Kagama A little something for the weekend - Mardave MD24 Carbon

[Horatio]

So whilst the members on this board generally put together terrain conquering monsters - huge HP, giant motors, 4WD, ££$$ upgrades - how do you do more for less?

What about when the weather is so cold, wet and generally unpleasant - RC is no longer nice outside?

Reluctantly, for those of us in Northerly latitudes - we move indoors for winter. No more large scale or 1/8th til spring.

So what makes for a perfect indoor machine, to help hone your reflexes and memory muscle?

1/12th Scale.

Specifically - Mini Class.

Here in the UK, there seems to be a huge upturn in Mini racing in accordance with Mini Masters rules. Popularity has grown since 2S Brushless class has been introduced. No specialised electronics required. Justock or Surpass motors will do just fine.

Mechanically, these are kept ultra simple. Simple also means reliable, durable and light.

This combination also makes a ridiculously high performance for a very modest outlay.

Let's take a look....

Chris Wilkinson is the owner of Mardave, the company that produced the first hobby grade RC car in the UK in the 60's.

Chris Wilkinson kindly sent me this assembled MD24 Carbon 'Mike Chapman' edition car.

Each car has a personal touch about it

Here's the bare bones:

• Chassis plate
• Battery retainers
• Rear pod
• Side springs
• Front bumper
• Body posts

Required to complete:

• Wheels and tyres
• Servo
• ESC
• Motor
• Battery
• Receiver
• Body
• Paint

As I put mine together, it became readily apparent that this was going to be the lightest car I've ever had!

Justock with 25.5t motor - surely this will be a sleepy set-up, right? As a point of reference, one of my Baja 5B street tyres weighs more than this.

The servo selected was the AGF-RC B25CLS. This is a mini servo (not micro servo) and has 6kg of torque and transit speed of 0.06s/60°. Perfect for racing!

The mini servo is compact enough to mount over the front axle. This frees up space for ESC and receiver mounting on the chassis plate - rather than having to mount stuff on top of each other like the earlier cars.

Phat Mini Max body was selected and supplied by Chris from Mardave. These little cars are sensitive to setup so the devil is definitely in the detail.

Mounting the body has to be done carefully to ensure a perfect fit.

Wheels and tyres from Contact or Kamtec are supplied trued, but I found the Kamtec foams were too big to be useable - they would require truing down by about another 4mm.

Contact 35 shore T foam rears and 40 shore fronts were fitted and were just the ticket.

Things are fitting in nicely. Some little things now still to do. Kingpins next...along with a kingpin brace.

Kingpins benefit from being polished up. So I spun mine in a drill, used 1200 then 2000 grit paper and got them smooth - then polished them with a Dremel. Better!

Transponder fitted and a revised 3D printed TPU front bumper. It's an additional 9g, but it fits the Phat Mini Max perfectly and helps prevent damage to your body.

You'll note the pin brace is now fitted. This I felt was a necessary addition because racing minis gets physical!

The beautiful Carbon chassis is CSC, essentially glass fibre sandwiched between to carbon sheets. The resulting glass, carbon, epoxy composite is lighter and stiffer than GRP. Minis made from GRP are made from 3mm plates. The one you see here is a mere 2.5mm and is purportedly 30% lighter.

After carefully masking the body, it was time to lay some paint. I had planned on using a pro painter to do 3 bodies for me - but mid March was the earliest they could do. Cayote 3900 battery is super low and super light weight. Perfect for Mini.

And there we have it...

We are cooking on Gas...

All up weight: 825grans including transponder.

How does it drive? Up next ...

 

[Partydaz]

Blooming heck Mardave still going! nice one , I had a Mardave marauder back in the 90s was fun to build and spent more time trying to get it run than driving it but still found memories . I got a capri shell for it and still have the scar on the inside of my finger were the stanley knife chopped into my finger while cutting out the arches.

By the way that is crazy light, its going rip

 

[bigshrek666]

I loved my old mardave cobra

 

[Horatio]

Blooming heck Mardave still going! nice one , I had a Mardave marauder back in the 90s was fun to build and spent more time trying to get it run than driving it but still found memories . I got a capri shell for it and still have the scar on the inside of my finger were the stanley knife chopped into my finger while cutting out the arches.

By the way that is crazy light, its going rip

Yep! Still going strong. Mini Masters has had some great coverage, with the final round taking place at the Mini Cooper Centre, Oxford on the 21/02/2026.

Also, there is a new MD-26!

I believe it is available as an upgrade kit for existing MD-24 drivers, or a complete kit.

 

[Horatio]

I loved my old mardave cobra

Raced against those on grass during the early 00's. Great buggy - punching well above it's weight. Gave the Schumacher Cougars something to think about!

 

[Horatio]

So 6 meetings in with my MD24, how am I getting on with it?

Well firstly, I'd like to point out that nothing has broken, despite some spectacular wipeouts. Mini racing is extremely fast and close, so when things go wrong, they go wrong instantly!

Handling:

Minis are 1/12th pan cars with very basic suspension systems. Front end is merely springs over kingpins. Damping is achieved (slightly) by applying silicone diff oil to the kingpins. Rear end is a pod on a pivot, with 3 springs controlling motion. Side springs control roll, rear spring controls bump handling. A single droop screw controls how much the chassis can rise before the wheels come off the ground. On mine, this is just 1mm.

Ride height is set by physically lifting or lowering the chassis. At the front this is done by placing spacers under the suspension arms, with differing thicknesses. At the rear, it is achieved by changing the height of the main axle with inserts. As tyres wear down, the ride height lowers, so to maintain a legal minimum ride height of 3.5mm, this needs to be checked each round and adjusted.

Incredibly, despite such basic suspension, the small adjustments have a noticeable effect on the handling characteristics.

Mardave's typically run with 4° caster, but there are 7° arms available.

Tyre grip has the most influence over handling balance, with the shore ratings determining grip. Typically, rear tyres run on 35 shore and fronts run 40 shore - 50 shore.

Then there's the tyre diameter. On the rear, this directly changes ride height, rollout and influences response. As supplied, they tend to be rather large - 50mm.

Pre trued and glued tyres are somewhat limited in terms of diameter and compound.

All tyres benefit from tyre additives. The way tyres are sauced, length of soak, dried and brought up to temperature determine the traction of the tyres. Too much soak - tyres start to melt.

Given that I had very specific requirements for my tyres, I had to produce my own by fitting my choice of tyres onto my preferred rim and then true them.

90% of the cars required handling stems from the right balance of traction.

Raw foam tyres start off as oversized tubes.

Then they are cut to match the rim. 25-26mm wide.

24mm double sided, clear tape is used to adhere the tyre to the rim. The red backing layer is removed and the tape then given a light coating of Zippo fluid. Ditto for the inside of the tyres. This temporarily deactivates the tack and enables them to be slid over the tape.

Once the Zippo fluid has evaporated and the tyres are bonded in place, it's time to lathe them into them into the finished article.

Sets of tyres are now matched ready for a meeting. Wear rates on the most competitive tyres are high, so they're reserved for the last round of qualifying and the final.

Early qualifiers don't require such high grip potential as the carpet is still being laid with rubber, so a different compound is used.

My latest tyre combo has gained me 1 lap over a 5 minute race - or about 13 seconds.

There will be some further tricks up my sleeve for the winter season.

At the next meeting, if I achieve 96 points or more, I will secure 5th place overall in the summer championship, which I am very pleased with.

Next season, I aim for the top 3.