INDONESIA OPEN 2014

Its time again of the year for one of the biggest mini-z race in S.E.A. Indonesia Open 2014.

This year the race will be held in a shopping mall in Surabaya. I am very excited about this upcoming race as PN team drivers will be there for the race as well as Team drivers from Atomic RC.

More info on the race can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/394594130680150/

Race dates as follows: Sept 18 - 19 Open Practise / Sept 20 - 21 Qualifying + Mains

The Singapore team heading up for the race will be as follows :

Dave Tang
Keith Lin
Fred Chia
Mark Loo
Kar Wee
Dinesh
Jowell

Mini - Z legend Alvin Lim will not be joining the race as it clashes with the IPHONE launch on 19th Sept 2014 in Singapore.

I hope to provide some live coverage if I am able to get on the network there.

Good luck guys.

Next article will be some tips on race preparation.

Choose your rear tires like a PRO !

Back in MAY I touched on finding traction and in the post I covered mainly the front tires.

Well guys just to touch on the rear tires.

You hear us talking about degrees, parada, radial, compound and many terms and you must be thinking what the hell and what should I buy. The grooves on the tires, there is no water on the track does the groove matter?

Anyway here goes:


1. Degree

The lower the number the softer the tires therefore 5* is softer than 6* and therefore technically you should have more grip when you use a lower degree tires. However I feel that the car gets a little sluggish in the rear when the tires are too soft. If there is no need to DO NOT USE the softest tires because: IT WEARS FASTER and IT CAUSE THE CAR TO BE SLUGGISH.

On a typical well maintained RCP track the PN Racing 6* should provide you with more than sufficient rear grip.


2. Grooves

I would recommend you to try BOTH. The parada and the radial. The differences, both the tires are of the same compound and same hardness (6*) so what's the difference. Well the radial tires have the same groove throughout and therefore provide you with the same traction same feel even during cornering. I would say good tires for smooth drivers.

However if you look at the parada closely the grooves are not the same. There is 2 lines at the outer area of the tires. At this moment you must be thinking. YOU ARE CRAZY does it make a difference.

Yes it does, the outer surface of the tires because of the design is softer where else towards the middle and the insides it's the same hardness. So what?

Having a softer "outside" actually gives you better side grip while cornering and doing sudden direction change. And if ask yourself when do upset the car or when does the car lose traction? Will it lose traction on the straights? If it does your car needs to be looked at (Back to Pit). The car usually lose traction when you corner HARD or make sudden direction change to avoid collision. The parada tires does help with the softer outsides to give you that extra side bite.

Enough said, try it !

RRR06 - PN Racing Mini Z RCP Radial Rear 6 (Degree)
RR1106 - PN Racing Mini Z Parada Rear Tire 6 (Degree)

Pro Kit Stage 2 (Last Part) Explained

Alright guys,

This is the final part on the pro kit explained. In this last section we are touching on :

1. T Plates

This is found on the bottom of the chassis and the T-plate basically controls your roll. (Left and Right movement of the car)

There are a couple of different hardness available

MR3012S - Number 2
MR3001S - Number 3
MR3002S - Number 4
MR3003S - Number 5
MR3004S - Number 6

So what are all this numbers and what do they do? The bigger the numbers the stiffer the plates and therefore less roll action. Of cos if the pockets allowed you can purchase the entire whole range for testing but in our experience we normal run the Number 4 or 5.

The rest is a little too hard or too soft. But again, that depends on the track condition.



2. Rear axel height adjustment.

When you remove your diff, take a close look at the black plastic piece that holds the bearing. There is a number on it and either 1 or 2 that you are using. Do remember, use the same number on both side else you will realise that your car tweaks on one side. Both the holders provides 2 different ride heights and I would take reference from the fronts and the tires to match the rear. The concept here is very simple, this adjustment basically sets the rear ride height to match the front so that you will have even ride height.

That's all for now guys. Pro Kit explained. No more guessing work. Hit the tracks.

Pro Kit Stage 2 (Part 1) Explained

Hi Pro Kit Owners,

I hope you guys have fun tweaking the front section of the car and I hope by now you have found a sweet spot or a nice setting for the fronts.

Today I am going to touch on part 1 of Stage 2 upgrade. Stage 2 upgrade consist of a couple of key components and therefore I feel that there is a need to break the explanation to 2 parts.

In part 1, I am going to touch on the centre shock as well as the DPS.


1 & 2. Center Shock

Well there are a couple of centre shocks available in the market and the most common ones that you see would be the "yellow" kyosho shock. I personally don't like that option part as the damping rely on the oil and the springs. When I ran that shock a couple of years back there was quite abit of guessing work. Springs you use on the shock affects the response. The oil you use affects it as well.
When the oil level drops it changes again. And worst the spring and the oil both contributes to bounce and the oil alone contributes to the re bounce. It's like rock science.

