Unlike the tips in the magazines, like how a pen cap makes for a nice looking tail pipe or silly putty as a diff lock, I will post some tips I have learned along the way that may help you.

Forget all the carbon graphite and aluminum stuff, there are only a few upgrades needed to make the NTC3 a winner.

I will begin with building (skipping the obvious beginner stuff like reaming suspension holes and flashing removal) tips and go to set-up stuff later.

K-Factory make these very trick clamping hubs (K1251), shimmed properly along with some solid axle pins make the wheel play minimal and allow you to tighten the wheels on nice and tight without binding the bearings up by bending the cheesy stock roll pins.

Forget adding heavy aluminum diff cases and or shock towers, just pick up the "FIX".  Bolt these puppies onto the stock diff cases.  Get your LHS to get them from http://www.bmiracing.com/products2.htm

I was asked recently about track width and the tool that comes with the kit for setting it.  I do not use the tool because track width is a handling adjustment and veries from track to track.  You can use the tool on the initial building of the kit but after that its useless.  On a slippery track as almost all the tracks I race at a narrow width car gives me more traction.  I do not adjust the track width like in the picture but on a Huddy board with the wheels on measuring from the outside of the wheels.

"When a car is cornering at speed, the car's weight transfers from the inside wheel to the outside wheel. The rate of change is proportional to the height of center of gravity (CG), the lateral acceleration ( in g ) and inversely proportional to the track width. As this : 

Weight transfer = ( Lateral acceleration  x  Weight  x  Height of CG ) / Track width "

 The down side to running narrow is it will be slow to transition in switch backs.  You do not need to keep the front width the same as the rear but it is very important to keep the the same spacing on the left and right.  I use a digital caliper to measure the gap between the hub and arm on the left and right for similarity and a Huddy board with the set-up decal on it to measure my actual track width.

This is an actual pic of my set-up.  I have not seen anyone else run the throttle servo backwards like I do and not sure why the manual has you install it any other way.  The conventional way has the linkage to the slide carb at an extreme angle.  You can twist the carb to line it up closer to the servo horn but because of the angle of the intake boss the carb barrel will now be pointing in an upward angle while the servo operates on a level plane.  By turning the servo around the thottle linkage from horn mount to barrel all line up and will operate much smoother.  The brake cam lever has to be bent at the bottom to lean back a bit and I bent the top loop of the brake cam lever so its at a right angle to the brake rod.  Instead of the spring and washer replace that with a piece of fuel tubing as a brake damper.

If you look carefully you will see I use fuel tubing to dampen the throttle linkage.  Vibrations from the engine are a problem with servos and the potentiometer inside.  I also use shrink tubing on the brake link where it goes through the cam lever with fuel tubing as a damper to stop any glitch posabilities.