Article - Race Tuning Your MR-02
After many years racing against some of the best drivers in the world, I have picked up a few tricks to give me that little extra edge on the track. I wanted to share a few of these tricks with you this month, that way you can squeeze last bit of performance out of your MR02 as well. Even though there are tons of things to do to this particular car, I will focus on suspension tweaks this time around.

Rear Disk Damper System:
Most of the people that I know will purchase the system and just slap it on their car, they might even go as far as putting a little bit of lube on the plastic friction plates, and hit the track. The improvement is massive with the Disk Damper system already, but it is not as good as it can be. Who doesn’t want better though? After all, we are looking for the extra edge that will allow maximum performance to our car.

To have a finely tuned rear disk damper, start by wet sanding the graphite plate with 3000Grit sand paper. Do this until the finish is very smooth and very dull. Round all of the sharp edges so that when fluid is applied, the sharp edges can’t "GRAB" the fluid, pushing it and pulling it in all directions. After you’re done sanding the plate, go for the disks. These are not perfectly flat since they are molded and might become deformed in the process. By wet sanding them you will achieve another super flat surface that will slide against the carbon plate easier and more consistently, yielding more consistent damping and better rear grip. Once finished you can re-install the damper system and add a couple of drops of dampening fluid. What you have now is the disks, fluid, and graphite plate always riding on the same damper fluid throughout suspension travel.

Stainless kingpins and steering blocks:
This is a long, but VERY worthwhile process! Using Mother’s® metal polish (can be found at any automotive store) and a high speed drill (A Dremel® will do) you will polish your kingpins to essentially, a mirror-like finish. Do this by chucking the kingpin up on the Dremel and spinning onto a Mother’s soaked terry cloth.
Once done with that, put more Mother’s polish on the king pin and run it through the chosen degree steering block (with Dremel spinning) to make sure that the steering block is honed out enough to allow for a “no slip” feel. Be careful not to spin the drill too fast, by doing this you will create heat, which is not good when it comes to working with plastic. Make sure not to hone the steering block out too much or the front end will end up sloppy.

When done, spray out the steering block and kingpin with electronic motor cleaner (plastic-safe kind) and keep checking the fit until the king pin can fall through the steering block by its own weight. Finally, go back again and re-polish the stainless kingpin one last time to take off any fine scratches that may have occurred while honing the steering block.

Once both the kingpin and steering block are perfectly smooth make sure to clean off all polish from both pieces. It is important to keep the kingpin and steering block in a matching set so that one steering block doesn’t have a loose/tight feel with the opposing kingpin. Be sure to mark the left and right before beginning the process.

Rear Axle:
You’d be surprised to find out that the rear axle in most MR02’s is not very well centered. When dealing with a car that is only 3” wide, the rear axle needs to be perfectly shimmed from side to side. An axle that is off by only a millimeter will cause the car to feel tweaked (“tweak” will make your car steer like crazy in one direction and push very bad in the other), this is due to the fact that some of the tolerances of the rear pod and diff hubs aren’t always 100% perfect.
To center the rear axle you first need to find the actual center of the car and mark this spot on the rear of the motor pod (the nice part about Atomic Motor pods is that the center is already machined into the part). Using a set of calipers, measure the distance from the center line you drew, to the edge of the right diff hub, make sure you record it. Now measure the distance from the center line to the edge of the left hub, making sure you record it once again. If this distance is different, use axle shims to space the axle accordingly, until the two measurements are exactly the same.

Motor Wiring:
Motor wires play a huge role in rear suspension performance. You have to try and keep the motor wires as short as possible to reduce electrical resistance, but at the same time long enough to where you can route it in a way that it puts absolutely no additional tension on the rear pod. Putting extra resistance on the pod, will once again cause chassis tweak.
Body Height:
Adjusting the height of your body is the last crucial thing we will do. Lowering the body on your Z’ lowers the CG and increases the corner speed on your car tremendously. You want to position the body as low as possible without it dragging the ground or the tires rubbing the inside of it.
Shimming the front body mount clip is the easiest way to lower the front of the car. Use a couple of washers or thin shims in between the chassis and the front clip to bring the front of the car lower to the ground. The rear takes a little more effort since to be able to lower it you will need to remove the stock side clips and reposition them so that the rear of the body is level with the front. Traditional model cement or a 2 part epoxy will work the best to re-secure them.
If you follow the previous instructions correctly, you will ensure your MR02 Mini-Z performs up to par with the best of them. Seriously, if you are still losing and blaming it on your equipment, you probably need more practice. ;)

Written by Dave Graboski
Edited by Cristian Tabush