Wow I quite like the look of that. I planned in making a rally mini out of the 1/8 body from tamiya and sticking it on a rally car chassis or buggy chassis. A 4WD track mini sounds quite fun, especially if it's hpi quality.

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Why Drink And Drive When You Can Smoke Dope And Fly!?

I had to find out just how hard it was to get to the diff, it was notchy at one point in one rotation of the wheels - some grit had found it's way into the gearbox and a little chunk had become embedded between two teeth in the diff




the front skirt on it turns me off, also mine wasn't formed properly where the parking lights join the bumper, so it cracked there pretty quickly... it feels cheaper than the tamiya shell, and it was cheaper, I only bought it because I was paying for freight for the traveller shell from UK and couldn't bear to not have something else in with it

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

Yeah true, I'd love to get one of those traveler/pickup shells too, turn it into a drifter...

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Why Drink And Drive When You Can Smoke Dope And Fly!?

that would actually be a good use for them, I'd never put it on the m05 - way too much risk of damaging it...

the place I bought the traveller from probably still has the ute

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

Put some tape over or some bluetac in the motor mount holes that aren't used for the smaller pinions. Will stop junk getting in. The kit diff will free up in minutes and will be smooth.

Just remember that when buying hop ups, keep it all Tamiya.

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didn't come in through there, I have the motor gasket on it, and it was clean...



yeah it did...



shouldn't have to be Tamiya stuff....



Nathan?

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

Doesn't have to be, but make sure it is. Tamiya > everything else.

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Mine came with individual little cardboard discs that have the holes for screws. Just pick whichever one you need for the right sized pinion and the disc block out the other two holes.

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Why Drink And Drive When You Can Smoke Dope And Fly!?

yeah, that's the gasket...

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

Yeah sorry I'm in my iPad and it hadn't updated, didn't see your post.

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Why Drink And Drive When You Can Smoke Dope And Fly!?

I wnet racing today. Ended up stripping both the spur and the pinion gears. Not happy.

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Ryan Filippi
Minis In The Gong
ryan@minisinthegong.com.au
www.minisinthegong.com.au

Sorry gang, have been in Maryborough at the 24 hour Energy Breakthrough race with the students from school. Am wrecked now!

Tamiya hop-ups. You're right, you don't 'have' to buy tamiya ones now (in the past they HAD to be Tamiya) but to be honest, the Tamiya ones are ALWAYS better quality! 3Racing make a few bits and they 'might' be ok, but I've learnt over the years and now I simply buy the Tamiya ones the first time and be done with it. I think Scott has a 3Racing alloy front shock tower or something on his car? I went with the Tamiya Carbon front end on the last car just cos I could. Seems to be good so far.

In terms of replacement shocks - you really can't go past the TRF M-Chassis ones. They are pricey though $70-80 I think. The Mini C.V.A Shocks are good too though - #50746 I think they are. There should be a build doc on RC-MINI somewhere that tells you to build them to 56mm length for best handling. They use spacers to set the ride height whereas the Tamiya TRF ones have a threaded collar that makes it infinitely adjustable.

That HPI shell is some serious vintage stuff! They were a great shell for racing! The Monster Mini's are probably the coolest 'realish' looking mini (unless you want a BINI - but I don't imagine that'd be the case around this forum!) They are pricey though unfortunately. There are plenty of other non-mini related bodies though available too - rmart.com probably has the best selection in the one place.

damn... I'm gonna have to track down a few more HPI shells now.... hate that

tamiya bits it is then

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

My front shock tower is Tamiya. It bends because I'm a hack, but can be bent back. It's better than the carbon one because of this. I had ran carbon ones previously, but after breaking the second one (then as I had no spares I ran two broken ones back to back for about 3 months) I thought I'd try the alloy.

I have had experience with the 3Racing shocks, and they are ok. Just not as nice as the Tamiya ones. Tamiya shocks are also known in the Touring car world to be as good as anything else available.

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Looks like I told a lie then!

Tamiya (particularly TRF) shocks are un-matched in the world of TC to the point that some companies don't even bother trying!