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I Want To Make My Car Lighter

Comments: I have a Tamiya TA03 Audi, and I was wondering if you could tell me a few things. First, I was wondering how fast the original motor was. And second, is there anything that I can do to make the car a little bit lighter? I look at the tub base and realize that it's a lot of dead weight. Is there anything I can do about this? I have also been reading other posts, etc. and all other drivers of this type of car recommend that the back be heavier than the front. What I'm wondering is how they got it that was, considering the fact that the motor is in the front.

Thanx

Response: Your first question is a tough one. I don't really know how fast your car will go with the stock motor but I would imagine about 20 mph.

Reducing the weight of your car would be a great benefit to performance. You must first be sure that you have made the other important upgrades such as a set of ball bearings and an electronic speed control. If you have, than great, let's take off some weight.

First things first, do now remove any material from your stock chassis (or any other components on the car). Although it will reduce weight, it will also reduce the strength of the components. This may not sound like a big deal if you don't crash but there is more to it than just parts breakage. If you remove too much material from your cars components, they will flex and completely change the handling of the car. It will drive erratically and it will be very difficult to make consistently good setups and run consistently fast laps at the track. A good chassis is a stiff chassis (not just your chassis, most of the cars components work better when they are stiff. This is why most manufacturers are using space age composites such as fiber resin and graphite for car components). So now what? If you want to reduce the weight of your car you must spend cash. Look for hop ups such as graphite components (chassis and shock towers), also look for titanium components (turnbuckles and hingepins), and aluminum parts (screw sets).

Try to avoid useless metal upgrades such as aluminum suspension arms or hubs. They really don't add anything to the performance of the car, they just look cool. If this is what you want, then do it but if all out performance is what you want, avoid replacing your plastic components with metal ones (some upgrades are useful. You must ask yourself if an upgrade was designed for looks or performance). As I said earlier, make sure you have things like bearings and an electronic speed control before you spend money on weight reducing parts. You will notice a much larger increase in performance with these basic upgrades than you will by taking an ounce or two off of your vehicle.

As for your last question, this is an easy one. Tamiya makes two TA03's, one has the motor mounted in the rear of the car and the other has the motor mounted in the front of the car. Your motor is in the front, the people giving the advice probably have their motors mounted in the rear.

Let's take off a few tenths per lap,

"PRO"
Pro Racer Secrets