That sounds like a challenge Professor West!!! Always great battles against you in my M03.

However this coming season I'm planning to try something different. Complete stock M03 with friction dampers and no upgrades and see how it does against those Edmonton guys with their $$$ suped up Minis. It's going to be interesting. Also planning to use my original TT01 from the old Karz days to compete in the 21.5 Spec Scale class too.

Hope you come out and race more this coming winter season.

Ivan

Very interesting indeed. No upgrades as in not even rake (raising rear for more traction), no ball bearings, no stuffing diff with ear plugs, no weights in the front bumper? nada?

Cause when I did this on my bonestock M05, thing was slow... lost so much grip.

Oh, he'll be tweaking it. :lol: I give you one race night before you ditch those friction dampers though. I fixed up that set of friction dampers for you, but there are limits! At least chuck on some plastic 2* rear hubs! (I've got plenty.)

Those friction dampers that use to come with these kits were at least semi-damping. The M05's bonestock 'friction' dampers has NO friction.

bounce bounce bounce bounce..! then go through a quick s-curve and what a mess of a traction loss with the open diff. :o

The 16t motor you are looking at is probably at the limit of what the ESC can handle. If you are bashing around doing speed runs up and down your street, anything less, including a sport tuned motor, will seem slow. Personally, I would try it and see, but I don't know what your re$ources are.

Seeing as how you're in Canada, if you take my advice and if your ESC melts, PM me your address and I will fix the problem.

If you are looking at brushless combos and all you really do is run around in parking lots or on the street, then look at the SkyRC Leopard 13t or 9t. We run a similar combo as our spec mini motor (except ours is a 17t so it is 25% slower), and they are practically bulletproof. The 13t will do 30 mph. If that is not enough, then the 9t is really fast - expect 40 mph using a fully charged 2s lipo. I have both and have used them in minis - they are fun and can run all day without getting hot.

Ivan!

I'm one of those $$$ mini guys, you know that. I think the only part I used from the last two M05 kits I have built was the chassis.

That last comment had me LOL-ing though.

I just built up one of my old TT-01s using a trackstar 21.5, geared at 3.7 FDR with 64p gears, specifically for scale spec. Just waiting on the tires. Call me if you want help with the gear mods.

I am going to try to get out on Fridays with you guys. Not much sense in having TC's to not run them. Plus, I just got my new D4's for VTA and Touring Stock.

I am really hoping to get to all 8 of the WCICS series races this year. Missing them last year due to work was tough. Lucky for me, there is not much going on in Oil and Gas in Calgary right now, so I have some free time. Probably will be swamped during the winter again - just watch. :rolleyes:

you will have to do something to the diff - you will get owned out of the corners with an open diff - even on a flowing layout. I can see trying to drive around the friction dampers, hopping your way through the corners, as being fun and I have often thought of doing what you are suggesting, but the open diff will be frustrating. The rest of the parts we typically swap out are for durability - not speed. The OE plastic works fine if you keep off the boards and other cars, which is not a problem for you. If you actually do this, I give you permission to try to hit me when I am lapping you for the second time.

It has to last a race weekend - practice, 4 qualifiers and a main, so it will have bearings. I guarantee it will also run with a competitive set up, proper springs, ride height, etc.

Ivan has been running too long to not do that. Just as close to a basic kit as possible - no bling parts. You can bet it will end up with CVA shocks and a putty filled diff after the first qualifier. After that, any other parts changes are for reliability and fine tuning. I know I could put that car into our local club A-main every night of the week and twice on Sunday, and Ivan can drive circles around me.

One night at a local club race, Ivan was mopping the floor with the rest of us, so we swapped his mini tires front to rear for the main. CA glued sidewalls and all, on the rear. I figured it would be so un-drivable that he would give up. All we heard from Ivan on the stand was "its a bit loose". He just drove around it, and still won. Ninja skills, Ivan has. Go Chanimal!

I look forward to this...

Its usually the wall!!!:lol:

:lol: Awesome! hahaha!

My first race I did this, w/ an M05. The car handled like a drunken stage coach buggy with 3 wheels.

Bone stock huh?, -you'll have a tough time getting the car to stay straight let alone handle worth a darn. Yes, this would be interesting to watch!

Sorry, I kinda sounded crazy there…

Let me rephrase, I would like to run as close to an out of box M03 as possible but with common sense additions like bearings but not bling parts to see if it can be made competitive against fully hopped up M03’s to M05’s. So here is what I was thinking and any feedback is welcome on my build.

- M03M kit

- regular $1 ball bearings cause it’s just stupid to run the bushings unless I’m bashing then there’s nothing wrong with that

- gear diff that needs to be tight or I’ll get owned out of the corners. Planning to do the ‘add a washer or 2’ mod in the gear diff then crank it down. Question: should I add some putty or tiny ear plugs pieces into the mix so the diff doesn’t get loose for a long long time

- couple of lead weights in the front bumper sounds reasonable

- planning to use the original Swift body on it

- stock turnbuckles but worried in the back of my mind they will get knocked out or locked into the chassis. Maybe put plastic blades in them if possible?

- tires I plan on S-grips up front with the edges glued and will tune the rear to reduce grip so I can rotate the car better so it will be either M-grips or the Kit tires in the rear which could possible compensate for the lack of rear toe in also

My biggest challenge in my opinion is ride height and getting the friction dampers to work right. Unfortunately all my RC stuff is packed away in boxes in my basement during renos so I’m trying to work this thru in my head instead of testing the components that are not in front of me. Question: can the friction dampers shock length be shorten? Are regular CVA short shocks compatible with the friction dampers? Or what else can I do to lower ride height in friction dampers. Also planning to put super thin oil in the front dampers and somewhat thicker stuff in the rear.

Am I missing anything?

Any feedback is much appreciated!

Ivan


ps. Scott, would love to know how you got the fdr down to 3.7 in your 21.5 blinky car as I had to get a friend to CNC me an adjustable motor mount like they have in the TT02 for that to work.

Dogbones - Add a 3mm o-ring to the outdrive. If it's still loose, add a 3mm o-ring to the axle end. Just be sure it doesn't get so tight it binds up your steering.

Washers in the diff - It won't come loose for quite a while, but hey, you want to stuff it, to be sure it's locked? Your call. I like mine as it still "diffs" a little. But, I'm not in contention for the A main trophy, either.

What batteries are you running, Ivan? I'm looking for a cheap, purchased in Canada, solution, to replace my aging Orion Rocket packs.

* First guy to say Reedy gets punched...okay, that's a bit much. I'll go with ignored. I bought Reedys a few years ago and both puffed and failed within 12 months, even with scrupulous care. I've got abused, 6 year old crap packs that have fared better.

Just noticed that, since I had my massive purge of M chassis parts last year, I have absolutely no M03 servo mounts in my parts box, plastic, alloy, or otherwise. Weird.

Don't punch me....knock on wood. I have 2 reedys lipo 2400mah and they have been around since. .....say 5 years. They really are bad?

Well that's good to hear I have friends in the west! Thanks for the tips. I'm gonna try it out and see what happens with it. Gonna try the gear diff out with it and check the temp after the first few runs. I put the shimizus on and now the diff is just really really the week point in the set up for now. Then I'll start with the shocks but my oil shocks and springs I have now will do. I'll let you know if I melt it when I install it