Kyosho's Mini-Z AWD is a very capable chassis for competition, but very few people out there have been capable of squeezing the proper performance out of the car in contrast to the mighty Mini-Z MR-02. This has led to many AWDs out there being forgotten by their owners, perhaps being turned into a "fun to play with" drift car.

In an effort to give new life to your AWD, we've written a short tuning guide to help you get the most out of your Mini-Z MA010. Go ahead and dust off your AWD, the results you see on the track will definitely surprise you.

The first hop-up for an AWD Mini Z should always be bearings. In this case we chose AtomicMods ceramic bearing set. Although a little pricey in contrast to other types, these are smooth as silk and free as can be; definitely worth the extra money.

Replacing the bearings is a very easy task to do. The only tricky part is installing the main drive shaft bearings. To make this easier make sure you start with the rear one first. Take the rear section of the car off, remove the spur gear and pull the shaft out (you might need to use a set of pliers to do this). It should be easy to take the rear bushing off by gently prying it with the shaft you just removed. As for the front, if you remove the top cover, the pinion and bushing should already be loose inside the gear case.

To install them, start by sliding the spur gear onto the shaft. Slide the rear drive shaft bearing over the shaft and insert it into the chassis towards the front. For the front bearing, remove the front differential and then slide the bearing over the shaft, making sure the bearing seats in its place. After this is done, simply re-install the pinion by pressing it onto the shaft.

After bearings, the next most important part of the drive train to upgrade is the differentials. Ball differentials are essential in this chassis. The stock differentials on the car are not only weak, but act inconsistent due to the ease with which they unload under hard cornering (this refers to the effect with which all power goes to the tire which does not have the cornering load). We love Atomic's adjustable plastic differentials. The ease of adjustability as well as their smoothness are tough to beat.

Set your front differential slightly loose (but not slipping) to provide enough entry steering into the corner. Don't go overboard though, if the differential is too loose in the front the car will understeer exiting corners due to slippage.

In the rear, tighten the differential until the point where it will no longer slip under hard load (such as high speed sweepers and corner exits on tight hairpins). If set properly, the rear diff should allow you to be very aggressive on-throttle out of the corners, allowing you to take full advantage of the AWD's acceleration prowess.

Finish the drive train upgrades with a set of high-quality aluminum or titanium drive shafts. The stock units will not withstand much load and will drive you crazy trying to figure out what is wrong with the car if one of these goes bad. Adding these will totally bullet-proof your drive train.

This is the trickiest part, as well as the most crucial part of your setup after tires. In the rear we like installing Atomic's SAS system. The SAS (suspension arm system) really helps the AWD become a much more stable car at high speeds. The added dampening provided by this rear suspension really helps the car in high speed corners when it is under load.

To adjust the SAS, it is critical that you get a hold of Atomic's suspension tuning set. This nifty tool set allows you to set the droop on your cars equally side to side as well as checking for ride height. Our standard set-up begins with +1mm of droop in the rear end. We then upgrade to the 1 degree toe-in blocks combined with 2 degrees of rear camber. These settings have been tested in order to optimize tire wear and corner speed on the car. No other combination has yielded better results on RCP.

For springs in the rear, the bench mark is the Orange SAS springs, typically if you want your car to rotate a little bit better, you use the next step up (blue.) If you want more mid corner, to exit rear-end under steer, stick to the stock silver springs. The dampening is handled by Atomic’s optional aluminum SAS shock set. We usually start off by using the Mid-viscosity friction grease. Only if the track is really smooth (which is never the case on RCP) should you use the thick grease, otherwise the rear end will chatter as it will become over-dampened.

In the front we like using the stock small black spacers provided with the kit, under the hub. By doing this, you will not only lower the front end, but also remove droop on the car. Droop in the front can lead to over-steering, due to the increased traction provided by additional suspension movement. This is something you don't want on a car that tends to steer too much already. Finally, use lowering springs in the front end such as the ones from PN or Atomic. A good starting point is PN racing's green lowering spring, or Atomic's orange.

This is by far the most critical part of your set-up. The AWD is a fickle car, and if the tire combo is not right, the car will tumble like a West Texas tumbleweed. It still is up in the air as to what works best. At the time, we are having success with PN racing's RRR10 radials in the rear and RSF20's in the front.

Whatever combination of tires you may use on your AWD, make sure you always use superglue to adhere the tire's side wall to the rim. The AWD generates more cornering traction than the MR02 and if you don’t glue your tires, the side wall will fold and tuck under itself, causing unwanted chattering at both ends of the car.

A cool tire trick that we discovered recently is one used in other widely in other scales. This is tuning the steering characteristics of the front end of the car by adding super glue to the outside wall of the front tires. At times, we may even run a 0.5mm bead on the top part of the tread of the tire to remove excessive traction.

Before we did this we had to use a tire that was just hard enough to not make the AWD traction roll and this would constantly lead to terrible under steer. Don't be afraid to experiment with different tire compounds as well different amounts of super glue to find what is just right for you. One thing is for sure, if used properly this tuning trick will entirely eliminate traction rolling on your Mini-Z AWD while still providing tons of steering for the car.

Written by Cristian Tabush