Hi - I'm actually from a little further south (Northants) - I own a VW Derby - hence my username - but have raced a few times at West Bridgeford (& do the Mid East regional series).

I raced the M-08 again last Friday - at my local club (Kettering) - we run the same grey carpet as West Bridgeford. Whilst we do allow different on-road classes to run - the predominant class last week was 1-10th TC - I was the lone Tamiya 'M' chassis car in the qualifying - but was joined by an M-07 in the finals when the driver broke his new touring car. Adam's M-07 is a well sorted car & is laden with upgrades - my M-08 is 100% stock. I had been trying some of Adam's tyres during the heats but resorted to using the treaded Pit Shimizu tyres (Soft rear & Hard front) in the finals - when the grip comes up, these seem to give a good balance between rear end grip & front end bite. It certainly isn't as easy to drive as the front drive car & you have to have your wits about you when accelerating - but in the end our quickest laps were just 1-10th sec apart (in favour of the M-07). The good thing is that I can see there is loads of scope for improvement - the kit supplied springs are not only too soft, but also too long - so you end up putting the spring in compression when setting ride height & pre-load - affecting L/R rate.

The manual does call out a 2.5mm hole drilled for the grub screw. Upper left hand corner of page 13 near step 25. I am thinking that NOT drilling well could actually put stress on the part in that area from the grub screw spreading it out.

That being said I have broken a few myself. And I agree it is the weakest part of the car. Light contact can cause them to break or develop hairline cracks that introduce suspension slop. It’s really my only complaint about the kit other than the omission of sway bars, which I feel like are an absolute must for anything other then lower grip asphalt.

They make a carbon reinforced upright for the M-07 that appears to be a close fit. Part # 54810. I haven’t tried them yet but a quick comparison makes it look like the only difference is the way they used the hinge pin inserts on the m-08 version. I’ll take some good measurements and post any geometry differences if anyone is interested.

The car is really fun to drive. Always puts a smile on my face.

Yes, please post the measurements and differences. Thank you.

M07 is zero degree caster, that's the reason why M08 has its own. All other Suspension parts are M07. Still hoping 3 racing or exotek make some solid aluminum ones. Why Tamiya chose such a weird design, is something I will never understand. From the first first look in the manual I knew I should order enough spare parts wit the kit...

If you use the M07 front hub (0 degrees and more durable), you will need to use the bottom caster plate option from 4 degrees to 6 degrees. This will give you arm sweep angle to achieve the caster, which may or may not work for your driving style.

The M08 C-block has the stupid inserts for caster (giving 4 or 5 degrees), but retains the arm at a flat angle. The inserts are a weak point for durability and excessive slop.

0 degrees

I think its 5 but don't quote me on that. Might have to dig thru the M07 thread. Tamiya makes aluminum option blocks from 0, 4, 5, and 6.

...you could get an M07, problem solved!

Okay, that was a joke, not meant to stir the pot (I love the mini class and all its iterations).