just a simple change in the material would make a measurable difference... give the current designs the 'ol Carbon Reinforced Plastic treatment.

Ther've already done so with M05vII arms... why not the rest of the parts and chassis?

im sure the M03 and M06 fans would welcome the idea as well...

Nice, any pictures of your TA03FS? I'd like to see what that looks like.

Yes, I too like my Tamiya m-chassis, but I wanted to see something more revolutionary, not evolutionary. I am also tired of cracking open my chassis in half just to change diff settings. But as you said, it's all for fun.

1) TA03F w/ tub & towers swapped out for CF plates. 256mm WB

2) TA03FS w/ tub swapped out for FRP plates. 235mm WB

3) XRAY T1M. Essentially the same parts and layout as the original T1, but the saddle slots were made for those tiny 2/3A - sized NiMH cells, instead of the standard sub C - sized cells. 210mm WB

Here is my M05 sandwiched between the TA03FS and the T1M. 218mm WB

Hey that Xray looks familiar

(0000000000) - Thanks! I see what you did there with the tub to CF swap.

I was thinking more inline to your T1M as far as the TRF version m-chassis as it looks closer to my M-Four and Sabre4WD Mini.

I guess I just got back a little too late after my haitus .. missed the boat kind of.. oh well.

LoL, it should look familiar!

I had one back in 2003 and with work taking me from vancouver to northern BC to interior BC, to red deer, to calgary, I spent a few years looking for one (in good condition) to reconnect with. Turns out, some australian guy pitting a few tables down from me had just what I was looking for.

Thanks AJ

What is going on with that twin-motor TA03(FR?) setup?

Yup, going to the outer, lower dampening positions with the gold suspension pins does indeed slightly increase the effective spring rate, as well as allowing more maximum shock angle when necessary. It also, and in my opinion more importantly, creates more shock travel, which makes shock oil changes more noticeable. As an aside, It also allows you to run the black TC springs more easily, which allows more droop to be run if advantageous to your setup. Also, pick up some longer shock ball ends for additional length adjustment. Hope that helps.

Does anyone here run dcj's on their mini? I'm running my mini with fairly low ride height and it has serious wheel hop compared to those I run against so I'm curious to try a double jointed driveshaft to see if this helps, I also ordered the gold front suspension pins to increase my front shock travel. Also the track I run at calls for the johnson silver can motor so I'm looking for proper break in advice as all of my motor experience has been brushless. There is a guy at the track using 55mm tires vs my 60mm ones with the same gearing and somehow he's faster than me on the back straight away, fortunately he does make some mistakes so I've been able to beat him but I have to drive near flawlessly with standard deviations on two tenths or less. I've heard he uses old motors out of clod busters and his motor looks chrome plated where my johnson 540 is not quite as shiny... maybe that's the difference?

You spotted it! Yes, dual motor TA03. Swapped out the rear gearbox for an extra front i had lying around.

You get a lot of "wheel hop" when you have too much dual rate and regularly do a lot of end-to-end steering.

Turn down the dual rates and drive a bit softer, and you'll be fine.

Or you can spend some money on DCJ cvd's - many ways to fix the same issue.

Most of my wheel hop occurs during straight line hard acceleration if I hit the trigger too hard, probably just need to be smoother with throttle but with the ride height I'm using and the 60mm tires the axles are noticeably higher than the diff out drives so I thought the dcj's might help

If the tires are hopping while you accelerate in a straight line, then you probably have some binding, or some really big gaps of a lot of slop, or your tires are extremely unbalanced. Very surprised to see this is happening with a silvercan, as these issues usually only become visible when there is plenty of power on hand. In any case, DCJ's will not help you if your car is wobbling while you are driving straight.

Many of us race with a ride height of 3mm to 5mm. If you notice a bunch of dark marks on the bottom of your car, then its probably too low. But low ride height wont be enough to hurt the cvd angle. What kind of shocks are you running?

The Johnson/Mabuchi silver cans that have been used by Tamiya over the years have changed spec a title from time to time, but became "slightly more" consistent over the past 10 years. If I'm not mistaken, the older, shiny motors were Mabuchis and often had 4 slots in the can, rather than two. These are faster. Among the newer motors, the Johnsons with "cs" stamped on the brushes are supposed to be quite good.

There are loads of videos on YouTube showing basic break in methods. One of the more effective ones is to run the motor at low voltage submerged in a glass of water, for a few minutes. (Motor only, not the batteries!) You can also attach the motor to a slave,took with a piece of fuel tubing and run the slave low speed for a while. This helps seat the brushes and doesn't generate heat. Also, also, search for the "silver can tips and tricks" thread. It's like reading hieroglyphics, but the answers are there.