Problems i've encountered with the Mad-rat - i know this may be misread as though i'm complaining, but it's simply constructive critisism from my own finding from use in race conditions.
1) i've broken 2 kickplates & 1 castle (ripping out the screw threads) in front end smashes (not at the same time) usually from landings from jumps when the car lands nose 1st.
2) the kit shocks are US, the tops kept popping off on landings or simply when the car changed direction, thus p***ing oil all over the place - changed them to the Ansmann (Fastrax also do the same ones) metal bodied shocks & fitted the kit internals so effectively i've got metal bodied kit shocks - huge improvement in both performance & longevity although you do need a 2mm spacer to stand-off the shock at the top. Would recommend changing the plastic shock bodies to metal parts.
3) the plastic hinge-pin holder at the back is very easy to break. Replaced this with the metal hop-up, however this has caused 2 problems. firstly you have to hack at the rear of the chassis to get it to fit flush, plus you have to shave the t-plate as the rear holes have a riser on them so the metal carrier doesn't sit flush otherwise & secondly i'm going through t-plates at silly rates because the holes that hold the rear pin holder / bottom of the motor guard on stretch & eventually work their way out .. i even managed to rip the holes out on the carbon t-plate.
4) the kit screws are very poor & the heads strip or round-off easily
5) the kit rear hubs are prone to failure, as the ball-stud gets ripped out of the thread
6) the c-hubs at the front, the ball studs can pull through - replacing the stud with a longer one that can bolt behind the stud stops this.
7) the front castle would be better if the lugs were about 2mm higher or a spacer was included in the kit so the top arms sit level with the wishbones.
8) there is nowhere to fit ant-roll bars on the car if so desired & there are none as an option.
9) e-clips should be banned, they are the work of the devil!! maybe grub-screws & pins with 1 flat side at the ends would be better to hold the front hinge pins on & to secure the axles? Plus this would make replacing a front wishbone faster if you are not messing with e-clips
10) the front body pin is a right pain in the backside to put into the hole on the post. would recommend either moving the stud completely so it's not sitting between the shock tower posts or having a front facing hole to thread a pin through. Perhaps a post that screws in & has several options for mounting places would be an idea, plus it's not a part that's needed on the Macnum & Hot-rod so could be omitted.
11) it may be better if the rear wing was held on with screws (like the one on the 4WD car) rather than r-clip body pins. I've lost one of the angled spacers before now when a pin flew out & to replace these spacers it means you need to buy a complete wing mount set!
12) there is a lot of slop in the plastic hubs which can make setting the camber tricky.. i've tried to set the camber at 2 degree's, once set i can lift the front of the car & drop it down again & the camber angle has changed - usually with different results on either side. Maybe fitting top-hats to the hubs could solve this problem, although i've not yet tried it myself.
13) the front axles are too wide, this means the car will not fit in the scrutineering box at BRCA regulation events thus does not complt with the BRCA rules without modification to the axles. the wheel track is fine, it's just the axles stick out a tad too far.. the best plan i've found / heard of is to cut the axle down with a dremel & use a narrow hex & where possible stick to zero offset wheels at the front.
14) when fitting an ariel tube / receiver, it's tricky to get the ariel wire to poke through the hole.. perhaps a c-shaped mount (i.e round with a slit in one side) would be better. It's only a small niggle but worth pointing out as many club racers often only have 1 receiver that has to go in 2 cars & needs to be swapped regularly.
Hope this helps
