dNaNo or MR-03?

[Rooster29]

Hey everyone! This is my first time posting. I am a casual Mini-Z Racer and wanted to get opinions from other racers regarding this question. Buy the new MR03 chasis or dNaNo? My local Hobbytown USA just got the dNaNo's in and I am going to get one or the other. For those of you who have raced both the Mini-Z and dNaNo, could I could some feedback on which would be the best to buy? How do you like the dNaNo compared to Mini-Z's? Any feedback would be helpful. Thanks!

[Skv012a]

03 given the insane amount of bodies, parts, and community racing MRs. Not to mention cheaper maintenence.

[EMU]

If you race Mini-Z's anywhere near you, definitely a Mini-Z. If not, you may get more use in a given space with the Dnano, although maintenance will be more work (since it is much smaller).

[Rooster29]

Thanks for the replies Skv012a & EMU! I have a couple each 01's, 015's, 02's, 02 2.4 Ghz, and F1's. So I guess it would only make since to get the new 03 chasis, the dNaNo just has me curious. I race slot cars a couple times a week and have tried to get some of them interested, but they haven't bit yet. I have another friend that has a ton of z stuff, core timing system track, you name it, we just have a hard time getting together for some run time due to conflicting schedules. I usually just run on my mini-96 in the basement. I might just get another 96 and stick with the z's.

[EMU]

I have wanted to get a Dnano ever since I first heard about them. I faced the facts, and I really wouldnt have anywhere to race it. All of the Z tracks that I race at are too large for the Dnano, so there really isnt any point unless I get a track smaller and smoother than a mini-96... (mini-96 wont fit in my apartment). I decided to stick with Z's, since thats what everyone around me has, although, I am still open to race Dnano's if there is a track and others to race.

[Skv012a]

I race slot cars a couple times a week and have tried to get some of them interested, but they haven't bit yet.

Then wait for HPI 1/32 scale RCs that are right around the corner. Those should prove a much more worthwhile investment than dNano for you. Not to mention bodies that were in early preview shots got me itching to see these take off (finally a Datsun Fairlady as a small RC).

[EMU]

One thing that I have learned in this hobby, is never to 'wait' for a product to come out after a press release. A lot of the time, it doesnt, and your left waiting for a long time until you finally give up on it. When it is actually for sale, or if you have a release date, then consider waiting. I havent heard anything more about the HPI car, so I assume that it has a high probability of not being made... Thats just the way that I look at it. Realistic, like the concept car at the auto show, that never turns into a real car...

[JeremyC]

I am still open to race Dnano's if there is a track and others to race.

I'd also be interested in the d-nano's assuming there were tracks to drive on. I wonder how they would do on the new 'small' RCP track. Or a Mini-48 track :)

-J

[Rooster29]

I don't think I have seen anything on the HPI 1/32 car. That would be cool....if it makes it to the market. HPI has some cool bodies in the larger scale stuff. I have been eyeing the dNaNo's, but I certainly wasn't going to pay the price out of Japan. When my Hobbytown USA got them in I was pumped, but I still don't know if I will get one. They don't have them out for sale yet so I don't know how much they are going to retail for. I would think around $129, but I could be wrong. And then you have to buy the charger etc. They do have a track that they are going to set up, so that would be an option. I just don't know how often I would be able to get there and race.

[arch2b]

off topic- but yes, hpi now has some of the gt-r r32 models listed in their new rs32 product line. it's been posted on here and tinyrc.

[Kevin S.]

I have wanted to get a Dnano ever since I first heard about them. I faced the facts, and I really wouldnt have anywhere to race it. All of the Z tracks that I race at are too large for the Dnano, so there really isnt any point unless I get a track smaller and smoother than a mini-96... (mini-96 wont fit in my apartment). I decided to stick with Z's, since thats what everyone around me has, although, I am still open to race Dnano's if there is a track and others to race.

Hey EMU,
I actually just bought a barely used dNANO from one of the fellow members on the forum (my christmas gift to myself:D). It was only run about 20 minutes and it is in mint condition. I ordered the hop up parts from NanoTrax and they should be arriving shortly. As soon as I get it all together and set up, you are more than welcome to try it out next time I see you @ Action RC. It looks like it is going to be so much fun just to mess around with.

