February 4, 2024

Hebert wins ’30th edition’ of Snowbird Nationals

Celebrating it 30th edition, the world famous Snowbird Nationals in Orlando, Florida, saw Xray’s Keven Hebert take the win in Modified Touring Car ending the winning run of reigning World Champion Bruno Coelho.  In qualifying it was Hebert who secured the TQ.  Running to the FTQ format, the Canadian set the fastest time of the four rounds of qualifying on the third of his attempts.  With Coelho suffering a DNF in Q3, the 2022 and 2023 Champion would count his Q2 time which was 1.5-seconds off Hebert’s impressive pace.  Setting his best time in the final qualifier Alexander Habgberg completed the Top 3 for the single A-main grid.  Setting the fastest lap of the race from the front, Hebert was able to gap the field for a convincing 1.8 seconds win over Coelho with Hagberg making it an all Xray podium.

Image: Bruno Coelho [Facebook]


February 2, 2024

Urbain promoted to full-time driver with Awesomatix

It is the ultimate dream of every dedicated RC racer and today after years of being one of France’s leading international touring car drivers Lucas Urbain has been reward for his dedication by being promoted to a full time factory driver for Awesomatix.  The popular and friendly driver from Longwy, home of the famous season opening GP3F race, has already represented Awesomatix for a number of years while working for French railway company SNCF.  Recently bringing the niche electric touring car and 1:12 manufacturer ETS wins on both asphalt and carpet, he will now debut for the team as a full time professional RC racer at the legendary TITC in Thailand later this month. 

Continue reading here


February 2, 2024

MIBO International ’24 – Onroad track reveal

With just two weeks to go until the second edition of the MIBO International Race in the Czech Republic, the organisers have revealed the onroad track layout on which Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker will defend the title he won at the inaugural running of the event last year.  A two half day event that runs from February 16-18th in the Sports V Hotel venue in Hrotovice, the track features a 30 metre long straight and is 19 metres deep with the man behind the race Michal Bok creating quite a different layout to that of 2023.   With the onroad/offroad event close to its capacity entry, Volker’s main competition in Modified Touring Car is expected to come from Yokomo’s Christopher Krapp and Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski, the very much in form Polish driver making his MIBO International debut this year.

See overhead view of track layout here


February 1, 2024

Red RC TITC coverage presented by Hobbywing

Red RC is excited to announce that we are returning to the TITC in Thailand with our coverage of this legendary touring car race being presented by Hobbywing.  We first attended this Bangkok based race in 2017 and having missed its return after Covid last year, we a delighted to be able to return on this the 20th edition of the race.  On our previous visits to the Infinity Addict Circuit we covered Alexander Hagberg, Akio Sobue and Bruno Coelho attempting to defend their titles.  As the reigning Modified Champion, Coelho will be looking to join a certain Atsushi Hara as the races most winning driver with four victories.  The race that has become one of the most significant Modified Touring Car Races in World after the IFMAR ISTC World Championship and always see manufacturers & drivers bring their A-game as they look to add a TITC title.  A long time sponsor of the race, Hobbywing has a 15-year relationship with the Thailand International Touring Car Championship, to give it its full title, and this year their popular Justock ESC & motor is the handout spec combo that will power the FWD class.  Our coverage from Thailand will start on February 29th through to March 3rd when the next champions enter the TITC’s history books.

View history of TITC Champions here


January 31, 2024

ARC R8.4LCG

ARC has released its latest 1:8 Onroad Nitro kit, the R8.4LCG.  Based on their R8.4 with low centre gravity chassis design, the front and rear upper arm base are all new parts, lower arms and steering block become hard composite parts to increase overall traction and corner speed.  The new LCG chassis R842026 becomes standard parts on the R8.4LCG, with the R822025 LCG engine mount the engine height becomes 2mm lower compared with R8.4, the LCG chassis not only lower engine mount but also increases flexibility in the rear end of the chassis, it helps to increase the steering of the car.  Also new in the kit are the front steering block and lower arms which are all produced in Hard compound.  As well as being harder the arms are also lighter than standard arms, and the harder arms give more ground traction and consistent handling in all conditions, The R8.4LCG corner speed is improved a lot with these hard compound suspension parts.  The front upper arm holder of R8.4LCG is 1.2mm higher compared with R8.4, it changes the roll centre in the front end and makes the car have quicker response handling and less exit steering, it can avoid over steering especially when applying throttle.  Finally, the rear upper arm plate also becomes a new one, the horizontal plate has 3 positions to adjust, more inside gives more rear traction and more stable handling, and more outside position will give a quicker response to follow the front end.

View more images here


January 31, 2024

Smokem XQ11 top decks

Smokem has release a set of new top decks options for the XQ11 1:10 competition Touring Car from Xpress.  The main 2mm RS Top Deck draws from Smokem’s experience with previous RS designs, they set out to optimise the flex characteristics of the XQ11 to yield superior lap speed over a wider range of conditions.  A major benefit of the RS design is to allow the XQ11 to accept a large range of pinion gears which is particular useful for 21.5T or higher blinky classes where big pinions are a must.  For the 2mm RS-W Split Front Top Deck is RS Split Rear Top Deck they have refined the shape of the top deck with a thinner cutout for more consistent flex characteristics.  For the front they added a thinner W-shaped cross brace to control the flex to give improved steering feel.  This cross brace can be cut to further smoothen out the steering if required.  For the rear added their trademark V-shaped cross brace for slightly more flex than the stock split top deck for improved corner speed.

View front & rear top decks here


January 31, 2024

Team Bomber Australia 1:12 Ball differential for asphalt

Melbourne based Team Bomber Australia has announced details of its upcoming 1:12 ball diff for racing on asphalt.  Compatible with cars from Team Bomber, Bezerk Katana, Roche, CRC, Destiny, Schumacher, Yokomo and Xray, prototype versions of the parts were recently used to great effect at last weekends TFTR Masters event, taking the title in 1:12 Modified and 2nd & 3rd places in 1:12 Stock.  Team Bomber Australia have designed and manufactured two parts.  Titanium Ball differential rings are cut from gr5 certified titanium and machine lapped for precision parallel flatness and mirror polished.  They are also processed in two coating options.  TiN – gold finish, coating with superior wear resistance / hardness and ultra smooth surface. The second option is TiCN – gun metal finish, coating with ultimate wear resistance and hardness, also yields a very low coefficient of friction for smooth operation of the differential  They are available in 3 outer diameter sizes to suit spur gear range 74t – 92t.

Continue reading here


January 30, 2024

Pepe Group ‘Running-In Oil’

Pepe Group, the producers of well known Italian nitro fuel brand Energy, has released a new specific oil that helps in the running-in phase of RC nitro engines.  The ‘Running-In Oil’ is compatible with all types of fuel where there is no specific running-in fuel and comes in a bottle intended for a fuel content of 4 litres with a graduated band for per litre dosage.

Source: Pepe Group [pepegroup.net]