TinyRC.com - The M-Chassis

Since the M-Chassis forums were just added let me introduce you guys to the M.

The M chassis is a 1/10 scale car that is smaller than almost all 1/10 cars. Tamiya had made this chassis to accomidate the smaller cars in real life so is that it would be true-er to scale. Example if you were to fit a Mini cooper body to one of your normal 1/10 touring cars it would haev to fit the 190mm or 200mm sizes that the 1/10 touring car traditionally use, thus the car would not be a 1/10 scale model of a mini cooper.

There is 5 different M chassis's. The M-01,M-02,M-03,M03L and last but most currant is the M04L.

The M-01 is the oldest of the M-chassis's. It is FWD and uses different body mount locations then the M-03. It also has a different suspension set up. It uses one friction shock for both of the wishbones on the front suspention and the rear. Thus its suspention is not as smooth as having a single shock for eack wheel. The M-01 is also the most delicate the the M's its plastic is weak. It uses a geard "open" differential. This car, the M-01, however is out of production and to some is a collecters item.

The M-02 is RWD. Infact the M-02 is a RWD version of teh M-01 being that its basically turned around and teh rear becomed the front and so on. it still uses the single shock suspention for the front and rear. It also uses a geared "open" differential.What is upgraded is the material. It uses a stronger plastics. This car too as, M-01 counter part, is now discontinued and some, a small some, are now considering the collectors item.

The M-03 is also FWD, infact half of the M-chassis's are front wheel drive and half is rear wheel drive, which I will explan later on. The M-03 is the most currant of the FWD M-chassis's. It uses independent four wheel suspension using friction shocks(as all M-Chassis's do). This car does use a "open" geared Differential. This car is also the most durable of the FWD M's. The M-03 is still in production. I currantly own the M-03 and I must say it is one of teh best handling cars I haev driven. It is almost impossible to make one of these to spin out. I had to try very hard and even when I did it was only 180 degree turn. But of course as with all FWD cars,even 1/1 scale, your tires are going to wear faster than if you were of a differnt Drive train such as RWD.

The M-03L is the same as teh M-03 but its Chassis has a extender in it. This increases the length of teh chassis to accomidate more bodies such as the Suzuki R. This car,although I have not driven one, is said to handle somewhat "clunky" as it is of a longer wheel base so it will not be as nimble as the standard M-03. All of the FWD M-chassis's as with any FWD car will want to understeer.

The last of the M-Chassis's is also the newest. It is the M-04L. This car is slightly longer than the M-03. It is basically a stretched M-03 turned around the same situation withe teh M-01 and M-02 .It has four wheel independant suspension using friction shocks. It also, as with the othe M-chassis's uses an "open" geared differential. This car is the fastest of all the M-chassis's if all were left stock. Although it uses the same motor as the other cars it is geared differntly resulting in a higher top speed. Since it is RWD off the line it is, of course, going to have better acceration than the FWD M-chassis's since the RWD car is going to have better traction off the line. Of course,which is the case of most RWD cars, the M-04L is going to oversteer at times but not to a degree at which is not easily corected allowing a driver of skill to drift the M-04L.

It should be noted that ALL of the M-chassis come with MSC a.k.a. mechanical speed controllers. these are ok if you are going to stay with ethe stock motor. but if you want to get a better motor it is HIGHLY recomend by me and most everyone that you go ahead and just get a ESC a.k.a electronic speed controller.

If anyone has any questions regarding the M-chassis just ask me and I will try and do my best at helping you.

And once again I must thank TinyR/C for adding the M-chassis to thier wonderfull site.
-Thanks