Did the new Kyosho MR04 Readyset live up to expectations? Was it fixed from the disastrous launch of the MR04 EVO? Short answer, YES!!

The Introduction of the MR04 EVO didn't go as planned for Kyosho. The car was pretty slow compared to the MR03 and the front knuckles kept falling off and losing the ride height shims with every slight bump against the wall.

So what does Kyosho do? Releases the MR04 Readyset with minor changes to the car. To fix the front knuckle problem they replaced the lower pivot ball with a taller one, and it seems to work. The rest of the car is the exact same car as the EVO with a brushed power plant.

We grabbed this bad boy and wanted to see if it was worthy of recommending to our clients and to see if it could compete with the MR03 and SR27.

So lets dive in!

Straight out of the box, we changed the tires to PN Racing KS1138 Front and KS2828 Rear (Medium), charged up some Kyosho 800mAh batteries and took it down our very own race track. The car was a mess from the start. The car has A LOT of steering and was traction rolling at every slight turn. We kinda knew this was a thing, so we pressed on.

Times with tire change: 8.425

Next we removed the stock T Plate and installed PN Racing #4 Fiber Glass T Plate and removed the Diff protective case. Still Traction Rolling.

Times with T Plate and Diff cover removal: 7.940

The car was still traction rolling so we changed the front tires to PN Racing KS1134 (Soft). For the most part that stopped the traction rolling

Times with the tire change: 7.892

Time to add more speed. The Readyset kits come with different pinion gears so the obvious choice was to add the biggest pinion they offered. installing the 9t pinion brought the car up to speed.

Times with pinion change: 7.349

Tuning the car was our next approach. We added the double sided tape under the pivot point of the rear shock and added 30k grease to the shock shaft itself. This controls the bounce and ads damping to the rear end of the car.

Times with tape and grease: 7.106

More tuning and upgraded bearings we next. We added 30k grease to the front knuckles to control the front bounce and replaced all the Kyosho oiled bearings with PN Racing Dry Hub Bearings (600126). You will need two packs of these.

Times with grease and bearings: 6.954

Although the Kyosho AutoScale Corvette C9 Stingray body is gorgeous, it isn't practical for racing. So we removed that and put it on one of our rental cars and installed the Jomurema GT01 body and Reflex Racing Front +1 offset, Rear +3 offset rims on the car. We kept the same tire setup and added front slip rings from Reflex Racing as well.

Final Times With All Changes: 6.790
In comparison times with:
Team Associated SR27 - 6.795
Kyosho MR03 Readyset - 6.932

With the right setup, the Kyosho MR04 Readyset will be a force to contend with.

Thanks For Reading
OLRC Raceway