Another topic....a body. I'm looking at the HPI Civic type R EK9 body....has anyone used this or know of it. I'm in love with this body but sometimes love can suck so.....just want to run it by someone who maybe had this body???? Anyone??

Another reason people double stuff their tires is to get a larger diameter tire and thus higher top speed. -this acts like increasing the size of the pinion in essence.

BUT, if you race, TCS rules are very specific about what tires + wheel combos you can run (to avoid double stuffing funny business).

How does that change handling and wear. I'm not worried at all about TCS rules at this point

Looks good and drives well. Don't worry about it. Only thing you'll find is that it is slightly narrower than a Tamiya shell so the wheels are right at the edge of the arches.

Newbie, if you find one in N. America, let me know. HPI discontinued all kinds of good stuff here a few years ago.

loved em... had 2. wish i could get a few more.

only fits 50-55D wheelsets though

I knew I had good taste lol. I'll keep digging guys. There's one on ebay that's 100 bucks. Little steep.....

Nice my crx body is painted the spoon sports colors too!

Buy one, make a mold, resell it. You would make that $100 back in a few weeks. Its a fantastic body for Mini, and such a shame it was discontinued. I would buy a few!

I use to have those on my RS4 Mini's back in the day. :D Those were cool bodies for sure. I owned the real car too when they were new as my daily driver.

I still have a few unpainted HPI TC bodies like the Civic-Si coupe and some others. I sold the rest when I took a break back 15yrs ago. I regret it now cause I had a few of those EK9's for m-chassis. :lol:

Double stuffing inserts is a useful technique, but is not often used. With the availability of rear uprights with toe in and other option parts plus the wider range of springs, there are more options for chassis tuning. "Old Timers" like me used to do the majority of tuning by switching inserts and double stuffing plus we used the "Japan" type A slick which are no longer made. Also, being able to get tires with different rubber cpds, made tire stuffing pretty much obsolete.

It was primarily used to vary the mount of grip the tire would give you, much like varying tire pressures in the "real" car racing world. The most popular technique was to use a full length TC insert as the outside insert and backing that with a Tamiya hard foam insert. You could vary the grip of the tire with the
type of TC insert. You could also use a full length TC insert backed with a cut down insert which could give you a very hard tire. Or you could use the foam insert as the outside insert with a cut down TC insert backing. Or you could shorten the TC inert and use that outside and vary the grip by how long the TC insert was made. As you can see, you could wind up with a bewildering array of tires.

The other situation that made tire stuffing obsolete was the advent of the "Spec Tire" in TCS racing and in many other of the more "popular" series. In an open tire series, the 55D tire is far superior and cannot be double stuffed.

ER1c pointed out the TCS situation and that you could vary the tire diameter by stuffing. Unfortunately, by doing that, you will reduce grip by reducing the contact patch or area of the tire By the "ballooning" that inevitably occurs.. The only "successful" attempt at this I've seen is this one which was used to win
the TCS Nationals about 10 years ago. What was done was to double stuff, but the tire was glued to the outside edge of the wheel thus making the wheel itself larger an getting away from the "ballooning" and it's attendant loss of grip. This was addressed in the rules the following year.

Double stuffing belongs with the DoDo bird except in the hands of a "real" pro. It's an expensive deal cause if you guess wrong, you just wasted a set of tires, inserts and rims.

Still in search for a M01 in the USA.. new or like new condition.

Not paying $799 on ebay. :lol:

Granpa you really have a vast array of knowledge..it's always a pleasure to read your posts! Thanks for saving me a set of tires i probably would have just wasted. I'm going to just pick up my foams and make them the normal way. Can't rush a good thing

How do u make a mold??

I've done one out of plaster of paris. Secure the body well tho, as you will get bulges where you don't want bulges if you know what I mean ;) Of course this means nothing without a Vac Former. Do some research, its definitely possible, and can be a lot of fun, and a mass of headaches lol