November 16, 2015

Team Orion Ultra chemistry shorty LiPo battery

Team Orion Ultra chemistry shorty LiPo battery

Team Orion have introduced their Ultra chemistry shorty LiPo battery pack. Suitable for a range of applications the pack is built from high-performance 450mmAh 100C cells with a special chemistry and construction making for improved punch and extreme power output. This allows to use the battery in power-hungry classes such as 4WD Modified off-road and it comes housed in a carbon-look hardcase, utilising standard 4mm gold-plated connectors.

Source: Team Orion [teamorion.com]


November 16, 2015

Awesomatix A800 belt-driven touring car kit

Awesomatix A800 belt-driven touring car kit

Some weeks ago Awesomatix have introduced their forthcoming A800 electric touring car kit and following first renderings now official images of the production car are available. As mentioned before the A800 is the company’s first belt-driven car and while doing away with the shaft drivetrain of the A700 the A800 still relies on the tried and tested suspension components although kit will utilise aluminium lower A-arms over the previously used carbon fibre offerings. Part of the suspension package are the rebuildable D2.1 rotation dampers that allow to maintain and tune shock absorbers if needed.

Continue reading here


November 16, 2015

Essex Winter Series Rd2 – Report

Essex Winter Series Rd2 – Report

The second round of the popular Essex Winter Series championship took place this weekend in the south-east of the UK. The event was once again almost at capacity and, as well as all the usual top UK drivers, current EFRA Touring Car Champion Alexander Hagberg joined the race after completing his move to live in the UK. In the Zen Racing Modified class, the battle for top qualifier was between EWS round one winner, Olly Jefferies, and current BRCA champion Elliott Harper. Elliott took his Schumacher to the fastest time in the first qualifying round, with Olly second ahead of Kyle Branson, Andy Moore and Alexander Hagberg. Elliott again set the pace in round two, with Olly again placing his Xray second quickest in front of Kyle, Andy and Alexander once again. Elliott secured the pole position with the fastest time in round three, as Capricorn’s Kyle Branson took second in front of Olly and his Xray team-mate Alexander, with defending EWS champion Stefan Chodzynski rounding out the top five for Capricorn. Elliott made it a clean sweep by taking the fourth qualifier. Alexander was getting to grips with the EWS track and surface to take second in the round, ahead of Olly, Andy and Kyle.

Continue reading the report here


November 15, 2015

BMT 601 electric touring car kit

BMT 601 electric touring car kit

Italian brand BMT, know especially for their successful nitro on-road cars, have joined the 1/10th electric touring car game with the introduction of the BMT 601 4WD touring car. The vehicle is based on a symmetrical 2.3mm carbon fibre chassis for equal left-to-right flex characteristics and topped off by a 2mm carbon upper deck that allows for various flex settings. Compact and lightweight aluminium bulkheads take the front spool and rear gear differential with the spool featuring steel outdrives while the rear diff is equipped with composite internals and double O-rings. The centre pulleys are made from aluminium and the belts supplied in the kit are low-friction Bando belts for high drivetrain efficiency. On the suspension side of things the 601 features aluminium suspension mounts with hard composite inserts, the front and rear anti-roll bars use ball races for maximum precision and the bulkhead covers are a one-piece affair with the shock towers attaching using three bolts instead of the usual four. The kit is rounded out by mirror-polished and hard-coated aluminium shock absorbers with TiNi-coated shock shafts and all suspension parts are made from hard-compound plastic composite material.

View the features and more photos here


November 14, 2015

Avid T4’16 aluminium chassis plate

Avid T4'16 aluminium chassis plate

Avid have introduced an aluminium chassis plate for the Xray T4’16 car. At 2mm thickness the chassis makes for an overall lower centre of gravity, the car can be run with lower suspension mounts and the 7075-T6 aluminium material makes for more torsional stiffness, improving handling especially on medium to high-grip surfaces. The 82mm wide chassis also features a battery tape slot on the bottom part, the motor pocket width is decreased and double pocketed to keep as much strength possible and the motor mount flex control hole has been modified with a large bevel on top of the chassis to prevent the screw head from hitting chassis. The part is a direct fit on the T4’16 and available now.

View another photo here


November 13, 2015

2015/16 King of Carpet – Announcement

2015/16 King of Carpet – Announcement

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.


November 12, 2015

Ryan Maker wins at Australian National Titles

Ryan Maker wins at Australian National Titles

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]


November 12, 2015

DJ Apolaro wins at Florida State Series

DJ Apolaro wins at Florida State Series

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