February 28, 2024

Mantis Tuned Hyper T1 P5 Series 1:8 GT engine

Engine tuner Mantis Tuning has entered the growing 1:8 GT engine market with the release of its hand tuned Hyper .21GT T1 P5 engine.  Base on the Nova G5, after more than 12 months of development the T1 has undergone intensive tuning by Malta based engine tuner Daren Decesare who draws on over 20-years experience with 2-stroke engines.  Boasting impressive performance gains throughout the rev range, Mantis Tuned is confident its latest creation can rival the best GT engines on the market.

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February 28, 2024

MonTech SC-63 1:10 190mm body

Mon-Tech Racing has added another Hyper Car LMH series based body to its range with the release of the SC-63.  A 1:10 190mm body, the  SC-63 faithfully replicates in every detail the beautiful racing car of the well-known Bolognese brand.  In order to produce this model, rich in details and with a breathtaking front end, a highly mechanically processed mold was designed and created by the Italian body shell producer.  The kit includes all the stickers, the masking along with the fixing screws for the wing.

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February 27, 2024

Lucas Urbain – ‘Hiring Marc pi$$€d me off’

While racers are not known for always agreeing, one thing all the professional team drivers do agree on is that the TITC is the most difficult race in the world!  After the World Championships, this annual Bangkok based race has become the most significant electric touring car title drivers can secure.  Racing at the TITC you are putting yourself on a World class stage with the best in the business with the additional unique element of every driver having had the opportunity to complete days of pre race practice, something that eats into your excuses when the race doesn’t go your way.  So for these reasons it might not be the first race of choice at which to make your international race debut as the newest member of the full time professional driver ranks but that is exactly what Lucas Urbain will do later this week.  At the age of 34, Urbain will tell you himself that the opportunity to become a full time professional racer ‘came out of the blue’ adding ‘the idea was never a topic we talked about’.  An announcement on February 2nd however from Awesomatix changed all that and now this popular French racer switches from a decade of working in signalling with the French railway network to living every young RC racers dream of travelling the world racing and getting paid for the privilege.  Lucas’ journey to becoming a ‘Pro’ is an interesting one that started in 2000 when a certain Adrien Bertin came to his home town of Longwy and gave a demo with a 1:8 Nitro Onroad car.  That was the moment Lucas was ‘blown away’ by radio controlled cars and with his parents getting him his first RC car from a local hobby shop for Christmas that year, the seed was sown for his 24-year long road to obtaining the job description of Pro RC Racer.

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February 26, 2024

Mikimodel BD Body Stopper V2

Mikimodel, the Yokomo distributor for Italy, has announced a second version of its Body Stopper for all Yokomo Touring Car models.  In the world of increasingly extreme and increasingly difficult competition, aerodynamics plays an ever more important role. This is why the original Body Stopper was created to give the maximum possible stability to the bodywork, to prevent them from deforming in the front area which is the most subject to deformations at both high and low speeds.  Now the Body Stopper V2 not only has the classic upper screw (M3x6 or M3x8 recommended) which is used to come into perfect contact with the bodywork, but also adjustable anchoring holes to best adapt to all models on the market.

Source: Mikimodel [mikimodel.net]


February 26, 2024

MXLR A12 Fan Holder & Damper Check Adapter

MXLR has released a new Fan Holder and a Damper Check Adapter for the Awesomatix A12 1:12 platform.  The fan holder is the final version of the prototype which Max Mächler used to win the 2023 1:12 SPEC World Champion Title.  It is not easy to fit such a big and strong fan into the A12 but using smaller than 30mm wasn’t an option because of the sacrifice in performance.  At the Worlds Mächler used a heavily modified Fan to clear with the body shell.  After several more tests and versions MXLR finally found a suitable way which doesn’t require as much modification, if any at all.  They moved the Fan more forward and mounted it way steeper on the holder.  The key to still get a great air flow were the small side dams.  The results of using the Fan Holder with a strong 30mm Fan at 6,0V is a much lower motor temperature.  Depending on the track layout and grip conditions, it reduces the temperature by 12-18 degree Celsius.  This leads to the option of using more timing at the motor and/or longer rollout, which means more speed.  Weighing only 2,6g (without screws) the Fan Holder is 3D printed with relatively durable material which is able to absorb impacts to a certain degree.

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February 26, 2024

Ryan Maker – ‘Using this World stage as a test ground is both the most exciting and nervous thing I have done.’

Growing up I was a huge fan of Formula 1 and always tended to supported the underdogs. Pre-qualifying was my favourite part of the Grand Prix weekend and my favourite team was Zakspeed.  That interest in the German team stemmed from an article in an F1 Magazine that compared the Zakspeed team and its budget to that of the all conquering McLaren.  In the article it covered how the high cost of wind tunnel testing meant Zakspeed’s small budget forced them to come up with an alternative and they used a water tunnel that was used by boat manufacturers to test hull designs.  Racing 1:8 Onroad nitro at the time, in the form of a very basic Team Associated RC250, I was inspired by the Zakspeed story I wanted to build my own R/C car and become a ‘Constructor’.

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February 23, 2024

Xray X4 Adjustable Camber 14mm Titanium Screw

Xray has released a new Adjustable Camber Titanium 14mm M4 L/R screw for their X4 and X4F touring car.  Also compatible with their X1’23-24, the ultra lightweight screw is specially made from high grade titanium material and threaded on both ends to connect the upper CFF arm with the outer ball cup.  Helping to lower the cars CG, it is 50% lighter than steel and comes as a set of 2.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]


February 23, 2024

Senesi joins Team Serpent

Serpent has announced that 1:8 GT World Championship finalist Natanaele Senesi has joined its factory team.   The Italian led the charge for Xray at the World Championships in October in Sydney TQ’ing a round of qualifying before going on to finish 4th in the 1-hour final.  In December however he announced his departure from the Slovakian manufacturer after just one year.  A 1:8 GT specialist, the Serpent deal will also see Senesi venture into 1:8 Nitro Onroad.  Commenting on the announcement Senesi said, ‘First of all I’m super happy to be part of the team!  I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be joining Serpent Factory Team for the 2024 season and on!  I’ll be racing for the brand focusing on developing the current SRX8 GT ‘23 and SRX8 GTE ‘23, alongside with Michael and the team.  Furthermore, I’ll  start racing in the “queen class” too with the brand new Viper 990 EVO.  This is a very big opportunity for both me and the brand because as a friend of mine told me “we walked down the same road for many years, and now maybe the time is right for us to work together”.  Thank to Joaquin De Soto, Stef Helvensteijn and all team Serpent for making it happen!

Source: Serpent [serpent.com]