Tire blowout.

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Here are more articles, photos, videos and setup tips for the Tamiya m-chassis mini rc cars such as the M03, M04 and M05.

It’s easy to do. Just buy regular Sorex touring car tires, cut off enough rubber to make smaller diameter tires, then use very small amount of superglue to join the tire end-to-end.

Sorex Mini Tires

Above is a photo of my tires. They were immediately banned by my local racing club as they were “fabricated”. Hence I productionized them above as a joke. Anyways I guess for future races I will have to make do with Tamiya S-Grip tires. Too bad, these Sorex tires give good grip, are cheap and will last a long time.

Thanks.

Joel

Weight Balance

First, it is important to have good weight balance. The front left and right tires should ideally be equally loaded. The same goes for the rear.

With motor and steering servo mounted (no esc, battery, receiver, body), the balance:

front right – 230gms
front left – 250gms
rear right – 170gms
rear left – 170gms

As we can see, the front right tire is not as loaded as the left front. One way to compensate is to install the Tamiya M05 Aluminum motor heatsink. This will help even out the weight distribution.

Next important item is weight reduction. In essence a lighter car is usually more agile and faster. Heavier cars are more stable, but will usually be slower in most scenarios.

Tamiya minis (m-chassis) do well with weight between 1,200 – 1,300 grams. The M05 is a very heavy car, usually at 1,300 grams. Ways to reduce weight are:

1. Use a lightweight body.
2. Use a lighweight esc and receiver.
3. Use lipo batteries.
4. Do not install unnecessary plastic parts if your rules allow it.

Here we can reduce 50 grams by not installing uneeded parts. The esc and receiver is 80 grams. The lipo battery is only 230 grams compared to 300 grams for a typical 1600 Nicad stick pack. The lightweight body is around 90 grams only.

Here is the weight balance of my M05:

Weight of Tamiya M05 mini r/c car.

Next, installing the esc and receiver. I spent a lot of time thinking about this. Eventually I decided based on weight balance rather than short esc wires.

Mounting of receiver and esc on Tamiya M05 mini.

Wheelbase and Body

An important tuning aid is deciding on the wheelbase and body. The mini can be setup as short (210mm), medium (225mm) and long (239mm) wheelbase. I decided to try medium wheelbase and use a Tamiya Mazda Miata body.

Suspension Tuning

And finally, suspension setup. I use Tamiya S-grips front and rear. Red springs front and white springs rear.

Tamiya M05 Performance Review

Mini Radio Control Car Race

I am used to driving an M03 and M04, with my M04 being the fastest of my minis. So my first track performance test of the M05 was on the first club race of the year. We had a full grid of minis.

Happy to report that my Tamiya M05 had the fastest lap of the day (16.27 seconds), which was around 0.5 seconds quicker than my M04. Mine was the only mini to consistently run 29 laps, the rest were 28 laps or less.

So I am very happy with the win on my first outing with the M05. All this weight balance and tuning does make a difference. I will be trying out more things (e.g. long wheelbase, Tamiya M05 differential) and will let you know the results.

Related Topics

Here are more info about the Tamiya M05 and m-chassis r/c cars.

Here is an r/c car called the ABC Hobby Genetic. Beautifully replicating the Devil Z car in Wangan Midnight.

The chassis is 4 wheel drive with 4 wheel independent suspension and shock absorbers.

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Mini 4wd RC Cars – Popular are HPI and ABC Hobbys with classic retro r/c car bodies.

1/43 Scale Kyosho dNaNo. Photo credit: racednano.com

One popular hobby shop is the dNano Trax rc shop. Here is their shop tour video. It’s like rc heaven!

Nice toys to add to your collection.

Here are dNaNo tracks worldwide, join now.

HobbyTown USA – Arlington, TX
Arlingtown Towne Centre
4116 Cooper St
Arlington, TX, 76015
United States

HobbyTown USA – Pensacola, FL
Creighton Commons
2620 Creighton Rd., Suite 302
Pensacola, FL, 32504
United States

Kyosho dNaNo Shop – Bangkok
60 Seri4 Param9-41
Soungroung
Bangkok, 10250
Thailand

Nanotrax
62/242-3 M12 Theprasit Road
Nongprue Banglamung Chonburi 
20150
Thailand

Kyosho Shop – Akihabara
B1F, 1-6-5 Kanda Sakuma-cho,
Chiyoda
Tokyo, 101-002
Japan

Kyosho Shop – Omotesando
B3F, 4-12-10 Jingumae
Shibuya
Tokyo, 150-000
Japan

Kyosho dNaNo Shop – Hong Kong
1/F, No.33, Yin Chong Street,
Mong kok
Kowloon,
Hong Kong

Photo of a Losi Micro-T mini rc car.

Hong Kong is heaven for rc hobbyists. There is a street in Kowloon full of rc stores, one next to another. You can spend an entire afternoon shopping. Prices in Hong Kong for rc cars are probably the cheapest in the world.

While shopping, I saw on a shop window a box for the Losi Micro T. I’ve read about this mini/micro rc car from forums and on the internet. Went into the shop and took a look. It did not take long before I bought it.

It was a good buy. I’ve probably ran the Losi Micro-T for over 100 times, and it is still running. It is durable and can even handle jumps and bump. I use it to train my driving skills.

Tips

1. Dial out as much steering end point adjustment as possible. This will make it less sensitive to steering input and easier to drive.
2. As you start feeling the need for more steering, slowly dial in more steering on the steering dual rate of the transmitter.
3. Try to run on hair free areas. Many times hair get entangled into the rear drive shafts, requiring the removal of the rear wheel to remove the hair.
4. Use fresh batteries in the battery charger included in the kit.

Photo of mini rc cars. Losi Micro-t, Tamiya Tamtech, Kyosho Mini Inferno

Above from left to right is 1/36 Losi Micro T, 1/24 Tamiya Tamtech and 1/16 scale Kyosho Mini Inferno.

Being small, I can play with my mini rc cars in my living room or garage. For 1/36 scale I highly recommend the Losi Micro T. I bought this in Hong Kong, ready to run with battery, charger and controller. It is fully proportional and very fast, I would estimate top speed of 10 – 12 mph. This is fast for it’s size, exciting to drive. Very durable as well, have not broken a single part in 2 years. I use this to keep my driving skills sharp. If you can control a 1/36 scale rc car, you can easily control a 1/10 scale.

I also enjoy 1/24 scale rc cars such as my Tamiya Tamtech’s and Kyosho Mini Z (actually a 1/28 scale). Good for having fun in my garage track.

Right now I am training my 8 year old girl Porsha with a 1/16th scale Kyosho Mini Inferno. Currently she is doing 10 laps in my garage track in 1minute 58 seconds. Not bad as I am doing 1minute 40 seconds. This is to prepare her for an upcoming race.

To summarize, mini rc cars are cheap, can be played in small places and be used as training machines for racing in 1/10 scale. I highly recommend you start with mini rc cars.

Joel

Related Topics

Mini 4wd

Associated – RC18
Duratrax – 1/18 Vendetta (touring car, buggy, short course and stadium truck)
HPI – 1/18 Micro RS4 Drift
Kyosho – 1/43 dNaNo, 1/28 Mini Z , 1/16 Mini Inferno
Radio Shack -  1/28 XMODs
Losi – Mini T, Micro T, Mini LST, Mini Crawler
Traxxas – 1/16 E-Revo, 1/16 Slash
XRAY – 1/18 M18