Hello all,

Have spent some time looking for a good MINI or Mini body for 1/18 cars. Got a great chassis in mind, the BRP SC-18 (V2), but can't find a good Cooper body. An 1:18 body for HPI's Micro RS-4 can be found, and body mount adapters are available, but want to see if anyone else has turned something up.

Also, any folks here with experience or opinions on Tamiya's Mini Cooper cars? I see a few variations of the M-03 chassis, all FWD(!), including Timo Makinen's 1994 Mini Cooper in full race kit, and a Racing Cooper with same body lines, and same basic chassis. Timo's car is available in XB (Expert Built) kits only, apparently. Believe the body and chassis are essentially identical, with some additional exterior trim (rally light bar) and different decaling and finish making the difference here.

Some indications on the web that these M-03 kits REQUIRE Tamiya's radio. I doubt it, myself, but I'd like other's experience, if they have anything to contribute.

Cheers,
Matthew Z.

Hey Mathewz, as being a former Hobby Shop owner, I can say the Tamiya M03 chassis are great. I have the R/C Rover Mini Cooper and it works great! As with any Tamiya product, you get very good quality with the best representation of scale and looks. Of course you will want to upgrade to bearings and oil filled shocks. Any radio with standard servos and electronic speed control will work fine. Since it has been 2 years since I have been in business, I am not sure they are still available but are still on tamiya's website. Here is mine

Tamiya #58211








Or here is the more current kit with the M03L chassis...
Tamiya # 58295




And of course the cool rally edition in the expert built.....



The front wheel drive will not disappoint! The stock motor works just fine with the light weight chassis. I believe I got the ball diff for my kit too. It is fast and handles like it should. But again to make it much better, put a full bearing kit and oil shocks.

As far as a 1/18 scale mini body, I have not seen anything else.

Hope this helps.

Scott.

anyone know where to find a complete HPI RS4 Nitro Mini? they got discontinued a year or so ago and i havent been able to find a nice one since!

i think they still make an electric short wheelbase, but i want one in nitro.

Hey rednwhitecooper. Those nitro minis are really neat looking but were not the greatest performance wise. The belt drives didn't hold up worth a crap, and were uncontrollable with hop up engines. I had one for a few months and got rid of it since I kept breaking it everytime I took it out. No wonder they didn't last for long. If you have noticed, almost every nitro 4x4 is now shaft drive. They are much more reliable and can handle more torque. The Associated Nitro TC3 is the best racer on the market (IMHO). They are 1/10 scale and are super fast. Hook it up with an O.S. .15 Engine and you will have one helluva screamer. HPI bodies will fit too so you can slap anything on it to make it look real cool. If you do go for a HPI NRS4mini, make sure you have extra belts!

Probably your best bet to find one would be ebay.....

Hope that helps.

Scott

haha, all we drive are belt drive RS4's. i have 2 first gen Rs4's and my dad has one. my cousin has a second gen beld drive with the new frame and upper deck. i havent had too many problems with belts, besides the ocasional thrown belt. not too bad of a fix. now that we are going to be doing a cone course versus a oval setup as we did before, and we all run RS4's, i feel the nibmler (is that a word? lol) mini will be able to outmanuver the larger RS4's.

BTW, one of my RS4's is a drift car, RWD. belt drive, single speed. never had any belt problems with the .21 off my old tmaxx on it!