School me on the Tamiya M-06/Alfa Romeo Giulia (58486)

[Mrowka 493]

Still looking for a winter project, but I know nothing about on-road cars, whether made by Tamiya or anyone else. How does it go together and handle, will it take modern power without grenading too often or turning into an unguided missile?

Always liked Alfa Romeo and Lancia, but that by itself is not enough reason to buy one.

[Shadowfalcon 8]

I had to have one, being an Alfisti for 25 years.. handles reasonably good with stock configuration (540 motor), i was actually surprised how fast it was! later i installed a brushless setup, 4000kv on 2S, which a lot of people might argue is overkill. tyres go pretty fast as they are soft, so maybe get a second set if you buy the kit...

[Carmine A 2046]

IMO, the Guilia is one of the sexiest Bodies Tamiya ever made!! I'd put it on a M08 though... Much more refined Chassis. 

I had a M06 as well. Not bad, but weak on grip, unless you spend some $$ on Hopups.

[berman 5315]

M06 needs oil filled dampers out the box, it has a lot of weight over the rear makes it pogo like no tomorrow which slaps the motor on the ground and also upsets the handling. Also the pogos are snap together and leave a lot of play in the suspension.

Glue the S grips on the rear and put some M grips on the front so it doesn't understeer/push so much.

Buy a shim kit for the front end/ rear axles.

[TurnipJF 9192]

My M-06 wears a Renault Alpine shell, which means it had to be built to 210mm wheelbase. Your Alfa uses the medium wheelbase setting I believe, so your model should be a little easier to control than mine. Being a RWD rear-motored chassis, it is about as tail-happy as you would expect, but not uncontrollably so.

As for upgrades, I can heartily recommend the Yeah Racing alloy steering rack and motor mount, as well as either Yeah Racing Shock Gear or Tamiya Super Mini CVA shocks to replace the stock pogo sticks. Apart from those, and the obvious bearings and steel pinion, the chassis doesn't need much IMO. That is pretty much all I have fitted to mine in terms of upgrades, and it handles 13.5t brushless power easily. Obviously the M-08 is in a different league, but the M-06 is a clear step forwards from the M-04 which was a right tricky character.

[woppini 51]

What Ive found with Tamiya is you may love the body, but hate the chassis. I wanted the VW Ghia or the Type 2 van. However, I just couldnt get past the uninspiring stock M chassis. I would buy the M08 and buy the body kit separately. Youll be alot happier with the handling.

[Raman36 1655]

I have an M05, M06 and M08. My least favourite is the M05.  I don’t like FWD and those who know me on here, know I’m not shy about it. 😂 

I raced the M06 very successfully against M05, so it has my respect.  After buying the M08, she was retired. Yesterday I decided to take it off the shelf, drop a 17.5 motor back into it,  shortened wheelbase to S, and dropped Alpine A110 on it.(My two Alfa bodies are too pretty to run)  Put S grips all around and ran it up and down my drive way. I was absolutely blown away by how it drove. You can’t pull the trigger to wide open throttle  at once,  but if you squeeze it gently, it drives very stable and is quick. Had no issues with rear end stepping out, unless I wanted it to. Much better than the M05 I have.. which spins the front wheels for a good 5 seconds before it goes. 
 

As others have stated, for M06, the key are shocks.. pick up a set from year racing or Tamiyas if you want to spend the money. The Aluminium steering is a good option, but honestly you can shim the play out of stock one. You do also need adjustable turn buckles for setting camber. That’s all you need. 

This was my last set up

rear blues spring  /60; camber 1°

front 35 / red spring ; camber 0°

Toe out 0.5°
S grips all around 

Build front shock with enough inserts to reduce front rebound to almost zero. I believe my front measures 6.5 mm from bottom of shock cap to plastic ball end. 

[DeadMeat666 1675]

17 hours ago, Raman36 said:

Build front shock with enough inserts to reduce front rebound to almost zero. I believe my front measures 6.5 mm from bottom of shock cap to plastic ball end. 

