M-08 Concept. Opinions?

[skom25]

Hi,

I found that M-08 Concept seems to be quite interesting. It seems that kit contains all necessary ( bearings, CVAs etc) parts. Am I right?

What about plastics quality? Is it more like TT-02 or XV-01?

Is it good car park basher? Ride height is more or less like TT-02 or typical track race cars?

Price is really nice, despite it does not contain body.

[TurnipJF]

Plastic quality is equivalent to that of the latest TA/TB/XV chassis.

The kit contains all necessary parts to complete a raceworthy chassis. That said, many people add hop-ups anyway, partially for even greater reliability, partly because they look nice.

It is a fully adjustable chassis, so ride height is whatever you set it to be (within reason). I usually run mine on tarmac where it performs quite nicely.

 

[BuggyDad]

It's nice quality (XV-01 plus a bit, I'd say mine is, but mine's an R, 100% stock) and I really like driving mine. Ride height on mine is very low though and I'm not sure how high you could get it. I run on tarmac and it's good but it's got to be free of any small stones.  Also I found it took me a little while to get the tyres right, which is maybe a RWD thing. S-grip F&R I like. 

[Andreas W]

I love mine. I'll write more about it later today .  Now Friday taco ('m the cook).

[Alex97]

For the money the M07+M08 are excellent value IMO, you get everything you need and out of the box it doesn't really need any upgrades. They are intended as more track cars so might struggle off road. 

I've seen XV-02pros at around £200 from Asia, other than metal steering it has everything you need. 

[skom25]

1 hour ago, Andreas W said:

I love mine. I'll write more about it later today .  Now Friday taco ('m the cook).

Enjoy!

I am especially interested in ride height. If it is around 6 - 8 mm, it is totally fine for me.

Is gearbox sealed enough to protect gears from dust and debris? It is real issue in my area.

[Andreas W]

2 hours ago, skom25 said:

Enjoy!

I am especially interested in ride height. If it is around 6 - 8 mm, it is totally fine for me.

Is gearbox sealed enough to protect gears from dust and debris? It is real issue in my area.

I have put in a 3300mAh NiHm to simulate how you would have equipped it. I run the kit gold springs rear and the red from the touring car hard spring set in the front. The Ride height is

 

55D tyres front 5mm, rear 4mm

60D tyres front 6mm, rear 5mm.

 

I have not opened the shocks yet,  but there are no preload collars and still good spring tension,  so I assume the previous owner put spacers in them. Build them to 55mm and you have some more clearance. The only thing that skrape on mine are the battery retainers when I run 55D. On 60D there is silence. You can also run full size TC wheels. When mine where not so worn I had 10mm clearance in the front. That was without battery though. 

 

I would say the gear box is no worse than any TT whatever case. It's not that important,  since you run the gears dry anyway. I had a look on the spur on the M-05 last week. It has ran thousends of laps since 2022 in similar conditions as you (parking lots,  industrial area, truckstops) and is still looking good. The M-08 is still relatively new to me, so has not ran that much. The spur was looking nice though when I changed the pinion in March/April.

[Honza]

On 6/14/2024 at 3:57 PM, skom25 said:

Is it good car park basher? Ride height is more or less like TT-02 or typical track race cars?

It is more track focused car, but the long arms allow for some extra ride height after some modifications, plus you can get uprights from XM-01 for extra ride height setting.

[Kowalski86]

It's fine for a car park runner of you don't mind sweeping up a bit, the M07/M08 sit fairly low and will get knocked around by pebbles and twigs.

When I ran my M chassis in postal events (M05, M06), I've have to restart due to them getting caught on little twigs. They also go through tires much quicker than touring cars.

If you want a good purpose-built car park runner, I'd reccomend building up your XV-01. That'll work better for unprepared asphalt than most M-chassis.

[gogsyfinnie]

I love my M-08, I’ve ran it solely on the local carpet track (really need to get back there soon!) and have just bought some radials to run on the driveway for postal racing.

