monkeyracing

iTrader: (10)

The M05 PRO Gold Edition Breakdown

The basics

It's an M05 and it's gold coloured. Neat.

The Rest of It

Bearings - A nice thing to have supplied with a kit, but really, shouldn't they come with the base kit as well?
Alloy steering posts - Not sure if these actually do anything, but they're alloy and anodized in a gold colour. I'm using the Yeah Racing steering bits, so these were left off.
1.5 degree rear uprights - Very nice, anodized black. Good to have.
2 piece lower rear suspension mount - Alloy, anodized black, nicely made and usable with any wheelbase. The extra degree of toe built in gives you 2.5 degrees out of the box. Makes the car feel a little sluggish.
CVA Super Mini Shocks - Pretty good and tunable, considering they are plastic shocks. I like them, but had some old TRF dampers hanging around, so they went on.
TRF short white spring set - Another good part. Saves you from having to buy some yourself.
Relocated lower shock mounts - I was most looking forward to seeing what these could do for me. As it turns out, not much. We run super smooth, carpeted tracks with the suspension cranked way down and the extra travel afforded couldn't be used anyway. For the sake of compatibility with all my other stuff, lower mounts were changed to stock M05.

Other than that, I chucked on the Tamiya carbon front damper stay, because it was actually cheaper than the aftermarket alternatives, 3Racing front uprights/gear diff and a set of universals of unknown origins. The car is typically M05, with very direct steering and a slightly more planted feel than an M03. Could take a while to get used to that again. The reason I went with the Gold version is because I found it online as cheap as the regular kits. I was able to get the kit, steering rack, gear diff, carbon damper stay and a few other things delivered to my front door for less than what it would have cost to buy just the kit locally. The M05 Gold comes with no tires/wheels, motor/esc or body.

To sum it up, it's an M05 with a few special features that may or may not do you any good. If you can find one online for $130-$140, it's worthwhile. Much more than that and it may be worth your while to calculate what it would cost to build up a stock kit. If you've got a collection of mini parts hanging around, it would probably be worthwhile to just buy the chassis parts trees and build one up based on your spares.

Boons

Re carpet racing, when first out practising a few of us Mini guys have rear grip issues but then on the actual race the cars are usually fine. Is this a case of warming the tyres up, and as we share the track with TC's using tyre additive, they are leaving sticky residue on the track?

I just wonder if a well set up Mini should handle well from 'cold'?

fresnojay

iTrader: (3)

Boons, I have found that from cold as with any car they can be finicky. After a few laps the car calms down and drives as expected. Also I think what you are experiencing although I have no carpet experience is just what I do on asphalt. As the track is run in (blue groove) over the course of the race day the traction does come up. Not sure if they clean the carpet between race days as we do on our out door track. But from what you describe sounds like a similar case.

Jason

CraigMBA

iTrader: (22)

Sounds like standard green track conditions on carpet to me.

Boons

Ah good, that's reassuring. Thanks guys!

samshirley00

the last time i ran my m05 on carpet, i forgot my additive, and when running on relativly new sweep 25's on the back, i had no grip issues, it really depends on the carpet condition and where its stored.

i should get a good pic of my m-05 tho to show you how much ive put into it, but it does handle very VERY well for a mini, but cant even remember my setup, or all the hopus its got! I do know i usually run a 20 HPI saturn bushed motor, hardened gears with RW 18t pinion LRP QC3 speedo, 4000 20c batteries


there are some things i have done to make the car basically work from cold, and thats 3 degree toe in on back, basically no camber too, trf reds(?) stood up a fair bit with 550 CST 2 holes, with o ring under piston, no anti roll bar, 7mm hub too
yellows (?) on front with tamiya aluminium tower, stood up max, 750cst, 2 hole, no o ring, soft anti roll bar, spec r arms and diff with 100k cst in.

about 3mm ride height all round too, not sure on droop

do have a vid of it at my local track, im the white blitz golf, trying for the majority of the race to get ahead of the orange crx

http://youtu.be/LTgAeMMPGIE

pizzaboy192

iTrader: (2)

So I got to take the Minis out again today. Have a few questions that I hope can be answered.

First: Front wheels rubbing on the front of the "classic" mini body on my M03 chassis. If I don't run the steering at 100% (probably between 50 and 70% max) then there's no rubbing. Any tighter and it just rubs against the front of the body, making a nasty sound, and slowing me down to a dead stop. Anything I can do to fix this, or do I just turn the dual-rate down to a point where it stops rubbing and deal with a poor turning circle?