[EMU]

Hey EMU,
I actually just bought a barely used dNANO from one of the fellow members on the forum (my christmas gift to myself:D). It was only run about 20 minutes and it is in mint condition. I ordered the hop up parts from NanoTrax and they should be arriving shortly. As soon as I get it all together and set up, you are more than welcome to try it out next time I see you @ Action RC. It looks like it is going to be so much fun just to mess around with.
I have driven two Dnano's, at the KO race in Cupertino CA last March. It was at a Kyosho test booth, on the official track. GT-R and Porsche Carrera GT. I loved the Porsche, and disliked the GT-R. The Carrera GT had a much lower profile, and was much smoother through the corners. The GT-R cornered sharper.

I thought about getting a simple track from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Infinitrax-Modular-Remote-Contol-Miniature/dp/B001VDX868/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1262677677&sr=8-1 for my nephew for X-Mas and a couple zip zaps... but got him Lego Technics instead... then I thought about getting the same track and a Dnano for me, so I can turn laps at home with much less space requirement than a Mini-Z. Still thinking about it. The track linked would be pretty small for a Dnano, like running a modified LM car on a mini-96... but it would still be track time. Something that I really dont get enough of lately. Just to get an idea of the width of the track lanes...
http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/additional/large/b938_infinitrax_micro_rc_racetrack_inuse.jpg
It would be purely for training or time trialing, since two cars really cant battle for position. It would really be a single line track.

[mugler]

Last Sunday night at NetZone here in SoCal a couple brought & ran a Lamborgini Murc & 911 Gt3 and were kind enough to let us test drive. have to say I really enjoyed them and now that you pointed out this track, wow...me too can c myself doing dnano laps on them. Is there a site with a bit more info about them?

[EMU]

I tried searching for more info... and really didnt come up with anything really informative.
http://infinitrax.com/

[mugler]

yeah i was just wondering about width measurement which as you pointed out is not mentioned on their site either, but from the looks of it should be wide enough for running a solo dnano or maybe even 2 with skilled drivers.

[Kevin S.]

I have driven two Dnano's, at the KO race in Cupertino CA last March. It was at a Kyosho test booth, on the official track. GT-R and Porsche Carrera GT. I loved the Porsche, and disliked the GT-R. The Carrera GT had a much lower profile, and was much smoother through the corners. The GT-R cornered sharper.

I thought about getting a simple track from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Infinitrax-Modular-Remote-Contol-Miniature/dp/B001VDX868/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1262677677&sr=8-1 for my nephew for X-Mas and a couple zip zaps... but got him Lego Technics instead... then I thought about getting the same track and a Dnano for me, so I can turn laps at home with much less space requirement than a Mini-Z. Still thinking about it. The track linked would be pretty small for a Dnano, like running a modified LM car on a mini-96... but it would still be track time. Something that I really dont get enough of lately. Just to get an idea of the width of the track lanes...
http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/additional/large/b938_infinitrax_micro_rc_racetrack_inuse.jpg
It would be purely for training or time trialing, since two cars really cant battle for position. It would really be a single line track.

Hey EMU,
That little track looks pretty cool. The dNANO that I got was the Ferrari F40 but I have ordered the McLaren Body for it along with all the fitting parts and hop ups becuase that is the body that I run for my Mini-Z. I love the way the body handles on the Mini-Z so I am hoping that it is just as great for the dNANO.

[arch2b]

there are a few dnano's available in the marketplace here :) this will get you in cheaper than retail.

[JeremyC]

What about this track? $69.00 + S&H.

Each tile is 22" and looks to be 6x4 tiles. Which is 11'x7'. This is much bigger than necessary, and if you removed the extra tiles to make it 1 tile wide it would be 4x2 and 7'x3.7'

If you have more room you could leave some of the wide tiles in and add additional barriers to make it not an oval. I'll also venture a guess that you could make that into a smaller L configuration.

Seems like it would be big enough for a couple cars, too.

http://mini-zracer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32774&highlight=rcp

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/1926/rcpsuperspeedway.jpg

[EMU]

Jeremy, that track is WAY TOO BIG (looks like standard RCP size, with different color rails). I had a mini-96 (30cm tiles instead of 50cm), which is still too big for what I would want for my studio apartment.

[JeremyC]

Jeremy, that track is WAY TOO BIG (looks like standard RCP size, with different color rails). I had a mini-96 (30cm tiles instead of 50cm), which is still too big for what I would want for my studio apartment.