Mine is in short wheel base config and it’s pretty wild (at least until the tyres warm up) but I’d say it suits my driving style. It sits very low though, my driveway is pretty smooth, I can’t imagine taking it onto any rougher surfaces with stones etc.

[Rinskie]

I have a love hate relationship with mine. First and foremost, it's not a basher. I really needs a smooth asphalt, carpet or tennis court to run well. I am fortunate enough to have a great parking lot to run mine it BUT....it takes total concentration and throttle discipline. If you lower your guard for a nano second or apply a hair more throttle than you should have and it will swap ends on you. It's off power steering is incredible and the drivetrain is so smooth it will coast forever. I am trying to decide if I want to stick with it or move to the new 4wd mini. 

[TurnipJF]

12 hours ago, Rinskie said:

I have a love hate relationship with mine. First and foremost, it's not a basher. I really needs a smooth asphalt, carpet or tennis court to run well. I am fortunate enough to have a great parking lot to run mine it BUT....it takes total concentration and throttle discipline. If you lower your guard for a nano second or apply a hair more throttle than you should have and it will swap ends on you. It's off power steering is incredible and the drivetrain is so smooth it will coast forever. I am trying to decide if I want to stick with it or move to the new 4wd mini. 

I suspect that it is a consequence of the relatively small wheelbase and rear-wheel drive. It does indeed require a lot more concentration than a front-wheel drive or four-wheel drive M-size model would.

However out of all of the Tamiya rear-wheel drive mini options, it is by far the best behaved. If I concentrate, I can do a five minute postal racing stint without any major mess-ups with my M-08. The same cannot be said of my M-04 or M-06. ( I do not own an M-02, but I suspect that it would fall into the same boat as the 04 and 06.)

Although marketed as a mini rally chassis, I suspect that the new XM-01 would give it a run for its money on the track.

[BuggyDad]

13 hours ago, Rinskie said:

I have a love hate relationship with mine. First and foremost, it's not a basher. I really needs a smooth asphalt, carpet or tennis court to run well. I am fortunate enough to have a great parking lot to run mine it BUT....it takes total concentration and throttle discipline. If you lower your guard for a nano second or apply a hair more throttle than you should have and it will swap ends on you. It's off power steering is incredible and the drivetrain is so smooth it will coast forever. I am trying to decide if I want to stick with it or move to the new 4wd mini. 

For me, the tyres were very much a part of this. When I eventually settled on S-grip for both front and rear I found that setup to be much easier to drive. Needs a fairly heavy handed throttle input to let go now. Whether it's "better" I don't know but it's certainly much less sensitive and nice consistent postal racing laps are now quite within reach. Mine's got a quite gentle motor in too (17.5T brushless). 

[simalarion]

I bought a MO8 R and plan was to join the Post Racing on this very Forum.

The Quality of the kit seems superb and a more modern kit when it comes to quality of the plastic & screws (much like the BBX) , no need for any Hop-Ups here (but ofc i could not resist as they had a lot available on P-J), and with a Savox & SuperStock its tight and fast. But the Main problem is that this chassis need not only Tarmac (in my experience) i would also add preferably newer Tarmac that is smoother than old (probably not everyone agree on the last part). The one Tarmac spot i found where i live is not only old and bumpy but roots is starting to press up here and there and my MO8 can not handle it (not even great for my hopped up TT-01e, but it can handle it ok).

So if you have lot off that condition close by i believe this would be a great one to have.

I will keep on looking for a better spot for the Post Racing ...

[Verskis]

The postal racing tracks do not require that big of a parking lot, the tracks seem to be only about three parking "slots"  in size.

I hope you find a nice place to run your M-08!

[Pylon80]

In my experience anything RWD can be instantly tamed by using slightly grippier tires at the rear than the front; this way the front will not throw the car into a corner that the rear cannot cope with. Off brand race tires like Rush or Sweep  and even foam tires (Contact) are miles ahead of the best Tamiya offerings and so would be my recommendation. Note that the diameter of race tires seems closer to 55mm than 60mm so that might not suit every car on a scale appearance point of view.