Second: Steering. My mini is so SLOPPY. It's an M03. Standard steering kit (I assume). It's terrible. I can trim it +30 left on my TX one minute and it'll be straight. Two minutes later, same place, and it'll have to be trimmed +8 Right. I don't know what to do for it. My fiancee's mini doesn't have this problem, and it looks like she's got a slightly different steering setup, but I don't have a spare set to test things with, so I don't know what to do.

Third: Rear traction? I can't for the life of me have the car keep rear traction. It'll be going straight and smooth, and then a second later it'll be spinning out of control. I currently run 60D Radials all around, Front are "nearly new" (probably a single pack on them) and rears were fronts for about 3 packs before I switched em.

and finally: Anyone have used bodies they'd be wanting to pass on? I've only got my pair of classic mini shells, and a Civic body that needs to be drilled (I think that one is a 225mm) but I'd love some other options if you've got some to pass on.

TeamThibault

i want to stay with the stock dif but would like to get more out of it.it is only used on carpet
what is the best way to build it? use 2 extra dif rings?
use putty?
any more secrets for building it?

any more info would be great didnt really see much info on stock difs
thanks

monkeyracing

iTrader: (10)

You can use a heat gun to warm up the shell a little and reshape it. Careful though: The line between soften and irrevocably screwed is pretty thin!

Stock servo saver? ANY Tamiya servo saver? Look for a Kimbrough, size large.

Are these 60D kit radials or S Grips? Kit tires are generally awful. If you're using S Grips (or something similarly sticky) are you running any toe in on the rear? Rear toe in will help stabilize the car in a straight line. Another option would be to run softer springs/shocks at the rear than the front.

Any time I've seen putty used, it ended up squishing out the sides of the case. Others may have had a different experience, but I haven't seen it done with COMPLETE success. I'd suggest a few extra diff rings per side, with a tiny bit of anti-wear grease on all surfaces. You can use the diff case screws to adjust the tension, but be sure to tighten them very evenly, or you'll get weird wear. You'll probably end up tightening them up all the way once things are broken in. I've been running a diff like this for over a year without a failure.

Granpa

If your body mounts aren't bent, you're running the body too low. Raise it one hole. The front just doesn't rub the way you describe unless the body is too low or your body mounts are bent.

Usually, tire rub occurs on the rear wheels. Since you're not complaining of that, my guess is that you have the older rear hubs which were 0 degrees. Use the hubs from a M05 which are 2 degrees or there was a option part with more toe in. This will go a long ways to solving your rear spin out problems. But you may find the rear tires will start to rub.

pizzaboy192

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for the tip. I'll check the body mounting tomorrow. I know mine is more severe than my fiancee's, (and hers has trimmed body posts) so I think that might be it.

Rear tires did rub on hers until I trimmed the body more (we actually widened the fenders quite a bit so we could put some RC18T tires on it, but those on the rear were a huge mistake) so I think her used chassis has the M05 rear hubs. I've got a spare parts chassis that has the M05 rear setup (fully decked out chassis, anti-roll and everything) so I may steal those off it. Would that increase the chance of traction rolling though? I'd rather have a slightly sloppy rear end than a car that's flipping everywhere (for her at least)

samshirley00

mine has a fair bit of slop in the rear, mostly in the gap between the hub and the wheel hex, and a bit on the arm, not chassis side. front slop is mostly in the hubs, but the bearing housing bit, and the steering setup, i havent had an issue with traction roll for a few weeks now, mainly because i heavly glue the sidewalls of the tires, and partly by moving as much weight as possible inwards.

our club rules state any tamiya, 3racing and spec r hopup, so i went a bit mad

back9monsta

iTrader: (18)

I was able to test new links this weekend, the shorter link definitely improves the cornering of the car. Must have hop up.

pizzaboy192

iTrader: (2)

So I went bashing again and noticed that my Mini with a planetary diff, Trinity motor and Novak ESC is quite a bit slower than my fiancee's Mini with a ball diff, Silver can and Futaba ESC with reverse. Are the silver cans known for being faster than other 540 motors? or is my Trinity SlotMachine II in need of being cleaned\getting new brushes?

Would running an 18T pinion vs a 20T pinion give that speed boost? (I just realized that I haven't checked her pinion since getting the car)

fresnojay

iTrader: (3)

The 20T will give you a noticeable speed boost over the 18T. She may already have a 20T and is why she is faster than yours.

Jason