Dan,
Like mentioned you'll probably have best performance for medium traction asphalt w/ S-Grips all around.

I run on high traction and use S-Grips on the rear w/ A Slicks up front for high traction asphalt surface. S-Grips all around gave me too much traction roll ...the slicks take that edge off for me, and the S-Grips keep the rear from sliding out. ...personally i'd start w/ S-Grips all around, they seem to be most popular ...but try Slicks or a combo of S-Grips and slicks if you find you are getting too much traction. I've noticed that many of the guys at our track including Chris D (who I believe you know) their S-Grips are worn to the point of being slicks on the front ...so in essence they are doing the same thing I am w/ slicks in front S-Grips in back.

By the way, I am loving my Sabre 4wd (I believe I bought it from you last year) ...just took it out last week to the Delta Hobbies indoor track.

Glad you like the Sabre! I will get my other one up and running again...some day.

We are starting a TCS rules mini class here at PPRC just as a fun class. It's a small track so the speed of the mini will be perfect for it and no complaints about motor wars. Unfortunately I don't think the slicks are a TCS legal tire, unless I'm mistakened... Anyways, should be fun, I miss running these Tamiya minis.

Thanks guys for the input on tires!

Hi Dan. The 1028 and 1029 premount slicks are TCS legal.

Eric, Chris gave me another tip for running S-Grips all around on M-05. Sauce the rears only. Worked great for me at Speedworld.

Ah, gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.

Here is my method of differentiating my drivers.
Cut-offs of ESC wire insulation.

Yeah, when your eyes will go you'll do like I did and wrap the whole handle in tape of different colours.

Marcos - very clever!

It's interesting to hear comments and opinions about the tires from another track. Some of the findings are very different from what the tires seem to do at Aliso or what we think happens.

This makes me more convinced than ever that much of what we do is very track specific. What works for me may not work at all for you. Much of the time, this phenomenon is attributed to differing driving "styles". I'm of the opinion that this may have some effect, but is much less than the differing tracks. Yes, true that some set ups will work on different tracks, but the optimum set up on one is rarely the optimum at another.

This is why I've not posted any set ups in the past few years. When i do post one, it's generally a generic set up which is intended as a starting point cause it has a big safety margin. That doesn't mean that others should not, it just means that we should keep this in mind. I remember from years ago, I'd post my latest and greatest set up and have someone else try it on their track and be so disappointed when it did not work for them.

It just seems lately that the more I learn, the less I have to say or am willing to post. Also that some things I thought were "principles" were merely opinions. Which means that over the years, some of what I've posted were not principles, as I believed at that time, but just BS.

Granpa- I have to say I've been toying with the Mini-Z's the last month with pretty much no prior experience, and I just setup my car to my preference trying different tires, t-plates, etc.

I found this site about a week ago where an experienced driver set up his Mini-Z and was pleasantly surprised to see that my setup was almost identical to his setup, which just re-confirmed to me that I now know how to set up the Mini-Z.

So keep it coming! There are areas of your setup that will apply to our m-chassis.

Regardless, please keep on posting!

But I can relate: for me, the more I learn the less I know.

A quick anecdote: I once worked with a new, young electrical engineer who was quite sharp but also green. I figured since I had many years in, I would be a pretty good source of information for him, and looked forward to sharing my "immense wisdom". After working with him a few months, he casually mentioned that his Master's thesis had just been published. This piqued my curiosity: what was the subject of his thesis? His answer: the effect of random quantum vacuum fluctuations during chaotic inflation.

Boy, did I feel like a spud.

He just made that up. Baffled his profs so they'd just give him a pass.

No No he didn't....LOL

Can someone tell me if TopRacing's black grease is similar to Tamiya's AW grease?

I just realized last night my SabreFD mini kit did not come with any grease... I have AE's clear diff grease, but no 'black' grease.

Update: I will use the AW grease for its thrust bearing.


I also have ceramic thrust bearings as a hop-up. What grease do you guys use for ceramic thrust bearings?

Here is an example of something I no longer jump in on. eR1c posted that some at his track were using worn S-Grips up front and that was the equivalent of running Tamiya slicks in front. Now, this is the opposite of what I've experienced cause in our case, we have grip, lose a bit of grip, then gain a lot of grip as the tires wear. BUT, that's at Aliso and his experience is where he and Dan apparently run. My input is of not much value and is just BS for those two guys. While it may be of some benefit to some it may just be nonsense to others. I try to be careful when contributing in areas like this to be sure to add a qualifier at the end of my post. I just forget sometimes.

Here's an example of something I believed was a principle and used to quote a lot. It was pretty much accepted by all that Minis ran best with toe out. One degree was minimal and the usual setting was one to two degrees. As I learned more, I discovered that this was not a principle but just BS for the newer set ups we had gone to. As in all things, things change and evolve, so it's best not to get too dogmatic about things.

Has anyone tried the new version II chassis on their version I car ? Will this help the handling problems ? Are other parts needed ? I'm about to order some parts and have the option of buying the chassis.