Start with Street Mini 4WD

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This page is a translated version of the page Per iniziare and the translation is 100% complete.

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This is a base guide lines for beginners who want to start racing with a Mini 4WD driving it with a guide stick.

The guide stick

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First of all, to play in Street Mini 4WD you must have a guide stick. Before designing any car you have to run behind a mini 4WD with guide stick. In this way you will get an idea of what you are going to design later. You can read all the most accurate informations about street racing, but if you don’t try to drive with a guide stick, you will not understand what you will need and the meaning of street racing. So the first step to begin with this sport, is having your own guide stick.

Make a guide stick is simple: you can build it yourself or you can try to use an hockey stick.

Each choice has its pros and cons, for now you do not need to worry about anything else.

Our wiki contains a guide to build a guide stick. If you choose to build it you have to remember to follow the guidelines about the angle of the blade.

The first car

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After getting the stick, it’s time for you to choose a suitable Mini 4WD. But to do so you should read the paragraphs below.

The aesthetics

Remember that more than wheels, batteries, ratio gears, aerodynamics, what it’s matters at the beginning is to appreciate what you are going to drive. You have to choose a mini 4WD you like! It would seem a nonsense, but if you will use a mini 4WD that you do not like, you definitely will drive it in a bad way.

The chassis

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However you must not decide everything basing your choices only on aesthetics. A mini 4WD has different behaviors depending on the chassis.

There are a large number of chassis, and each of them has different features. On the box of a Tamiya mini 4WD it is always written the type of chassis that the car will have.

It's important not to choose a mini 4WD with Type 1, Zero, MS or MA chassis, the reason will be explained later.

In this guide, for simplicity, chassis are classified according to their "wheelbase": which is the distance between front and rear wheels.

Keep in mind that the more the wheelbase is short, the more the car will be fast and agile on cornering, but it will have problems with stability. Instead a car with a long wheelbase will be very stable on rough tracks and on the straights, but not very agile and fast cornering. So Tamiya mini 4WD chassis are:

Wheelbase 80mm : Type 3, Super-1, VS, Super-II, VZ;

Wheelbase 82mm : Type 2, Type 4, Type 5, Super TZ, Super TZX, AR;

Wheelbase 83mm : F.M., Super F.M., FM-A;

Wheelbase 84mm : Super X, Super XX.


One more tip: you should choose the newest chassis which Tamiya sells. This list shows the chassis from the oldest ones to the newest ones: for example, the Type 3 is older than Super-II, the Type 2 is older than AR, etc. ...

Choosing a new chassis ensures more solidity, speed, stability and simplicity in setup. The newest Tamiya mini 4WD chassis are shown in bold.

The wheels

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On the road it's important to not have too small wheels because they do not react well to uneven grounds. So the choice of your first car must be between mini 4WDs that have larger wheels sets (30+mm diameter).

You could choose a mini 4WD with small wheels and set it up so it can fit bigger wheels, but it is not an easy job for beginners. In other words do not choose a mini 4WD with small wheels if you are beginning to do street races.

To improve the stability of your car you should use the 72mm hexagonal axes with appropriate spacers. The 72mm axles can be found in all cars with Super X and Super XX chassis or you can buy them separately as items (15297, 15417, 15314). You can choose different types of spacers: the plastic ones (15506) or the aluminum ones that are found in various items.

The gear ratio and the motor

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On the road it is very important that your machine runs at your own speed, but at the beginning you will have many difficulties in following the movements of your mini 4WD, even under these conditions. For this reason, you have to mount on your car a 5:1 gear ratio.

The MS and MA chassis don’t have the 5:1 ratio gear and so they are not recommended for beginners.

Mini 4WD with Type 1 are sold without 5:1, and it is not easy to find this gear ratio for this chassis. The Type 1 is therefore not recommended for beginners.

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If your car does not include the 5:1 gear ratio you can have it by purchasing the item AO1032 (10303) or the most complete 15456 and 15516. Both are compatible with all chassis which are listed before except with Type 3 chassis (Cars sell with this chassis always include the 5:1, except for Nissan Be-1, item code 94978).

For the same reasons (speed and difficulty of control) the motor that has to be used on street races is the Stock one: it is the one you will find included into the box of your mini 4WD.

In case your mini 4WD had no Normal/Stock motor you can buy a separate motor (94368). Warning! The only Street Mini 4WD racing motor for beginners who do not have a Stock motor is the Low RPM (75028) that we suggest in case you need to prepare a mini 4WD for children aged 5 to 10 years.. Do not buy other motors.

The rollers

Side roller for Super-II chassis (94835)
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A mini 4WD goes always straight, so to turn you will use the guide stick, which will touch the rollers that you mount to the end of the front and side bump guard of your car. It's important to have at least 4 rollers, two mounted on the front bumper, and two mounted on the central bumps.

The Type 1 has no central bumps that allow to mount rollers; cars with Zero chassis are generally sold without the support that adds the central bump; MS chassis does not have central bumps. For these reasons too you are not supposed to choose cars that mount chassis Type 1, Zero and MS. Notice: some of cars with chassis Super-II do not include the central side roller. You can find it as an item (AO1028 Mini 4WD EX Side Stay) just as you could find it for the Zero chassis (15102).


AA Batteries

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If you have right followed this guide now you will be ready to start with the Street Mini 4WD ... but one last detail is missing: the power source!

The batteries in Street Mini 4WD racing are NOT a fundamental element to win a race. No driver would worry about the fuel of his car without having a car license in hand. In other words: you have to learn to drive well with the guide stick before to care of other details.

Usually rechargeable AA batteries (Ni-Mh LSD) are used in street racing. The maximum limit allowed by the Street Mini 4WD regulation regarding the maximum amperage of the batteries is 1000 mAh.

There are numerous models of Ni-Mh LSD regulatory batteries, sure the most accessible in these days in Europe is the Eneloop Lite 1000 AA on Amazon (click on the images of the batteries in this article and you will be redirected to the link for the purchase), or you can buy the Tamiya Neo-Champ 1000.

Ni-Mh LSD batteries like the ones suggested are sold already charged and so they are ready for use. To recharge them, you can use a low-priced wall charger device.

Do not buy other types of batteries, as you will have performances that you will not be able to manage, so:

  • Batteries with a higher amperage are prohibited by the Street Mini 4WD regulations;
  • Alkaline batteries are NOT allowed.

Lista pile

Cliccare sulle immagini per essere rediretti su Amazon

EneloopLite.jpg

Eneloop lite

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Varta Endless 1000

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Varta Solar 800

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Panasonic DECT P6P AA 1000



Lista Caricatori

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EverActive Nc 1000 Plus

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Goolsky SKYRC NC1500

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ISDT C4 EVO

Suggerimenti

Eccoci giunti a delle liste specifiche di auto ed alcuni item da montare sulla vostra prima Street Mini 4WD. La lista tiene conto del materiale disponibile sul sito di Tamiya Italia; a sinistra troverete il codice dell'articolo, a destra il suo nome. Nel caso delle auto è riportato anche il telaio che montano tra parentesi tonde. Le liste includono tutte le possibili alternative a una categoria di item, basterà solo avere a disposizione 1 (UNO) item per lista, solo nel caso dei set di rotelle sarà necessario avere 2 set per avere 4 rotelle.

Mini 4WD

Misuratori

Viti

Rotelle

Cerchi

Ingranaggi

Fibre

Spessori

Assi

Cuscinetti

Item Corridore Avanzato