Originally Posted by
BoxxerBoyDrew
Good question, and welcome CrazyRonny!
The front end slop is to me the biggest drawback to the Mini-Z platform, though once you accept it, and learn how the car drives it isn't too bad. I have tried both Kyosho and PN king pins, both metal and Delrin/Teflon, and the tightest fit for me has been the Delrin. And if going with a Wide front end the PN Alum Lower Arm is NICE! I also like the Kyosho carbon fiber front end braces. They make it a pain to change springs, but seems to tighten things up a bit. Good Bearings help too. You get a lot of slop in bearings at this scale. I like Avid Bearings and get the best performance on 3mm shaft front knuckles like PN Low Down Knuckles.
I'm about to try a PN Alu Tie Rod to see if they help any, but doing all of this tightens up things some, but there's still A LOT compared to larger scale RC I've been involved with. I have almost pulled the trigger on a PN AA Arm front end, and those who have them say they are pretty tight, but you still get the slop between the servo arm, tie rod, and knuckles, which is where most of the side to side slop is.
I'm no Engineer, so I have wondered if the slop is built in to calm down the twitchiness in the steering. Those with the 28th scale pan type cars can chime in weather or not the tight tolerances of those kits help or hurt with control.
As for the tracking left to right, yes they all seem to do it somewhat, though my PN 2.5W chassis seems to do it the least and only under very hard throttle input. You can dial out most of it with a CPU Radio. Speaking of Radios the best thing I have bought for my 4 Mini-z's is a Noble NB4! You can do so much with them, and they make you feel much more connected to the car!
PoorBoy has a lot of cars with many different frontends, and can tell you the plus and minuses of them. I really want the PN AA Arm front end for the ability to easily and quickly adjust it for different track layouts, but the cost has kept me from getting one, yet.
Hope this helps, Drew
BoxxerBoyDrew thank's for the welcome
The problem I mostly have with the slope is that the reaction is not always the same just after exiting the corner, as example with this layout when exiting the fast corner before the straight sometime it track straight and sometime (often or most of the time) it have a tendency to dive to the inside, the worst is sometime it exit straight and for no reason I know, in about the middle of the straight it goes sudenly in the inside wall without me giving any input or correction at all. I few of my MR-03 have this problem, all of them have lot of front wheel play, some more than other... I have an MR-04 also and the front end is in another world compare to the MR-03, still new but so much less play, really more precise, pridictable and fun to drive. I ask myself if I should go the PN2.5 and PN front way, but not shure if it's the way to go? is it better than the MR-04?? It will be almost the same cost to upgrade I guess?
I already have an NB4 and most of my MR-03 and the MR-04 are bind to it, at now I used mostly 20 to 25% expo on steering only and always max travel as I like to have more turning capability when needed. I also just bought a used EX-6R to use with my MR-03 ASF and MHS, tried it yesterday but it look like it doesn't work, can't pass true the calibration screen... but this is another story
Thank's for all the info, will continue to look for clues to remove the slope because I don't want to end up replacing all my MR-03 with Mr-04
... And anyway, I will need a MR-03 for the Box Stock Class
