Anyone remember the Mardave Ministox?

I used to love mine, me and a friend used to do demolition derbys in the school playground. Run what you brung and the Mini’s would destroy everyone- lots of Tamiya casualites 😆
They cost £40 and you could fix them with bits of circuit board nicked out of CDT class 😉

I want one again, but they are hard to find these days- show me yours!

yay! used to love racing mine indoors Friday nights at Oldham many years ago. A ministock in a field of expensive Schumacher Cats and Optima Mids. Great fun!

You can still buy one from Mardave. 8)

Their Caterham looks lovely.

the sidecar combo looks like a hoot as well . . . .

Like the V12- £65 seems to be todays £40 😆

I’d just have to sling an old escort body on it though 8)

The sidecar looks cracking- better than that iv’e seen a Reliant Robin conversion on fleaBay….

most of my local rc clubs race mardaves. they are quite big ( not literally) round these parts. they were originally a local company too but were recently brought by another guy from southampton way i think. i had a mini back in the day and quite fancy another but not really got the time. 🙁

Ok please explain what you get when you buy a kit? I assume you have to buy radio gear, motor , battery etc?

Would appreciate the info?

please explain what you get when you buy a kit

As i remember it you got a rolling chassis, mechanical speedo, 4 cell battery pack and charger and a standard 540 motor. And a plastic bodyshell.
Think it still works the same way.
Basically you need to add the radio gear- Handset, servo’s and receiver 😉

I upgraded mine instantly with a 6 cell 1700MAH Nicad and a speedmaster electronic speed controller (this was back in the 90’s) and it made the thing be on steroids, but still driveable (no differential).

Pigface – Member
Ok please explain what you get when you buy a kit? I assume you have to buy radio gear, motor , battery etc?

Would appreciate the info?

Looking at the Mardave site, that Mini stock kit needs a radio, batter, charger, paint and pinion.

The chassis is made by Fibre-Lyte 8)

all depends which kit you buy as to what you get and where you are racing them as to what you can use. some clubs allow single lipo batteries and brushless motor/speed controllers but these are ballistic fast. standard kit is a sealed can 540 motor and 4 cell nicad battery. they usually have basic elec speed controller. not sure if they still offer the old school mechanical controller.

Pah – electric! I built a Mardave copy stock car in school metalwork c.1980 and stuck an OPS .21 race motor in it. Kept mashing the toothed belt drive on the clutch and nearly broek my foot trying to stop it. Wish I still had the motor as it was a class bit of kit.

Mardave copy stock car

stuck an OPS .21 race motor in it.

Photo’s and/or videos please 😉 that sounds awesome!

MARAUDER was the stock-car version.
Brilliant 2 channel fun, tough as our `enery and rapid with a .50 (?) nitro motor installed – happy days !!

Slightly OT but kids don’t seem to do this sort of thing anymore …

Sad really

I still have mine somewhere but it needs a new servo 🙁 used to race it every week at my local club in Hereford, used to love it. I spent hours painting the shells!

I spent hours painting the shells!

And ‘modifying’ the chassis/ parts out of other cars or anything remotely useful. Long before robot wars was on the telly 😉

Great memories of me and my mate Phil ‘inventing’ ways of smashing other peoples cars in my dad’s shed when it was usually raining outside on a Saturday. Of course these cars are utterly death proof, mine went under an Austin Maestro when the mechanical speedo got stuck. It got a few battlescars but was otherwise ok 😆

You can add a caravan to one!!!

This just HAS to be done 😀 😀

Still got mine somewhere….

Reliant Robin

😆

That just needs a ‘Trotters Independent Traders’ paint scheme 😀

I’d forgotten about those things. Mine was bright orange 😀 I seem to remember it didnt really handle at all, went through tyres almost instantly, and needed constant fiddling. Was good fun though!

it didnt really handle

Correct- no gearbox, no differential. Just motor straight to rear wheel, anything more than a standard motor and they just spin in circles- i think we created the ‘Drift Car’ craze with these babys 😀