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MINI-Z GROUP NEWS LETTER
Here we are again after another great night’s racing, and what a night it was with Dave trying out a new motor for the Evo, I am giving the 5600kv Evo a second go, Praj tries the Geckos for the first time, me and Praj beat our personal bests, and Robert is one of the major contributor heading up the group’s latest project that will be our cheapest and out of the box product that will be happening in the next couple of weeks, we start as always with some practice time but we have changed the nights schedule to allow more racing time.
The night now starts with all guys in the group get the track laid first before anything else, then group members can setup and get on the track with their cars and any latest additions to they have on the track, while all the electronics is getting setup, then we will cut down on the practice sessions that we have that sometimes can go into a couple of hours, now that all drivers in the group after three and a half years should have got their cars sorted by know.
But that’s not saying if drivers want to test new cars or cars that have had changes or replacement parts, the schedule would change to suit their requirements would take priority, we have always said this in the past that time will be given, So Dave put his Evo on the track with his newly fitted PN 7000kv motor, and after a few laps and some alterations on the ICS to calm the car down a bit, the car was straight away was looking very much controlled but still had sliding problems on the bends.
But then came the Gecko tyres and the change to the car now was like putting the icing on the cake, what a difference and right away Dave said this is a 13 second car, we will see later what Dave gets out of this upgraded Evo, Myself I put the 5600kvEvo to the track and was not impressed with what I was seeing, now this was the car that brought my driving back to life, But the car seemed very slow this time around and sounded like it was being held back , but could not find anything wrong with the car, so I will stay with this car and see what happens, otherwise I will go back to the 8500kv Evo.
Praj was on the track with the McLaren bodyshell and putting down some reasonable lap times, and was definitely look to be trouble on the track when we start racing, at the moment Praj was the only driver not racing with Gecko tyres along with the Kyosho 20’s to make a matching set.
Dave put down the fastest lap time in practice with a 14.68 with Praj was close behind with a 14.73 second lap, followed by Dan with a 15.52, Me with a 16.50 and Robert with a 17.41, after the short practice time we got right in to the Qualifying round.
Qualifying
This is the first qualifier for Dave with the new motor with only 15 minutes of track time, but this did not seem to bother him as Dave knocked out a 14.92 second lap, that is great for him but not for us, so Dave took pole position, in 2nd was Praj with 16.33 in 3rd was Dan with 16.53, and in 4th was Me with a 16.70 and Robert took 5th place with a 17.79, for the rest of us the times were very close and I gather the racing will follow suite.
Racing Time
The first race was very tight with 15 laps completed, by all drivers except me with on 14 completed and Dan won the first race, and Robert too 2nd place I really was not feeling it with the 5600kv Evo, the turning characteristics of this Evo was more laboured than the other Anniversary Evo and the power lacking was too noticeable for my liking, so I will give it one more race , but the second race went downhill even more with Dave taking first this time with 17 laps and a best lap time of 14.32 seconds, myself I was only doing 19 second laps that did not belong in the racing we are having now, and I thought this week’s racing was going to be another bad one for me so I swapped back to my 8500kv Evo.
On the third race my times started to get back to what I was use too, and my fun was back on, the races got very tight with some amazing driving at times 4 cars was racing at a fast speed causing a train around the track as all drivers was following the same race line, it was great to see and I should have recorded some of this racing at a very good level.
Robert once again was the hardest driver to get around in these races, this can work for you but can also work against you, depending if you’re doing the chasing or being chased, Robert seems to know your moves before your about to make them which makes the racing very exciting, and you know have to double think the double thinker, also in a couple of the races the overtaking was so tight how the cars never touch we just don’t know, the racing once again was crazy but we have never had so much fun.
