Ok Toms asked for this. whilst preston don't run to the real rules for mardaves, i think there well thought out, and the main thing to remember is that it's meant to be cheap racing.

first thing is ditch the metal speedcontrol plate, and the posts that go with it, replace it with a set of the cobra battery holders, if you trim out the ridges in the ends it'll fit across the standard holes on the front of the metal plate, which puts the cells as far back as they can go, i even had to trim the battery holder and motor plate down a little

for the rear pod, fit the ballraces, and for people rebuilding old cars get the new back axle, it's got much longer flats to drive the spur, and also allows fitting of the new 46 48 and 50t spurs. I'm using the standard rear springs set quite tight, and i've got 2 orings rather than 1 in the damper, adjusting this makes quite a big difference to rear end stability i've got a very small washer under the ball for the rear pod too.

At the front i've ditched the standard body mount system and fitted posts right up front to protect the body with a foam touring car style bumper over the bodyposts. Mount the front wishbones upside down, with another small washer under the front holes aprox 1mm thick. standard springs again, with another 1mm washer between the spring and the eclip, adding washers in here, or below the springs seems to have a big effect on the front end. I've replaced the servo with a Hitec HS-85, it's tiny, metal geared, and centers much better than standard servo's, and its only £19 from
http://www.servoshop.co.uk/index.php?pi ... area=Servo
and i've mounted it so that the horn in dead center on the chassie, and the balls for the trackrods are on a line between the rear wishbone screws, with the servo towards the back of the car.

i've got a futaba R114F reciver, and a quantum sport speedcontol, and an ambrc transponder, they fit across the width of the chassie, side by side, stacking anything up definatly has an effect on roll so go for small stuff if you can

for tires i've got V54SE on the rear, and either V54SE or VJ50's on the front, but make sure the fronts are much smaller than the rears.

Oh and get a Kamtec Calibra lexan shell.


Think that's about it

I think if this takes off we should call it the clone series!

Rick, do you use a servo saver on your mardave?

Ive put 1 on mine paul

yes, the mardave one sucks! get a kimboro small one, if you have to use the mardave one, put a few turns of strong tape around it to stop the plastic spring opening up so easily. also quite a few people are using small servo's hitec HS 85MG, there about the same performance as a standard servo, but center better, and are much smaller and lighter, and only £18

did you have to raise the servo up to stop the servo saver catching on the chassis, or does it fit without a problem?

mine fitts np m8 im using a standard servo

stand servo should fit fine unless you have the large kimboro saver, if your using the hs85mg you'll either have to raise up the servo or cut a hole in the chassie, if you go for cutting a hole, keep it as small as you can, and keep the corners round i bent the first chassie i had after cutting out a huge hole to clear the servo saver, though it was a bit like swiss cheese from moving the servo about, changing body mounts and all the other wacky idea's i tried

Cheers for that Rick, I thought as much, I have a small servo but no saver yet. But looking at the size of the micro servo and the size of the servo saver something has to be tweeked to make it fit on chassis without fouling.

Rick, Is the small Kimbrough servo saver that fits the Hitec HS 85 MG this one: Kimbrough KP131 Small Servo Saver for Hitec 24 Spline Drive

http://demonpowerproducts.co.uk/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=&products_id=442

i think so yes, the pic looks like mine!

Question : which side of the car do you mount the motor?

From the instructions it looks like the left hand side - from looking from the back of the car. As it does with the Worlds edition car on their web site.

However, assuming the red mark on the end of the motor is the +ve on the motor, when you wire it up it goes the wrong way!

most peoples are on the left spin up the motor on a battery pack, and listen to which way sounds faster, and fit/wire to suit

Thanks Rick.

The car is pretty mch there now. Just need to sort the body out and put the body mounts on. I am hoping to run it at morecambe on Monday,

Did you run the Mardaves last Sunday?

dave ran his, i forgot to bring any batterys for mine (**&*er) and the wheelers didn't come as they were ill but i'm well up for it on the 11th