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The TT-02 is probably the most common entry level touring car chassis on the market. Pretty much every body these days seems to be available on the TT-02, and a quick search shows that it has been used in dozens of models already, and that's not even including the drift variant. The TT-02B is a buggy version which uses longer suspension arms for a wider track width and taller shocks for more suspension travel. This version was available as the Dual Ridge, the Neo Scorcher, and the Plasma Edge. It is still very much an entry level kit though, as evidenced by the fact that the 57987 version is called the "Chassis First Try Kit". The TT-02B MS version is intended to be the other end of the spectrum. "MS" stands for "Satoshi Maezumi", one of Tamiya's team drivers, and this version has lots of upgrade options and Maezumi-san's pink, white, and blue paint scheme. This was released as a limited edition chassis kit without tires and using the Dual Ridge body. The MS version costs a lot more than a regular TT-02B, but when you consider that it comes with about $230 of upgrades in the box, it is a pretty good deal. I got an even better deal because I got a copy already built which had been modified. It wasn't well advertised so I didn't really know what was included until I got it apart, but I found another $250 of upgrades in my box. I added a few more things of my own and the result is a pretty ultimate TT-02B.

The TT-02B chassis uses a plastic bathtub and pretty much plastic everything else. Even the gears, drive cups, dogbones, and suspension links are plastic. Everything is fixed length and nothing is adjustable. It is a 4WD, shaft drive model with four wheel, double wishbone independent suspension. The MS version changes out the important drive cup and axle parts with steel, and adds a few aluminum bits as well. My previous owner took it further and added aluminum shocks and a Sport Tuned motor. I added some aluminum steering parts and ended up with a really great chassis. This thing drives better than an entry level chassis has any right to. I'm not sure I would recommend sinking this much money into one if starting from scratch, but since I got almost everything in the box I got really lucky.

Here is the way I received the kit. It was clear at first glance that it had been modified from the box standard as evidenced by the blue chassis tray and the aluminum shocks. It was also clear that the model had been built but never run. Everything was absolutely pristine and new, and the body had never been painted nor the stickers applied. The first thing I did was to tear down the whole thing and inventory all the parts to understand what I had. It turned out that this TT-02B had been significantly upgraded beyond the already fancy MS version. There are hardly any stock TT-02 parts remaining.
I was lucky enough to get the original box and instructions even though this model was already built. I like these TRF style boxes with the carrying handle and re-closable lid. The right hand picture shows the kit after I tore it down. It doesn't look like much when you just pile the parts like this, but there is a lot of hardware in those clear bins. On the lower left you can see the handful of additional upgrades I bought that haven't been opened yet. You can also see that the chassis tub is now black. Even though the blue tub is an upgraded glass fiber filled part, I didn't think the blue looked good with the rest of the chassis so I traded it to a friend for the standard black tub.
From the very first step we are using upgraded parts that came with my purchase. The TT-02B MS kit uses a 70T spur gear standard, but the High Speed Gear Set includes a 68T gear along with an aluminum spur gear mount. The pictured aluminum prop joint and prop shaft are part of the MS kit.
Now the center driveline can be dropped into the chassis. You can see the bevel gears on the front and rear ends of the shaft which will connect to their respective gearboxes. The only thing holding this assembly to the tray at the moment is the little pillow block near the front.
The differential gears are glass filled plastic and are the same as a standard TT-02. This is a bevel gear differential with 4 spider gears. Front and rear are identical. The right hand image shows the diffs dropped into the chassis tub. Note the presence of ball bearings which come with the MS kit.

