May 29, 2007

AE new 4wd Buggy spotted at SoCal

AE 4wd Buggy spotted at SoCal

According to a report by 4wdRC.com, an engineer from Team Associated was present at the SoCal track last Thursday testing their new 4wd electric buggy and due to the fact that it looked so much like a BJ4, no one took any notice of it or even took a photograph of it (picture above of BJ4).

But it’s not a BJ and it IS a Team Associated prototype car. Later, on Sunday at the Reedy race, we spoke with AE officials who confirmed that the car exists and said it would not appear at this year’s Mod Nats in Albuquerque. To us it looked very similar to a BJ, with different front diff cover and shock tower, possibly a different 1-way system, and new front arms. It was a flat carbon fiber sheet chassis with shaft drive and a top deck. 3 X 3 saddle packs were in the rear with a longitudinal motor near the center. The shell looked so much like a BJ that it may have actually been a BJ body. That’s really all we know. We were there with Paul and Frank working on several different things on our own cars, We noticed this car, thought it was a BJ, and only confirmed things on Sunday at the Reedy race.

Source: 4wdrc [4wdrc.com] / Photo: JB Photography


May 28, 2007

David Crompton leaves Team Magic

David Crompton

According to sightings at this weekends British National event in Holbeach, Team Magics main buggy racer in the UK, David Crompton, has left the Taiwanese manufacturer and was spotted racing a HoBao Hyper 8. Our site partners Neo Buggy have confirmed that the 8 time National Champion would be racing the Hyper 8 buggy for the rest of the season but didnt give a reason for the change, although perhaps the M1B, which had been seen with a lot of prototype parts recently, just isnt competitive in its current state?

Source: Neo Buggy [neo-buggy.net]


May 28, 2007

Marc Rheinard wins 2007 Reedy Race

Marc Rheinard wins 2007 Reedy Race

Last weekend saw the 2007 Reedy Touring Car Race held at Tamiya America’s soon to be closed track in California. Attracting a large amount of top international racers for the Invite class, the event features a qualifying & final race format in which the best six results from 8 rounds count and are used to determine the winner. After all the running it was German racer, and former World Champion, Marc Rheinard that could take the overall win, despite a slow first day that saw him down in 6th position meaning the Tamiya driver had to work hard on the Sunday to claim his second Reedy Race title in a row. British racer Craig Drescher, racing the all new Team Associated TC5, came home in 2nd place just ahead of his team mate Juho Levanen of Finland.

Click here for the final Invite class results… content


May 28, 2007

Alex Laffranchi wins Rd3 of Italian Nats

Alex Laffranchi wins Rd3 of Italian Nats

The third round of the Italian 1/8th scale buggy Nationals took place last weekend in Genzone, near Milan. Held under great weather conditions, qualifying was headed by new Xray signing, and former Italian Champion, Alex Laffranchi ahead of 2nd placed team mate, and round 2 winner, Riccardo Perin with current National Champion Davide Tortorici in 3rd for Crono. After the Semi finals it was Laffranchi placed at the front of the grid for the main final, and he carried that form through to the final flag to take his first win for his new sponsors Xray, with 2nd place going to Tortorici while Iuri Gassi took 3rd spot for Mugen.

Click here for the final standings… content


May 28, 2007

Linus Thern takes all at Kyosho Masters

Linus Thern takes all at Kyosho Masters

Linus Thern has won both classes at this weekends Kyosho Masters race, the first of its kind to be held in Germany, run at the Rhein-Main club. The Swedish driver TQ’d both the buggy and truggy class racing his RB powered Kyosho and due to the Sunday being called off due to heavy rain the event was called on qualifying results. In the buggy class Linus took the win from 2nd placed Daniel Reckward with Thomas Passmann in 3rd while in the Truggy class it was again Linus, ahead of former World Champion, Yuichi Kanai from Japan in 2nd with Jimmy Wright in 3rd.

Click here for the final results… content


May 27, 2007

Yannick Aigoin takes Rd3 of French Nats

Yannick Aigoin takes Rd3 of French Nats

The 3rd round of the French 1/8th scale buggy Nationals took place this weekend at the Reims circuit in the North of France. The event was dominated by Yannick Aigoin, the current European Champion set the fastest time in qualifying driving his RB powered Xray while the Mugen pairing of Guilliame Vray and Renaud Savoya were 2nd and 3rd fastest respectively. After the semis it was in fact Savoya that had claimed the number 1 starting spot ahead of Yannick in 2nd, with Crono racer and round 2 winner Jerome Sartel starting from 3rd. The race itself was a close run thing with Yannick Aigoin finally claiming the win, a few seconds up on 2nd placed Sartel, while French EFRA GP winner Jerome Aigoin ended the event in 3rd for Kyosho.

Click here to see the final result… content


May 27, 2007

Kazuya & Syach take FEMCA titles

Kazuya & Syach take FEMCA titles

The 2007 FEMCA Championships are over and 2 new champions have been crowned at the JITC in Jakarta, Indonesia. In the 1/10th scale class it was Serpent 720 racer Teddy Syatch that came out on top with a 4 lap advantage over Singapore Kyosho racer Philip Lee, while Xray NT1 racer Sadikan came home in 3rd. Pole position sitter, Japanese racer Ken Furukawa, racing for Kyosho, had a difficult race and came home in 5th.

In the 1/8th scale main final, there was drama at the end of the 45 minute final when Serpent 960 racer Suruth V. took the win by 1 lap only to be disqualified for being 10 grams underweight, a bitter blow for the Thai driver. This handed the win to Japanese Mugen racer Yuruki Kazuya who took the win by 1 lap ahead of 1/10th class winner, and local Serpent racer, Teddy Syatch in 2nd while another Japanese racer Yokoyama Masaki, with another Serpent 960 came home in 3rd.

Click here to see the final results… content


May 27, 2007

ABC Hobby Genetic Naked S

ABC Hobby Genetic Naked S

ABC Hobby, of Japan, have announced the upcoming release of this new mini 1/10th scale chassis, the strangely named Genetic Naked S. The car which is only 163mm wide is very narrow compared to a competition touring car but can accomodate mini type body shells. Featuring 4wd through a central shaft the car has a twin deck chassis and sports front and rear ball diffs as well as a neat lexan spur gear cover. Available in June.

Source: ABC Hobby [abchobby.com]