Interested in Mini-Z Scale RWD Drifting? Check out GL Racing's GLD. Review and Essential Upgrades. 

Thanks for sharing your experience. I actually have a spare a06cls that I've been considering to experiment on the gld. How did it transform your gld?

The steering feels a lot more responsive, also affects the gyro response.

Yes GLD gets pretty expensive quickly, and it's from the previous generation of designs. For me personally, I prefer chassis that allows native mounting of autoscale bodies, so LS and TG would appeal to me more.

Thank you and thanks for letting me know!

Yeah, getting the ball joints to work smoothly is a major part of the build, and it's critical that they are all free. You should start by using the pliers trick -- with the ball joint connected, squeeze the cup gently all around. This often frees up the joint as the plastic deforms to fit better. Sometimes, you have to back off the turnbuckle a bit because it would start squeezing some ball cups when it's all the way threaded in.

I'm not familiar with DA3S so i'm not sure its range of track width. I assume there are ways to adjust the length of the suspension arms. What mini-z bodies are you trying to fit? They come in quite a range of width as well.

@sammybaka Subaru Sambar Kei Truck. Is the gld a good car? Is it good out of the box or do I need upgrades to make it drift good

@@rogerbahr9117 The kei truck is going to be challenging because it's very narrow (in mini-z terms, max of 0.5mm offset with narrow wheels front and rear with narrow front track width), plus its rear bed hangs pretty low. It's almost the most challenging Mini-Z body to fit. GLD is at this point an old design; it's good but really needs/benefits from some key option parts. Because of that, I'd consider it too expensive vs other options now.

@sammybaka is new option on chassis would you chose?

@@rogerbahr9117 I'm not familiar with the latest ones but it seems that a lot of people like the MA Racing MA24.

Assuming that gear mesh is good, I think it's a matter of the motor. Some motors have extra strong magnets to generate more torque. If I recall correctly, the atomic zenon motors are like that, as are team powers brushless motors. I use an old school atomic proton here which is pretty free spinning. The same is true for GL sensored motors, kyosho's xspeed, and surpass rocket motors. On my drift cars, I like free rolling feel for drift transitions.

@@sammybaka thanks for the reply and info. I might try one of those more free spinning motors, I'd like a more free rolling car too. Thanks for the suggestions. My non-brushless Mini-z rolls for ever, really nice.

Welcome! You can either message me here or on facebook (facebook.com/sammysy).

Double check that the gyro is counter steering in the right direction. Also are suspension arms free of binding? Are the wheel nuts on too tight? Do the front wheels touch the chassis or body at all full lock?

I did not get mine sorted untill I shimmed the front wheels untill they rolled very free, loosened the diff a bit, and put soft springs in the back. I have most recommended hop-up parts and setup very close to this video. A sudden spin is likely the gyro counter steering and a wheel locking up for some reason. Tight wheels lock up really easy even if they don't rub.

Today DriftArt is definitely a better choice. I don't have DA3, but I have a DA2.6 that I'm excited to build soon. In my opinion GLD was good at the time it came to the market. It still drifts good, and has good flexibility with small autoscale bodies. However, it sort of requires some upgrade parts and the cost adds up quickly vs recent chassis available now like DriftArt, TG, LS, Atomic DRZ3, etc.

Hi -- I don't have other rc social media accounts. How about here?

@@sammybaka no prob, I have a limited budget, no more than 330€, I dont know If I may buy the GLD or a TG Racing Chassis. Do you recomend the GLD over the TG?

@@ivanparga3825 I think the TG chassis is a better buy today. I don't have one but it seems to be quite well designed as well. Because I think the GLD requires some upgrade parts, the cost will end up higher than the TG. I think GLD can support narrower bodies (the chassis can be configured narrower). What bodies do you want to run?

@@sammybaka I didnt think about, but maybe mini z

If you go for the narrowest mini-z body, like toyota AE86, the TG chassis may not fit (it's hard to tell without trying it), but you can always do other bodies that should fit more comfortably. I'd start with figuring out what body you want to use first.

It's difficult to categorize pros and cons by countries. In the context of rwd drifting, the kyosho mini-z line simply doesn't offer any product (i.e: mr-03 is rwd but doesn't drift; ma-020 drifts but isn't rwd). Outside of kyosho, there are quite a number of micro drift chassis options on the market today and the landscape is constantly changing; we are looking at tradeoffs in the areas of cost, flexibility (tunability, 1:24 scale only vs 1:28 scale only vs both), ease of parts availability, manufacturing quality, build difficulty, etc. In my opinion, I think driftart is a good option today with many advantages, but it's also considered more expensive and more difficult to build.

@@sammybaka you’ll have to forgive me. I live in america, and every non-major brand is a “Chinese knockoff”. But thank you for understanding my question anyway. I’m just looking for the best deal on 1/28 with parts availability, and build quality. Usually in america that means “name brand” but not always the case. We in America are kinda closed off from what the rest of the world is doing.

I also live in america and I see what you are saying in the large RC segments by brands like associated, losi, traxxas, arrma, etc. 1:28 scale in grip racing or drift isn't super mainstream anywhere. The big brand is kyosho and its mini-z line. It's great for the entry-level 1:28 racing classes (i.e: box stock) and casual driving (on track, at home, mini-z buggy in clean outdoor settings), but as mentioned mini-z doesn't support rwd drifting, and it's not that competitive in 1:28 racing which is dominated by smaller brands like Reflex Racing, GL Racing, Atomic, PN Racing, MWX, etc (these are American and Hong Kong-based brands). What kind of 1:28 RC are you looking at doing?

@@sammybaka drift(probably 4wd) and open class racing. I want to have about 6 cars(one of them being a trial truck) because 1/28 is the only way that is affordable. You can build an entire fleet for under $2k. The brands you gave me are super helpful. I got a lot of homework to do. I want a ma-03 evo equivalent for drifting as my primary.

Nice. For 1:28 open classes, I'd recommend Reflex's RX28. It's been a proven winner for the past 2 years and it did the best in the recent PNWC race. For AWD drifts, I would say MA-020 gets the job done quite well (cheaper, better throttle control, better autoscale body compatibility) but MA-030EVO works too. For grip AWD class, you want to look at Atomic SZ2 or GL Racing's Giulia.

Haha I can understand this love/hate relationship. Fortunately my experience with it has been decent. To be honest, there are a lot of newer 1:24 drift chassis on the market, but not so much for 1:28. We have DriftArt, GLD, DRZv2, XRX v1 (arguably too wide) and the LS chassis. On the other side for 1:24, we have DriftArt, MA, Drift Beast, TRC, DKMK3, DRZv3, XRX v2, etc. Personally, I'm not as interested in the 1:24 stuff yet.

@@sammybaka once i've build 24th scale chasis, from the drz v2. When switch to 24th scale. The choice of body Shell is masive. And the price is not pricey as mini z.

@@ilud2007 I have a driftart 2.6 ex to build and I've been debating whether to do 1:24 with it. Which brands of model kits do you recommend?

@@sammybaka 24th scale model kit will seem look like bigger than 28th scale, For me, the 24th scale is closer to the real car than kyosho body. Because kyosho Made body to match their chasis wheelbase. It's different in 24th scale model kit. They Made the propotional look nicer than mini z. Tamiya / Aoshima make a lot of great model kit. I only have that on my shelf. So i know their quality