there are still plenty of us that still use AM cars, i'm not ready to upgrade to 2.4ghz either, i'm quite used to the slower steering response anyway.
the mr-01 isn't a bad car, still much better than an xmod.
the weakest part of the car is the lack of servo saver but, if you keep your wheel off-sets modest, you should be alright.
sorry the link i gave earlier didn't help. this link
http://www.mini-z-guide.com/ has allot of useful info on setting up miniZ's in general, mostly mr-02 but some of the info could pertain to the mr-01.
i wouldn't worry too much about a hotter motor, a faster motor won't always get you around the track the fastest anyway.