Lets not get into a contest to see who has the smaller apartment; unless you forget I live in NY as well. :)

I'm kind of into the dNaNo these last few days. Are they as driveable as the mini-z? Like, if I had a small track to play on would the track time be worth while?

[EMU]

I had a blast driving the Dnano at the KO race. Track was very small, but the cars handled very well on it. I would say the track was smaller than a Wide-L, but had 2-3x the amount of corners. Im really leaning to getting a Dnano and the track now... If I do... Friday is track day ;)

[mugler]

I had a blast driving the Dnano at the KO race. Track was very small, but the cars handled very well on it. I would say the track was smaller than a Wide-L, but had 2-3x the amount of corners. Im really leaning to getting a Dnano and the track now... If I do... Friday is track day ;)

Would that still be an RCP track (96 or standard) you were running on or something else?

Were the cars tuned with tires & others parts and which bodies did you run?

[EMU]

I have driven two Dnano's, at the KO race in Cupertino CA last March. It was at a Kyosho test booth, on the official track. GT-R and Porsche Carrera GT. I loved the Porsche, and disliked the GT-R. The Carrera GT had a much lower profile, and was much smoother through the corners. The GT-R cornered sharper.

Would that still be an RCP track (96 or standard) you were running on or something else?

Were the cars tuned with tires & others parts and which bodies did you run?

The cars were completely stock. Track was Kyoshos official Dnano track. Very low pile carpet like material on a board...
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn274/insidelineracing/KO%20Propo%20American%20Minii-Z%20GP/IMG_0687.jpg
This was the actual track at the event that I drove. You can also see the Porsche and GT-R on the track as well.

In stock form, I was very impressed with the Carrera GT, and turned off by the GT-R on that type of track. As you can see, the cars are pretty small compared to the lane width. Im guessing that the Infinitrax track I am looking at would be about 1/2 the overall size and 1/4 the lane width. Corner speed would be greatly reduced by the tighter corner radius.

[JeremyC]

I had a blast driving the Dnano at the KO race. Track was very small, but the cars handled very well on it. I would say the track was smaller than a Wide-L, but had 2-3x the amount of corners. Im really leaning to getting a Dnano and the track now... If I do... Friday is track day ;)

Well, that is pretty cool. I think that picture you linked didn't do the track justice though. From what I can glean from the website, I'm guessing each track piece is 8 inches wide, with at least an inch for the built-in rails. That means the lane width is 6.5-7 inches.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HXoQh5SiL._SS400_.jpg

I think another option would be regular foam mats that are sold at craft stores. They often sell it in 3'x5' sheets for about $10 a sheet. It is extremely smooth, yet kind of grippy.

A big version of this material:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41wKegRd2KL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

[Rooster29]

Well, this is hard to believe, but my local HTUSA just got the track set up and the dNaNo's out for sale. I posted all the way back in January they had gotten the stuff in. They had these things for almost five months. Anyway, I got to test drive a white Enzo for three battery runs. That was fun! I was impressed by the way it ran. It did have a push, but that kinda made it fun in a way. I guess that could be worked out. I went ahead and bit the bullet and got the Martini Porsche 917. Of course I couldn't stop there, I got the Motul Autech 350z also. I plan on going to HT tomorrow and giving them a good run. I haven't ran them yet, so I am quite anxious! I have all kinds of that Eva foam garage mats that I think I will try at home. I think they would be even faster on that. It seems that the material that HT used to make their track was okay, but may slow them down in comparison to the Eva mats. I will find out, I hope to have something set up at home before the weekend is out. I do like the fact that you can get more turns in a given area with a track set up for dNaNo's. I may even try a Real Track system in the future, depending on how the Eva foam works out. HT also got several parts in, that included t-plates, bearings, tires, etc. I am just going to run them stock for a while. I spent enough money for now.

[Rooster29]

I got the track set up using the Eva Foam garage mats and I must say it has worked out well. It was a fun drive, those little boogers move out pretty well just in stock form. I used the 4 panel technical layout from the Kyosho website as my design. It is 12' by 6' and the lanes are 17" to 18" wide. I only ran the 917. I haven't tried the Motul Autech yet. I might post pictures when I get a chance. I did like running on that surface better than the material that the track is made out of at HT. I think I might be hooked on these things.

