Review: Tamiya TC-01 Formula E GEN2 Car

Tamiya’s new Formula E car is something no one saw coming – a completely new car with an interesting TC-01 platform and incredibly detailed Formula E body set. It utilizes a shaft-driven 4WD setup on a unique chassis that looks like it takes some styling cues from the TA07, so there should be some great performance coming from this ride.

I got my hands on a pre-release sample and am certainly looking forward to building (and driving it), so let’s take a deep dive into what comes in the box, the entire build and, of course, my thoughts on its performance at the track!

Main Features

1. The first you notice (ouside of the body – that in a bit) is the unique, single piece lower chassis, ummm, plate. While it is a plate, it also features monocoque-style reinforcement ribs that run from the front to the back. These ribs create a very stiff starting point for the narrow bottom plate while also allowing just the right amount of space for the suspension and electronics mounting. The chassis also touts an amazingly-low stance, keeping everything tight inside for a seriously low CoG – the sideview of this car is quite amazing. This design is very much reminiscent of Tamiya’s TA07 setup.

2. Looking at the suspension, all I can think of is the F201 – inboard, laydown shocks that rock on plastic cantilevers. The front/rear double-wishbone front suspension features long, thin arms that attach inboard of the body. Spacers can be adjusted to modify tuning items like camber and toe angle, however I didn’t find that to be all that easy to change – more on that in a bit as well. The included shocks use plastic bodies and, unfortunately, pre-load clips. A bit of a bummer – plastic threaded bodies would have been a better choice in my opinion. Finally, both the front and rear use the same uprights, giving you the option to adjust toe via the included turnbuckles.

3. The drivetrain is a standard 4WD setup with front and rear, fluid-filled gear differentials that are pulled from the TB-05. They fit into newly-molded gearbox halves and use a equal-length dogbone to tie them to the blue aluminum, center motor plate. Equal-length dogbone also reach out to the axles, all supported by a set of ball bearings – thank you Tamiya for that! The central motor mount is relatively simple as well and uses a spur gear setup with a standardized 4-point mounting system, meaning you can change the gear out to 32P, 48P or 64P! A large molded cover helps keep everything debris-free.

4. The steering system is the usual setup – dual molded, bearing-supported bellcranks to a molded drag link, ball cups and tierods out to the steering blocks. Tamiya does offer an aluminum drag link option (which I installed) but found that, after only ONE good hit, it bent pretty easily – I think the aluminum is a bit too soft. Good thing I brought the stock plastic piece. In my opinion, I’d stick with that for now.

5. The bodywork is, well, a work of art! Tamiya nailed the multi-piece polycarbonate pull! You get the main body, upper and lower rear wing, side pod panels, front fender pieces, helmet and halo. Sure, it sounds like alot, but just wait until you have to cut out areas of the main body!!! It’s a bit tedious, to be honest, but the final product, especially after you sticker it up, looks absolutely stunning!

The wheels and tires, well, that’s the only place I feel the TC-01 falls a little flat. The wheels are similar, but not the same, and instead of a decent set of rubber, their goes-in-everything treaded tires got the call. Again, the wheels I can live with but the tires are just going to kill any performance right out of the box. That being said, I’m making my runs with a set of pre-mounted USGT tires. I figure – what the hey – they’re long-lasting and have great grip.

Unboxing Video

Performance

While I’m always excited to try a new car, I’m always very careful about chatting it up too much prior to driving it. When I arrived at Cal Raceway, a crowd started forming immediately – the unique design is kind of hard to miss.

After everyone was done man-handling it, it was time to drop it on the asphalt and see what kind of performance this thing had!

Speed
In stock form it was, well, just ok. I was a bit undergeared but ran the entire first pack as it was (stock kit 24/63T gearing). This actually made the shake down run much easier to manage, but decided it needed a few more teeth on the motor, and here is where I ran into the first issue. To change (or even adjust) the gears, it requires the removal of the entire center motor mount. Not hard, but I had to solder off (and back on) the motor wires for this process. Once the gearing was changed (and the car back together), the following drive was MUCH better – solid speeds down the straight with good pick up in the infield. This is not a TT-02 level vehicle, but a proper high-end-ish racer, so handling power should not be too much of an issue, no matter how big you go.

Handling
The TC-01 is a decent handling car, but the one thing that got me was the laydown, rocker-arm suspension. Although the handling was good, I wanted more, and knowing how to tune this car soon became very confusing. Tamiya gives you everything you need, it just takes a different tuning ‘thought’. Your options are – 1) Find a rocker-arm car online and see how they tuned it, or 2) just start tweaking things and take notes. That latter is the path I chose and, although it was a bit long and tedious, I did manage to get the TC-01 to do some respecible lap times. One of the biggest issues I found was the lack of rear downforce from the Formula E body – it’s cool looking, but not very performance oriented. As a comparison, I happened to bring along a LMP body to try and that was MUCH better. I’m going to keep at the Formula E body testing, though – I spent WAY to much time on that body to give up so easily.

Note: The instruction manual actually has a section in the back (Page 24) that explains how to mount the Tamiya TS050 Hybrid body set on the TC-01. All the parts to do so are also included – a great ‘extra’ value for this car!

Suspension
The suspension system on the TC-01 works as advertised – the shocks, rocker-arm setup and double-wishbone upper/lower arms all work flawlessly. There’s plenty of room for tuning – Camber, Toe, Roll Centers, Ride Height and Shock Rebound – all are just a few seconds away. Sort of. Camber is a most tricky (especially if you have chubby fingers – ask me how I know). There’s also lots of room for upgrades – aluminum shocks, spring sets, aluminum rocker arms, aluminum arm mounts, anti-roll bars, chassis stiffeners – the list is long. In my opinion, your biggest upgrade is learning how to tune this suspension. Once you grasp that, you’re going to be miles ahead of those throwing money at this car.

Durability
In stock form, it’s quite durable. The front bumper is huge, not only to help protect your costly body (both in money and time), but it also helps keep the front suspension safe. The chassis is braced very well – there’s little to no flex in it with all the bracing attached. Drivetrain – wonderful. I opted to install a 48P spur gear and it survived quite a few battery packs – still going strong. All 6 drive bones are solid as well. Unless you do something very wrong, this car should hold up to almost all track-duty chores you throw at it.

Additional Notes
• Because I was trying to fine-tune the gearing, I kept having to unsolder the motor wires often. To fix that, I soldered (on to the motor) a set of hollow 4mm battery connectors, then added the 4mm bullet connector to the ESC wires. Now, to change gearing, I simply unplugged the wires and removed the motor mount – easy peasy!

• The battery tray accepts most stick pack batteries, but I found that the ProTek shotgun LiPo to work best. It’s cylinder-size allows easy in-and-out and there’s plenty of power delivered thanks to its HV status.

• I tried a few option parts out – aluminum steering, aluminum rocker arms, aluminum shocks and carbon chassis stiffeners. I would say no to the steering (keep the plastic) and no to the carbon stiffeners, especially if you’re running the Formula E bodyset. Because of the lack of rear downforce on the body, you’ll want the chassis to flex a little bit. In fact, I ended up running without the rear chassis braces altogether. There’s also a spool available for those that like the feel of that over an oil-filled front differential.

VIDEOS

PERFORMANCE AND GEAR CHANGING TIPS

GALLERY

LINKS

Tamiya, tamiyausa.com
Futaba, futabausa.com
ProTek, amainhobbies.com/protek
Reedy, associatedelectrics.com/reedy