Tamiya M-07 Race report, tips and Carpet Set-up 58647

My unique M-07 was bought off a number of years in the past, nonetheless I had {a partially} constructed M07-R able to mud down and get out onto the observe and rekindle my love for this evergreen racing class.

Before I begin, the M07 is a really succesful automobile in it is base kind. However as you’ll count on from me I had a number of good possibility components so as to add to the chassis, I used to be eager to see if they provide a lot over the bottom components..

First up I made a decision to make use of a set of MoodyFools Titanium screws for the construct.. one in every of my favorite methods to lighten a chassis. 

I at all times like so as to add any gearbox components after I initially do a construct, as I do not actually prefer to get my arms soiled at a later date. The 54766 M-07 Concept Aluminium Counter shaft is affordable and saves 3g of weight. 

54767 M-07 Concept Aluminium Centre shaft can be low cost, solely saves 1.5g however I at all times assume the hardened fluorine coating is smoother than the usual components. 

When working with the gearbox it is time to type out the differentials. 

The M07-R has the  Tamiya 54532 Differential Aluminium cups. I additionally added the 54311 Cross shaft gears… Running the metal gears can be fashionable, (Tamiya 54428 TA06 Steel Bevel Gears), nonetheless I by no means run oil extra that 100k so I’ve by no means had any situation working the plastic gears. So I run the plastic gears because it offers higher throttle response. 

54602 Aluminium Diff cowl is the following factor that’s fitted. It makes the diff principally leak free and fewer liable to warping after a whole lot of heavy working. 

The gearbox is now easy and hopefully will want little or no upkeep. 

The Tamiya 54781 M-07 Concept Aluminium Rear Uprights are a little bit of a luxurious merchandise. They do give you the flexibility to vary roll centres and turnbuckle size on the rear of the automobile with extra ease. Something that I discover is without doubt one of the higher issues to tune with the M07. 

Carbon Towers entrance and rear had been put in entrance and rear , just because they’ve a number of extra higher shock settings and are stiffer. 54761 (Front) and 54762 (Rear). Whilst on a carbon vibe I added the light-weight 54791 Carbon Bumper help.

Roll bars / Stabilizers had been subsequent on the record. I appear to have a necessity to put in these on each automobile that I contemplate a race automobile..  The M-07R comes with the rear one within the package, however I bought the total package so I may have extra tuning choices. 

As I now had a entrance roll bar I chosen the softest and put in it within the chassis.

Shocks subsequent, nothing particular aside from I drilled the caps with a 1.5m gap and constructed them with zero rebound. 

Gratuitous picture with blue aluminium.. that is why you might be right here is not it?

Now to a component that I had not tried earlier than. Tamiya 54787 M-07 Rear Suspension Mount (Skid angle Adjust). These will give me management to set the rear arms at 3 totally different settings (1.3, 0 and -1.3 levels). Basically this lets you run Anti-Squat to present you a bit of extra steering when popping out of a nook.

After every week of working, I made a decision to put in Tamiya 54868 Open Face 5mm Reinforced adjusters, Tamiya Aluminium Turnbuckles and Tamiya 55208 5x8mm Aluminium Hex Head Ball (Fluorine coated). This combo permits me to simply alter cambers / roll centres and so forth. You should be conscious that the Hex balls are 1mm decrease than the ball nuts, so you’ll want to add a 1mm shim beneath them if you wish to retain the identical geometry.

With the chassis prepared it was time to put in the electrics. For my native membership we enable a Core 21t or a Speed Passion 17.5 brushless blinky set-up. 

Everyone had opted for the 17.5 as its clearly cheaper and fairer as there’s little or no motor magic concerned with brushless motors in comparison with brushed. I did contemplate working shortie lipos however I solely had a few outdated ones so I opted to only run std lipo 2s lipos. 

Next up it is time to match a physique.. I can hear the entire web groaning after I say that I mounted the Tamiya MX5 shell on the automobile.. I do know it is not FWD, however it was already painted and I do have a CRX that can be seem in some unspecified time in the future. 

Hitting the observe..

As it was whereas since I had raced a M-Chassis in anger I used to be open minded about how I might get on with the M07. The very first thing I seen was simply how a lot steering I had, the automobile was a lot too full of life to start with.. I began to play with the droop and steering throw.  This resulted in a automobile that was a lot simpler to drive, however nonetheless had sufficient steering after I wished it. 

The automobile was fast from the get go, however as soon as the racing line began to get positioned down on the carpet grip roll got here with a vengeance. Initially I used to be reticent to attach the facet partitions.. I at all times contemplate that to be a final ditch repair to resolve dealing with points. So to make life a bit harder for me I tried to play with set-up to dial out as a lot of the grip roll as potential. 

The important factor I tweaked had been the roll-centres, I lowered the rear roll centre because it helps cut back the possibility of traction roll when getting into a nook (As against the apex or exit of a nook). The change was immediately noticeable and the automobile was a lot better. It did not eradicate it fully however it was fairly simple to catch as soon as the wheels began to elevate.  I used to be in a position to end with out rolling the M-07 however I used to be additionally conscious that I might be sooner.

The default camber acquire on the M-07 can actually chew when on excessive grip tracks.. On the entrance of the automobile I principally diminished the camber to 0.5deg. I added a 0.5mm shim beneath the interior ball studs to decrease the roll centre and simply lengthen the turnbuckle to cut back the quantity of camber acquire. On full compression it nonetheless pushes as much as round 1.5 deg (ish), sufficient to supply steering really feel across the nook.

On the rear, I performed with numerous settings and located {that a} base 1.75 or 2.0 Deg was effective, however I lengthened the higher hyperlinks to cut back the quantity of camber acquire because the automobile leaned into the nook. This was achieved with a mixture of a tweaked interior roll centre setting (Adding 2mm beneath the ball nuts), together with me altering the higher hub spacer on the aluminium rear hubs to 1mm from the default 2mm. 

The automobile was actually good now.. I might say that I nearly eradicated all situations of traction roll. I used to be in a position to drive sooner and tougher.. but generally I might nonetheless need to ease off because the automobile would nonetheless wish to roll often. 

Under additional investigation it appeared that if I mounted new entrance tyres the automobile can be effective. It was solely as soon as the tyres had been a bit of extra worn in that the occasional grip roll would occur. On nearer inspection evidently as soon as the tyre insert begins to break down it makes the sidewall flex a bit of an excessive amount of so.. it was inevitable.. I needed to glue the outer fringe of the entrance tyres. This numbed down the texture of the automobile a bit of, so I loosened the again up additional to allow me to have quantity of rotation.

Here is my set-up

Overall although it has been an absolute blast racing these vehicles.. I’ve been so busy with my different commitments, having the ability to simply cost some batteries and slap down a automobile on the observe has been a godsend.