My Tamiya BMW Mini Cooper

[James]

I've finished building it, just need to put bullet connectors on the esc to easily connect the 540 motors. not bothering with direct soldering... :)

sorry about them being a bit blurry it was low light, and i cant hold a camera still for sh1t.

Here's a pic of setting up all cosy inside, ready for the build

e107_files/public/2_photo0046.jpg

[James]

tamiya kit's are so simple, probably some of the best instructions ever. Main tool used is a simple philips head screwdriver.

here's the front half of the car under way.

e107_files/public/2_photo0047.jpg

[James]

I spent more time with a sharpie knife cutting the dag's off the plastic items before assembly, than actually assembling :) I like it to be neat...

more...

e107_files/public/2_photo0048.jpg

[James]

whole car assembled, pretty much. it's pretty light, seems very solid. The way the shocks work are a bit strange, oh well. hope to upgrade them eventually, will see how it goes first.

Electronics installed:
GM V4R speedy (has reverse)
KO Propo 302F 3-chan receiver
Johnson 540 silver can motor (supplied in kit)

It does come with an electronic speed controller, but I didnt install it, my GM is smaller. I'll see how things go :)

I didnt have enough bearings to replace the bushes, so the front end is all bearings (including gearbox), and the rear axles run on bushes, for now until my bearings all arrive from Yeah Racing.

still need to glue the tyres to the rims, and buy or assemble some stick pack's to use in this thing.. then off we go :) hehe

e107_files/public/2_photo0049.jpg

[remotebandit]

sorry about them being a bit blurry it was low light, and i cant hold a camera still for sh1t.



>



Yeah , no worries James , we know you did that deliberately so we couldnt make out your stuff ups !whistle

I like it , looks cute , you may start a trend on these things mate , whats the kit worth minus running gear .

[nexxus]

Come on James be daring, go the sports tuned

[James]

I'll go the sports tuned eventually. im tryna do this on the cheap at the mo. Besides, I'll still have you for breakfast with a silver can ;) bwahaheaehAHEaH! !lol

Adam, the pics are blurry so no one can see how I set the car up... mwahahaha super top secret special tuning! <not> !jerkit

[James]

oh, kit is $165. comes with motor, and speed controller. you just add radio gear and a battery.

[nexxus]

Challenge ey? bring it on Sunday then!

[Bowling Ball]

For some reason - Every time I look at these Mini's the Benny Hill tune goes through my head!

[50 lemons]

pics of mine will be up as soon as I build mine. what color is the body going to be? snot green perhaps with a padlock on the driver's side door?

[JD]

haha

[KingBob]

Maybe paint it like it's an old one, some grey panels, rust etc :D

[James]

go the padlock on the door, Mr Bean stylez!!

Nexx, I'll be at the WAORMA AGM on sunday, not ryper... ;) besides, I got no stick pack's to run my mini yet! heh

[Jai]

that looks pro james, will have to have a closer inspection tonight. oh and guys i'll secretly take some better pics.... show off his 'sercret' setup !jerkit haha

[50 lemons]

Here's mine. It has bearings, manta ray diff, sport tuned motor, the standard speedie and some random servo i have



e107_files/public/218_mini1.jpg

[50 lemons]

back to stick packs

e107_files/public/218_mini2.jpg

[50 lemons]

don't know why i bought this when i did, but its useful now


e107_files/public/218_mini5.jpg

[James]

nice one Chen.. you got the ball diff action! I've tried mine with the standard diff and it sorta sucks. looses a lot of speed when cornering, as expected. it's not an understeering problem, it's a diff problem hehe. gotta get me some ball diff action!!

[KingBob]

But aren't the ball diffs going to be against the rules?

[nexxus]

No, it's an original hop up part

[50 lemons]

first driving impressions:
1 you can't stand on the throttle like you can with a 4wd touring car. You just light up the front tires. The mini accelarates heaps better in you feed in the throttle gradually

2 The car understeers heaps . Smooth steering input will limit this. The ball diff means you don't spin up the inside wheel in a corner and this too will limit understeer. If I didn't have the the ball diff I would be packing the standard diff centre with thick grease and graphite powder.

