Tamiya chassis confusion

[1911Colt]

What is the hierarchy of Tamiya chassis? I am interested in the road/rally cars. I noticed on Amain that prices are all over the place, with some as low as $110 with motor and ESC. The TT02 is sometimes listed as a road car and sometimes as a rally.

Are they all just plasti-crap? Any good ones? Any to avoid?

TT01
TT02
M05
M06
Xv01
Xv02

[Frankentruck]

It looks like the best ones are TRFxxx, TAxx, TBxx chassis kits.

[GoMachV]

TT series are as basic as it gets. Friction shocks, non adjustable suspsension, lots of plastic. These are 4wd. On road use or very light rally use.

The M series are smaller. These would be your vw’s, Escorts and such that are smaller in real life. Chassis are still really basic and imo fairly boring. These are front or rear wheel drive, not awd. On road use.

The XV are a more interesting chassis. More going on, oil shocks, etc. 4wd. More ground clearance. Mud guards. Light off road/rally.

I have a MF-01 VW which is 4wd M style chassis (smaller). It was a more fun build with more interesting design and adjustability. It was bought as a rally but I lowered it into an onroad setup.

First thing to figure out is what you are seeking. Do you want a really solid basher or something fun to build. Something realistic or don’t care about the body. 4wd or 2wd. Then you can narrow it down.

[Incredible_Serious]

To expand on @GoMachV's pretty thorough details, including what @Frankentruck has mentioned.... mind you, this is all off the top of my head.

Basic 4WD touring chassis list and history:
TA Series touring cars: Original onroad / light rally 4WD chassis, began with shaft, but then updated to belt drive. Started the scale touring explosion with the TA-01 and TA-02 series vehicles (shaft-drive), before switching over to belt drive with the TA-03 (loved by old-skool drifters). Currently up to TA-08.
TB Series touring cars: Onroad / rally 4WD chassis, with shaft drive. Started with the TB-01 vehicles. Currently up to TB-05. TB-01 was rally-oriented, with dust shields and chunky plastics, but TB-02 onwards more onroad.

TRF4xx Series cars: Race-inspired belt drive 4WD touring chassis, with high specification and price.
TB Evo xx Series cars: Race-inspired shaft drive 4WD touring chassis, again with high specification and price.

TL-01: Entry-level shaft drive 4WD platform. Good for mounting realistic bodies. Can be made into a rugged rally car with a bit of work. One-off chassis, no series (i.e. no TL-02). Also available as a wide-arm buggy chassis (TL-01B).
TT Series touring cars: Entry level touring / light rally 4WD chassis, with shaft drive. Started with the TT-01 vehicles. Currently up to TT-02. Any number of Subaru WRX rally car releases. Also available as a wide-arm buggy (TT-02B) and truck (TT-02T).

XV Series rally cars: Rugged rally 4WD sedan chassis, with beltdrive. Started with the XV-01 vehicles, and progressed to the XV-02. High specification chassis.


Front Wheel Drive Touring: Also produced were a range of FF-designated front wheel drive touring cars, beginning with the FF-01. Currently up to the FF-04 (I think), although I'm not up with the later versions of this line.
FF-01 was a specially-produced FWD adaption of the TA-02 series vehicles, using the same chassis tub and many parts, but with a unique front gearbox and slave rear end.
FF-02 was a the chassis from the M03 FWD M-chassis vehicle, lengthened with a chassis extension piece to make 257mm track, and with arms from the TL-01 to give 190mm track.
From FF-03 onwards, became a unique FWD chassis vehicle (i.e. not a conversion of an existing chassis)*.
* I think...


M-chassis variants: smaller chassis vehicles, meant to provide scale layouts and sizes. For the 2WD models, odd numbers (i.e. M-05) mean front wheel drive, and even numbers (M-02) mean rear wheel drive.
Releases generally paired as a FWD / RWD pair, sharing parts across the two vehicles, although this has become less and less over time. Early ones could have very basic entry-level specification i.e. no oil shocks.
Hop-ups for these are an industry unto themselves.... especially for the later models.
M-01 / M-02 shared the most parts, as the chassis was (generally-speaking) merely reversed to change the drive end (not quite that simple, but close).
M-03 / M-04 shared some parts, but M-03 shone as a fun race chassis, whereas M-04 was a bit meh.
M-05 / M-06 was a new generation, sharing even less parts. M-05 proved to be (arguably) an even better race chassis than the M-03. M-06 was good for displaying a nice RWD body
M-07 / M-08 became more race-oriented chassis, although could be still fairly basic in kit form.


The Weird Ones: As well as higher-spec kits along the range (e.g. TA-05MS, M-03R, TB-04 PRO, etc.), there were a few 'specials' along the way.

TA-05 MFour: A 4WD M-chassis sized vehicle, based on the belt-drive TA-05 layout but with a smaller track and wheelbase. One only model, quite rare.

MF-01X: An interesting, current, shaft drive 4WD platform. Very much a scaled-down version of the TL-01 chassis, with the same layout (prop shaft along the right hand side of the chassis) and gear set, but with M-05 arms. Weirdly (from a scale perspective), released as a rally VW Beetle and a Mk2 Ford Escort - both RWD vehicles! Also released as a Suzuki Jimny and a Merc G320 Cabrio.

TC-01: Another current shaft-driven 4WD chassis, like a parts bin special of ideas from the recent range of touring cars, with a nod back to the F201 4WD F1 model from 2002. Can be built as a touring or formula car, with body mount and bumper changes.


Not considered:
All the Formula 1 models (i.e. F103 or F104, etc.)
The Group C chassis (i.e. Ferrari F40)
The F201 4WD F1 chassis
The RM-01 1:12 re-release chassis


Hope this helps!

Alex

[GoMachV]

TA Series touring cars: Original onroad / light rally 4WD chassis, with belt drive. Started the scale touring explosion with the TA-01 and TA-02 series vehicles.

But the 01 and 02 were shaft drive
02 still sold in a rere opel calibra and as a short wheelbase Porsche although I think that one is gone again

[Incredible_Serious]

TA Series touring cars: Original onroad / light rally 4WD chassis, with belt drive. Started the scale touring explosion with the TA-01 and TA-02 series vehicles.

But the 01 and 02 were shaft drive
02 still sold in a rere opel calibra and as a short wheelbase Porsche although I think that one is gone again

Dammit.... screwed the pooch yet again....

Will fix up that glaringly-stinky mistake.

[EvolutionRevolution]

To expand on @ GoMachV's pretty thorough details, including what @ Frankentruck has mentioned.... mind you, this is all off the top of my head.

Basic 4WD touring chassis list and history:
TA Series touring cars: Original onroad / light rally 4WD chassis, began with shaft, but then updated to belt drive. Started the scale touring explosion with the TA-01 and TA-02 series vehicles (shaft-drive), before switching over to belt drive with the TA-03 (loved by old-skool drifters). Currently up to TA-08.

TA01 basically is a narrow DF-01 buggy.

M-chassis variants: smaller chassis vehicles, meant to provide scale layouts and sizes. For the 2WD models, odd numbers (i.e. M-05) mean front wheel drive, and even numbers (M-02) mean rear wheel drive.
Releases generally paired as a FWD / RWD pair, sharing parts across the two vehicles, although this has become less and less over time. Early ones could have very basic entry-level specification i.e. no oil shocks.
Hop-ups for these are an industry unto themselves.... especially for the later models.

The earlier models also got a ton of hop-ups from Japanese manufacturers like Tech, Cross, Tobee, Kose..., which sometimes basically replaced the whole car or made it possible to build a M-chassis without using any original parts RC Car Action even had a special article about it.