I'll try to get some pics up this weekend.
One of my biggest hates about this car is the fact that Schumacher still uses the lousy T10 Torx head screws
. Wish that they would put in some metric hex screws instead. if anyone were to buy the kit, I would highly recommend getting a decent Torx driver or purchasing the equivalent in normal metric hex screws.
The build was quite straight forward, nothing really much to report. The ball diffs are assembled already, so putting the kit together was a lot quicker. Be sure to tension the front belt a little tighter than you think it needs. I put 50wt oil in the front shocks and 40wt in the rear. Stuck with the supplied blue springs, standing the front shocks up to the maximum and leaving the rears as is. Camber at 1 degree negative all around, castor at minimum (8.5).
One of the main reasons for buying the Mi-1 was to evaluate it for racing purposes for my sponsor (hobby shop), and the other one is that I am waiting for the Mi-4CX and I needed a car to race till it is released.
Didn't need a lot of wheel time with the car to get it handling reasonably. Following comments are for rubber/carpet with no additive. Got 4 races (5min duration) to dial the car in with a boosted 10.5 motor, and the next week was a 30min endurance race. I am glad to say that the chassis is more than capable to handle 21.5/17.5/13.5 boosted setups. With 10.5 and quicker motors, the MI-1
in kit form can't quite put the power to the ground resulting in a little wheelspin punching out of corners. Ample steering and rear traction is available at all times, and chassis surprisingly responds quite well to changes.
With a set of springs and a bit more time on the track tweaking, I am sure that it is on par with almost any chassis out there. If I get some time to do more testing, I will try to post my findings here.
The MI-1 is extremely tough!! There were a couple of times I clipped a pipe at full noise into the sweeper and tumbled/cartwheeled/barrel rolled off the track, and the car came through without any problems. Very well made!!
Hope this helps someone who is looking at purchasing the MI-1!