Yokomo's New Mini

Yokomo has thrown their hats into the "1/12 scale pan car turned mini" ring with their new GT500 chassis. It looks like they started with their R-12 chassis and modified it.This is very similar to the Kawada M300GT. See R-12 below.

Here's a spy shot of the GT500.

It looks promising. To be honest I haven't driven a pan car since I was 15 years old. Back then T-plates and front beams were all the rage. Now, link rear suspension and active front are the hot setup. This car has it. These cars also run a 380 size motor so they should run for a really long time on a standard battery pack. It all sounds so cool on paper that I almost want to build my old RC12i into one. We shall see.

On a different note, I have a dilemma. My awesome ABC Hobby Stratos body has a 210mm wheelbase. My M04L is an L which has a 239mm wheelbase. My M02L is an L which also has a 239mm wheelbase. The M02 can be converted to 210mm wheelbase with a standard M01 front bulkhead. Those are out of production and I have had no luck sourcing one under $50. The M04 can be converted to 210mm wheelbase but the only way I've found has me disassembling the 2 piece arms and building them wider to shift the rear uprights forward. I don't want to do that. I could buy a M03 chassis set (or XEVO Chariot) and build that as a 210mm wheelbase chassis, flip it around and convert it to RWD. but I like my M04. My final option is to try some TA02 arms flipped around and some TA04 uprights. That might get the wheelbase and track inline for the body.

Now lets look at the new GT500.

We aren't finished yet. There is also a video. The cars look slow but I think they were more or less parade laps than competition.