Explain.

[Raman36 1655]

See here in the build step. You have this insert V3.  I added even more spacer so that the shaft measures from bottom of shock to shock end, 6.5 mm

[DeadMeat666 1675]

54 minutes ago, Raman36 said:

See here in the build step. You have this insert V3.  I added even more spacer so that the shaft measures from bottom of shock to shock end, 6.5 mm

 

What size shocks do you use for this to start off with? 50mm? 55? 60?

[Raman36 1655]

well this is where the M06 gets a little tricky.

Front you need the M chassis dampers.. I forget if they are 50, or 55... someone please chime in

Rear I’m using standard touring dampers (5 mm+ on m chassis dampers).. you need the additional length for weight transfer to rear. The standard M chassis wasn’t giving me a good ride height 

[berman 5315]

On 11/11/2020 at 12:13 PM, Raman36 said:

well this is where the M06 gets a little tricky.

Front you need the M chassis dampers.. I forget if they are 50, or 55... someone please chime in

Rear I’m using standard touring dampers (5 mm+ on m chassis dampers).. you need the additional length for weight transfer to rear. The standard M chassis wasn’t giving me a good ride height 

Did you build the rears with the extra pistons?

When I built my #54000 dampers, the rears needed to be built with an extra set of pistons in the M06 kit.

 

[DeadMeat666 1675]

6 minutes ago, berman said:

Did you build the rears with the extra pistons included in the M06 kit?

When I built my #54000 dampers, the rears needed to be built with an extra set of pistons in the M06 kit.

 

Do you by any chance know the length of item BC18? I'd suppose the manual would show it 1:1, so it's probably fine to just measure that picture on the manual. The reason I'd prefer to not use BC18 is they're likely not titanium coated. Now, i do have a spare set of titanium coated shafts from a set of dampers of which I'm only using two dampers, so if the lengths match, I could use those.

[Raman36 1655]

7 hours ago, berman said:

Did you build the rears with the extra pistons?

When I built my #54000 dampers, the rears needed to be built with an extra set of pistons in the M06 kit.

 

I built mine with

1. longer pistons from Pro and R Spec kit

2. R Spec kit lower shock attachment (not sold by itself unfortunately)

3. standard TRF dampers on rear.  

I found this worked well for me, because it gave me more travel for weight transfer.  

[Blista 1519]

Interesting that the M06 can use a 55mm pair of dampers in the rear and 50mm up front, @Raman36.  I was going to buy a set of CVA Super Mini dampers (50746) for front and rear.  Would a pair of Tamiya 55mm/64mm/67mm/70mm C.V.A Mini Shock Unit II (50519) be a better choice in the back?  It probably won't make a huge difference since I'm only using this M06 for carparks and out on the road but they cost about the same anyway.

[berman 5315]

On 11/12/2020 at 10:23 PM, DeadMeat666 said:

Do you by any chance know the length of item BC18? I'd suppose the manual would show it 1:1, so it's probably fine to just measure that picture on the manual. The reason I'd prefer to not use BC18 is they're likely not titanium coated. Now, i do have a spare set of titanium coated shafts from a set of dampers of which I'm only using two dampers, so if the lengths match, I could use those.

As you say, I can only measure the manual as the dampers have been built for a quite some time. No they are not titanium coated. I measure the diagram at 29.0mm. Hope that helps.

[DeadMeat666 1675]

27 minutes ago, berman said:

As you say, I can only measure the manual as the dampers have been built for a quite some time. No they are not titanium coated. I measure the diagram at 29.0mm. Hope that helps.

That helps a whole bunch thanks!

[Scouser 83]

Hope this works as a link. This M06 certainly handles power ok. I love the M06 chassis and run on car parks and hard packed dirt with mine.

After watching this video though, I am looking to copy the changes and turn mine into something more rally orientated.