I had to upgrade my web space service account, my free-trial to beta-test their servers for the last 3 years is now over. In the process I also grabbed Mini-Z.us as an alternative new web address to my page. So I got to thinking of a way to generate a small amount of funds to pay for my web hosting costs.

I had the brain storm to sell Mini-Z.us email accounts, I do not need much so I will only charge $1.00 a year... which is basically nothing, however to make it worth the paypal fees, and to make it easier to maintain, I will make it a 5 year minimum. So.. if anyone is interested in having a Mini-Z.us email account (pop3 server, or it can forward to existing email), just email me.. and I will set it up. A Mini-Z.us email should be more fun to post on the mini-z forums than posting your real address for spammers to see. I will also likely allow a page or two for a Mini-Z web blog, maybe more... Any one have ideas of pre-existing code/programs that can maintain this automatically? I have yet to look :)

In the future I hope to turn Mini-Z.us into an English version of the Mini-Z.jp page, aka Mini-Z Time. But that will be biting off more than I can chew, so do not expect anything soon... unless I get help.

If your interested in a web host that is low cost, and never goes down, try 1&1 Hosting, its who I use :) and if you subscribe after clicking this logo link, I will get a few bucks of credit toward my own hosting costs! To register a .com through them, is only $6.00 a year! They work great, because they have servers in US, UK, and Australia!

This page might vanish soon, for a while... My host is making me upgrade to another hosting plan, and I guess they delete the entire site and make me re-upload it when they do this.. so I have already backed it up in preperation for new server.

A few days ago I went to the PN regional race in Toronto Canada. My MR02 needed a body that was easier to see against the RCP track, so I just got another red Ford GT. My AWD needed a body period... so I grabed a blue mini cooper. I did not do so great at the race, I took up all the practice and qualifier time just to try to get my cars to handle well on the track. I never got the AWD to handle well, since I focused mostly on the MR02, so I was just going around nice and slow trying to keep the tires on the rims. The MR02 was handling great on the few test laps just before the main race started, good enough I actualy stood a chance of winning. However, just as I put it on the start line, and the race was starting, my electronics fried in the car... so I never actualy got to race.

A few months back I acquired a new mini-tile track from RCPTracks, at the same time a few of the rooms in this place were being repainted and recarpeted. I took advantage of the completely empty bed room and setup the track for a few days. The entire track with its default layout fit the length of the room perfectly with a few feet left to stand in, but I wasn't happy with that so I shoved one of the corners into the closet, just off camera.

As I type this RCP Tracks is releasing some new tiles for their mini sized tile set that will expand the configuration options of their track system. These new tracks allow 45 degree turns, chicanes, and larger inner radius curbs on the corners, so the track layouts are not confined to just 90 degree turns. The new tiles RCP Tracks is producing are based on my own design that I submitted to them, so nice to see one of my ideas into production finally... Now to get my MiX chassis design into production, still having part production problems with the MiX, so it will be a while. At least I have a track to test the prototype on.

I have been working on getting my first MiX prototype made, and I opened the orders page to accept pre orders now. I doubt anyone will want to buy one untill I show more than simple teaser images, which I will not do until the patent paper work is nice and safe :). These teasers are the small 80 pixel images I used for my forum avatar on the Mini-Z forums, they can be seen on the MiX Info page.

I just retired my 3rd Mini-Z body, yea most of you say you've had way more than 3, but I have not done much actual racing, until the races finally started in Ann Arbor Michigan, for the HFAY (How Fast Are You?) challenge. My first mini-z came with the BMW Z8, back when there was a limited choice of like 8 bodies. This body went through newbie hell, glue and ghetto repairs all over the place. I later adapted that car to a Red Viper body, that did not last long due to two races on a track with hard PVC boarders, the paint was long gone. When I acquired an MR02 chassis I needed a wider body so I grabbed one of the Ferrari F40's from the pile of bodies I had, back when I was selling Mini-Z stuff. The F40 lasted a long time before it started to go, and it being a MR01-90mm body did not fit the MR02 perfectly, and it was smashed warped and the rear end was broken off. So last night I replaced my racer body with a blue Ford Mustang and a matching blue Ford GT40.

After changing my MR02 from RM90mm to MM98mm, I will have to agree with everyone else, the longer setting handles way better. I believe this is due to the wider front end on the MR02, thus pushing the ackerman point back further, this is a steering variable that is built into the chassis that goes along with castor, camber, and toe. The shorter wheelbase settings combined with the wide front on the MR02 has too much ackerman, thus turning into the corners too aggressively, it was like a dream driving the mustang after driving my unpredictable F40 MR02 conversion. The mustang also bounced off the walls better, I had to use reverse less since it would rarely get stuck with the nose up against the track wall or flip around facing the wrong way. The mustang for some reason likes to jump into the air like a cat when it gets hit... its weird.. hopped straight up level to the ground about an inch every time, even on slow impacts. Regardless to its larger size and height, I highly recommend the Mustang body for both rookie and pro drivers.

My AWD chassis has no name, and I have gone through lots of name ideas. A few names I thought I would stick with, but later I felt they were way too stupid, or I found another product that had a name like it already. So I am leaving it open as am unofficial contest to name the blasted thing... so I can stop calling it the "AWD Concept that I am working on". If anyone submits a name that I decide to use, I guess I could send them a prototype-kit as a prize. This is an unofficial contest and as such there may be no winner, if no one comes up with a name I like. Until it is named it will just be the "QRC AWD".

A figured I would add a menu structure of some sort, in hopes it will make the AWD information more organized and easier to find.

Been working on the AWD prototype, the gears are all I need to finalize, and I will consider it ready to produce the first hard prototype.

I almost renamed my site but the name I chose sucked... so QuantumRC.com will stay a bit longer... This new site will also better organize all of my RC pages, that were starting to become a mess. For now the page content will just be a quick copy and change of the previous site, with a few links to the old pages.

Welcome to Quantum RC!