3 With a sports tuned motor and standard gearing The car has a lot of poke. I reckon the mini should be as fast as sports tuned equipped tt01

4 Its a hoot to drive.

[Jai]

saw james's example today and its a neat little car.... but def needs the ball diff........... james post some pics of the shell..

[James]

ok. pic 1


e107_files/public/2_photo0058.jpg

[James]

pic 2

e107_files/public/2_photo0059.jpg

[James]

pic 3

just need to trim the body posts down, and apply the rest of the stickers. I've spent more time applying the sticker sheet to this shell than building the whole kit. it's very delicate, a lot of very fine stickers, some you cant even see in the photos. eg there's stickers all around the windows, sills, etc. still more to go! :) this colour suits this body shell well, the roundness, etc. looks amazing in the light :)

e107_files/public/2_photo0060.jpg

[James]

and here's one last pic, of me thinking about the cost of r/c.

e107_files/public/2_photo0068.jpg

[nexxus]

Damn that's the colour I was toying with haha! Just got mine, waiting for my hop ups before I build. Ball Diff, Carbon Gear Shafts, Oil Shocks and bearings should get her started!

[BAGES]

Do they run classes in Perth of only Mini's?
They used to (may still) in Canberra - I always thought it looked cool - this was back in the day (1997)

[James]

Bages, Ryper hobbies are starting a mini class for next season, so yeap.. :)

nexx, my XXX-4g+ is painted in this colour.. i had left over paint hehe. you got loads of hop up's going on! haha, mine is totally standard! hahaha

[M.J]

haha its all american money

[nexxus]

James, I got to get myself every advantage to compensate for my driving hahaha!

[remotebandit]

MAD MAD MAD MAD MAD MAD MAD MAD MAD MAD MAD

FULLY SICK FULLY SICK FULLY SICK FULLY SICK FULLY SICK

FMD FMD FMD FMD FMD FMD FMD FMD

i love it , exactly what brnad and colour paint is it James , i need to do it to mine .

[James]

Tamiya spray pack, it's a purple/green candy flip, forget the code num of the paint now.. they only make a couple of candy flip colours..

[waOscar]

PS46 Iridescent Purple/Green
PS47 Iridescent Pink/Gold
:) :)

[James]

thanks oscar!! :)

I took the mini to Ryper yesterday for some LAPS. I bought two 1900mah niCD stick pack's while i was there (for less than $20 ea hehe) get me about 15 or 20 mins runtime out of them with my silvercan.

Car goes okay.. for a stock out of the box tamiya kit, FWD, with friction shocks (not oil shocks) and an open gear diff, I was having a ball and giving Chen's mini a hard time too :)

Chen phoned up Ryper while i was there, and Dave convinced him to head down with his new mini for a bit of a race/bash.. was bulk fun.. Chen's already loaded his mini up with oil shocks, ball diff, bearings, sport tuned motor, etc. With some tweaking it will be a serious weapon! haha

best thing about the mini, if you roll it, it almost always lands back on it's wheels hahaha. score! I've got mine drifting around corners which is mint.. no understeer when drifing hehehe.

Dave 100% confirmed that there is a MINI-only class in the new season's championship, which will have championship points, etc... it's all 100% GO!

[50 lemons]

yesterday was a learning experience. after you left james i ran another pack but without any spacers on the outside of the shock to make the car softer and it handle better with a lot less understeer.

Also the 20T pinion may be a bit too much for the sports tuned to push around ryper's track. Going to try again with a 18T pinion. also need new packs cos the pack i was running is 3 years old and has been sitting around doing nothing for ages

[nexxus]

I might gear mine up straight away with an 18 Pinion and see how she feels.

[remotebandit]

hey Nex , as you do with everything you buy after a few weeks , can you put me first in line to buy yours when you sell it next week .... lol .

