Red RC » Industry

November 26, 2007

Norway lifts ban on EP Racing

Update on the Exploding cells

The Norwegian RC federation have announced that following their Annual General Meeting on the 17th-18th November, they have lifted the ban on EP racing in their country. The racing ban was put in place following a number of cell explosions during charging which could have led to someone getting injured. The NMF have laid out a number of guidelines, similar to the BRCA, regulating how to safely charge batteries during training and racing up until 1st April 2008, at which time the new EFRA approved cell requirements will be adapted across Europe.

Click more to read the full press release… content

November 19, 2007

Federations react to Exploding cells

Update on the Exploding cells

Following up on the decision by the Norwegian federation to stop all EP racing until the new year in response to the safety hazard of exploding NiMh cells, a number of other countries have also reacted, however so far not as strictly. Neighbours Sweden decided to just ban a certain batch of the offending IB4200 cells, as have Belgium, and racing will continue as normal, while the BRCA in the UK have advised their members on the best way to handle, use and charge NiMh cells. In the meantime the Intellect Battery Co. have now supplied the batch numbers which may contain cells that could potentially explode when subjected to race type conditions.

Click here to read the list of affected cells and also the BRCA recommendations… content

November 12, 2007

Mark Pavidis moves to Kyosho America

Kyosho America have announced that as of Monday November 19th Mark Pavidis will be joining them as a product designer at their Lake Forest, California facility. Pavidis is a two-time World Champion and the reigning IFMAR World Champion in 1/8 Off-Road, and has 18 years of R&D, product development, and design experience that he brings to Kyosho. During his tenure as a Kyosho Factory driver, Pavidis has already been instrumental in the design and testing of certain Kyosho vehicles. Kyosho America’s Marketing Director Steve Pond says,

Having Mark on staff will give us a distinct advantage because he’s raced at the highest level of competition in the world for decades. Not only will he be able to design new products, his considerable racing skill will allow him to test them to the highest limits. Combined with the considerable talents of Gil Losi, Jr., we’re very excited about the possibilities of future products that will result from our newly-formed team.

Source: Kyosho [kyoshoamerica.com]

November 10, 2007

Xray Column – New Electric Touring Car

Xray Column - New Electric Touring Car

The 13th installment in the Xray column from Xray owner and chief designer Juraj Hudy is now online. In this months column, Juraj talks about the process and thoughts behind the development of the company’s new touring car, the T2’008.

Before we started with the testing and development, we first built very demanding and difficult tracks at our in-house indoor track. Of course we did the same for outdoor testing but not as much as indoors, as the weather this year was changing very rapidly and as such the outdoor track conditions were changing too fast… a good recipe for bad testing. At our indoor track we have a special environmental control system that keeps conditions very stable, and as such we could run from morning ‘til night under the same track conditions, thus assuring objective results.

Read the full column here.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

November 8, 2007

2008 1/8th scale Euros Cancelled

Roeselare Belgium

We have received some more bad news concerning RC racing, following the immediate halt to EP racing in Norway, and that is that the 2008 European 1/8th scale ‘A’ Championships and preceeding 1/8th scale EFRA GP, to have been held in Roeselare, Belgium have been cancelled. We received the letter from Franky Noens, 1/10th scale section chairman in EFRA and secretary of the Belgian association, saying that due to problems with noise and no immediate solution the events have been cancelled. What hasn’t been said is if they will be held somewhere else or just left off the calendar next year, we would presume that they will find another venue. Roeselare played host to this years European 1/10th scale ‘B’ Championships.

Click more to read the full letter… content

November 7, 2007

Norwegian Federation halts all EP Racing

The Norwegian Federation has taken the rather drastic measure of calling a halt to all races and training for electric powered classes following 3 charging related ‘explosions’ at a 1/10th scale National last weekend. According to the source on oOple.com, a lot of the failures have occured in the past with the IB4200 cell, however the most recent failures that prompted this ban on racing were LRP VTecs and Team Orion 4200, both IB made cells. All racing will stay suspended until January 2008, although I’m not sure what will be different from then until now, perhaps a list of approved cells?

UPDATE: We have received an official press release from the NMF which you can download here (PDF).

Photo: Radiostyrt [forum.radiostyrt.no]

November 7, 2007

EFRA AGM Highlights

Last weekend saw the majority of Europe’s governing bodies for R/C converge in Brussels, Belgium for the annual EFRA AGM to make rule changes and decide on the future direction of the sport. This year didn’t see many major changes to the rules with the exception of the phased introduction of better defined 3 chamber pipes to all forms of gas racing in Europe throughout 2008 as well as the introduction of an indoor 1/10 EP TC European Championships.

Click here to see the AGM highlights per class… content

November 1, 2007

Bill Jeric is new President of Losi

Bill Jeric new President of Losi

Horizon Hobby, Inc. have announced that Bill Jeric has been named President of Losi. Horizon Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer, Joe Ambrose, made the announcement stating that, “Bill’s extensive knowledge of the RC industry, as well as his long-time industry experience, make him the perfect choice for leading Losi into the future.” Jeric’s involvement in all things RC stretches back over 30 years, from his early experience as a hobby retailer and his direct interaction with consumers, to his work bringing 1/8-scale buggy racing to prominence in the US market. Bill’s experience with industry leaders like Parma International, Thunder Tiger, Megatech and Horizon Hobby brings a wealth of understanding and expertise to the Losi team. In a statement, Bill said:

During the past seven years at Horizon, I have had the tremendous experience of working closely with the Losi division. It is an absolute honor being chosen to lead a company like Losi with such a long and impressive history of innovation, and I look forward to being a part of their continued growth, helping further develop the business, its products and its people.

Source: Team Losi [losi.com]