Fast Pace Racing

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MR02 vs MR03 (11.20.09)

TJ's picture
Posted Tue, 11/03/2009 - 9:56am by TJ

First of all, I would like everyone to know that this is just from my experience testing both cars. Since the major changes from MR02 to MR03 are the chassis, electronics and frontend suspension, we will put our focus on that.

The MR02 has a wider chassis which makes the car a bit sluggish infield. Think about having an Audi DTM body vs '07 NSX with the same wheel offset. The Audi being narrower is quicker infield while the NSX tends to come in and out the infield slightly slower. Same goes for the new designed chassis of a MR03. It being narrow makes it a bit quicker/nimble infield vs our reliable MR02.

MR03 electronics, as most of you guys already know, swapping motors for this chassis/board is not very straight forward. You have to have a good vision and be very careful when installing those two motor tabs into the board. The steering glitch has something to do with the motor that you install, the transmitter and crimped wire on the servo assembly. The throttle and steering has so much more resolution than the older ASF board. This doesn't necessarily mean that it has a faster throttle/steering but rather smoother and finer, which means you can hold your line lap every lap and you have more confident on smoothly passing or following another car.

Front suspension; honestly, I personally didn't care much about the new design suspension arms until I tested both MR02 and MR03 for 5 hours of back to back driving... at the end of the day, I had to decommission my MR02 and had to talk to Peter for another MR03. ;) The kingpin design on a MR02 was great but only if you're running zero camber. Yes, zero. Having even .5 camber is causing a "stiction" or pressure point on the knuckle/kingpin. This stiction will cause the frontend to be bouncy while cornering. Take a look at your cars front wheels while on the sweeper, you'll notice it bouncing up and down. Unlike the new MR03 front suspension, it doesn't matter how hard you come into a corner, the frontend will stay planted on the track which leads to consistent line and consistent lap times. The MR03's suspension also shows an even tire wear on a stock knuckle. This is something we didn't have in the MR02 well we did but to meet this even tire wear we had to run -2 degree camber and this causes stiction/inconsistent frontend.

At our track, the fastest lap on my MR02 is 9.67 with USA motor. Now with the MR03 I am running 9.61 with PN motor. I think if I switch back to USA, it should do high 9.4's but we'll have to see. I know with PN speedy07 on my MR03, it did 9.30.

What you need to know about the MR03's:
1. Be very careful while changing motors wires on the board
2. If glitch occurs, check tx, motor and crimped servo wire
3. frontend should be smooth at all times. No binding.
4. run rear tires that has side bite like reflex and PN6's.

Would I recommend the MR03 vs MR02? It's too early to say but for sure I'm hooked on my MR03 and can't wait for the AWD to come out next year! :D

Thanks for reading!