Mission Possible – Schumacher Mi4

Rear
In terms of construction of the rear of the car it is quite similar to the front layout. The grey anodised alloy bulkheads house the eccentric differential holders, the 1.4 mm swaybar as well as the plastic suspension brackets. These brackets give 3 degrees of toe-in per side as well as zero degrees of anti-squat. To change toe-in values you can use the small shims between the wishbone pin holders and the bulkhead. To change anti-squat you have to get the optional alloy pivot blocks. The rear differential uses Tungsten Carbide balls and runs very smooth, but is a challenge to build and maintain if you do not own one of these special pliers to mount the circlip that secures the inner thrust bearing. Therefore we recommend to buy one of these pliers!

With the Mi4 comes MIP style CVD universals with ‘blade’ outdrive savers that attach to the universal pins. The blades allow the use of alloy differential outdrives as the plastic blades do not destroy the alloy outdrives. Just make sure you change them (the blades) in time to avoid the metal pins of the universals work themselves into the outdrive. Normally they hold up well but on high traction surfaces in combination with powerful modified motors a higher wear rate is noticeable. Best thing is to check them on a regular basis – for example when you dust the car off after every run.

The rear damper stay is a big change from the usual Mi design as with the Mi4 the body posts attach on the outside of the shocks near the tyres. This makes for a wide span between the body posts and therefore ensures a good fit of the body with improved stability at high speeds. The oil filled shocks are known from the Mi3 range of cars and offer a single seal cartridge design, titanium nitride coated shock shafts, threaded housings and alloy top caps. Out of the box they come with three hole pistons but two hole items for enhanced damping characteristics are available as option parts. Also part of the set-up are soft 14 lbs springs. These make for a soft kit setting and should therefore perfectly fit to our low-grip test track and light LiPo battery set-up.

Finish
To power our Mi4 we used CS Electronics Magnetic 5.5T brushless motor with one of their new Rocket Competition brushless speedos. The speedo is only 31.5 mm wide and leaves enough space to fit a Sanwa RX441 receiver with no problems. Power came from one of Speed Passions powerful 4000mAh 25C EFRA legal hardcase LiPo packs. We opted to tape the battery packs in place with fibre reinforced tape rather than using the quick change battery holders offered by Schumacher. Depending on the battery/servo/speedo/receiver you use you may find the need to put some lead weights into the chassis to achieve a 50/50 weight balance side to side. The body we used is a Mon-Tech LCR body, which was once again nicely painted by Vesa of V-Dezign.