February 13, 2024

European 1:8 Electric Buggy C/Ship – Stage 1 Report

Fresh from hosting its annual European 1:8 Nitro Buggy season opening Montpellier Grand Prix over the weekend, Circuit du MBM’s Stage 1 report for the 2024 1:8 Electric Buggy European Championship has been published by EFRA.  The 8th running of the title race for the category, the famous 300m French track will host the championship on June 07-09.  In 2023, Michal Orlowski became the 6th different winner of the title when he took victory at the Rhein-Main Circuit in Germany ahead of Top Qualifier Bruno Coelho and Burak Kilic.  To-date David Ronnefalk is the only driver to win the time twice after successfully defending his title in 2017.  Reigning European 1:8 Nitro Buggy Champion Juan Carlo Canas won the title in 2022 taking over the reign from Nitro World Champion Davide Ongaro.  With information about the track location, local accommodation and travel information you can view the full stage report here.

View Championship winners here


February 12, 2024

Xray X4F’24 Alu Flex Chassis 2.0mm

New from Xray is this 2.0mm Alu Flex Chassis for its X4F’24 1:10 FWD Touring Car.  Made from Swiss 7075 T6 aluminium, the chassis is recommended for high traction carpet tracks making the car easier to drive and more stable in high traction condition and avoiding traction rolling.  It features special cut outs for optimal flex characteristics.  The ultra-narrow chassis is only 84mm wide and features special cut outs that provide the chassis flex characteristics suitable for a wide variety of the traction levels.  The bottom of the chassis is shaped to reduce contact between the chassis and the ground while turning to improve cornering speed.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]


February 12, 2024

ProTek RC Samurai RM.1 Maifield Edition .21 Engine

ProTek RC has announced the pre-sale of its new Samurai RM.1 Maifield Edition 3-Port .21 Competition Nitro Engine.  Designed in collaboration with legendary professional RC racer Ryan Maifield, the new Samurai RM.1 enhances all the winning features found in the original Samurai RM engine and improves the power plant package even more through higher top end speed, increased fuel mileage, an improved and strengthened engine block, smooth yet powerful bottom end, and a slightly lower CG cooling head with new graphics.  “The ProTek RC Samurai RM.1 engine is smooth but powerful, gets awesome fuel mileage, and is easy to tune,” states Maifield.  “I’ve been running a pre-production RM.1 for a few months at a variety of events in different track conditions, and it has performed flawlessly everywhere I have been.”  Through extensive development and testing by Maifield and the ProTek RC R&D team, the new Samurai RM.1 increased fuel mileage by nearly 60 seconds while achieving higher top end speeds and maintaining a smooth bottom end.  It also features a steel backplate insert to reduce friction and wear while increasing RPMs and providing a stable idle.  A strengthened, black-coated crankcase is also included to maximise durability and reliability.  It also utilises a 3-port ABC piston and cylinder that are designed to offer more torque over the power range, while the blue anodised aluminium LCG cooling head with etched ProTek RC, Samurai, and RM logos on the top keep the weight as low as possible to achieve supreme stability and handling performance.

View more images here


February 12, 2024

Zalewski heads Xray challenge for MIBO International

Defending MIBO International Offroad Champions Xray has announced its team for the second edition of the upcoming Czech Republic based event.  At the inaugural running of the event Bruno Coelho won both 2WD and 4WD buggy ahead of young Xray talent Bartek Zalewski who kept the multiple World Champion honest.  Securing the 2WD TQ last year, now Zalewski will head the Slovakian’s offroad efforts.  Enjoying a podium double at the recent EOS Daun, the on-form Zalewski will resume his battles with Schumacher’s Michal Orlowki and Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen with Sworkz’ Joern Neumann joining the mix at the Sports V Hotel in Hrotovice.  The Polish teenager will be joined by Xray’s Max Gotzl and lead offroad chassis designer Martin Bayer.  An event that sees a double track build allowing offroad and onroad to race side by side, in the onroad competition Xray will be represented by Martin Hudy, Jan Ratheisky, David Ehbrar and newly crowned Snowbirds FWD Champion Stefan Schulz.

