The plastic dampers will work fine. They can be a bit tricky to get perfect, but they do the job. The 3Racing units would be the next step up and are almost as good as Tamiya alloys.

Q for you M05 guys....recently picked up a used M05 Pro (with some added aluminum) from a local club member for my little guy and ran it once at a carpet track so far.

Going thru it for a big 3 day event next week, I extended the chassis (from S to M), put in a newer digital servo, went thru all nuts and bolts and checked for camber/toe.

Rear seemed ok according to my gauge (-2° camber) but front had negative toe and -6° camber! I'm not sure how even the previous owner could drive this! Toe I fixed up so it had some positive but camber I couldn't do anything with other than increase ride height...aluminum shock adjusters were at top so I raised it up and now its closer (-2/3°) but now of course, ride height has increased.

What do I need to do to get this setup properly?

Mine measures about -2 to -3 degrees at 5mm ride height. Make sure you are measuring the ride height under the centerlines of the front wheels, as the chassis does not have a flat bottom.

Check for slop in the front uprights/hubs.

Are the suspension pieces stock?

IMO the 3Racing ones are junk. The side to side clearance between the piston and the shock body isn't very consistent. These are the best budget alternative:

http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/ite...oduct-id=50746

I gave away several sets of stock tamiya oil filled shocks from TB-03 kits I upgraded that would of worked great if you added limiters inside the shocks. Maybe ask around the track if somebody has a set.

Carlton, I broke the mini again today on the 5th practice lap! I got together with Justin and we think the new chassis piece may have been more brittle than it should have been. The wreck that broke it wasn't even close to the one that took it out 3 weeks ago. So hopping the replacement parts will get here before Saturday.

Jason

Today was a little tough on my end. Be there next week. Good turn out?

Too bad you weren't able to make it down today. There were well over 10 Minis out, 7 of the A Main guys, 2 of the podium placers, and 2 other drivers who have had podium placings. Most of the guys are starting to get a handle on the 21.5 B/L motors. Practice was close, we've weeded out the "slower" motors, and a lot of guys are going really fast. Set ups were a little more varied than usual.

I was really struggling with my set up but tried one outside the "box" and like it really well. It's a "bitch" to drive, but it's at least 0.5 sec. faster than my old set ups. However, that's just with todays track conditions and may not suit others. Still lots to try off of the base set up, so I'm feeling a lot better about my Minis right now.

Carlton, Sorry to hear that. Look forward to the run. Hoping with my new radio it will help me wrestle the car further into line. The few laps I got in really shocked me in how the car handling wise changed. But just means its handling is getting more aggressive which I am starting to like my cars :D . Oh and the turn out was 30 entries. Not huge but fun for me besides the broken mini. Getting my VTA car tuned and my GT3 car was on point.

Grandpa, I would have loved to been there and will make it down there sometime before the TCS race. I really want to get a few laps if not a full day at the track to get an idea or what I am in for.

Jason

Traction roll
 

My sons m05 was suffering quite a bit with this yesterday. He runs in the stock class, black can motor, m grip tyres with black sponge insert, tamiya oil dampers with 40wt all round and blue/yellow springs, 1 degree camber front and rear with 1 degree toe-out on the front and 3 degrees toe-in on the rear, ride height is 5mm. I had the sidewalls done with CA glue but still got the traction roll. Any suggestions on how to fix this? Any help greatly appreciated, thanks. :)

So any particular brand of motor seem to be dominating? I have a 21.5 Hacker in mine that I like a lot but the only other minis in town are stock so not a fair comparison and I have some boost in the ESC also not fair or legal but we are not running any T rules in fact we are usually in with spec sedans because of the small count. Really fast little car.

I oredered the super CVA's even if a bit tricky to set up i think it will be a decent upgrade.

Thanks for the advice guys

No, not really. There are some good motors that aren't suitable for Minis. You just can't get enough timing in them, mainly because of the way the B/L rules are written. Perfect example of this is the Novak. Advance it past the label and the motor really wakes up. Advance it to the end of the label and it's not competitive.

So far with all the testing being done at the track, no one motor with which tuning rotor has been the fastest. Some of the "guys" are waiting to see what others come up with. As for me, I'm done with playing around with motors. I'm just slapping in one of the motors I have and go racing. This has become way too expensive for me.

Screw it, Mini used to be a nice inexpensive class that you could be competitive in for very little money. That's no longer true. All that BS the B/L advocates were spewing out was just that, BS. Sure, maybe it would be a little less costly if I were willing to be a leach and piggyback on someone's hard work and expense. All this crap about it's harder to "cheat" in B/L is just crap. All the B/L advocates posting that garbage didn't know what they were talking about. Geez, I've only been "messing" with B/L motors for a short time and know that's not true.

My apologies for "venting" a bit, but this B/L experience is just really pissing me off. Just about everything unpleasant result I said would happen is happening. I also remember posting that there were variances in the motors and remember being "put down" by the B/L motor "experts". Since I had less experience with B/L motors then, I deferred. I've spent a lot of track time with various motors since then and know that some motors are faster than others. Which ones? Hell, I don't know!!! I'm a Silvercan guy that likes going just a tad slower than we're running with the 21.5s.

You need to CA more than just the side wall. Go right to the tread and over by 1-2mm. But only do this on the front.

It they had not written that "end bell" rule in there, IMO, every 21.5 on the market would of worked okay because of the fixed gear.

I disagree - it's only as speedy as you want it to be. I bought a Killshot because I wanted to try it against my leftover from the gt3 days Thunder Power. Whichever one works worst in the mini goes in my FF car. Because I can gear the FF to 3.85, either one of them will work there.

Both of those motors have way more timing adjustment than you can possibly use. The motor I want to run (Novak) is never going to work based on the way the rules are written. I know that's not what Fred wanted when he wrote it, but that's what he got. Maybe Novak can come out with special "TCS SPEC" end bells with different stickers......

Try softening the front through springs/oil to get the car to roll a bit more before it bites into the corner.