M03 RWD - SOMEONE HAD TO DO IT...

OK, so you want a RWD car, but cant afford an M04. Or, you'd like to play around with wheelbases and the single length M04 doesn't do it for you. Well, we've got the answer! Start off with a bog standard M03, and with a little work and a few hours of your time, you can have a RWD car of your own. There's nothing here that pretty much anyone cant handle and it took us 3 hours from start to finish.

This used to be the rear, now it's the front. Bumper is off a TL01.

We used a Kimbrough servo saver and some aftermarket ball joints. Yes there is some cutting involved..

The entire front suspension just moves to the rear. Put the rear axles into the front knuckles.

The lower shock balljoint needs to be remounted in the hinge pin hole. I shortened the hinge pin by 4mm to make room.

The servo mounts using the standard M03 servo mounts but screwed to the mounts in the rear of the chassis instead.

The original servo and body mounts were cut off with a dremel and filed smooth. Looks weird doesn't it!

The old rear suspension bolts straight on the front. Careful with the toe-in rear uprights, don't mix them up!

You need long shocks on the rear with this setup. It's all due to the difference in shock tower height from front to rear.

One small point..Reverse the motor lead polarity. Because the motor needs to run in reverse for this to work!

The servo mount is dead simple, a 2 minute job. Even for us!

From underneath, it's hard to tell!

SO...WHAT'S IT LIKE THEN?

Well, it took a week but we finally got the thing out onto the track. The venue was our club track at Keilor in Melbourne on a club day. Asphalt track, with temperature around 20 deg C. Almost perfect conditions.

Car setup was slightly different from the build pics, with red springs on the rear and blue on the front. No idea what oil because the shocks were out of my 'box of shocks' Ride height was real low at the rear at around 2mm with a more normal 5mm up front. Rear tyres - Pit Shimizu 24's, Front tyres - Ride High temp G compound.

Out onto the track, a little tentative at first with the first lap at half pace, but already it felt good. 2nd lap and into it. I expected a little understeer with the setup, and I got it. Lots of it, but the car was stable and felt easy to drive. I recall watching the other guys with their M04's and seeing them spin out in every 2nd corner, but the converted M03 was hooked up. Nail the throttle out of the corner and it would just launch. Hmm, I half expected this thing to be rubbish, but I think I underestimated it....

City Turbo bodyshell. Hey, why not?

Out onto the track, a little tentative at first with the first lap at half pace, but already it felt good. 2nd lap and into it. I expected a little understeer with the setup, and I got it. Lots of it, but the car was stable and felt easy to drive. I recall watching the other guys with their M04's and seeing them spin out in every 2nd corner, but the converted M03 was hooked up. Nail the throttle out of the corner and it would just launch. Hmm I half expected this thing to be rubbish, but I think I underestimated it....


A few more laps and I was getting the hang of it. It required (as you'd expect) a completely different driving style, but it was astonishingly easy to drive with none of the problem that we'd had initially with the M04's. I handed the transmitter over to Tony P who was anxious to have a go himself. He reported the same characteristics as me and was also surprised how easy the car was to drive. Honestly you'd think a RWD car with such a short wheelbase would be a real handful, but it wasn't.
Tim had a turn next and the look on his face confirmed what I'd been thinking, this wasn't a bad car at all! Much to our surprise. As we all got more used to the handling we worked out how to circulate quickly. Up to the corner, back off and turn in with the power off. With no power the thing turned like a demon and was easily the match of a FWD M03. When it's pointing (vaguely) in the right direction, just nail it and off it goes.
To be honest, a little bit of setup work and fine tuning could have this thing really competitive. Its not 'chuckable' like the FWD M03, but it will reward the smoother driver and its just a whole lot of fun. We think that probably the major factor is the tyres. The super-soft Pits really did the job, and we balanced that with some pretty hard fronts.
I built this car just for fun, but to be honest, it's turned out to be a whole lot more than that.....

Go out...build one...NOW!