I'll start off with my open class 201. The biggest upgrades thus far have been the addition of Tamiya's new slipper plates (#84297) which are vented for additional cooling. In testing these provided a slight decrease in temp (3-5*F). They are further enhanced by venting the front and rear of the gear cover which dropped temps 10-12*F. The earlier slipper disks had prompted me to manufacture a vented gear cover which we put on hold until I was able to get testing done on the 84297's. The vented cover still needs to be built and as of this writing is being done. (and it has much needed clearance to run large pinion gears for 17.5)

The other upgrade has been the use of part #51504. This is the new rear upright that can be found on the XV-01 rally car. the hub is a direct bolt on but does require a 5x13mm outer bearing like you find on the TRF aluminum hub upgrades. It provides a huge amount of camber link positions and being plastic is more forgiving to axles when landing off axis. :) This part however is a little soft and ball studs can pull out especially when used in an Open class buggy. I suggest a few 3x5mm set screws in the neighboring holes to help your ball stud to remain in place.

Something else that we finally have done is test the DN-01 (Zahhak) body back to back with the stock 201 body. Three test drivers whom have different driving skill levels unanimously agreed that the DN-01 body had more stability, steering and yielded lower average lap times than the std 201 body.

Also tested on the "Track'ster" it received the same treatments as above minus the slipper plates. That's because since day one the "Track'ster" never had a slipper clutch...... You read that correctly. It is as direct drive as a Rough Rider (or Buggy Champ as they are now called). When I set out to build the Track'ster THE number one item on the list was weight reduction. The end result was a 17.5 NT buggy that weighed 1427g! Yes 1-4-2-7 grams. 72 grams below the recognized limit. All done with off the shelf Tamiya parts. The three biggest weight savers were the titanium screw kit -19.1g. Next was the DN-01 body -12g. The next was removing the slipper -9.9g which is also nearly 10g of rotating weight. Speaking of weight, you will have to "wait" until my next blog for the tranny build. This is where I "shed" some "light" on rotating weight. ;)