Jim,

in the M03 build-up story it says Blue (hard) Front and Yellow (medium) rear. Which indeed is the 'convention' for most cars. And what we advise people to start with.

But that doesn't mean it's the only set-up.....The TRF drivers in Japan run the opposite.
And it backs up my long-held theory that the springs aren't actually as important as everyone thinks they are....

I think you're absolutely right, Tony. My car was as blinged out as one could get (for a mini) and I've slowly been taking away the bits that cost too much, break too easily, or don't show any notable improvement over the stock bits.

I'm even thinking of ditching my fancy alloy dampers now, in favour of the plastic super mini ones.

My car is now a collection of m-03, m-03m, m-03r and whatever else I found lying in the toolbox.

Jim

Is this a Mini?



Maybe so....check here to find out about the curious story of the ABOX Mini..

That has been my thinking on full suspension cars ever since TCs first started getting popular. I remember taking one of my TCs and swapping the hard front springs witht he soft rear springs and could not tell a difference. In these cars it seems tire selection is critical.

However in pan cars running foam tires there are very noticable difference in springs.

I haven't yet figured out if my observations are because of the difference in properties between foam and rubber tires or the difference in suspension design.

thanks for the trouble, i will try it out at my track tonight.

It's two-up Tuesday! (except it's Wednesday..) Either way two updates in a single day is a record of sorts.. So you can tell that Tony isn't pushing himself all that hard at work today.



So...whats this part? Click here to check out the Tech Racing Spool conversion for your M03.

Funny, I saw those for the first time today on rcmart. I'd always heard that completely locking the diff in your mini was a bad thing.

I did have a little personal experience regarding this a few weeks ago. I built a new ball diff, loaded it with anti wear grease and cranked it down. It was essentially locked.

The car handled like crap! If one wheel got a little grab it would pull ahead, changing the suspension geometry so the other side would grab, and so on and so on...the car fishtailed a little.

I suppose if you are racing on the right surface it could work though.

Jim

Depending on the grip level of your track, the selection of the right spring can prevent traction rolling.

I have found that once you have the right tyres the springs can prevent the front end from pitching in and traction rolling. This of course comes back to your selection of shock piston and oil weight.

As I have posted before, tyres first, springs then oils.

Just my two bob's worth.

BTW,

I've got nothing,.....but I'm working on fixing it.

Later

Calvin.

Stiff springs up front and soft in the rear is a good baseline for 4WD or rear-drive cars, as it will tend to make the car understeer (which is easier to deal with than oversteer). With the M03, though, whatever I put in the rear doesn't seem to make much of a difference.

When I was heavy into 1/8 nitro onroad ten years ago, no one used a diff. We ran solid rears and one-way fronts. Of course we had gobs of power and couldn't afford to lose traction getting the power down in the corners.

Now, if someone could make a Torsen diff for the M03...

Heya, when you guys use CA glue on the side of your tires to stiffen them up, does it make them look like crap? Mine are all shiny and nasty looking. Kinda lumpy...y'know?

Jim

I doesn't stiffen the sidewalls, it takes away the grip. The sidewall flexes still but since it's covered with CA it won't grab and roll the car.

And yes it looks shiny, but doesn't have to look crappy. I've learned to do it pretty cleanly so it looks decent.

as I'm nearly finished my M03M I've just realised that even though the gear I put in it isn't top of the line, so to speak, everything I've put in the car (ex esc as that is the kit one) cost more than the car itself.

Ohhhh, now I get it. Makes sense.

Now, should I tell you guys about the "incident" last night when I was gluing tires? I'll go so far as to say that there was a "spray" of glue that went 360 degrees, and I had to act quickly because my mouth was glued shut for a second there. (Did I mention that I had a tire stuck to my hand, too?)

If only there was a camera running.

Jim

will the mini wheels fit on my hpi took it out of storage looking to play around with but have no wheels