[arch2b]

how different is your eva foam track from rcp? for my mini-96 all i need are some slightly softer front tires and rear suspension to reduce the hopping around with my motul 7. i've found the motul z to be very stable as expected however the front nose splitter will catch on any tile variations large enough to post a problem. some attention to tile consistency in placement solved this problem.
these are plenty fast out of the box considering the size.

fyi, i have 2 skyline r35's that my kids never use for sale in the marketplace in case anyone is interested.

[Rooster29]

The biggest difference is the smooth texture of the Eva foam. Same deal as you mentioned w/ the rcp track though, as far as making sure that the consistency is there when you put the tiles together. I had to go back over a couple spots to address the same issue. I like the fact that the Eva foam doesn't "shed" like the rcp. I was surprised how well the stock tires did on it, I didn't spin out at all. I plan to go to HT and try different degree tires. I could probably use a little more grip, but it's not something that I have to do. From what I gather, this is the stuff used at Nano Trax. I plan on getting my motul z out tonight and take it for a spin for the first time. I like the layout, I may take it from 12' to 14' down the line. I personally think that is a good length for these cars. It's great to be able to have a nice layout that takes up less space for at home. Arch, have you tried different t-plates, ball diff, bearings, or damper system? If you have, I was just curious of what you thought about any of these options.

[arch2b]

i have yet to try anything other than aluminum wheels. i bought some soft h plates but have not used one yet. i'm going to buy some pn tires as soon as i can gather up some more paypal funds.

i'm holding off on other hop ups until i actually get to some racing. right now my money has been going to a new mini-z F1, now i can work on my dnano as i have my hfay mini-z's done as well.

i'm really waiting for the kyosho or pn disc damper as well.

[Rooster29]

I would think that the first upgrades would be very similar to the Mini Z's. Tires, bearings, & ball diff. I will probably pick up tires and bearings at HT this week and see what that does. I'm w/ you as far as waiting for a disc damper from pn or kyosho. I think that the damper system would really make a difference from what I have seen w/ the dNaNo so far. I meant to tell you the last post I made that I would be interested in your dNaNo's, but it would take me a a little time and hopefully you sell them before I would get to them. I just shot about $430 or so on the two I just bought plus the starter set and extra battery to boot. I would jump on them now, but me, my wife and son are taking a vacation to FL in June. On top of that, his birthday is in June and we told him that we would get him a golden doodle. Those suckers are about $1,500. So needless to say, my play money is tight now. Have you taken your new F1 for a spin yet?

[arch2b]

no, not yet. supposed to this weekend but brothers have infant birthday parties on the same day i race.

i plan on getting bearings but not the overpriced kyosho set. i happen to think dnano's are VERY similar to dnano's. there are many parallels between them and tuning them. my list is as follows; tires, ball bearings, disc damper, ball diff. ball diff will be almost last simply due to the cost. for gods sake, its smaller than a mini-z ball diff but more expensive:confused:

plenty of interest has been expressed but no one to follow thru so they may still be available.

i don't want to tell you what i paid for the 3 i have and all the stock replacement parts, etc. they really are a blast to race around on a good home track. i'm just hoping i can make a real race before to long. i'd like to race them as competitively as i do mini-z's. still holding out hope for a dnano hfay.

[Rooster29]

Well I hope that it works out that you can do the family brothers infant birthday thing and race! I didn't look at everything that HT had as far as parts, but I did look at the diff and that thing is like $39.95, man that is tough to swallow. I can imagine how much you have in stock parts etc. I agree w/ your list of as well. I might dare say that the damper system might play more of a role in handiling than the ball diff. I think I will have one with all the mentioned hop ops and run it, and then run my other one stock and see if it is worth having that $ into it. I am just running them at home by myself. I know of nobody around that has one yet. Who knows, maybe they will take off at HT and we can have some racers. It would be nice to get 8-12 people, but I'm not holding my breath. All those guys are into the 1/8 scale 1/10 scale nitro, Lipo powered stuff. That's cool, but to be honest I have had my fair share of all that stuff. It seems you spend more time wrenching on that stuff than running. and I have to be in the mood to wrench, which is rare. That's what I love about Mini-Z, whole lot of runin' time and way less tuning. Speaking of tuning, man those dNaNo parts are smaaaaaall. That would be cool if HFAY started something with the dNaNo.

