ST Racing Concepts have introduced an aluminium diff cover for the Vaterra Ascender truck as well as beadlock rings for Pro-Line crawler rims. Starting with the diff cover, the part was designed to improve the durability and add visual impact to the Ascender’s and Bronco’s front and rear axle. The high-quality CNC-machined aluminium cover is a direct replacement of the stock plastic piece and available in scale black, gun metal, or natural silver.
Coming from Avid and made for the Team Associated RC8B3 buggy are front and rear carbon fibre shock towers and suitable aluminium shock standoffs. The 5mm front and 4mm rear tower have the shock standoff pockets removed to prevent the carbon from splitting while retaining the stock suspension geometry to make them a direct swap for the stock parts. The included standoffs are of a -1mm design to keep the standard shock angle, they are made from high-quality alloy material and using both the towers and standoffs scrubs around 40 percent of weight for a lower centre of gravity and improved handling. The parts are available as combo set with two towers and four standoffs and they are also sold separately for spares or repair.
Source: Avid [avidrc.com]
The third consecutive season of the Austrian King of Carpet series will kick off on the 28th of November at the technical Black Art Raceway in Traiskirchen. The series is run in the classes of 1/12th Modified and 10.5T Blinky, 1/10th 10.5T 1S Blinky on CRC or Contact control tyres and a 21.5T Formula class run on Ride ETS tyres. The single day races take place on Saturday with free practice in the morning followed by three rounds of qualifying and single mains, with the B-final winners bumping up into the A-main. More information and sign-in can be found here.
AKA have introduced the Slicks 1/10th stadium truck tyres. The treadless tyre is designed for maximum performance on high-grip, indoor clay tracks and it features a matte finish. It is compatible with all standard 2.2″ stadium truck wheels, available in AKA’s Clay compound and included are Red soft closed cell inserts.
Source: AKA [raceaka.com]
The recent 2015 Australian National Titles were hosted by the Whalan Model Car Club in Sydney. Simon Nicholson (Yokomo) would top qualify in the Touring Modified class from VBC’s Ryan Maker who ran the prototype of VBC’s upcoming D08 car. HB’s driver Jason Dorn would round out the top 3 after the qualifiers. The finals then saw Ryan take the win in A1 and A3, handing him the overall Australian National Title from Simon Nicholson in second and Ari Bakla (Xray) in third.
Source: VBC Racing [vbcracing.com]
Round three of the Florida State Series was held last weekend at the world famous Fort Myers track with a decent turnout of seven heats between all classes. In 1/8th qualifying Paolo Morganti and DJ Apolaro exchanged the TQ position a couple of times with Paolo getting the overall TQ. DJ would start 2nd on the grid and was looking for a good battle as both had very similar pace throughout the weekend. The final came and it did not disappoint as DJ had a few chances to make a pass, but did not want to chance hitting Paolo and making things bad for both of them. DJ waited to see if pit cycles would help him, but they did not. Both ended running within one second the entire race for the most part and at a very high pace with low 11 second laps. DJ got the lead in the middle of the race and was running strong till he had a little issue in the pits and was back to 2nd, chasing again. At around the 20 minute mark Paolo made an error in the high-speed “S” section of the track and with DJ being so close he actually collected him. At first it looked like DJ’s car broke, but it just damaged the body. He took the lead and two laps later it started to rain, allowing DJ to take the win from Paolo Morganti and Tony Rice in a shortened race. Elsewhere in the 200mm Sedan class it was Rino Lino who would take the win.
View the 200mm Sedan podium here
The opening round of the Czech Xray Winter Series was held in Kolin in several electric on-road and off-road classes. In Touring Modified Xray’s own Martin Hudy laid down a flawless performance with his biggest rivals being Jiri Vysin and Jiri Janousek and at the end this would also be the top 3 order. Karel and Martin Kratochvil rounded out the top 5 result.
Another company to join the 1/10th Formula game is Shepherd Micro Racing who have released first images of their forthcoming Velox F1 formula pan car. Designed from scratch and developed in close cooperation with experienced formula drivers the var is a combination of well-proven features and new innovations. Two hard-coated tube dampers and a VRS absorber with a floating piston instead of a membrane take care of the damping duties and the carbon fibre chassis is designed for the use of a standard or LCG 2s shorty LiPo which can be installed in a front or rear transversal position to fine-tune the weight balance. To adjust the caster, different moulded inserts are used while it is possible to adjust the camber with using L/R thread turnbuckles. Furthermore the rear power pod is equipped with an externally adjustable 18-ball differential. The rear ride height can be adjusted with shims and the eccentric inserts allow a short and a long wheelbase setup. Included in the kit will be adjustable ETS-legal front and rear wings as well as a lexan body and the release is planned for early 2016.
