What good does it do you to spend a bunch of money on a Rally RC car such as the Tamyia DF03-RA Series when you can’t drive them in conditions that make Rally racing so much fun.

Yes we are taking about driving our precious RC Car in the mud, rain and through big puddles of water. We don’t have snow where I live but I would love to do that too (Sweden Rally anyone).

The big problem is that the tub of the rc car will fill up with a bunch of dirt and water in no time at all. On my backyard track I have to dump out the car after 5 laps because it is filled up with dirt. I initially tried building my own electronics dirt and splash cover but results where less than stellar. The big question you may ask is why not use the Tamiya “Dark Impact” body as cover. Well A) I did not know about it initially – although a quick google search would have revealed it and B) once I did find out I was simply to cheap to blow $35 bugs on a piece of plastic. Needless to say I finally got over myself and ordered one on Ebay.

I read a bunch reviews regarding the Dark Impact Buggy and quickly learned that the number one complained was that the car fills up with dirt – which told me I can’t just cut along the lines that Tamiya suggest to trim the body to fit. I carefully cut away one plastic piece at a time to make sure I cover more open spaces compared to Tamiya suggestions.

Picture below: Test driving the Dust and Dirt Cover based on the Dark Impact body:

One concern is of course heat. Having a tight fitting body is awesome  – but that also means that there is zero airflow inside the body. People with high performance brushless setups will run into trouble here. Thank goodness I flooded mu Brushless setup and only have the stock 520 motor and electronic speed controller (ESC). Which means heat is no problem when I let my car cool down every 5 laps. 5 laps turns out to be a good number to run on my track just feels right to do five laps then pause look at lap times and go again. A bit like Rallycross events if you will.

Anyway, so the reviews talk about dirt getting still in, which meant I have to do a bit extra trickery to keep my car “clean” on the inside. One thing I did was fill the sidepods with styrofoam – this will prevent any water that makes it in from getting trapped. The white styrofoam is also good fro quick inspection through the window of the car – cause it is white.

No most expensive part in my receiver – so I really wanted to get it out of harms way. I ended up mounting it to the roof of the Dark Impact body inside its very own plastic cover. By the way the plastic covering the ESC comes from a jewelery box from HotTopics (thank god for girl friends and wifes). One concern was that the cables are getting destroyed by the exposed driveshaft. What I did is simply mount a piece of plastic and screwed it into the original antenna mount.

The body itself is screwed onto the tub. I know that a lot of people use Velcro  – which I am sure works fine. But I liked the idea of nuts and bolts seemed cleaner, stronger and easier in the long run. By the way the nuts are held on the inside with hotglue in position.

Here is a picture showing the styrofoam, ESC mount and cover as well as driveshaft prtection:

Turns out it is a lot of fun to drive the Tamiya Df03RA chassis with just the Dark Impact cover. Less weight and a lower center of gravity make for fun and exiting driving. However nothing beats the look and size of the Subaru Cover on top of it. So I guess it is performance versus looks. Just like in the real world. I will post lap times comparing the Dark Impact with rear Wing, without rear Wing and of course with the Subaru body.

Here is how the Dark Impact body looks inside the Subaru body. I was surprised just how small it is.

(too bad I misspelled Tamiya…)