[arch2b]

i bought a couple screw sets for each car just because i drop so many of the screws:rolleyes: i actually like my stock dnano and think it would be nearly perfect with the right tires, h plate and damper.

i took the light buckets out of my motul z. not entirely on purpose mind you. they popped loose so i just did the rest for them. gives some extra breathing room for the plus size wheels i have.

[Rooster29]

Extra screw set not a bad idea. You drop those, forget about it. I think I will do the same next trip to HT. How much did the wheels run? Do the plus size wheels help? I am charging a battery now that should be about ready. I am going to pair it and send the Motul Z off on it's maiden voyage. :)

[Rooster29]

Well, these things are just fun to run. I give the Motul Z and the 917 two thumbs up. I am going to go ahead and get tires w/ more grip to help them turn. I think that the Motul needed more help than the 917 on my track. If anyone is on the fence about trying one of these, don't be.....you will like them. You will find yourself wanting more than one. :D

[Rooster29]

I went to HT and got one battery run in on their track and picked up a set of tires to try out on the Eva foam. They had 10, 20, 40, 50, & 60 degree tires. I went with 10 for the front and 20 on the rear, thinking this would be good on the Eva foam mat. All I can say is wow!....big difference. No push at all, turned on a dime. I don't know if you can traction roll one of these things like I have with some Mini-Z's on rcp, but I just ran about 12 laps and it didn't even hint that it would roll. I think it was a good choice in tires and I am liking my track set up. One thing about running on their track is boy, that back end chattered a whole lot. I don't have that problem on the Eva foam. The 10 & 20 degree tires might not be what you need on a mini 96, but I think it is a good combo for my track.

[ChiMiniRc]

All those guys are into the 1/8 scale 1/10 scale nitro, Lipo powered stuff. That's cool, but to be honest I have had my fair share of all that stuff. It seems you spend more time wrenching on that stuff than running. and I have to be in the mood to wrench, which is rare. That's what I love about Mini-Z, whole lot of runin' time and way less tuning.

I've been bringing 4 Dnano's to the Hobbytown in Orland Park, IL. No doubt there is sticker shock. But when you think about it, Lipo, lipo charger, 2.4ghz transmitter, and car with 2.4ghz. $250 isn't that bad. But I can NOT stress enough, pop the battery in, drive. Period.

Wrench, wrench, wrench is getting old. I find the size of the technology is a marvel and the price isn't bad.

[Rooster29]

You know, one of my friends just got a brushless set up for his drift car, set of tires, a clear body, paint etc. He has over three hundred in that stuff alone. He saw the dNaNo's and told me he thought it was crazy to pay that much for a car that size. I then told him I thought it was a crazy amount of money he has in the drift car. I could buy two dNaNo's for what he has spent in ho ops on that thing. To each his/her own. But like you said, the technology is impressive. It's hobby grade a plus all the way. I don't care if it's 1:43, 1:28, 1:18, 1:10, 1:8. You can race them all, size doesn't define what is hobby grade stuff. I can't take up the time to mention every 1/10 or 1/8 electric or nitro cars/trucks I have had. I can say that I have had more fun w/ the Mini-Z's & now the dNaNao's hands down. If people would give these both a try, I think most would like them and agree. Just drive one. I think a lot of it has to do with an ego thing- but whatever.

[Racer-HH]

Hi folks, over here in good old Europe we drive our dnanos on Mini-96 or even regular Mini-Z tracks. We found out, that with a x-speed and some cars on the track you definitly can make use of the space.
Concerning the disc-damper-issue: most of our drivers trust in these parts http://www.lmn-tuningparts.de. Maybe you can arrange a shipment to the US?
Driving your dnano with a disc damper will absolutely give you a boost in performance, handling and stability.

Racer

[ChiMiniRc]

I think a lot of it has to do with an ego thing- but whatever.

Yeah, it does seem to be an ego thing. Small can be cute and cute isn't something you'd call a Brushless E-Revo. The thing is, I want to say "I'm here racing and your over there buying parts, waiting for a moment to fix up your truck and find a place to drive 60mph". I wouldn't but I do offer to let them drive mine and point out the fact that I have no problems handing over my person car to a perfect stranger knowing their isn't much they can do to destroy it.

