Not even springs/shocks? Wow!

How do you deal with the variations in kits and special editions? We had considered a box stock class, but the argument could be made that anything that came in the box, including special editions would be legal.

That's okay, with all that fog in NZ, they won't notice the difference.

Not that without the fog there would be much difference. Face it, all those nice blue upgrades are worth diddly if you have a silvercan in it.

true dat!

I think its fun to see what you can do to get the M chassis dialed in and competitive. Someone pointed out that you don't need to throw money at it, this is totally true if you plan to drive it in a parking lot. However if you plan on racing it and being competitive then you'll have to upgrade the stock parts. No way around that.

someone requested a list of M bodies,
there are tons actually.

Check out these two sites, they list most of the available M chassis bodies that are available.

they are listed alphabetically, so if your looking for "Tamiya" manufactured bodies, you'll have to navigate through a few pages:

http://www.tqrcracing.com/shop/produ...03&s_maker_id=

http://www.rcmart.com/body-light-min...c-438_874.html

Also do a google search,
there are a few sites that list all available bodies, I know because i've looked at them a few times. But it has been awhile so I don't recall the URL's or have them bookmarked.

Any ideas where I can find something like this:
3Racing Linkage Set For Tamiya M05 M05-16/LB

Every site I've been to says out of stock or restock pending but no one can give me a straight answer.

are you referring to the steering linkage?
When stores are out of stuff I go to eBay,

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3Racing-Stee...item1e9408ef81

Not quite, here's a listing for it from integy:
integy DOT com/st_prod.html?p_prodid=12813#.VFFZsvm9m1s

So I'm getting into the M class... I've just ordered a M05 Pro V2 - Yay ! \o/
I'll be using it with a sensored brushless motor (3000kv-ish).

Any things I should look out for / any upgrades that are worthwile (non-bling) that are not in the Pro V2 kit ?

Thanks guys. I Know it won't be cheap but 3-500 isn't too bad. I have talked to Mike at rc world and they don't usually have a big turnout for the mini so maybe in the winter they will start running the class. I don't want to build one up all the way if I do not have a place to race it. I traded a crawler I had for one so once I get it I will go through it do a little bit and a brushless set up and have some fun untill it gets more popular.

-Seht, that link doesn't seem to be a valid link.
If you can give me a valid link then I'll know which part your looking for and may be able to help.

-if you aren't racing your M-- competitively then you don't really need many of the upgrades we are discussing here. My recommendation would be just to get the steering corrected, then maybe some true shocks. Otherwise the car is quite fun and capable for a parking lot basher in stock form. The upgrades we are discussing are to shave weight and increase performance to get an edge over the competition. These tweaks combined may only amount to 0.5 - 2.0 sec's at most of savings per lap ...hardly noticeable for parking lot fun.

Actually, Silvercan racing is all about corner speed. A good 'Can set up is a bit different from a 21.5 B/L set up. The upgrades are the same and are probably more necessary in the 'Can car.

Frankly, and this isn't aimed at you, niznai, cause I know you know this, the reason we do upgrades on a Mini is to increase durability or increase the adjustability. There isn't one thing one thing on any of my cars hat aren't there for one of those 2 reasons.

This probably should be in a separate post, but I'm going to throw it in here. I'd guess there is a question about what upgrades should someone get about every 5-10 pages or so. I've answered the question many times and done that racer a real disservice. Poor guy goes out and puts it on his car [B]AND HAS NO IDEA WHAT EACH UPGRADE DOES FOR HIS CAR. Other than for bearings the better advice would have been to suggest if you break it, upgrade it. It's much easier to learn set ups if you know what each upgrade brings to the table.

You mean this link? http://www.integy.com/st_prod.html?p...3#.VFKwiFvrl3l

Ha snayone else been experiencing binding in the gearbox on the new M05 when the car heats up, or has anyone looked into ways of sorting the problem out? I'm going to chuck in a V1 alloy motor plate to see if it makes a difference, but won't be able to test for at least a week.

-looks like that part is out of stock everywhere.
Give it time, they'll get more in.

Or if you don't want to wait you can make your own linkage. I did this for my M05 using parts from my spare parts bin. I used short ball cups on one end and super short on the other with short threaded pipe between to get the lengths I wanted. the ball studs are standard ball studs, i had tons of those. mine aren't blue, but don't really care.

Jim,

I have had no binding issue in the gearbox of my MO5 V2 car since I built it. I have however gone through a middle gear due to the ingress of debris. I found that not just the battery hole lets in debris, but the hole under the motor and the front of the top alloy motor mount under the steering wiper also let in debris. I have used both blutak and battery tape to seal these areas and hope this prevents this in the future. I also fitted the silver motor plate that comes with the kit to block the holes in the motor plate from the other gearing option holes.

After my last diff rebuild, I took the car to the local outside track and posted my fastest laps with the car, using our control tyre. Previous best was 26. 8 seconds, I ended up doing 25.9 second laps, so am very happy with my setup. Used a SoCal body and think the car will be faster with the Blitz VW GTI body.
Have fun racing,
Regards,
Calvin.

What most of the upgrade people don't say (not sure why, maybe they don't know maybe they don't think it's important) is that the mini works just as well without the upgrades. Tony Gray is one of the very few who pointed this out publicly a long, long time ago. This is my experience as well, though not as extensive as Tony's (or any of the other guys of mini net fame). Too bad their site is gone.

Another thing I wanted to add is that weight savings are imaginary. If we speak of Tamiya upgrades at least. I weighed them and the alloy parts are actually heavier. Nothing to write home about but it's another misconception. That is true of all other cars I checked from Tamiya. TRF cars are different, and they don't have plastic options for the alloy parts anyway.

Third party upgrades for Tamiya cars I found are most of the time just crap and I am surprised people still waste their time and money with such stuff.

Back to your helpful advice Granpa, most of the people I see here come with very little experience or understanding and sometimes with below zero skills, hence it's pointless to tell them how to do this or that when they break parts by screwing them together because they don't even have the sense to realise they're doing something the wrong way around. You might say that's harsh, but the Tamiya manuals are about as close to spoon feeding a baby as any of these manuals get.

Nowadays I have noticed (not sure if the Mini manuals do) but others even have a very brief setup section. Nowhere near the Xray manuals, but it's a start. Now, how would one expect some of these people who can't screw two plastics together to get the ball diff right (even though it is all laid out right there, in front of them, and all they have to do is follow the manual)? Let alone finding some really subtle little problem with the plastics and solving it.

Meh.