The first 4 races were shared between Dan, Praj and Dave, but after changing cars I took a 2nd place in race 4 and then took 1st place in race 5, I was now back and well in to the racing and also reducing my lap time down in to 15 second laps.
As the racing got faster Praj started to slip a little, so this was the time to try the gecko’s, Praj’s car is the only one left without gecko’s, when they were fitted What Praj found was he was not gong round the bends as he normally beforehand , but this was down to slowing down too much on the bend then adding power coming out of the bend this is what was causing the problem , with the Gecko’s you need to power and trust the car on the bends , once Praj tried this he could not believe what speed he could take the corners , much faster than before and was improving his lap times as well.
There was so much under taking and overtaking in the racing with some tense moments backed up by loads of very rapid driving, it was amazing that you could have this much fun with these little cars once there set up correctly. My racing got faster as it does in the later half of the night, but this also made the others step up a notch, we had a quick cup of tea and we convinced Praj to try Duracell batteries that we all use now.
As soon as Praj got his car on the track he was very surprised of the power these batteries give the car, we didn’t get as many races on the night as we wanted to do, but the racing is getting more intense so there are a few more little brakes being taken, in the last 5 races I finally peaked and won four of them quite convincing with 2 laps over the other drivers, for once I had something good to write about myself,
To finish the night off with did as always by having our ritual long race to finish of the night, this is one of the best sections of the night for me, I just love the longer race there is just something about it, the race got of to a clean start, and after a few laps I had taken first place with the others hard on my heels, the times started to come down, I heard Dan say that he was trying to catch me up but my laps were getting faster, and before they all knew I was about to start lapping the other drivers, but they did now make it easy, with the other three drivers were fighting out for second place, Dan was really getting stuck in to the race, Dan had Praj and Robert doing their very best to take 2nd place from him.
While that was going on I was coming around to lap the group for the second time, I could see that second position was changing between the other 3 drivers, and they forgot about me coming up behind them for the second time, and all that was going through my mind was keep calm and don’t muck up, I could have raced this race for longer as now I was in the zone, it was like no one else was around with clean lap after clean lap it was a race made in heaven and I did not want it to stop.
But it did the 15 minutes was up and I had lapped the group by 3 laps and 51 laps was completed, but everyone had achieved something out of this race and agreed that we would pack the track away and have a well-earned cup of tea and talk about the last race.
Three drivers this week had bettered there bast lap time they were Dave, Praj and myself, with times of 13.72 with a deregulated car, just now behind Rick and Daniel, Praj made a 14.43 and Myself did a 15.30 second lap.
Now for some stats –
Most wins of the night went to Dave with 6 wins, Myself 5 wins, Praj 2 wins and Dan with 1 win.
Fastest personal lap of the night – Dave 13.72, Praj 14.43, Me 15.30, Dan 15.56, Robert 16.75.
Best Average 5 Laps in any one race – Dave 13.99, Praj 15.19, Me 15.78, Dan 16.09, Robert 16.09.
Best Average 10 laps in anyone race – Dave 14.28, Me 16.07, Praj 16.19, Dan 16.22, Robert 17.22.
Most Consistent driver on the night was shared between Me and Robert with a 94.1%.
GLF-1
There were no F1 racing this week as I forgot to bring my car
What happening behind the scenes
This week has been a very interesting week, yes, we have our orders going out and coming in from GL and Kyosho, Tera came up with an idea to try an addition to our racing of Evo’s, F1 and Drifting cars, and not to forget the deregulated cars that we are building, but yes there is another, so I looked into the idea and the group decided that we will give it ago.
So, the order went in the next day and we will get them shortly, but before then we have our work cut out behind the scenes, with some design and development of some much-needed additions to the track, this would take some help from Robert who is also a cad designer, to design the equipment we require to pull this off and construct it.
What started off as an idea within 24hrs turned in to something we now can’t wait to get our hands on, this hobby is crazy, more about this in the following weeks along with the derestricted builds.