[nexxus]

Lets not get started on that! I think I was trying to be too good too fast mate. But the Mini stays! Am running that and TT01 this season, will maybe put a stock in the TT-01 later and progress from there, not try and run a brushless straight up without knowing what I am doing! Cutting my losses!

[James]

Chen, sure sure.. you got served. hahaha j/k. it's all learning. how did it go today? you put the universal driveshafts in? bastard.. buying all the hop ups before i can get in to take a look! meh! haha

I'm racing silver can 540 this season at ryper hahaha

[James]

same price, there's FIVE in stock right NOW. I believe THREE are spoken for already (dave, rob, renee).. that leaves.. err, two. yeah, two.

run, jump, sprint, bolt.

there will be a full field of mini's for next season, it's going to rawk haha!

Dave also now has instock:
60D radials (much like the kit ones, which i like at this stage)
60D slicks (not type-A) which havent been tried on the track
Wheels
Chassis parts
Gearset's
pinions
sports tuned motors
and a few other M-chassis type parts. I believe Chen already bought the only set of uni-shafts that dave ordered in! haha, snap! Dave will be ordering more tyres and option parts asap.

I'm running my pretty much standard and it goes quite well (has bearings thats all).. i guess just see how you go and try out other peoples kit's on the track to see what u think

[nexxus]

The ball diff I am yet to be convinced on, I think half the fun is throwing the bugger into a corner, I am using a super fast Servo on mine (James you know the one, it was in the Losi) and will probably look at some HPI Rims and Slicks

[James]

HPI tyres arent legal for racing (at this stage)

tamiya rubbers!

the ones that come with the kit work suprisingly well, just dont last that long it seems

maybe wait till rules are set out before spending up on stuff, but from what i hear it's tamiya tyres only..

that servo is nuts. I got a hitec 0.08 in mine hehe it's crazy, but my ESC only gives it 4.8V, so it's not too insane.

I'm sure the ball diff is a great improvement. the standard gear diff provies &quot;no wheel drive&quot; when cornering. as less pressure is on the inside front wheel when cornering (it lifts a tad) it will spin under power, with the outside front wheel not getting powered.

I noticed in the corners under power the car had very little 'go'.. I've just tonight caked my gear diff up with a heap more grease. it's much better, but heavier as a result. I'll be investing in a ball diff for sure.

bearings and ball diff probably all thats really needed. -maybe- oil shocks.. hehehe. they're loads of fun

[James]

great mini setup info here:
http://www.modelflight.com.au/rc_model_support/tamiya_bmw_mini_setup_guide.htm

has stuff on tyres, diff, basically everything. inc part numbers for everything. how far u want to go i guess is up to you. the more sh1t u add, the heavier it gets.

[nexxus]

Yeah I greased the sh.. out of the gears during the build, might look at a ball diff later if it shows a marked improvement in ppl

[50 lemons]

The unis have gone in. Theres still heaps of slop on the axles so I went ahead and shimmed them out. The ball diff is definately worthwhile as you have drive coming out of the corners.

The 1700 stadium pack I was using is rooted. It has 1.4v across the 6 cells when discharged.

[remotebandit]

[quote=James]thanks oscar!! :)

I took the mini to Ryper yesterday for some LAPS. I bought two 1900mah niCD stick pack's while i was there (for less than $20 ea hehe) get me about 15 or 20 mins runtime out of them with my silvercan.

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15 minute run time ??? you cant be seriouse , thats massive , imagine throwing a 3000mah pack in it

[James]

probably more than 15 mins really... dunno. on a 1900 nicd pack haha. silver can / sports tuned dont use much power.

[Bowling Ball]

Sports Tuned = Cave Man brushless ;)

[nexxus]

Done did, painted and tested, damn she hammers along, with the lower weight I'd say it'd be as quick as my TT-01 was (and that smoked the other 540's last weekend for straight line speed!) And aint noone goin to miss my colour scheme! Still waiting on hop ups, (Ball diff etc) but I'll be out there in it Sunday fer sure!