Don't get me wrong, I own some brushless vehicles and they are a blast too. But I do end up spending a lot of time on the wrench

[Action B]

With electronics smaller is usually MORE expensive so the price of the DNANO makes a lot of sense in that regard.

[ChiMiniRc]

With electronics smaller is usually MORE expensive so the price of the DNANO makes a lot of sense in that regard.

I remember when I bought the Mini-z when they first came out. The reaction I got was "Hey, we bought something like that at Toys R us. how much was yours?"

Then you tell them and they look at you like your crazy. Now I just hand them the controller to show them what I'm talking about. At that point, they think it is a marvel of engineering.

[Action B]

I remember when I bought the Mini-z when they first came out. The reaction I got was "Hey, we bought something like that at Toys R us. how much was yours?"

Then you tell them and they look at you like your crazy. Now I just hand them the controller to show them what I'm talking about. At that point, they think it is a marvel of engineering.

Wow I can totally relate to this post.

How many times have I shown my Mini-Z to a relative and they thought their kids have the same toy lol.

OR, how many times have I been racing at a hobby store and hear some of the passing by people talking about how were racing Xmods.

[ChiMiniRc]

Wow I can totally relate to this post.

How many times have I shown my Mini-Z to a relative and they thought their kids have the same toy lol.

OR, how many times have I been racing at a hobby store and hear some of the passing by people talking about how were racing Xmods.

For our club, I have Xmods in the fleet. I have new people race those first and pass over the Mini-z. Each time the reaction is "Whoa, this is MUCH better".

The Xmods aren't horrible, but they aren't in the same league either. I enjoy taking the R8 around the track though as a handicap for myself. :)

[Apie]

I'll chime in here about dNano, since I run 2 (Mazda 787 and porsche 917) at the local HTU and a wide L in my attic. I would NOT get anything smaller than the wide L for dNanos. You will see that the speed you get up to is as fast as mini z's on rcp. I can corner faster w/ dnano than a mini z. The mini 96 is just too small and narrow for the top speeds that can be achieved. This is state of the art RC, and every hop up you add will be noticed, as with every turn of the 2.4 controller. You will get used to it, steering is extremely sensitive, and that is why I love it more than any other RC I own. I have over 5000 laps and I have yet to damage anything, except the autoscale, which is only cosmetic. They are tougher than the MINIz auto scales IMO.

I would say the most important hop up would be tires for your surface. Then ball diff. Once you see what the old ball diff is, 3 delrin gears gears that grind when new, the turning speed and accuracy of a ball diff is what keeps this car consistant. Bearings help with speed, and noise, but it is not essential for smooth running. The ball diff definitely is essential IMO, if you have at least a wide L where you can get up to speed. If you get a small track that you think will be fine for the size, you will be unhappy, because what do we all want from our cars? Speed!!!

[arch2b]

not to totally disagree but the main object for all is not speed but consistency. i personally do not use anything more than 70t for mini-z and stock for dnano is more than enough for the size.
i have a mini-96 with expansion pack and find this to be plenty wide enough. it's not the wide open range you get with 50cm tiles but thats the point, to have more scale racing. i can put a mini-z on 3 wide tile track and you have the same effect, a huge expanse of track that takes away much of the skill building in my opinion.
there are places where 3 wide 30cm tiles is helpful and you can benefit from but overall, i don't like wide open tracks unless you have a gaggle of cars on the track and passing space is desired.

what is the fun or challenge in racing a dnano on a 12+ lane superhighway?

[Rooster29]

The happiest adults are the ones doing what they did as children.- Pablo Picasso

I like that quote. I will be 42 in May and here I am enjoying the wonderful world of Mini-Z's and dNaNo's! Nothing wrong at all with a larger track for the dNaNo's. These things are very fast and can use the room. I know I said in one of my previous post's that my track was 6x12 and I thought that was about the right size. I might double it......I might not. I do have enough mats to do so. I know that I get to the end of that 12' straight in a blink of an eye. But as you said about the steering being "extremely sensitive" it gets around the 6x12 track very well. I couldn't believe the difference the tires made. I mean that car was sticking and taking everything as fast as I could drive it. I was getting quick and smooth laps for the most part. I don't know why I am surprised by the tire difference, I should have known that with the experience I have running Z's. I think my next upgrade will be the diff and then bearings. I am sure that I will probably try a damper system, but like I said- I don't have a problem with the rear end chatter on the eva foam like I did at the HT track. I agree with the speed and how much we all like it. Who knows, I may keep it the same width and just make it a total of 24' long......I got the room!

