Last weekend I got out with my Team Associated TC7.2 for the first run and I had a blast!

I haven’t been running anything’s since the Japanese Nationals last summer so I wasn’t sure if I still would be able to drive properly and actually feel and test what I need to do.
Turned out that I am still doing fine :)

I was very happy with the performance out of the box I must admit. I have driven many new cars and very often its disappointing or you feel the potential but as well the amount of work needed to unleash the potential.
Without trying to sound to biased and over optimistic I am very happy with the initial feeling of my TC7.2.
The car showed great stability and overall balance both on and off power.
It responds well to setup changes which is essential for development of course.
To really see the true speed I need to wait until we have been doing some races but again, initial testing is promising.

My starting setup was a mixture of input I have gotten from Team Associated drivers worldwide with some of my own experience as well.
The two main differences to stock setup are:
1. Wider front. I want to have a smooth, easy car to drive and with the wider front I get this. Some don’t want to because they feel that they might lose steering but in my experience, especially on carpet, smooth is always fast. Additionally is that the care is less prone to traction rolling or flipping when touching curbs.
2. Longer rear camber link. Standard setup is 2 mm shims front as well as rear. However I use 1 mm rear only making the camber link longer. This increases rear grip, corner speed but mainly the overall balance is just better.

Some of the other minor things I did with my car to increase overall performance.

I used a 1 mm shim between the shock tower and bulkhead bearing holder.
This adds just a tad of flex in the shock tower and generates a little more overall grip to the car.
I use this front as well as in the rear.

I have generally gotten many questions about shock shims on the A-arm and shock tower and what to do and why.

I normally always mount my shocks 90 degree to the A-arms looking at it from the side.
This way the shock works the most efficient.
So try to use shims to get that angle.
Again, 90 degree to the A-arm which is not always the same as 90 degree to the shock tower if you are running eg. Anti dive in the front or anti squat in the rear.

I will continue doing my best developing the car and keeping you up to date with my findings.

Source:

A. Myberg