November 27, 2023

Tamiya TA08R 1:10 Electric Touring Car

As part of its early New Year releases, Tamiya has announced the TA08R 1:10 4WD Electric Touring Car kit.  The TA08PRO receives the limited-edition treatment in the form of the TA08R by adding a plethora of key Hop-Up Options right out of the box along with a few parts only available in this edition.  The kit gets new a new 2.0mm carbon fibre upper deck thats connects front and rear bulkheads for pitch rigidity and utilises a 630-ball bearing at the rear for roll rigidity.  New front and rear aluminium upper arm mounts provide enhanced rigidity.  A new aluminium motor mount has two screw-attached, upper deck attachment points.  The rear body mount are also new and uses carbon fibre plates and aluminium posts, and limits body wobble and ensures stable rear traction. Body mount extensions allow attachment of bodies of different heights.  New additional ribs on the lower deck limit its deformation for superior suspension performance and help limit damage after unexpected crashes.  Finally, new aluminium wheel hubs limit wheel deformation and ensure stable tire grip.

Source: Tamiya USA [tamiyausa.com]


November 27, 2023

Aerox 5.6mm Offset Alloy Servo Arm

Schumacher Racing has introduced a new Aerox Alloy Offset Servo Arm suitable for a wide range of Touring Cars but equally capable in Offroad cars too.  Offset by 5.6mm it has holes positioned at 17 and 19mm distance from the centre of the spline.  Machined from high quality 7075-T6 alloy and with a black finish it comes with a high tensile steel clamping screw.  An M3 nut is captured in the underside for easy fitting with the arm available in popular 23T Sanwa and 25T Futaba options.

Source: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]


November 27, 2023

Harris is ’23 RCRA Australian LS National Champion

Australia’s Large Scale touring car young gun Cooper Harris has won the 2023 RCRA Australian National Championship.  This year’s RCRA National title was decided at the Radio Racing Cars S.A. Inc. track in Littlehampton, South Australia and in qualifying it was reigning Champion Andy Bishop who secured the TQ ahead of Harris and Craig Hawkins in 3rd.  With a clean and competitive half hour final, the battle for the win lasted the entire race with 17-year-old Harris posting the fastest lap on his way to securing 1st place with his Mecatech Fwo1 SWB powered by Abbate engine and PMT Tires.  Joining Harris on the podium was MCD driver Andy Bishop in 2nd with third place going to George Tsakanias driving a Genius chassis.  Next year Australia will host the IFMAR Large Scale World Championship from October 20th to 27th in Sydney.

Source: Cooper Harris [Facebook]


November 27, 2023

Jacinto & Dela Cruz crowned Philippine 1:10 Offroad National Champions

In a major boost for the offroad racing scene in the Philippines, after a long absence the country hosted National Championships for 1:10 Offroad with the event attracting a record entry for a Nationals.  With over 100 entries for the 2-day event at the Circulo Verde track in Manila City, home to Asia’s biggest annual offroad event the Philippine Masters, in qualifying it was Sworkz driver Dino Jacinto who took the 4WD TQ with the 2WD honours going to Jomil Dela Cruz at the end of the three rounds of qualifying.  In the triple finals, Jacinto would win the opening two encounters to secure the title early ahead of Dela Cruz and Tyler Cheung.  In 2WD, Dela Cruz would also convert the TQ into the title albeit needing the win in A3 to do so.  He was joined on the podium by Rains Viola and A2 winner Gerome Ling.  The event also marked a major improvement for the track with its new oiled surface a game changer.  More and more racers/hobbyist are enjoying the track with it now having good grip anytime of the day and most of all, it’s rubber friendly.  The existing layout and surface will be used for 2024 edition of the Philippine Masters which takes place on April 18-21.