Source: MIBO [mibosport.com]


February 12, 2024

Thurston wins Rug Racers Round 4

Team Yokomo’s Alex Thurston has won the penultimate round of the popular UK series Rug Racers organised by Hertford Radio Car Club.  In the FTQ format qualifying, it was the Schumacher of OIlie Payne who took the overall TQ for the fourth round ahead of Thurston and Round 2 winner Elliott Harper.  With double A-Main finals,  A1 would see a great pass by Thurston that would get his Hobbywing powered BD12 to the front where he would stay to the finish to win ahead of Harper’s Schumacher and Round 1 winner Harley Eldbridge’s Xray.  With a mistake dropping Payne to P4, for A2 Thurston knew all he need to do was sit behind his rival to secure his first win of the current series.  Taking A2 by just 0.2 of a second from Thurston, Payne with secure second with former World Championship podium finisher Harper completing the modified podium.

Image: Alex Thurston [Facebook]


February 12, 2024

Roche Rapide P10W3 graphite servo mount set

Roche has announced a new optional graphite servo mount set for its Rapide P10W3 1:10 235mm Competition Pro10 kit.  The new set makes the servo move to front position for compatible with regular size Lipo battery installation.  The servo mount set requires the use of a medium micro size servo.

View set mounted in car here


February 12, 2024

INS14 kicks off with double win for Rivkin

The 14th season of the popular JConcepts Indoor National Series kicked off at Trackside Hobbies over the weekend where Team Associated’s Spencer Rivkin took the buggy double.  The first of 5 stops on the 2024 calendar, the JConcepts Winter Dirt Indoor Nationals attracted over 330 entries to the Wisconsin track once owned by legendary race announcer Scotty Ernst.  In 2WD qualifying, Rivkin topped two of the three rounds to secure the overall TQ from the Xray of Chase Lemieux who took Q3 with Schumacher’s Broc Champlin 3rd ahead of team-mate Ryan Cavalieri.  4WD would also see Rivkin take pole this time from Xray’s Tom Rinderknecht and TLR’s Cole Tollard with Davey Batta who topped Q1 ending up 4th.  In the 2WD finals, Rivkin took A1 but had a rough A2 finishing P8 as Cavalieri came through for the win ahead of Lemieux.  A clean A3 would see Rivkin lead home the field half a second up on Lemieux with Cav third and that was how they would line up on the overall podium.  In 4WD, Rivkin was able to secure an early win with victory in the opening two Mains and with a win in A3 Tollard secured 2nd with Rinderknecht 3rd after winning the tie break with Aydin Horne.  Round 2 of INS14 switches to carpet with RC One Racing in Michigan hosting the JConcepts Spring Carpet Indoor Nationals on March 22-24.

Image: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]


February 12, 2024

Spower Japan B7HP ‘Soul’ Hand Modified .21 Offroad

Following on from the release of its first hand modified racing engine that was specifically for 1:8 GT, Spower has added a second engine to the ‘Soul’ series with the popular B7TT .21 offroad engine undergoing the special treatment.  Based on long-stroke B7TT, the new B7HP piston/liner comes with hand modified conventional 3-ports type enabling more torque the power range.  The stronger DLC coating on new crankshaft has also hand modified with 2 tungsten counterweights contributing to consistent idling and quicker RPM response according to the throttle movements.  It also comes standard with Spower’s Boost rear cover plate which helps this high RPM engine work more stable from the top speeds to the lower range.  The new printing technology not only makes the cooling head colourful but also makes it blend in with your car.  The factory combo setup with Spower Japan 75mm Exhaust Manifold + EFRA 2089 pipe, B7HP will provide a lot of power  plus best fuel mileage for your offroad racing needs.

View Spec and mores images