Website - https://stephensrcmodelling.com/
page - Stephens RC Mini-Z Group
YouTube page - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHgUnPnULO34zvjw-iHx7Uw
You will need to copy and paste the Facebook and YouTube information.
Please like and follow so you catch the latest information from our group and events and new small films with loads up and coming.
See you all next week
stephen
SRC MINI-Z RACING

Stephen Spittle - YouTube The channel will be run by myself stephen and Dave that will be editing the films that will be shown, the films will consist of our Mini z racing at our race...

Bid now painted ready for decals

Bodyshell cut and ready for painting

Latest car build a AWD GLA GUILIA

My new toy came yesterday

Mosler now painted and all water slides on, tomorrow final clear cote

Its back the only all day monthly Mini-Z event in the UK

MINI-Z GROUP NEWS LETTER
Last night was another great night’s racing, with Dave smashing records, Roberts having problems with his bodyshell and Ritchie has more problems with the F1, and is this the end of the gyro on my Evo.
The night started of with its normal sessions of practice and fine setting up period, Dave was spending most of this time fine adjusting his Anniversary evo fitted with the 12,000 motors, replacing the 8500 motors, Now Dave had done this before and found that the extra speed was wasted by the controllability of the car to perform in a style that he would like.
But this has all changed now with Dave’s new goal of getting back his track record from Dan , and he is differently getting there with the times coming down, slowly is he turning the car, the car it’s self is standard just with the different motor and the motor cog either a 7 or a 8 tooth one, Dave is running standard Kyosho speed house 900 batteries, and running on MZW38-20 radials on the front and MZW 37-20 radials on the rear, the only problem is when Dave changes tyres for a new set, it can take up to 70 90 laps before the tyres are properly ready to race with the, full control of his driving lines on the track.
Basically, what this means is once the radial pattern has worn of the tyres, Dave has said that their not going to give him the full grip that he needs to perform on the track to his best level of driving, and to get the 11 second laps to allow him to break in to the 10 second lap area.
The ironic thing about these tyre treads was when I started racing 3 months before starting our own group and this is when I had no idea about anything of the Mini-z Hobby, and I was a total novice, I was replacing the radial tyres every time after the actual tread had worn of, and was going through loads of sets of these tyres, now being a total novice and there were members in the original group that had been doing this racing for a good while before me, including racers from the shop, no one never said that I should not discard these tyres until they were fully gone, but that’s not good business for the shops.
But when we started our own group and there was no beneficial profit to be made from the group, then common sense and knowledge was being born in to the group by listing, to other groups on the internet that we are proud to call friends, as well as the experience gained over time in our own group.
I suppose the best that could be taken from what I have just said is, no matter how new you are to a hobby that you have got in to, don’t always trust and believe everything you hear or are told, also trust your common sense and ask questions not only to the groups you have joined but go on to the Facebook mini z group channels and with the answers you get make up your own mind up, but if you are as lucky as us to has People with a long history of a span of different scales of car racing and with there help and advice, see that there is progression in there information you have been given than you know you are on the path to glory.
Dave is always happy to discus his setting up procedures with anyone and to give advice if it is required no matter how silly you think the question is, because if you have to ask a question then it cannot be silly.
Ritchie with his F1 seemed to be problem free in the practice session, but this did change when we started to race, Robert had also now adapted to using a gyro for his Evo RWD and was starting to get use to using it, with 14 second laps being made in practice, my self I was trying out different amounts of gyro setting and seeing what difference was in the drive , my conclusion was that the more gyro percentage that was dialled in, the least amount of steering curve I had to use in the bends, which was a problem to me, and the lower the percentage of gyro the better the turning curve, so though out the night this percentage was being adjusted, and a drastic measure was taken in the racing.
Qualifying once again proved to be eventful, with Dave and Robert never letting the group down with fast times when qualifying and nothing had changed, with pole position going to Dave with a impressive 11.77 lap, followed by my self in second place with a 12.95 then Robert with another out of the bag time of 13.46, once again his fastest of the night so far, and then Ritchie with a 14.80 to put him in 4th place on the starting grid.
Racing was hectic we covered 20 races last night not with out its pitfalls with the F1 of Ritchie, having problems all night in racing, with his transponder not always working, and this was not anything to do with the transponder, but of the fitting of the F1 bodyshell pressing against the FST 4-way connector, as the bodyshell is very tight to the chassis., this was easily remedied by removing the bodyshell and doing some laps , and all problems had gone away, so the bodyshell was replaced what was really required was a small hole cut in to the bodyshell to relive the pressure from the connector, but this did not happen, and after a while a second problem started to occur, and that’s was lost of signal in the same area every time.
