for a drifing comp. It’s still great to go there in practice time for some fun though.
Tim and I went there a few times and it was soon apparent to Tim that he needed one too so he bought one not long after i did. It’s very challenging but even more fun….
If anyone in the southern adelaide suburbs is interested in getting into drifting and/or would like to meet up for some drifting, post a comment here
