Tamiya M-03 Mini Cooper
How can you not love the Mini? I've always dismissed the M-chassis range by Tamiya as mere toys not worth bothering
with but when I saw this RTR package with a Mini Cooper shell going for a bargain, I had to grab it. For awhile,
I was outnumbered by the touring cars at the local carpet track but slowly, these little cars caught the imagination
of newbies and veterans alike. Today, a bunch of regulars race twice a week and almost any electric race has a class
for these cars.
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I like modifying cars too much to stick to factory parts, so this car will never be run in the Tamiya Asia Cup.
The aftermarket steering knuckles from Xpede, homemade servo mount, and threading a long stainless steel screw (20mm)
through the knuckle, a spacer, and Tamiya's 5mm ball nut (Item 53640), and of course, Tamiya rod ends/ball adjusters (Item 50875).
The servo saver is Tamiya High Torque saver (item 50473 or 51000).
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Phase one completed.
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For awhile there, I was running Tamiya's High Torque servo saver to help get rid of some steering slop.
These things turned out to be fragile and I broke a few before I wised up.
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I went back to using the stock steering saver and added a metal clip (from the high torque servo saver set) over the stock plastic clip
to help it keep it's shape. This has been working very well for me so far. (Raymond, thanks for this tip).
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I had to grind down the saver a little to fit Tamiya 5mm ball nuts on them (I find they have less slop than the step screws).
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Almost everyone I know who has driven an M-03 has cracked a chassis near the lower front screw hole (for one of the screws that holds the left and right
gearbox halves together).
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M-chassis cars are famous for their noisy transmission.
I thought that part of the noise might be coming from gears wiggling about.
The 850 bearing on this gear has to be pushed deep into the middle with the Tamiya box wrench.
This picture is of an experiment I am currently trying. Will give more details later.
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Since I sold my TA-05 in its stock form, my M-03 no longer had a set of oil shocks to borrow. I got a set of the TRF ones for it.
I put 2 Tamiya black O-rings on each shock shaft to limit the droop. I didn't use the yellow springs from this set
(except as shock holders while I waited for the bubbles to go away). I got some Tamiya short springs instead.
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Got tired of cycling batteries so I switched to Team Orion Carbon 3200mah LiPo packs.
They are a little longer than an ordinary stick pack, so they didn't fit so well into the stock battery holders.
I got the quick-release holder for the M-03 and used the quick release on one side and a stock battery holder on the other.
The wiring is still a mess in this picture because I still had 1 NiMH stick pack left with a Dean plug on it.
The thin wires go to the Novak SmartStop (2s version) low voltage cutoff unit.
The Carbon pack gave me more run time and faster acceleration compared to my old IB3800 stick packs, but most of this comes from
the weight savings rather than actual battery voltage or capacity. This combination of lighter weight and my current set of tires
(Tamiya radials) made the traction very poor.
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The quick-release gets a little sloppy and the battery slides around a little after awhile.
I found some aluminium spacers in my toolbox that were just perfect for spacing out the rigid FRP plate
that came with the quick-release set, so I used that instead. I put this back on the left side of the chassis
because the battery was sticking out too far out of the right side with the previous arrangement.
Also, Tony Gray from www.rc-mini.net suggested I tie the battery in with
some rubber bands cut out of mountain bike tire inner tubes. That stopped the battery sliding completely.
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I finally managed to stuff the electronics into the chassis without a chassis extender.
The receiver is small (JETI REX 5 plus) but the ESC is average-sized (Moped Bravo).
The Novak SmartStop unit is taped to the receiver and placed as far back into the chassis as possible.
5-layers of double-sided tape make a small platform above the main chassis screw "tunnels" so that the the ESC
has a flat place to sit on. There was no space left for the ESC switch, so that had to go on top.
