also notice the springs and dampers are seperate units... quite a cunning little idea :p

I also see now that it is fwd

Everywhere I see info about this car everyone is always amazed about having the spring and damper separate. :confused:

Anyone ever see a Sand Scorcher or any of the other early Tamiya RC cars based on the same platform? Of course, those are based on 1:1 cars, and a huge proportion of 1:1 cars ever produced have the spring and damper separate. What's the big deal? It's just packaging.

That being said, I am excited about this car and will certainly own one! :smile:

It says front wheel drive, just for clarification.

Want to see more pics? Go here on the Mini Cooper thread...

OMG just re-re-release the RS4mini already!
 

I would like to see a re-release of the RS4mini....with ball bearings, but to keep the costs down include the FRP chassis, plastic (but threaded shocks), molded graphite outdrives, new wheels and a couple of cool new bodies.

Mahalo's for posting the pic Tony.

Nice to see that it's not just a CAD drawing!

Hmmm would it be worth it though? There are already a number of 4WD Mini chassis out there, and they havent exactly set the world on fire.

Even the big players (X-Ray, Yokomo, Corally) had 4WD Minis and none of them lasted too long. I think in the end people see them for what they are - just down-sized Touring Cars.

I think HPI have been smart, the attraction of the M03 IS the fact that it's FWD. Makes it quirky, makes it interesting and different. So they've gone that way with this new one.

Whats the main advantage of having the shocks/springs separate??

It's not necessarily an advantage or disadvantage -- just a different approach. On some platforms it frees you up to use a spring type other than a coil, such as a torsion bar or leaf spring. In this case it appears that they are still using a coil spring, but having it be separate from the damper allows them to package the suspension differently.

http://www.hobbymedia.it/img/2008/10/p1000668.jpg
http://www.hobbymedia.it/img/2008/10/p1000669.jpg
http://www.hobbymedia.it/img/2008/10...ni-sports1.jpg

The Atraction of the mini class is the control chassis. While this chassis looks better in many ways if it is allowed you may as well change everyone over to these. The limits of the tamiya MO3's is a part of what makes the class great and popular. No need to make it complicated.

Any one else notice the 'room for electronics', or the lack there of?.. wonder exactly how much room for 'your own' electronics will be available..

interesting..

Yeah, its tight in there. Looks like you'll have to mount the ESC on the side of the servo and enough for a small receiver in the back part of the chassis.

We won't be running these at my club, due to the fact that we're racing to spec, but I sure am looking forward to there being more availability of bodies for minis.

We're a little lacking in N. America that way. Tamiya and HPI shells are all we can get, unless we order from overseas.

Jim