This
project was way more complicated than it should have been. It all
started when someone online said "every Tamiya collector needs a Mini
Cooper" and I realized that they were right. Tamiya's history with
Mini goes way back. It started with the 58149 Rover Mini Cooper
in British racing green, the first Tamiya Mini model on the first M-01
chassis in 1994. Only a year later they released the 58163 red
Mini from the 1994 Monte Carlo Rally on the same chassis. In 1998
we got the dark blue 58211 Mini Cooper Racing on the M-03 chassis, and
then the more modern 58295 BMW Mini Cooper in 2002. Finally, we got
the 58400 Mini Cooper S in 2006. Many of these models were
re-released or issued as Expert Built versions over the years. The
one that caught my eye was the red Monte Carlo Rally version which I
figured would be no problem because it had been re-released as 58483 as
recently as 2011 on the M-05 chassis. I was wrong. There
were no kits to be found New in Box anywhere online that I could find,
and even just the body wasn't available for anything less than a couple
of hundred dollars. I found a built model in good condition on
eBay, but it was nothing like original. It had been built on a
heavily modified M-03 chassis, but the Rally version never actually came
on the M-03 chassis. I found a brand new 84436
M-07R chassis kit for a good price and figured it would be a good fit
so I bought it. Only after it arrived did I realize that, unlike
all the other M-chassis, it cannot be built with the short 210mm
wheelbase option. Finally, an online distributor had a
good sale on the M-05 Ver II R chassis, a version which comes with lots
of upgrades. I figured that this would make a reasonable
approximation of the 58483 re-re so I bought both items, sold the M-03
chassis, sold the M-07R chassis, built the M-05R, and transferred the
body onto it. Is
this the most expensive way to build a Tamiya Mini Cooper Rally?
Probably. At least it was a good excuse to get a cool, limited
edition chassis kit. Upon close review of the M-05R chassis kit, I
found that it includes optional parts with an MSRP of about $375 which
is vastly more than I spent for the whole kit, so I can't be too
disappointed in the outcome.The history of the car on which this model is based is somewhat convoluted as well. A Morris Mini Cooper S driven by Paddy Hopkirk won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964. Timo Mäkinen won in 1965 with a similar car. For the 30th anniversary of his victory in 1994, Paddy reprised his role as driver and entered a more modern Rover Mini. Paddy ran the #37 car and did not finish. The #101 car which is the subject of this model was driven by Timo Mäkinen and also did not finish. It's a beautiful car though!
The M-05 is a front wheel drive chassis, the first I've built. Putting all the gears and the motor up front and the servo in the back was strange for me, but it makes sense to put the weight over the driven wheels. The M-05 can be built in short, medium, or long wheelbase variants by moving the rear axle. I'm using the short (210mm) wheelbase for the Mini body. The M-05 R, which presumably stands for "race" spec, includes a wide variety of upgrade parts including some very nice aluminum TRF shocks and a dozen other things shown in the table below. Taken together, this makes for a very fun and sporty chassis. It turning response is as sharp as anything I've driven.
Update: This model was destroyed in the 2022 fire. It took much effort, but it has been replaced. The limited edition M-05R chassis was easier to find than I expected, though it came at a premium. The Mini Cooper Rally body, on the other hand, was almost impossible. For a long time the only bodies available were with a brand new M-01 or M-05 kit, or from a model that someone had already built. I didn't want to buy a whole kit for just the body, and those that were available complete tended to be badly painted or have a lot of damage. I tried ordering an aftermarket body, a set of aftermarket stickers, and a plastic tree from Tamiya containing the bumpers, grille, and fog lamps. Sadly, the body ended up being a different shape than the stock body and didn't fit. Even if it had, it turns out you need several other parts trees to install the chrome parts I had bought. Back to square one. I finally found a body that had been taken from an Expert Built version which means that it was perfect. It wasn't cheap, but when has that stopped me? It arrived and was beautiful. Then I installed it and the tires scraped the body very badly. I foolishly started cutting away at the perfect body trying to add more clearance. It was only afterward that I realized there are more than one size of M-chassis tires and I had the wrong ones. I finally got it all working, but what a struggle. The replacement model is nearly the same as my original except for the electronics.
 Page 1: Assembly |
 Page 2: Final Photos |
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