Tamiya Minis at YMCC
Dan from Blink Studio got in touch with this ace video, the Yateley track looks ace fun for the little front wheel drivers.
Prediction: in-car / on-car video is going to be big in 2010…
Written by simon.
Tamiya Differential Self Build
I figured the laziest way to build a diff was to get it to build itself…
Written by simon.
Tamiya M05 Setup Shenanigans
I raced the Tamiya M-05 at DMCRC for the first time last night. There were 3 more of them out there, and it seems there’s a bit of a struggle to get a set up that works!
I faffed about with mine a bit, and got it to work okayish, it was still a bit twitchy, and had a bit too much turn-in.
Tyres were key, as usual, I discovered the ones I were using weren’t actually glued on any more, so once I fixed that they were a lot better! I was using the usual S-grips up front and M-grip on the rear combination favoured on carpet. Other folk were using A-types, but I can’t afford them!
My car is short wheelbase, I think it might work better as medium or long. But that’s not easy to change without a longer bodyshell, so I’ll stick with short and get it to work.
Springing was a bit weird, I ended up with super ultra hard springs, on the rear! And on the front about 2 grades softer. I was running a front roll bar, but not a rear one.
The M-05 has it’s front shocks leant right in, I keep thinking if they were stood up more it would be lesss twitchy? I don’t know. I’ve seen 3-racing do a shock mount which offers two wider positions, I think that will be worth experiementing with.
The other thing I did was put about 2 degress of camber on the rear. The M05 Pro comes with adjustable rear links, but not front links. So the fronts remained at kit camber (about 0.5 degrees I’d say) – if they were adjustable, perhaps I could have increased camber to try and reduce the amount the outside edge of the tyre grabs as it rolls into the corner, to attempt to reduce the twitchyness. I’ll have to try and fabricate some short front links.
The end result was a car that was quick, the fastest lap was on the pace, but it was difficult to drive, it was all too easy to turn in too quickly and for it to hit the corner, so I made a lot of mistakes. The new steering system is too sharp, the old M03 steering was more forgiving!
Oh, yes, the other thing I’m going to try is to sand down the outer edge of the front S-grips, and maybe try the old superglue on the outer sidewall trick.
All in all the M05 is cool, it corners flatter, is more accurate and fun to drive. It’ll take a few meetings to get them performing well, and then I think we’ll have some really close racing.
Written by simon.
Tamiya M05 Pro Build
The Tamiya M05 Pro has been built. The ridiculous amount of plastic is indeed ridiculous, as at the end of the build I still seem to have a lot of bits left over!
I’m going to race the M05 at DMCRC, where it will be racing against other M05s, and M03s. With that in mind I built it for carpet racing.
The basic kit goes together okay, and the gearbox is the same inside as the M03. I took the ball diff from my M03, and the carbon shafts, and dropped them in the M05. I also put the CVDs on the front from my M03 too.
The bearings with the M05 seem good enough, a bit greasy, so I flushed that out and re-lubed. The rear of the car got the hardened axles from the M03, as you’re guessing now, I’m basically taking all the nice bits off the M03!
I used a set of Tamiya TRF shocks too, the original ones, some blue ones would be nice, but I don’t tend to have spares of those kicking around, unlike Ed, who has them coming out of his ears. These have a lot of spacers inside, to reduce droop, and they went straight onto the M05, and provided exactly the same ride height, even though the top mount geometry is totally different.
(I didn’t even consider building the clear shocks, they look just stupid, and I’m sure I’d break them before they even got on the car…)
The front anti-roll bar from the M03 fits straight on (with a little trimming of the link to clear the gearbox), but the rear one doesn’t fit at all, the mounting it totally different.
The steering on the M05 is nice, the bump-steer is virtually gone, and the geometry will be better. But, the stock plastics are rubbish in this area, there’s a lot of slop, bending of the ‘rack’ and I’d say as soon as an alloy replacement is available this would be a very god area to upgrade.
(Along with front alloy hubs, which shockingly aren’t included in the Pro kit, even though Tamiya do them as an option! What’s all that about?)
The electrics slot in so neatly at the back, a huge improvement. The received and speed control have plates to sit them on, but I decided to mount them vertically instead, very neat, less plastic.
The battery mounts are totally different, but I didn’t even take them off the sprues, the quick release one went on instead. The servo rod is so long, and too shiny, so I stole the idea of heatshrinking it to make it blend in better.
Body posts are in the same place as the M03, so existing shells drop straight on it. Which is a good thing, seeing as they don’t supply one with the Pro kit.
The verdict? It looks excellent, a general improvement over the M03 in several areas, and I think it will handle a lot flatter and more keen to change direction. Recommended!
Written by simon.
Tamiya M05 Pro Unboxing
I got hold of one of the very first Tamiya M05 Pro kits in the UK. I imported it directly from Japan, a day or two before they officially came out over there.
Parcelforce of course hung on to it for a day or two before letting me have it…
YouTube seems to love people taking things out of boxes, so I thought I’d give it a go, and did a very shoddy video, note the incorrect items mentioned, and not getting things in the frame. Oh, I’m such a lazy amateur!