The gearbox covers you see here are carbon reinforced replacements that came with my purchase. The extra strength is not important to the gears, but these also support the shock towers which should make them less likely to snap after big jumps.
The box standard motor mount is a plastic plate with fixed holes for 16-20T pinions on one side, or 21-25T pinions if flipped over. However, if you change spur gear size then these holes are no longer labelled correctly. The previous owner bought a Yeah Racing adjustable aluminum motor mount shown on the left. I prefer to go with a Tamiya upgrade part, so I bought the one on the right. With the smaller 68T spur gear, the motor plate will now support from 18-27T pinion gears. I happened to have from 17-22T versions of 0.6mod pinions sitting in my parts box as shown, so I decided to use the largest 22T gear. The previous owner installed a Sport Tuned motor. This isn't necessarily what I would have chosen, but it seemed like a good match for reasons that will become clear.
This aluminum heat sink came with my purchase, and it is largely what drove the use of the Sport Tuned motor. Because of the shape of the heat sink, only closed end bell motors can be used. An open end bell could short out the brush wires. The Sport Tuned is the hottest motor Tamiya offers with a closed end bell. It is a pretty good match for the chassis aesthetically as well.
The front and rear lower suspension arms are also carbon reinforced parts which came with my purchase. They don't look any different at first glance but they are much stiffer than stock and you can see the texture if you zoom in close.
The MS kit already came with upgraded FRP shock towers, but the previous owner went a step further and got carbon fiber towers. The "Carbon Damper Stay" set also includes turnbuckles for the upper suspension links. The FRP towers were in the box as well so now I have those as extra.

In a standard TT-02B the drive cups and dog bones are plastic, but the MS version replaces these with steel as shown. The C-hubs and steering knuckles are standard plastic. The completed front suspension is shown on the right.
The rear drive system gets the same kind of upgraded steel parts as the front in addition to aluminum uprights. I found it a bit odd that the rear uprights are aluminum but the front knuckles, which see more stress, are plastic. In fact, Tamiya doesn't even appear to offer aluminum front suspension parts. Even these aluminum rear uprights are technically for the DF-02 but happen to fit here.
Without a doubt, the single biggest upgrade the previous owner made to this kit was replacing the stock white plastic CVA shocks with these aluminum shocks for the DF-03. The shock kit alone is almost $100. These are beautiful and durable shocks which really bring up the overall appeal of the chassis. All the parts are shown on the left, while the completed assembly is shown on the right.
All of the steering parts in the MS kit are plastic, but the previous owner had bought an aluminum steering bridge. I don't know why he didn't get the aluminum bell cranks as well, so I added those myself. All of the rotating parts use ball bearings. Note the turnbuckle steering links which come with the MS kit as opposed to the fixed length plastic links of a standard TT-02B.

I added the TT-02 high torque servo saver with metal springs and an aluminum servo horn. It helps complete the cohesive look of the steering system. My kit also included a blue aluminum turnbuckle to connect the servo horn to the bridge. This is the only mystery part with no obvious known origin. It may be 54248.
With the steering installed, the rolling chassis is done. I'm using a 2S Li-Po battery so I will probably change that TBLE-02s for a Hobbywing 1060 in the future. Among the most useless of the upgrades included in the kit is the FRP battery hold down strap, but I guess it looks cool. The TT-02B MS kit did not come with tires, but the previous owner included a brand new set of Dual Block tires, front and rear. Oddly, the front tires were C compound (competition) but the rear were K compound (kit, e.g. hard). I changed them to C all around. Say what you will about the TT-02 being a low end chassis, but this version is pretty cool.

The TT-02B MS uses the body set from the Dual Ridge which has a cab very far forward and an elaborate wing as shown. I was worried about my ability to achieve the complex MS paint scheme, but luckily most of it uses stickers so I only needed one mask line as shown. The exact position isn't super important because the stickers will cover the transition.
After the application of metallic blue (backed with silver) and white, the body is as shown on the left. Still pretty dull looking. Several hours later after all the stickers were trimmed and applied, the final result is shown on the right. Getting each of the stripes to line up with the next sticker was quite a challenge, but I think it looks amazing.
Here's the final paint scheme. The closeup highlights the lovely metallic blue. I'm very glad to have those aluminum shocks which look great with the rest of the paint scheme.
Here are a couple of photos of my whole MS family: the TT-02B MS, the DT-02 MS, and the DF-03 MS.

I'm not really a fan of the style of the Dual Ridge body in general, but I think this paint scheme makes it look as good as it could possibly look. In fact, it looks so good that I a bit afraid of destroying it, but driving this "high performance" car too carefully ruins the point so I'll have to try to find a balance.