Image: Edward Sio [Facebook]


November 27, 2023

Branson wins Rug Racers Round 2

Round 2 of the Rug Racers indoor series in the UK took place over the weekend where it was Xray team driver Kyle Branson who took the win from Yokomo’s Alex Thurston.  Organised by Hertford Radio Car Club, qualifying for the second of the five races that make up the long running series latest season saw Branson secure the TQ ahead of Thurston and the Xray of Round 1 winner Harley Eldridge.  With a double final format, Branson took A1 by 3-seconds from Thurston but that order was reversed in A2 with Thurston getting the win by 1/10th of second.  With thanks to his faster A1 winning time it was Branson who took the overall win.  Eldridge would complete the podium on tie breaker with the Schumacher of Chris Grainger.  With a field of 40 cars, in 17.5 Blinky it Zak Finlay who took his Xray to victory ahead of Ricky Copsey and Billy Fletcher.  In FWD, which had 37 entries the win went to Jamie Hickin.

Image: Kyle Branson [Facebook]


November 27, 2023

Yokomo ‘Super Dog Fighter’ re-release buggy images

Having announced the re-release of its 1980’s ‘Super Dog Fighter’ 1:10 4WD Buggy in October with a CAD image, Yokomo has just released images on social media of the production buggy which is set to be with distributors in December.  The Japan company is the latest manufacturer to enter the retro market after many requests from passionate fans.  Having considered commercialisation many times but with no resin part molds left from that time, it was a big undertaking for the company.  Although new parts have been remade, the settings have been made to recreate the atmosphere of the time as much as possible. In order to be able to drive with current power sources, it will be equipped with a gear differential, slipper clutch, Lipo battery, etc., but it also have a slot for a Sub-C size battery, natural-coloured resin parts, and aluminium die-cast front and rear parts. The bulkhead, hard-anodised aluminium shocks, and other features give you the feel of the time.

View images here


November 26, 2023

Hebert wins U.S. Indoor Champs

Canada’s Keven Hebert is the Modified Touring Car Champion of the 43rd running of the U.S. Indoor Champs Presented by Hobbywing.  The Xray took the win at the Cleveland, Ohio, classic having earlier secured the TQ for the single A-Main.  From the front he would set the fastest lap of the race to lead home the Awesomatix of former multiple World Champion Marc Rheinard, the separation 0.816 at the end of the 5-minutes.  Starting from P3 on the grid Rheinard’s team-mate & 2022 Champion Sam Isaacs completed the podium ahead of the Xray of Alexander Hagberg.  Double champion of last year’s event, Isaacs would retain his 1:12 title securing the TQ and victory with wins in the opening two encounters of the triple A-Mains.  Winning A3, Kemp Anderson took second overall with Rheinard making it an all Awesomatix podium.  Hebert would be best of the rest for Xray in P4 ahead of team-mate Hagberg.

Image: RCAmerica [Facebook]


November 26, 2023

Coelho takes 4WD win at EOS

Bruno Coelho has taken the 4WD Buggy win at the EOS season opener in Hann Münden, Germany.  The Xray driver led a 1-2 for the Slovakian manufacturer ahead of new team-mate David Ronnefalk with Saturday’s 2WD winner Michal Orlowski completing the podium for Schumacher.  In qualifying it was Ronnefalk who topped the first of the four qualifiers.  Having TQ’d 2WD, Orlowski went fastest in Q2 before Ronnefalk hit the top again Q3.  With Coelho taking the final round it was overall TQ for Ronnefalk ahead of his team-mate with Orlowski lining up P3 ahead of the Team Associated of newly crowned World Champion Davide Ongaro.  In the first of the finals it was Coelho who eventually took the win.  The former World Champion went to the front after a roll over from Ronnefalk approaching the half way mark but was overtaken again by the Swede when he had a mistake of his own a few laps later.  With Ronnefalk out front and looking like he had the win, another mistake in the dying moments was enough to allow Coelho through to take it.  A2 would see Ronnefalk again lead out the field but again a mistake allowed his team-mate through to the front only this time the Portuguese ace kept things clean to the finish for the overall win.  Winning A3, Ronnefalk would finish second with Ongaro completing the podium line-up.

Image: EOS [eos.racing]