by Tim K

Does the title of this article sound too good to be true? Like turning lead into gold perhaps? How is it possible to cut the M04L chassis wheelbase from 239mm down to a measly 204mm? And without resorting to cutting up your chassis so it can't be converted back to the M04L should you wish? I didn't believe it was possible either, until I sat down and thought about it for a week … gave up on the whole idea, then sat down and thought about it again for another week … until … success!

Interested in a Ferrari of your own? Read on.

When Tamiya brought out their new Tamtech range I was excited, I was hoping that the body of the Porsche 934 would somehow fit on an M03 chassis … my hopes were dashed when I read that the wheelbase was only 190mm and that the front was so low it would never fit over an M03. Then Tamiya released the Ferrari GTO, I checked the specs and was delighted to find that the wheelbase was longer, 204mm, the width was spot on … but the bonnet was very low, too low for an M03 … dreams - shattered once again.

The Ferrari GTO has long been one of my favourite Ferraris, so I thought why not bite the bullet and buy the Tamtech kit, it would be something different to build and it might even drive alright.

After spending longer than an hour building the Tamtech GT-01 chassis, I started to dislike it … the M03 is so quick and easy to build, why did Tamiya make the GT-01 so complicated? All the parts are so small I can barely put the thing together, you need a special small servo for it, the ears must be cut from the servo to make it fit, it runs a smaller motor (a 370) and it runs a smaller battery pack as well - 6x2/3A cells … I thought to myself - even the M04 is easier to build than this! … then it dawned on me, the GTO body would never fit on the M03, but, could it fit the M04 perhaps?

Before we begin this conversion you will need the following:
1x Tamiya M04L Beetle kit
1x Tamiya Tamtech Ferrari GTO body (or kit)
8x 6mm spacers - these can be found in the super mini cva shock
parts tree and also mini cva parts tree, if you don't have any -
improvise with other spacers that add up to 6mm.
8x 2mm spacers - these are used in the friction shocks on the M03 &
M04 kits.
2x 3x12mm threaded screws/grub screws - I found mine in a TA05
kit, where they are used to adjust droop on the lower arms.
2x the long hinge pins used on the lower arms on the M03 & M04.
2x front M03 body mounts (these should be spare in your M04L kit)

Parts for the rear end	Parts for the front end

I already had an M04L Beetle sitting nicely on the shelf, so I removed the body and started on the conversion. The first part was easy, the M04L has a central chassis spacer, removing this takes the wheelbase from 239mm down to 225mm. The next part would take a bit more thought.

The red pill, or the blue pill?	We wanna put a space where that spacer is.

I occasionally dabble with the odd touring car, most recently the TA05. In the instructions they tell you to add spacers in front of or behind the lower arms, this changes the wheelbase slightly depending on how many spacers you use. I remembered seeing a friend (Mr Schultz) use this same trick on an M03, but also cutting his lower arms to allow the front upright to be moved forward, his reasoning behind this was not for any speed or handling gain, just more a case of “because he could” … maybe he thought a 215mm M03 was better than a 225mm M03M? in any case, that lower arm trick combined with the touring car spacers inspired me.

Now there's no space OR spacer.	But on these arms we ADD some spacers

On the rear M04 arms I undo the 2 screws holding the arms together.
Now add 2x 6mm spacers in each arm and use 2x 15mm screws to hold them together.

Next we focus on the upper link. In order to make it match up we need to add 1x 2mm spacer where the upper link connects to the chassis, and 2x 2mm spacers to where the upper link joins the rear upright.

The top arm is standard, the lower arm has 6mm spacers	All the parts nicely exploded to show what goes where

Next we add 2x 6mm spacers on the lower arm to stop it moving around.

This is how it will look installed	Don't worry about the screws they are plenty long enough to keep it all in check

Note how close the arm is to the motor, if I tried to space it out any more than 6mm the arm would have fouled on the motor. If you're using the optional M04 heatsink now is the time to take it off, as it will hit the new extended lower arm.

OK, that's damn close	With both sides converted

Okay, so the rear is now taken care of, easy right? But we've only lost 6mm, so how to lose the rest?

The front arms hold the key to losing the most out of the wheelbase.

Take some spare front lower arm halves - you should have spare ones that you didn't use with your M04L kit.Now this is the only cut we are going to make, but really, it's no big loss, we were never going to use these parts any way, these parts rarely break.

Now we can assemble the cut front halves to the original front halves. So the normal front halves stay normal but the spare front halves are cut and become the new rear halves - got that? I didn't think so, just look at the picture instead.

The first cut is the deepest......	If you haven't used one of these before, it has an allen key in one end. Screw it halfway into the rear half, and then the front half by hand

And when we're done this is what you'll be lookin at.

Top one done, bottom one still to be assembled	On the left are the original front arms, on the right the converted jobbies

With the lower arms done, lets take a look at the upper links.

For the front it's relatively easy, just undo the upper step screw and move the C hub from in front of the upper link to behind it. So change it from standard M04 position to how it would look on an M03.

Nothin but standard M04 here	Now converted, it looks just like the M03 upper link

This is how the lower arms will be installed - note the placement of the 2mm spacers, and also that the outer screws have been replaced with longer items	Hey Presto! Tis done. Don't worry about the exposed length of screw, trust me, nothing will slide anywhere.

Okay, changing the front upright position by 12mm has upset the steering linkage somewhat, Tamiya recommend 16mm as standard, please change that to 20mm per side and you should be in the ball park.

If you don't know what 20mm looks like	This is a bumper, it should fit ok. But if you're using the optional LED light kit, take it off

Take off these body posts...	And replace with these ones

And there you have it! Congratulations! You have now successfully turned an M04L into a patented M04SS (super short).

Herbie goes bananas?	Now the jopurney to the darkside is almost complete

I have a lot of wheels for my M-chassis', but most of them don't quite suit the Ferrari. So if you're a real stickler for details, it is possible to get the Tamtech Ferrari rims to fit. I took the direct approach and took the standard 12mm hexes and attacked them with a belt sander.

12mm becomes 10mm, just the right size to fit the Tamtech rims	Ahh, that's better

Stop looking at the carbon, it's th M04 you're supposed to be checking out!	Guess which is the converted one?

By now some of you will be impressed with your new M04 Ferrari, much easier to use your standard radio gear with than a Tamtech, and lots of tire options too.

But if I know you lot (well some of you anyway), you won't be happy with a Ferrari, no, you'll want something better than a Ferrari, and this is rc-mini.net after all … so, this is how you convert your M04SS. To an M04S … and fit to it a standard mini body.

Remove all the 2mm spacers from the upper link on the rear and it will look like this	Now move the 6mm spacer on the outer hinge pin (where the rear upright attaches) move that spacer toward the front of the car -like so.

Last thing is, add some standard M03 rear body posts - they will line up perfectly with the existing holes!

Somehow those 60D radials are just a little too big.

(Sorry, but the front holes will need to be re-drilled.)

And that's it, a 210mm SWB M04 S! Perfect for your 'normal' Mini shell