after some practice sessions and 'testing'

summer school begins tmr =O

but thats ok, i have a pretty lax schedule so i should still have plenty of mini z time
one thing about having your own track is that you can practice whenever you want, and generally your skills improve faster...or in my case a lot faster than before. the MR015 is getting to be really fast...so long as you dont flip it cutting the corner dots too aggressively. oh yeah, ozite leaves your car relatively dirty...and i have a piece of who knows what jam my servo, so i had to service my car, no big deal though. still need to put a steering pot from my F1 into my MR02RM, to fix my RM, later i will order a bunch of those pots online and replace one into my F1. just the other day, i ordered a new Lacrosse BC-900 (V33) battery charger/conditioner for my mini Z batteries, the price was right, and i am growing impatient with my current Rayovac ps3, which either overcharges or undercharges the batteries...it blows

those GP850's mentioned earlier are not bad at all, their pretty good actually. im not really sure if they are better than the GP850's that i got long ago, if they actually have more punch, or is it just due to them being new cells that aren't broken in yet. i can only really tell after i get my bc-900 to properly charge and cycle the cells. however the cells are pretty good was my first impression, good punch, punch lasts long, and the cells dump (lose their power) relatively quickly so you aren't left with a set of batteries that aren't really drained, but are insufficient to drive the car at a decent pace. the runtime is certainly not bad, especially if the cells are to be race packs, even for practice they have plenty of juice.

small update

so i did get an autoscale, but the golf r32 instead of the GTi. the body handles quite well considering its a HM, and the CG looks rather high. its a nice body, and surprisingly its holding up well considering the many times i tried to jump the corners with it. overall the MR015HM is handling pretty nicely, and its with very few modifications; ball bearings, stock gear differential packed with Tamiya's anti wear grease, camber knuckles (2 degree), carbon H-plate, and front and rear springs sets. the RM car with the steering issues...well it seems that the POT is fried afterall, so ill need to source out a new pot somewhere.

soon to come will be a review of all the AAA batteries i have used thus far, just need to test the new GP's i got today. theres a new set of GP850's model: GP85AAAHR, with the same shrink wrap as seen of their 1/10 scale competition batteries, and is supposed to offer higher current and voltage than the GP85AAAHC batteries im used to. i do have high expectations for this set of batteries though, since the standard HC series 850's are already pretty good, long runtime yet with consistant punch feel. not to mention the battery's relatively high price tag, $4 per cell, so $18 something after taxes, normal non-hobby AAA NiMH's only cost like $12 max....so lets hope you get what you pay for.

i am now tempted to get the Audi A4 DTM autoscale for collection, its very nice.

i love my track!!!!! its fun, and it has helped me improve my driving skill, and much faster than before. =D

track is done...basically

one problem i just ran into, my RM car was having some crazy steering problem, full lock to one side. it was later found that the issue was one of the wires from the steering pot is not connected to the PCB well, and will need to be resoldered, which ill do in the morning. i also got my tax return back =D, which means im going to go buy that GTi autoscale ive been wanting.
well today i finished the track, well from a funtional point of view. i added 45 degree braces to reinforce the track pieces, as well as add a nicer look to the corners. i then screwed the modular pieces together and cut the plates i got into the corner dots seen in the pics. using a dremel was overkill, and melted the plastic while i was cutting it, so i needed to sand it after, a real 'pain in my assholes'. although my track isnt really portable (cant fit it into a car after dissassembling) it is storable, which was my main goal. i think i can also move it from my basement to the garage if the need ever arose. testing out the track, its actually alot more difficult than it looks...well that or my skills have deteriorate or never existed. currently the track is 8'x12' which is a good size, but is on the small side, i can expand it to 8'x18' in the future, but its probably not likely since at that size it would really take up the whole den in the basement, with a foot or walking space along the wall (only one wall). i really want to add some astro turf to cover the triangular areas, to make it look more realistic, and also adding some weatherstripping, not so much for the car protection but more for reducing the 'pock pock' noise when you hit the walls. when racing i think most of the damage will be from hitting with other cars rather than the barriers. also, today i tested mainly my MR02MM on the track, and found softer compound of tire to be better opposed to the MR015 which would flip with high grip tires.

