The Mini 4wd thread!

[Ziddan 947]

50 minutes ago, alvinlwh said:

That is called the SU-01 chassis. Never took off though. 

Those look pretty cool but my thought was closer to slot cars so only throttle control and tracks+scale like the mini 4wds

That promo probably had slowed down cars for the kids, seeing racing at slot or at least mini 4wd speeds would be quite a bit more exciting.

[alvinlwh 5891]

My collection so far since returning to the hobby after 3 decades away. 

Limited edition reres, not to be run, at least not too hard. Cars from my youth. 

More modern ones, the Dragon family is hopped up to varying degrees. The Aero Avante is the "hot" one. 

[alvinlwh 5891]

20 minutes ago, Ziddan said:

Those look pretty cool but my thought was closer to slot cars so only throttle control and tracks+scale like the mini 4wds

That promo probably had slowed down cars for the kids, seeing racing at slot or at least mini 4wd speeds would be quite a bit more exciting.

TBH, as I said earlier, speed control is not the point of Mini 4WD racing, but rather setting up the car correctly for the track before the race is. That is why they have all the weight, brake, damping, rollers, etc modifications, all can affect how good or bad the car will run. Instead of slowing down before a turn (for example), the rollers will do the job. Do you extend the rollers (see Fire Dragon above) or just extend the post (see Aero Avante above)? Both will provide stability through a turn but one will slow down the car. The Aero Avante also has a brake that will slow the car down before a ramp so that it will not launch into the air and dampers to stop it from bouncing from a jump. Are all these extra weight necessary? Really depends on the track.

Tamiya has no desire to be competing with slot cars which is probably why they came up with this concept. Once the car is released, there is no adjustments, no corrections. Get it right or get knocked out (car leaving the track is a DNF usually). 

The actual SU-01 is really that slow, it only has a 370 motor, I put a Torque Tuned in it (the parts cannot handle a Sports Tuned and will break) and it is not much faster than a silver can 370.

EDIT: how can I forget this? There WAS a RC Mini 4WD, the TR-1 chassis, but there was no interest as it breaks the concept of Mini 4WD racing. 

https://mini-4wd.fandom.com/wiki/R/C_Mini_4WD

https://mini-4wd.fandom.com/wiki/TR-1_Chassis

 

[94eg! 834]

Each display car has a matching Mini 4WD.

[alvinlwh 5891]

23 minutes ago, 94eg! said:

Each display car has a matching Mini 4WD

Amazing! I only have matching Aero Avante and Thunder Dragon? Did you buy your RC car based on Mini 4WD you already have or the other way around? I know that sometimes one is in production while the other had gone out. 

[94eg! 834]

The blue Vanquish Jr I bought in 1988 and the RC Vanquish in 1990. The junior was originally raced in all black with only the silver cowl decals.  The RC was originally painted as shown (with Testors spray & brush enamel). A year or two later I used the same paints to make the junior match the RC. The pink wheels from the Avante Black Special Junior rerelease (top shelf) were a more recent addition since I stuck a Acto pink motor in the RC.

The other Vanquish Junior was purchased in 2005 (VS chassis). I used the body to bring my original 1988 racer chassis back to as-raced condition. Plated silver wheels came off a recent top-force Evo RS purchase.

All the other juniors we purchased within the last couple years to complete my corny display cabinet.

[94eg! 834]

The funny thing is that the RC Vanquish Evo with the flames was the result of me "restoring" the blue RC Vanquish. It went a little too far and I was basically able to reassemble the entire original car. Then I added hop-ups to that as well. 

[94eg! 834]

A car I pieced together for my best friend for Christmas. He still has his childhood Type-1 chassis Fire Dragon, and I thought this would a cool companion

[alvinlwh 5891]

3 hours ago, 94eg! said:

A car I pieced together for my best friend for Christmas. He still has his childhood Type-1 chassis Fire Dragon, and I thought this would a cool companion

I should have kept my clear shell clear. Yours looks much nicer. 

[94eg! 834]

That body goes great with a pair of Powerchamp RS batteries if they are still available.

You can get a new body for $11 shipped on e bay.

[alvinlwh 5891]

21 minutes ago, 94eg! said:

You can get a new body for $11 shipped on e bay.

I actually have a second FD bought by mistake. 

$11 for just the body is more expensive then the whole kit! 

[Gabranth 216]

This is very impressive. No, it's not (just) about making cardboard track but making (almost) entire car from cardboard.

[wolfdogstinkus 1893]

Tracks don't have to be complicated

Dave's a member here,...

 

 

[mastino 1084]

[Bwaaatch 528]

Dug out a few pics from some Mini 4wds built about 20 years ago!

My main interest at the time was in borrowing parts from one car to customise another. Then using the ‘dress-up’ sticker sets.

[ImALlama 1370]

I thought they looked fun so I bought a couple when I worked at the local hobby store, they had just set up a small track in the store but at about that same time I stopped working there and no one else had one so I never ran them. One day I’ll buy a track but for now I plan to get a couple more cars as a fun less expensive thing to build. Also had/have an old record breakers yellow f1/Indy car and maybe another when I was young, have to dig through the garage to see if I still have them.

 

[Gabranth 216]

Some quick build for display, gotta give some accent to that Mach Frame body because it's just sea of black now. I know the plastic thing on the back main purpose is to hang mass dampers but I think it looks good as spoiler as well (since Mach Frame is lacking one). And despite never intend to race again like I did in my youth, I gave this one bearing sets and Hyper Dash motor just because I have them already.

 

[Gabranth 216]

As mentioned in other thread I got this carbon-pattern polycarbonate body out of curiosity. Here's how it looks with plastic film removed. The pattern...is not convincing in my opinion, but should be alright from afar. Kinda regret removing the film before cutting it, the cut lines are hard to see. Oh well, I don't have bright colored marker to mark them anyway.

[Gabranth 216]

So youtube gave me this 8-years old video in my recommended video list

Nice spin (pun intended) on mini4wd race 

Maybe we should have half-submerged RC track as well

[alvinlwh 5891]

2 minutes ago, Gabranth said:

Maybe we should have half-submerged RC track as well

Water splash is OK, full submarine is nono as, I was told, our radio wave cannot get under water. 

 

[Gebbly 587]

That half submerged track was amazing!

[Gabranth 216]

On 9/2/2022 at 6:51 PM, alvinlwh said:

Water splash is OK, full submarine is nono as, I was told, our radio wave cannot get under water. 

If the water is shallow enough and antenna pipe is still above the water, will it work (assuming all other electronics are doing okay)?

BTW, that underwater mini4WD league is still ongoing

 

[Busdriver 6209]

2 hours ago, Gabranth said:

If the water is shallow enough and antenna pipe is still above the water, will it work (assuming all other electronics are doing okay)?

BTW, that underwater mini4WD league is still ongoing

 

How do RC subs work then. I didn’t think they had to have a surface aerial?

[alvinlwh 5891]

25 minutes ago, Busdriver said:

How do RC subs work then.

Very poorly it seems. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-controlled_submarine

[wolfdogstinkus 1893]

https://youtube.com/shorts/I8YTCLqBwWw?feature=share