Which was the smartest thing you EVER did Dan....

Bought an Atomic VM2 and very happy with it.

And who was the one that told you about the wonders of the Cup Racer? You owe me a cookie. Lol.

Does anyone have thoughts on dealing with the "ring of death" inherent when running Type A slicks on the M03? I darn near burned through a new set of type A slicks today. (About 30 minutes run time, on carpet!)

I'm using the stock, solid upper links on the front and the camber is a bit much. I ran S grips for over 6 months without any sign of trouble, but the A slicks just get cooked. Adjustable uppers might be a solution, but what happens to front grip if the camber gets dialed out?

I've set the toe as neutral as I dare. My thinking right now is that with my car riding as low as it does, I'm getting too much camber gain when the car compresses.

Thoughts?

Hmm, double post or cry for attention?

The A type do this on the M05 too, just not so much. I tried adjustable upper links on the M03 & they helped some when the camber was set near zero; the handling wasn't much different than stock upper links.

With all the good reading on this thread I have decided to try my hand at a Mini. Thanks to Granpa for the earlier advice on this. Ended up going with the M05 S-Spec chassis and removed some of the aluminum bits as they seem to be more weight than anything, added some of the cvds and will stick with the gear diff for now. The local track is pretty small and all racers seem to be running Mini bodies so it should be a good time. The series starts racing next Saturday after the Concours Competition. I am interested to see how many laps before I destroy the body

May have to eat my words on the SWB Mini not being competitive on the bigger tracks. A good friend and fellow racer has been playing with a SWB Mini and was just kickin' a-- with it yesterday at the Tamiya track. We are running a lot with 17.5 motors with the timing cranked over 50 degrees. Jung had been playing with this car for a few months and hit the combo yesterday. He's been a SWB holdout and just never ever made the switch to an M or L car. So I take it all back, a SWB car can be made competitive.

His set up was a little interesting, but I won't post it. It is after all, his set up and not for me to share. My MWB and LWB cars are probably better cause we were running even, but his driving skills are much better than the old mans.

Nice to have a surprise every now and again Good to hear that SWB is not over the hill just yet. As a side question, what 17.5 and speedo are you running? The local class is a 17.5 blinky with mechanical timing allowed. I have a Novak motor with a GTB2 from an older car that I was planning on dropping in to get started but have not done much research on what is good or bad lately.

Since we all run the TCS races at the Tamiya track, the most common esc used is the Novak edge. I opted for the KO 350 BLZ, mainly cause I use the KO radio gear. The Novak Ballistic is the motor most used, with a few of the Reedys. Frankly, they go so fast that the motor choice seems unimportant. The timing is usually advanced past 50 degrees at which point the motor just comes alive.

Additionally, we use this equipment cause it's on the "approved" list for the Mini Pro class. I have no idea of what other BL equipment would work. My motor expertise is limited to the Silvercan.

Are you using hard inserts with the A slicks? Since the A slicks are soft and the carcass squirms around you'll get the RoD pretty bad. It's worst with soft inserts. You didn't notice on the S grips probably because they are treads and I think they are thicker than the A slicks. Dialing out camber does help but you might run into the traction roll problems so you'll have to try it out. If you are getting RoD only on one end of the car, swap the wheels front to back to extend the life.
Do you need to run A slicks on Ozite carpet to get traction?

Running A's up front, S grips at the back. It's a great combo on carpet. I used to run it years ago with good success. Until recently I ran S all around, with a little CA on the sidewall to combat traction roll. I suppose adjustable uppers might be okay, given the camber gain on the outside wheel under body roll and given my low ride height. Might even help, I think.

The Ozite seems very forgiving to a number of tire combos. S grip all around is common. One guy swears by the 3Racing cheapies. Just depends what one is capable of driving.

Hello.. You say a way to replace the thrust bearing in balldiff TA03. I do not understand your explanation because my english is very bad. Can you give me an explanation in pictures?
Thank you.

Do not replace the thrust bearing with anything else. I recall someone posting something about using a radial bearing instead. It did not make any sense at all. Just keep the TA03 ball diff exactly like the factory intended.

My Mini M05 body.