Again, the bodyshell was removed and the problem went away, the pressure on the connector was now causing faults with the main board, hopefully during the week Ritchie will sort this problem out before something major happens that will be costly, it has already blown one voltage regulator on the transponder that I removed and fitted a new one a few weeks ago.
As the night went on with all Ritchie’s problems going on he did manage to win a few races, at the beginning of the night he was lapping drivers by at least 2 laps but as the night rolled on it was evens stevens and he started to be lapped himself, but he did manage to get a couple of 11-second laps during the racing.
Robert was not without his problems, and I have said this many times when a car is producing laps 2 seconds or more less than normal there must be some sort of problem going on with the car, as it was two problems were sorted out in one go, as Robert had a broken front tab that required replacing, but on replacing the tab for a new one, we also noticed that the nose of the bodyshell was touching the ground, this was caused by the nose tab not sitting right for some reason, but every time we fitted the new tab, the position was at a slant and not straight, Dave then had two goes, of fixing the problem and on the second attempt it was perfect, but we could not explain why the sloped angle to the floor occurred in the first place.
After the change in the front tab Robert was back to his best fighting for finishing positions. And giving me especially some really great racing and competition as always, and Robert is one of the very few races that completes every race in the night each week
Dave, During the racing once again won the majority of the races, but also was keeping an eye on the other drivers’ cars, and their performances and noticing that there were problems that required sorting out, like with Robert and his very low front end of his bodyshell, Dave also noticed that my driving was getting not only slower but worst in quality of driving, and he put this down to the gyro, that he thinks was hindering my way of driving and not helping me, which is what I thought.
You always want to think that a changes like using the gyro was actually helping me, but in truth the way I would normally take certain corners was just not happening as it should, and Dave kept saying he thinks that the gyro is not helping and needs turning off.
This is what I did in the last 3rd of the night and also reduced the turning angle from 120% to 110%,because this would have been to much of a change all at once, and I hate to say this but Dave was right again, my cornering had stated to improve once again and my times started to step up a notch, and Ritchie could no longer lap me as he was in the first half on the night, I did win a few races last night, but Dave had the biggest achievement with his personal best lap time record being smashed once again from 11.33 second lap to now an amazing 11.15 second lap, and I have no doubt that this will keep on coming down over the weeks to come.
Now for a new section on the newsletter, all that has happened during the week that shows the group is not all about 1 day called -
THE WEEKS CATCH UP
The saga of the Duracell batteries, it was noticed that the latest Duracell Nimhs batteries that I have started to race with do not hold their charge over a couple of weeks as I thought, because I was only using two sets in racing over the night each week, when I came to use some of the others last night, I noticed they were not lasting very long, so it looks like I will be charging these like the speed houses every week if there used or not.
But the quality of the batteries still is up there with the best, the advantage with the Duracell’s is that they fully charge in 15 minutes to 100%, this can not be said of all the other types we use in racing.
The Groups Facebook site reached a mile stone for the group of 100 members and is still growing slowly, with more joining this week, the groups 2nd all day racing event has been approved and will be on the 20th August starting at 2pm and running till 11pm, for the first time there will be tea and coffee available if required at no cost, and as always there is a fully stocked bar in the next room and all the takeaways you could want just outside the doors that you will need to pay for.
Our very extensive group shop will also be available to all that comes at the very low group prices in case of any problems during the day that might occur, with also have a vast number of spare transponders and cars if required as always, more orders have gone off, to restock the group stocks of parts and should be here late this week, If any of our members on Facebook are having trouble getting hold of any Mini-Z spares or parts, please get in touch as we have a very good stock of Kyosho parts and can also bring in stock within 5 days of ordering, and all our Facebook friends that have joined our group will get the groups heavily discounted prices, and then you just pay the postage, that will be sent the following day to you.
More pictures of the track was put out on our page this week and we had a very good respose back , so thanks for that, it makes it all worth it.
Please do not ask for a list of prices as it will not be given owed to the amount of stock and turn around between the group and friends.
There has been talks over the week about re labelling the track as the heat and use over some weeks now has started to lift the old labels, and some general maintenance of the track this will probably happen one night, once I have a date, I will pass this information on.
There has been talk of more YouTube videos on the way, and another 24hr Le mans coming soon.
As always if there are any questions you would like to ask or any great information you would like to share, please just send it the site, for others also to see and help build the site.

