November 15, 2006

Corally RDX Phi, the beast has a name

Corally RDX Phi

A while back we brought you shots of the new RDX electric touring car prototype from Dutch manufacturer Corally. The car did very well at the Team Orion Speed Weekend and finished first and second at the recent Team Orion Cup in France (see pic above). Well it seems that the new car doesn’t like being called plain old prototype so it looked into the dictionary for a while and named itself……the RDX Phi. About as universally difficult to say as when Prince called himself symbol, the new Φ is actually pronounced ‘Phi’, so really rolls of the tongue then. The official slant on the name is “RDX-PHI :: THE INFINITE #1”, whether it keeps this name when it hits production we dont know but one thing is sure that whatever its going to be called its going to be pretty hard to beat never mind pronounce.

Thanks to syndr0me for the heads up.

Source: Corally [corally.com]


November 15, 2006

EXCLUSIVE – Serpent F180 body shots

Serpent F180 - Red RC
(Click image to enlarge)

Red RC have EXCLUSIVE shots of the new Formula car from Serpent, the F180, that is due to be released in kit and RTR versions in the new year. These pictures have not yet been released and we are privelaged to be the first to get them and be allowed show them to you. In previous pictures there was no body with the car or the body was clear. The 3 pictures of the car, with painted body, that we have really give a clear idea of how it will look on the track and exposes those oh so familiar F1 lines. Thanks to Serpent for giving us the EXCLUSIVE on these images….did i mention EXCLUSIVE….oh yeh i think i did :)

To see more pictures click content


November 14, 2006

RCP Professional tools

RCP Pro Tools

Made by, and available through, RC Paradise in Japan are these really nicely made professional RC tools. Ok they are similar to the Hudy design that has been so often copied but these tools feature a very unique red anodised spiral look handle as well as 2 rubber o-rings around the handle to protect it when rolling about the table. They are available in all the usual sizes and types and you can see more of them here.

Source: RC Paradise [rcparadise.net]


November 14, 2006

HPI Cyclone Moore-Speed edition now shipping

HPI Cyclone Moorespeed

Just a quick heads up to say that the HPI Cyclone Moore-Speed edition has today been shipped from HPI in Japan. This is the car that was made to commemorate Andy Moores World Championship win in Italy this year and if you’ve ordered one you can now start doing a little celebratory dance.

You can read more about the car here.

Source: HPI Japan [hpiracing.co.jp]


November 13, 2006

ROAR bans LiPo cells in all RC classes?

Lipo Cells banned

At last weekends ROAR (US governing body) meeting it seems a rule was passed that outlawed the use of LiPo batteries in all R/C cars that run at ROAR sanctioned events. Although not stated, the reason was probably down to the safety issues with these batteries having been known to explode if not charged and handled properly. This is unfortunate as the benefits of LiPo are clear (weight, size, longer runtime) but i think this move was more a case of covering ROAR’s ass in the event of an injury brought on by an exploding LiPo. The move however seems a bit extreme as danger is present in all forms of RC racing, particularly burns and cuts and the mis-use or bad treatment of any power sources will always result in an injury.

The ruling however does not just affect Electric class racers but also gas racers who have installed LiPo cells to power their receiver. The judgment makes no differentiation between uses of the cells, but instead just bans their usage in all classes outright.

From the minutes of the meeting:
A proposal to outlaw Lithium Polymer batteries in all r/c vehicles was discussed. This item was adopted.

You can read the full minutes of the meeting here (PDF).


November 12, 2006

The future of the O’Donnell buggy

O Donnell buggy

Philip over at Neo-Buggy has written a nice piece concerning the future of the O’Donnell buggy after development driver and long time sponsored O’Donnell racer Jared Tebo switched to a Jammin X1 buggy at this weekends RC Pro finals and with it, went on to take TQ and the win. The O’Donnell buggy seems to have been flattered by Tebo’s skills, even so the pairing hadn’t won anything together, and then to be competitive straight away with the X1 goes to prove how uncompetitive the O’Donnell buggy actually must be.

Announced in January with huge hype of 2005’s man of the year Jared Tebo being the only driver; things looked good. However as we have all read, seen and experienced its all gone a bit off the rails…

Read the full report here.

Source: Neo-Buggy [neo-buggy.net]


November 11, 2006

Star Motor infringing copyright?

Star Motor STI

After recently reporting on the Sirio Kanai Evo 3 STI I was made aware of the logo being used by the Italian engine manufacturer Star Motor to display that a motor has been factory modified or as they like to reference it, ‘Sirio Technology Impact’ (STI). This logo as you can see above on the right is a carbon copy of the logo on the left created by world famous Japanese tuning firm ‘Subaru Tecnica International’ (STI) that is famous for tuning Imprezas and other Subaru’s including the World Rally cars. This is a blatant copy of the Japanese company’s logo and an even more blatant attempt by Star Motor to change it slightly to avoid infringing on their trademark.

Read more… content


November 10, 2006

Team Losi officially release the 8ight Truggy

Team Losi 8ight Truggy

Team Losi have officially released their new 1/8th scale truggy to the eagerly awaiting masses of off road nuts enthusiasts. Based on the recently released, and already successful, 8ight buggy, this chassis has had the standard buggy to truggy conversion; longer wheelbase, longer chassis, longer wishbones etc. With the truggy class blowing up all across the globe and considering this cars pedigree on dirt we’re sure that the 8ight truggy will be at the sharp end of the grid come race day.

Created with passion and perfected by obsession, the 8IGHT-T will redefine Truggy racing with what might be called an unfair advantage. The 8IGHT-T Race Roller is the first competition-level, performance-built truggy based on Team Losi’s ground-breaking 4WD nitro platform.

You can check out the Team Losi 8ight truggy here.