Just an update on my recent experiment to try something different this coming indoor carpet season. I wanted to see if it is it possible to have a competitive mini with the least amount of upgrades / hop-ups possible.

So I rebuilt my first mini: M03M. There's no aluminum hopups, no CVDs, no TRF shocks, stock gear diff, friction dampers and swift body.

https://www.tamiyausa.com/product/it...oduct-id=58368

http://www.tamiya.com/english/rc/rcm...8swift1600.pdf

So everything is rebuilt according to the manual except the following. Only new part is the 2 chassis halves. Everything else is original. Race ready at 1240 grams. Spec motor / esc combo so everyone is similar power.

1. Extra washer on both sides in the stock gear diff and the 3 screws tighten as much and as evenly as possible. Added a hole in the chassis (thanks Monkeyracing) for future tightening.

2. Removed the rubber tubings inside the friction dampers. Yes, there is no dampening as those tubes were all warped anyways. Because the stock silver springs are so long I cut them down about one ring section off so it’s stock silver springs all 4 corners. I used those little horseshoe spacers to get the ride height around 5mm but a little lower in the front.

3. S Grip tires with the hard inserts front with a bead of CA only in the outer front corner of the front tires. Didn't glue the sidewalls. Kit tires in the rear.

I ran the car this weekend at our big race and against 2 drivers of similar abilities in their fully upgraded M05v2 chassis. Came in 3rd a few seconds behind them on the same lap.

Verdict: About 0.1 to 0.2 seconds fast lap slower than the 2 fastest cars on a 11 second track.

Compared to the M03 I've raced regularly for the last 5 years, the only weaknesses on this M03M I would say is:

- lack of high speed steering which requires a lot of braking before the corners to get the car to nose dive into the corner. If timed perfectly, then it’s a perfect corner and acceleration out of it. But timing my braking perfectly about 5 times per lap for 26-27 laps is pretty darn hard.

I'm planning to try a few different things for the next big race in 3 weeks against more great competition:

- maybe more front toe out
- lower front ride height and / or raise rear ride height some more
- sauce less of the rear tires
- play with drag brake on the speedo so I can let go of the throttle approaching a corner and have some type of consistent drag brake and time my turning into the corners that way

The car is amazingly quite fun to drive. Also, it’s making me learn to try different things to tune a mini that doesn’t require any upgrades. Of course I welcome any suggestions on setup if anyone has any. Wish I knew this 6-7 years ago that you actually don't need to spend much to make a mini "competitive".

I’m also doing an experiment getting a stock TT01D car to work in our 21.5 blinky class (basically USGT rules) and having a blast making my car competitive too! At the same race on the weekend, I was about 0.5 seconds fast lap slower (about 10 second laps) than a fellow with his fully upgraded Awesomatix who Tq’ed the class. Not bad for a car on the same setup 5 years ago. Got 3 weeks to make it better!

Ivan