I have just moved from a really tired M03 to a M05 and waiting for the race season to restart. Granpas hop up list is useful. Other than shock mount and steering upgrades the list looks the same as for M03. I guess sorting the steering is the expensive bit, especially keeping with Tamiya parts.

Really the only parts you need are the aluminium steering posts and the high-torque servo saver - these take out the bulk of the slop that stops the steering from centreing. Also run the car with toe-out, 1mm on the steering links seems right for me.

The bearing upgrade early on would also prolong the life of the plastic steering parts if you do steering post upgrade. Otherwise the plastic parts will get more and more sloppy.

Jason

My diff is almost a spool now. It's packed with putty and doesn't turn very easily.
I have a rear roll bar with medium springs. I've tried soft springs up front, but the inside rear tire always lifts while corner with them, and I don't care for it, which is why I went to stiffer springs up front.

Did you found you had more on-power steering with a free turning diff?

Lifting the inside rear tire in a corner (with a FWD Mini) isn't necessarily a bad thing. As long as the outside front is firmly planted and the inside front isn't diffing out you are getting the best weight transfer possible. I've got extra hard springs on the front and hard springs on the rear (no roll bars at either end) and I still lift the inside rear on hairpins.

When I did race mini a little over a year ago with a MO-5 Pro Red springs in front Yellow in the rear no stabilizers and tamiya medium oil in all shocks, 1* negative rear camber, 1* negative front camber and 1* toe out in the front. I would always have a tripod in the sweeper and any corner tighter then a 90*.

I found that when I tried to eliminate this effect I lost corner exit grip and also had more corner entry push resulting in slower corners and .2-.3 tenth a lap loss.

If you watch some of the FWD racing that is occasionally shown on TV you'll see some of the cars lifting either of the rear inside wheel off the ground.

I went back to my old setup and when I went to bigger race event I noticed this happening to about half the other drivers too. It didn't bother me any, really all about personal taste.

Sometimes when you post stuff like this, it gets misinterpreted. This particular car did not start out looking like this, but was one that evolved. It was built out of the box except for bearings and TRF shocks which were on it from day one. Just thought it might be of interest to some as to how it evolved and why each bit is on there. And, no, you don't absolutely need all this stuff.

1. No explanation needed
2. A good gear diff is very difficult to build and I must emphasize the word good. The M05 ball diff was tried and was good, but i preferred the TA03 one.
3. Hit something and lost the dog bone.
4. Again no explanation needed.
5. Stock shock angle does not give enough steering. Too lazy
6. For my car, it settled down the rear end
7. Hit something and bent the stock one and lost the damned dog bone again
8. Hit something and bent the steering stuff. Motor runs hot in the M05 so used the aluminum motor mount for cooling. Helped a little.
9. Helps to balance the car, but the main reason was to keep the battery wires from bulging out the body.
10, 11, and 12 should need no explanation.

I just provided a list of stuff on my car and in this post, gave you the reasons they were there. If you don't hit anything, there are a few things on my list you don't need. if you're happy with the steering, don't need the front shock mount. If you know how to build a good gear diff, why use a ball diff. If the ass end of your car doesn't get loose, leave off the roll bar. If you don't care if the battery wires push the body out, don't bother offsetting the battery. And so on.

I don't expect anyone to run out and duplicate this car. Nor do I expect anyone to agree with my reasoning.

Just piched up a M05 mini cooper kit an I see it has the plastic bushings. The manuals does not say what size the bearing replacements are. Does anyone know what size they are an where to get them.
Thank You Ron

Granpa, For reference what color bar did you run for the sway? Oh and I am grateful for all that post up their setups as it gives me different things to try when I feel I hit a wall. Its a good resource to pull from.

Jason

Some places sell kits with all the bearings you'll need so you don't have to find the size of every bearing. I bought mine at rcmart for my m03.
Having said that, my kit already came with hub bearings, so I ended up with more bearings than needed.

Ron, the wheel bearing for the stock plastic uprights are 5x11 and the aluminum uprights are 5x10. The steering arms are 5x8.

Jason

Awsome Thank you for the fast reply :nod:

Oh forgot to add I believe that the transmission gear bearings are also 5x8. Can't remember exactly but there are between 4-6 in the tranny gears.

Jason

Telling someone what bearing sizes to buy can get a little tricky cause there are some variables. The best way is to look at your kit instructions and see what size the plastic bearings are. They will give you a size along with the part #. For example, if it says 1150, it is a 5X11 bearing. A 1050 is a 5X10. The small bearings are 850 which is a 5X8. The first # in the Tamiya designation is the OD. the second part is the ID.

There are 8 wheel bearings and they are either 5X10 or 5X11. There are 6 tranny bearings and they are 4 5X11 and 2 5X8s. There are 4 5X8 bearings in the steering. Again, double check this against the instructions in your kit.

Sources-----Avid for the cheaper sets. Both Acer and Boca Bearings provide better quality bearings. There are others, but these are my usual shopping sources.

Awsome Thank you very much.