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Essential upgrades for the M03 Mini Cooper? 5 years 7 months ago #51223

Hi there,
So I last posted a year and a half ago about getting back into Tamyia RC building and ordered an M03 Mini Cooper kit to build. I'm now finally starting it. I did buy the metal bearings and a sport tuned motor, but after reading around there are lots of opinions on other things you should swap out/upgrade.
I'm not going to be doing any club racing (yet! Who knows...) but is there anything else that I should be getting instead of using stock bits with the kit.
Just interested in thoughts here before I go too far into the build. Exciting times!

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Essential upgrades for the M03 Mini Cooper? 5 years 7 months ago #51224

Are you sure it's an M-03? Your pic in the "mailman" thread is of an M-05 kit :blush:

My experience of on road Tamiya chassis' is limited, but I've often found their FWD and a lot of their 4WD chassis (m-01, FF01, TA03F) to be set up for stability to such an extent that they are incapable of going round proper corners as found on a track, even the widest, sweepingest ones - something that's usually masked by running them out in the road or in a car park.

If you've got any ambition to go racing, setup and option parts are going to be defined primarily by the rules they run under, and secondly by the sort of track they run on ... all things being equal I'd expect that to be a tight, technical, indoor carpet track; there will probably be a very specific list that you need to be "legal" and have a chance of being competitive. Very difficult to anticipate what that list might be, for example the consensus might be that you need an instant/full reverse ESC - or you might not be allowed reverse at all. Motors might be limited to a kit silvercan, or rebuildable 27T, or something else. Brushless motors might be prescribed or proscribed, ditto Lipo batteries. Until you know, you don't ;)

However, for a street/car park racer I'd be looking at the following to start with:
setting up the steering using the innermost set of holes on the front uprights, not the outer ones as shown in the manual
lots of rear suspension on Tamioya cars can be built with the rear suspension swapped side to side to run with toe out (rather than toe in) - not sure if the M-05 is one of them, but if you can, do
metal bearings all round - preferably with the regular oil cleaned out and a lighter machine oil used instead
mild motor upgrade (Sport Tuned = good choice IMO :y:)
oil shocks all round (e.g. Tamiya part # 54000, etc), soft settings on the front, hard on the rear;
tyres - if you have a choice, grippy(er) on the front, hard(er) on the rear
antiwear grease in the diff

next level:
a "fast" servo
alloy motor mount (for cooling) + motor heatsink
antiroll (sway) bars
2S Lipo battery/charger
body: a lighter, more aerodynamic one

Beyond that, there are all sorts of alloy "upgrades" possible ... not sure how many of them a valid/useful TBH

:)
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Essential upgrades for the M03 Mini Cooper? 5 years 7 months ago #51225

Take a pick full tuning list are on the right side.

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Last edit: by waterbok.

Essential upgrades for the M03 Mini Cooper? 5 years 7 months ago #51226

Hey All,
Well I agree with a lot of what Jonny said, the picture certainly shows a M05 ( honest typo, too many M chassis cars anyway IMHO ) but it is also FWD so same FWD rules apply. I have a RWD M05 that I am planning on building but that is a different set up. I did do some running in the Tamiya series with a M03 mini years ago and the rules were set up to keep everyone sort of competitive. I think we had to use sock sliver can motors and any hop-up parts had to be tamiya brand…imagine that ;) ….so if you had a big wallet you could buy all the hop-ups and……..still loose :P ….. Honestly the box stock M chassis FWD cars are a lot of fun, yes there are mods, but you had better learn through experience what they do and if they apply to your situation.

I think Jonny has given you some great set=up tips BUT for RWD cars.

For FWD at least for me I want a bit more toe-in in the rear, makes it turn in faster.
A bit of toe-out in the front as well, so as the power is applied the wheels try and pull themselves toward 0 degrees.
Definitely add some oil dampers and I agree with a bit more camber too if you are on a short twisty course, it keeps the outside tires biting into the track a bit more. Too much get squirrelly on long straights.
The softer tires go at the back on a FWD setup, to help keep the back in line with the front…. in my experience, yours may vary :whistle: …..
A tall body like the mini can benefit from an anti-sway bar but go easy, if they are too heavy the suspension might as well be solid.

And that is another thing, if you are running on a very flat track the suspension really doesn’t move much so don’t worry too much about bump steer settings and camber shift, set the chassis up at the ride height you like and run it. Don't get to complicated :)

To be honest I would start with the oil dampers and a set of suspension pins and clips instead of the kit screw pins, it will make any future add ons easier.

Set the car up properly and go drive it :y: , get a feel for it…….. over steer? Under steer? Won’t track straight when accelerating ? Won’t go straight when coasting? Lots of variables, short course, long course?
But as I said learn why you are going to change something. If you just want to add stuff for looks that’s cool too, we all do it :laugh: :laugh: , but if you really want to race, .................learn your setup and drive your setup… best advice I ever got. :y:
From somewhere out in the wilds of central Ontario.
.......you build what you like, I will build what I like........it's all cool......
 
 

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Essential upgrades for the M03 Mini Cooper? 5 years 7 months ago #51227

For me, bearings, esc and sport tuned are enough to have fun. I played with my swift and it is enough to play. But in compétition, look for a mini xpress roadrunner.... :D
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Essential upgrades for the M03 Mini Cooper? 5 years 7 months ago #51246

Thanks everyone - so helpful! I love the amount of detail that goes into setup and tuning of these cars! Decided in the end to stick with a stock build, but with decent (not plastic!) bearings and the tuned motor. May upgrade other bits later, but sticking with this for now. It's only my first build in 20yrs so trying to calm it!

That said, turns out I bought an AVC receiver and radio kit so if I get it right, this little mini will effective have traction control. Can turn it off for more fun though.

The chassis build is now complete - so just the fun bit of creating my smart body shell now. Oh and I bought a lighting set to will try and get some headlights, brakelights and maybe some indicators too...

Anyway, news is that it's alive and working, whoop!

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Last edit: by rcbadger. Reason: adding image

Essential upgrades for the M03 Mini Cooper? 5 years 7 months ago #51249

You can maybe use midnight pumpkin front grill to have nice headlights. I think that the diameter is good.

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