[Rooster29]

One thing that I failed to mention or clarify about making it larger is, I mean the length, not the width. I would like to hold it a little longer on the straights and that would take - longer straights. I'm not touching the width on the 17-18 inch lanes. I feel that the width that I have in place now puts it more in touch with real road racing. You can pass, but you don't have four feet to do it with a car that is four inches long and two inches wide. I do like to have to stay on top of things while I am running it. It makes you a better driver.

[arch2b]

We are of the same mind in that regard :)

I'm limited in space so I try to make the course as interesting as I can vs. A large donut. The expansion pack suits my needs just fine for dnano.

I do prefer the 50cm tiles for mini-zs. 30cm are good for training but not so hot for racing with more than say 3 mini-zs. You just get bunched up to often. My kids like wrecking eachother though so they don't complain.

[Rooster29]

For sure the mini-96 w/ expansion set is great for home practice. It's great for a couple cars running at the same time. More than three is to crowded. So we are for sure on the same page. I sold mine a little while back and I'm kicking myself for it.:( I have a good size 1:43 scale slot car track in addition to what I have set up for the dNaNo. I am thinking very hard about selling the slot car stuff off and just going with a good Mini-Z track set up. I go to a really nice 1:32 slot car track in Cincy for racing as well, so I am thinking I will just save the slot racing for there. Slots are fun, especially no magnet, but I like the total driving experience of Z's & NaNo's better. So I may get a couple MR-03's (I don't have any & dying to see how those are), that F1 like you got (if it's still available when I get around to it). The only thing that I am thinking about though is I really do like that Eva Foam I am running the dNaNo's on now and I liked the z's on the rcp. The stock tires we okay on it, better than the stock tires on mini-z on the rcp track. But when I put those 10's in the front and 20's in the rear, man was it bad fast and handled. :D

[arch2b]

I'm sure you can find a good mini-z tire choice for your foam track. I bought am mini-zs for our home track. It was a much cheaper home track only solution. I have mr-03s for club racing. I don't think the sp2 is going to sell out quickly. It's too small a niche and it's a race ready chassis with a price tag to match.

[Rooster29]

Man I wish I could have club racing around here.......at least 4-6 guys. It would be so much fun. I have tried to get some slot car guys into it, even took a couple Z's to show them on race nights. I was thinking the F1 sp2 would be around a while for the reasons you mentioned. I probably could find a tire for the Eva Foam, but would like to run Z's on rcp, because I always hold out hope to go to a race somewhere and would like to practice on that since the races are held on rcp. Maybe it wouldn't be a big deal???? I have ran on both so, I'm just confused or over complicating things :confused: I got the Eva Foam mats at Big Lot's, $15 for a pack of six. They are usually that much for four. I only have about $75 in that dNaNo track.

[Rooster29]

My wife got me an early birthday present. She got me the dNaNo 962 Kenwood Porsche :D. I also found out that you can traction roll the dNaNo. I tried stock on the rear and 20 degree on the front. That wasn't a good combination for the 962, or probably anything else as far as that goes. I wouldn't mind getting the Mazda Renown 787 at some point, I have always liked that car. It's gonna be time to start getting some upgrades for one car soon to see what a difference it makes. Having a blast running the three I got in the basement! :)

[arch2b]

congrats! pictures;)

[Rooster29]

Yeah, it was a cool gift.:) I took a picture and I am having problems w/ my camera and computer working together.:mad: The picture came out cool. I used a garage diorama that I made for my 1:43 slot cars. I actually put it on my work laptop as a screen saver. I will get with one of my friends to use their computer and get it posted in a day or two.

[Rooster29]

Here are a couple pictures of my dNaNo's :D

http://mini-zracer.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=966

http://mini-zracer.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=965

http://mini-zracer.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=967

[arch2b]

did you make the backdrop? looks great.

[Rooster29]

Thanks! Yeah, I made it. It's a Diaroma made out of poster board w/ the garage graphics glued to it. I got it off of a link I found.

[lie495fc]

that garage background looks very neat. good job.

perhaps the walls are too clean. would be nice to have some pictures up there.

[herman]

great looking bunch... :D