Kyosho Mini-Z AWD MA-020 Review and Drift Upgrades

In this video, I want to show what mods I've made to the stock MA-020, and share my thoughts on why I made those changes. This car started life as kit 32610W, Toyota AE86 with a 90mm wheelbase, narrow front, 0.5mm offset narrow wheels. It's full of old school JDM charm.

Currently, MA-020 and MA-030EVO are the Mini-Z AWD platforms. The newer MA-030 was designed with a higher performance ceiling, but MA-020 is the more flexible chassis as it can do 90-98mm wheelbase while MA-030 can only support 94-98mm. With the large number of 90mm autoscale bodies, MA-020 is still relevant.

MA-020 is a shaft-driven AWD chassis similar to larger touring car designs. A motor located on the left side of the chassis drives a spur gear on the central drive shaft, which drives the diffs at the front and rear. CVDs connect the diffs to the wheels. MA-020 comes with a silver can brushed motor, which provides more than enough power and with good throttle control.

Though it's mostly plastic, it's high quality plastic and parts click nicely with each other.

Let's talk about upgrades. The most important one is the drift tires from DS Racing. The LF-1 ends up working the best for me on the very slippery wood surface. The alloy rims are R246 TE37 for looks. The gold flange lock nuts are from AliExpress.

Another important upgrade for a drifting MA-020 is the front springs. The stock front suspension is quite stiff. From my experience, the softer the front feels, the easier it is to execute a drift transition. The softest option I've tried is the GLR front spring set (GLR-003-S). The softest spring pair in red is a game changer for the MA-020 in my opinion. The stock rear end is soft enough out of the box so no change is needed there.

The most expensive upgrade part, but quite essential, is the front one-way diff (MDW017). It allows the car to initiate a drift more easily. Plus it's required for the counter steering mod I will describe later. What the one-way diff does is letting the front wheels spin freely while the car decelerates.

In the rear, there's the rigid axle (MDW024) which removes all diff action. Locking the rear wheels in a drift car increases predictability of the rear end.

A major mod seen here is the counter steering mod, which alters the spur gear and diff ring gear to overdrive the rear wheels vs the front. A consequence of this mod gives the AWD car some RWD driving characteristics, such as requiring counter steering to sustain a drift. Here we can see that the rear wheels make around 1.9 rotations per rotation for the front wheels.

One durability upgrade in the car is the metal CVDs driving the four wheels. I picked up a set by 3Racing which is cheaper than Kyosho's. They work well.

Finally, I have the Mini-Z gyro installed here. Normally, I'd say it's not needed for AWD, but with the counter steering mod, I think there's value.

Okay, I've done way too much talking already. Though MA-020 chassis looks clumsy compared to other more advanced AWD platforms such as GLA or SZ2, it runs smoothly.

Not only does this MA-020 drift in basic circles reliably, it's also switching direction on a dime. AWD doesn't like to swing the rear around, but half the mods done to the car make the car tail happy.

(Hi Loki!)

With the AE86 body on, the MA-020 looks pretty scale. Yes, it'd have been more realistic to back it with a RWD chassis but this is what I have now. Those super soft GLR front springs are magic! Before I put them on, I couldn't control direction changes so readily.

Here you go, my MA-020 and how it performs after several mods. While I enjoy the challenge of RWD drifting, I also enjoy what the MA-020 offers in simplicity and fun.

This is Sammy and thanks for watching!

Music: "Journey to the Stars", Savfk (   • Journey to the Stars by Savfk [Univer...  )