Square TA05 - Initial Impressions

I haven't spent too much time behind the wheel of this conversion yet, but it already (with very little tuning) feels as good as, if not better than, my main TA05 drifter. Here are some of my first impressions:

• The chassis has plenty of steering without feeling like it's oversteering (I'm not really sure if that makes sense). It doesn't need a lot of steering input to initiate drifts, and once you set your angle it's happy to stay pointing where you want it.
• I've tested it with two different batteries (a lightweight 2000mAh and a heavier 3600mAh), and it felt much better with the 3600. With the 2000, it felt as if there wasn't enough weight in the rear to keep it sideways, and the car wanted to straighten out on long sweepers. With the 3600, the car was still plenty responsive, and long drifts were much easier to maintain. The chassis does have two sets of mounting holes for the battery; the standard location (which I'm using now), and one that moves the battery 10mm closer the rear diff (which I still haven't tested). The rear location should better suit lightweight batteries.

Here are a couple of things I don't like:

• The motor is completely unprotected and sticks out about 12mm from the chassis. This isn't a big deal for me (I still run cheap brushed motors ^_^) but might cause some concern for those who run brushless motors.
• I don't generally have a problem with Phillips head screws, but I really don't like using them on the motor mounts. I'll be replacing them in the very near future with some quality hex screws.

A few closeups of the completed chassis:

Yokomo Drift Package Plus

I finished building a Yokomo Drift Package Plus recently. The kit is based on the standard Drift Package and also includes the following upgrades:
- full ball bearings
- aluminum threaded dampers
- universals for the front wheels
- blue main drive shaft
- spur/pinion gear cover
I have to say it was nice building a kit that had the parts for each step bagged together instead of having to look through multiple bags for a particular step. It was also nice of Yokomo to include a few spares of parts that are prone to breaking (e.g. solid axles). One small problem I have with the kit is that the motor mount hole is too small to fit Tamiya stock motors and Tamiya Sport Tuned 23turn motors (one of my favorites).