THE RESULT AND SATISTICS WILL COME OUT SHORTLY
All links are for everyone to use if you want. advice

Website - https://stephensrcmodelling.com/
page - Stephens RC Mini-Z Group
YouTube page - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHgUnPnULO34zvjw-iHx7Uw
You will need to copy and paste the Facebook and YouTube information.
Please like and follow so you catch the latest information from our group and events and new small films with loads up and coming.

See you all next week
stephen
SRC MINI-Z RACING

Stephen Spittle - YouTube The channel will be run by myself stephen and Dave that will be editing the films that will be shown, the films will consist of our Mini z racing at our race...

Here is the final results from two weeks ago

MINI-Z GROUP NEWS LETTER
Here we are again after another great night at the track, and yes great fun was had by all with a totally different nights agenda as always to spice things up, with last night more towards drifting for most of the night. With a little bit of racing at the end more about that later, drifting was another side of mini-z involvement that was introduced by Dave a little while ago and at the time not everyone was sure because Dave and Ritchie have a back ground of drifting but the rest had never done drifting before.
But last week me and Robert both fitted gyros and this made it much more enjoyable and put both of us very close to being on a similar par to the others, that’s how good the gyro is in these cars.
Dave this week fitted his gyro into one of his MA020 drifters and started to setup to his liking, where Ritchie took drifting to another level with on board drifting with the camera in the car and viewed through goggles, this blow us away and most gave it a try, and was amazed at the results.
Dave introduced his latest creation a Nissan – in blue which was amazing as always with light and indicator lens film fitted that really tops this car off, we spent a while just getting lap time in and perfecting the managing of the cars a round the track, it was commented that there was a problem with Roberts Dodge still having some handling problems, this was quite noticeable after a while, after a close inspection it was noticed that the metal supporting cups were missing from the base plate that holds the front hubs central, so this gave play to the steering that was uncontrollable while driving.
Once we noticed this was the fault it was corrected and made a big difference to the drive, another thing that was noticed is that the MA-030 Awd cars has more of a turning circle more one way than the other, we thought this was a problem with just Robert, but after checking mine as well they also have the same problem, the steering is straight, it just seems like the positioning of the servo is not central which gives the feel of more of a turn one way, If anyone has an remedies for correcting this problem please reply or get in touch it would be appreciated. All contact details at the bottom of this newsletter.
We also noticed that Robert’s car was in a wide chassis form and Mine is in narrow, that I think gives me more turning ability, so during the week we will be changing his chassis to narrow, for us to try to see if this helps next week and we may change the rear tyres to narrow as well, but we will do one alteration at a time so we can see the difference between changes.
We had a short YouTube video go out last week and we have had some good feedback on this, this week we have done some moving 360 filming on the drifting that will be out very shortly, getting back to Ritchie and his on-board drifting, it’s amazing how far the RC hobby has come over the years, It might be something we might do as a group but we will see in the future, once some of our other ideas have been completed.
Dave has come up with a remarkable idea for the drifting fun on the track last night that would be a fresh angle on drifting that could be a first, I found that I was have a slight problem getting around some tight corners, so after having a look at my transmitter , I found that I had reduced the speed by 30% for when I did not have a gyro, but now I do the extra speed is required to aid getting the rear end round them tight corners, and yes it made a big difference.
Now let’s get on to the racing side of the night, this got to see all the Mosler 900 bodies out, and like last week it took a few minutes to get back in to race mod after drifting, I had a problem last week with my motor wire breaking inside the motor, I changed the motor for a new one but I will repair the other as a spare all it needs is the wire resoldering back on to the small pcb in the motor, my car was ballistic and did get a low 13.30 second lap and the car is very quiet which is what I love about the car.
Robert was getting low 14 second laps, dave also brought on his go-kart that has the 5600kv motor fitted, and was holding down on the track like it was a slot car, amazing amount of grip, also knocking out 12 second laps and many 13 second laps, Ritchie put his F1 Car on the track but there was definitely something wrong with super low power to the wheels, but we think we found the problem where Ritchie was swapping the rx from one car to the other without altering the settings, for the rest of the night Ritchie stuck with his Evo Awd 8500kv to race.
Some orders will be going out this week as we have now started to prefect the drifting cars on the tracks to each preference, and now the weather is getting warmer the paint shop will be getting back in to action, Something else that was mentioned last night was when others tried my cars with the upgraded Flysky Noble pro from its predecessor the Flysky Noble where most are using they commentated how good it felt and the drive it gave which was a couple of differences between the two transmitters.
That’s it for this week see you all next week.
THE RESULT AND SATISTICS WILL COME OUT SHORTLY
All links are for everyone to use if you want. advice

Website - https://stephensrcmodelling.com/
page - Stephens RC Mini-Z Group
YouTube page - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHgUnPnULO34zvjw-iHx7Uw
You will need to copy and paste the Facebook and YouTube information.
Please like and follow so you catch the latest information from our group and events and new small films with loads up and coming.

See you all next week
stephen
SRC MINI-Z RACING

Stephen Spittle - YouTube The channel will be run by myself stephen and Dave that will be editing the films that will be shown, the films will consist of our Mini z racing at our race...

Here is the latest in YouTube video's from my channel .
this on is on RC Mini-Z drifting pt2.,
Please give it a like , if you like like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYbtjjY5yZo

saturday night drifting pt2 This is the second film on drifting that our group has made,Kyosho drifting with Gyros for the first time all 3 cars are MA03 AWD, the film shows how good th...

Stephensmodellingsite updated their address.