fixing cars, and maintenance

so i finally got around to fixing my MR02s. well one of them needed fixing, the other was just getting a little TLC. my RM car had a bad servo that needed rebuilding, as well as an antenna that needed to be resoldered to the PCB. another oddity with this car is that although it has 7389 fets, it seemed to run really sluggish. while fixing the servo and antenna, i noticed the ground wire to the PCB was kinda crappy, and resoldering a new ground wire in its place seemed to do the trick!
the PCB:
the offending servo, which caused centering problems (not the pot meter)
the rebuilt servo

my other MR02 (MM) had its ball differential and rear damper plate rebuilt, a new box stock motor swapped in (slower motor to prepare for my new track =]). in addition, i also made a traditional wire in tube type antenna (not pictured) to replace the piano wire ones kyosho provides. i will soon be converting the rest of my cars, save for the F1, to this type of antenna. i dont know if it was just me, but it seemed to be getting less interference, and glitched less with the antenna i rigged up. when i do my next antenna i will be sure to take pics for a how to.

track buildup

from start to end, i will be posting pics and recapping the progression of my track. first, lets list the materials needed; ozite carpet (2x 8'x6'), some duct tape to join the two pieces of ozite, 10x 1"x2"x8' (wood), 6 corner domes, weather stripping foam tape, and some dowelling. the weather stripping and dowelling is not been used yet, as they will be needed as we complete the track. weather stripping is for lining the corners etc, to protect our precious little racers from race damage. the dowels, as will be detailed in the coming posts is for keeping the track pieces together in a modular fashion. as this track is in a non-dedicated space, it needs to be able to be taken apart and stored at relative ease. first thing i did was lay down the ozite, and let it settle for an hour, it will flatten out by itself. then i flipped it over and taped the two pieces together. after taping, i flipped the piece and let it settle some more. to help the edges of the track lay flat better, i used some of the lumber and some weights around the perimeter of the ozite. i then proceeded to take a break, and test out my new MR015 on the ozite. as i had not finalized my track layout by this time, the next step was to the drawing board to make a scale drawing of the track, and figure out the lengths and angles the pieces of wood need to be cut. a compound mitre saw is highly recommended here. here are the pieces after i cut them into the right sizes etc. this is the track layout in test fitting mode, nothing is secured yet. the next steps will be to secure the pieces together, get the foam tape on the corner areas and anywhere else it is likely to crash into in a race. then finally i will cut the corner dots to fit into the 6 'ends' of wood making the corners smoother and more finished looking. the corner dots here are actually cheapy plates from the dollar store, but they do the job well, their low profile allows the cars to ride them, cutting the corner.

what i've learn

stock mini-z's are fun as hell, you dont even need to have heavily hopped up cars to have fun racing with mini-z. my MR02's are both heavily hopped up, and have pretty much everything hopped up. recently i got a MR015 Mini Cooper S, and decided to leave it stock for a while and slowly hop it up as i run it on my track (being built). after letting the ozite set, and flatten, i couldnt handle the temptation, and broke out the cooper for a spin. after running it, i can honestly say, it only needs a few very inexpensive hop ups to be a great racer; ball bearings ($10~), carbon fibre H-plate ($7~), and some heavy grease like tamiya's antiwear grease for the differential. for the time being, the standard tires that come with autoscales or ready sets is hooking up well enough on the ozite, and changing them wouldnt be necessary for a mini-z n00b like myself, but for more advanced mini-z'ers can probably benefit from different tires to fine tune the handling. ozite grips like a mo-fo!

Mini-Zs and the like (a brief/not so brief intro and context)

this is a blog dedicated to DC's (mine) hobbies...mainly little kyosho mini zs at the moment. in addition you will find stuff related to 1/10 scale on road r/c's and stuff related to car modification done to full size car.

this blog focuses on 1/28 scale model cars by Kyosho under the branding of Mini-z. these cars are not like those toy cars you buy at the toy store, but are rather like their 1/10 scale hobby grade counterparts, fully proportional control, ability to hop up and replace parts...and real quality making them enjoyable to race and run with a group of people.

why mini-z? i started in r/c car hobby many many years ago playing with the 1/10 scale electric and fuel powered cars. when mini-z first came out they definately had appeal to me, but at those times i never got around to getting one (spending on parts/hopups for 1/10). with time, focuses shifted away from r/c, as other things such as work and school, and going out did not give me much time to mess around with 1/10. suddenly mini-z seemed perfect. i got one, and then another, and another...and i became addicted. currently i now have 4 fully functioning z's, 2 MR02s, an MR015, and a F1, a modest collection of 8 autoscales, maybe adding a 9th (still on the fence about getting a GTi), enough parts to make at least one more MR02 roller (no electronics). in addition, i have a ozite track in progress =).

in all honesty, i think Mini-Zs are really fun, and as rewarding as 1/10, although only costing a fraction as much. for people wanting to get into the hobby, i think Mini-Z is the way to go haha.