Tamiya TA04 Chassis

Summary

• Galleries: View
• Introduced: 2000
• Scale: 1/10

• Primary use: Onroad
• Config:MA
• Driveline: Belt

• Body: Polycarbonate
• Susp. front: Wishbone
• Susp. rear: Wishbone

The TA04 chassis was a true gift to the sedan "club racers" of the world. It is, quite literally, an inexpensive spin-off of Tamiya's first purpose-built racing sedan, the highly successful high-end TRF414 series. It benefits from the innovative and very efficient 2-belt drivetrain layout and all versions had adjustable shock angles, camber, and roll centers. This vehicle is a giant leap in performance design over its predecessor, the TA03. The 'S' in TA04-S stood for "Sport," not the typical "Short wheelbase," and this model differred from the base TA04 in the inclusion of ball bearings and turnbuckle style camber & steering linkages. The short wheelbase version was called the TA04-SS and was a mere 10mm less in length by virtue of offset a-arms; the chassis was unchanged. The high-end TA04-R included a stiffer carbon fiber-reinforced main chassis tub & uprights, a woven carbon upper deck, new fine-toothed 0.4 module spur & pinion gears, ball diffs, TRF aluminum dampers, a stiff spring set, sway bars, and a host of useful aluminum bits.

Pros: Very competitive design taken directly from the TRF414, but at a much lower price; very adjustable Cons: Limited space to mount electronics