I strongly recommend the PN Racing piece. Simple, maintenance free and very simple to understand.

Springs in the front (1) determines your re bounce and the Springs in the rear (2) determines your bounce. Just a little tip, load the springs with slight compression. Never compress the springs too much. I use green for the front and white for the rear.



3. Damper system

This part prevents the car from hopping too much and at the same time contributes to the on throttle response and off throttle response. By having a harder spring at the bottom gives you more on throttle steering where else a softer spring gives you more off throttle steering. Make sure to take close look at the damper system and try to make sure that both the top and bottom springs are equal.

I am a off throttle person and therefore, I prefer Blue (hard) springs on the top and Green (Soft) springs and the bottom.

That's all for today's tech tips.

See you soon. Happy racing.......

Pro Kit Installation VIDEO

Good Morning Pro Kit Owners,

It has been photos and many text, this time round the article is short. Let the video do the talking :)

Let's see how the winning car is built from scratch.

Enjoy the process !

For mobile phone users direct youtube link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zFttgDpfkA&feature=youtu.be

Pro Kit Front End EXPLAINED

Hi Pro Kit Owners,

Sorry this article is a little late as I was busy with the PNWC Regional 2014 held recently at Mini-Z SG ( Singapore premium Indoor Racing Circuit).

Alright let's get down to it. For the front section of the pro kit basically there are 3 key components I want to touch on.

1. Castor Adjustments
0.2mm Shims are used here and there are basically 3 different options for this. Placing both the shims in the front gives you 0 degree caster, placing one shim in the front and one in the rear gives you 0.9 degree caster and finally 2 shims at the rear gives you 1.8 degree caster.

Caster basically provides you with more on power steering, you will be able to turn more aggressively and sharper with more caster. I personally run 0.9 degree as I find 1.8 degree a little to aggressive for me.


2. Spring Rates
In Stage 1 upgrade most of you would have bought MR3010 Front Suspension Spring Sets. The different sets of springs offer you different hardness. Ratings as follows:
Red = 70g/mm
Green = 104g/mm
Purple = 139g/mm
White = 189g/mm
Yellow = 270g/mm
Some of the tips online provides information on springs and most of the time they would say soft springs gives you more steering. Probably I would say this apply for the bigger scale. I use different spring hardness for response as well as roll control. The harder the springs the more responsive the front gets and lesser the roll. Purple and White springs are generally used on the local track.


3. Static Camber and Ride Hide
700409 Color Shims are provided with every pro kit installed. The blue ones are 0.5mm and the orange ones 0.2mm.
Placing these shims below the arms gives you static camber. The MR03s gets camber gain whenever you corner and that's why you don't really need to worry about not having camber while cornering.

I would say static camber is very important as it determines if the camber gain is sufficient while you corner and it prevents the tires from conning.
Recommendation is to use all the  8 pcs of the shims.
However it is very important where the shims are placed. Placing the shims above the knuckle gives you static camber but does not change the ride height, while placing the shims below the knuckles gives you the same effect while lowering the car's ride height.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for Center Shock and DPS Explained next week.

Mini-Z Noobs

We all start somewhere, many people wants to get into a hobby and have tons of questions. They start googling "mini - z" and gather information that's top hit in the list. There are just tons of information and so many different school of thoughts, best of all there are so many brand manufacturer. There is Atomic, 3Racing, KM Racing, X-Power RC, R246, Kyosho, TRP, Reflex Racing and there could be more.

Most people alway start by buying parts that's cheap and easily available on Ebay or forums. Some would buy parts that's on big discount on web stores.

Ask yourself some questions, what is it you looking for?
When you start this hobby what do you have in mind?
Are you just trying to swap out the plastic parts with some aluminium parts?
Will you be racing? Is performance important? Are replacement parts necessary?
What about resale value? What about precision?

To keep things simple, I have been down this route. I started as a noob. I bought hell a lot of parts and you won't even imagine how many brands and how much money I have spent. End of this 4 years journey I concluded - PN RACING Parts is the only way to go. Why?

1. The brand says it (High Performance Option Parts)
2. Parts are designed by pro racers, people that actually race and win
3. RnD, prototype testing are carried out months before the parts are available for sale
4. 100% Mini-Z focus, PN makes only Mini-Z parts
5. Parts are readily available and comes in 3 different colours, Orange, Blue and Silver (Everyone has a favourite colour) :) - I love the silver though
6. PN makes the complete option parts for the entire Mini-Z from the front ends to the suspensions to the rear, to the motor, to basically every damm thing.
7. Individual replacement parts are also available and should you break or lose some of the parts you wouldn't need to buy the entire whole assembly. You can buy just the lose parts.
8. Last but not least products are high quality, precise and race proven

Stop wasting your money. Stop wasting your time. Let's Start Racing.